It may take a bit of time for a kitten that was taken from its mother early to learn to use the litter box properly.
For a very young kitten, having a foster queen mother cat that recently gave birth provide its physiological needs is ideal.
For a very young kitten, handle it gently for 15 to 40 minutes per day so it becomes accustomed to human interaction. Offer plenty of playful stimulation similar to what the kitten would have experienced with its littermates. Teach your kitten social skills and gently provide limits.
While these important skills are usually learned in the first weeks of life, most cats can still learn new behaviors beyond kittenhood. Similarly, if you bring home an adult cat that was taken from its mother too early, it is important to be patient and allow time for bonding.
If you notice particularly aggressive or fearful behaviors, you may want to seek the advice of a veterinarian. Williams, Krista, and Ernest Ward. Ahola, Milla K. Youngerman, Claire.
Davis Veterinary Medicine. Bukowsky, John A. Little, Susan. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. The effect of weaning age on stereotypic behaviour is partially explained by the effects on aggression. These findings indicate that early weaning has a detrimental effect on behaviour, and suggest delayed weaning as a simple and inexpensive approach to significantly improve the welfare of millions of domestic cats.
Early weaning, defined as permanent separation from the mother before the time it would occur in nature 1 , has several impacts on health 2 — 5 and behaviour of animals. Early weaning may lead to neurobiological changes, for example, alter the neuroendocrine stress response 6 , but this effect has not been found in all studies 7. Furthermore, early weaning can impair memory 8 and cognition, such as extinction learning 9 , and it seems to especially blunt social learning Behavioural changes linked to early weaning are extensive: early weaning may lead to impairments in social behaviour as well as increased anxiety 11 , 12 and aggression 7 , 12 , and these behavioural changes may persist for a long time However, moderate levels of early life stress may, on the other hand, increase resilience towards stressors, displayed by diminished behavioural signs of anxiety and levels of blood cortisol 14 , and the behavioural changes caused by early life stress may be adaptive Furthermore, many factors may influence the impact of early weaning.
For example, the effects of early life stress and early weaning can differ between sexes 13 , 16 — 18 , and the impacts of early weaning may arise only when combined with post-weaning social isolation Importantly, the effects of early life stress depend on the developmental timing of the stressor 19 , 20 and therefore early weaning after the critical period of socialisation may not induce behavioural changes.
Besides affecting normal behavioural repertoire, early weaning may impact the expression of abnormal behaviours, such as stereotypies 1 , which may be caused by central nervous system dysfunction Stereotypies are invariable and repeated behaviours that are often expressed when animals experience adverse or frustrating situations Examples of stereotypic behaviour patterns include rocking and hair plucking in rhesus macaques 23 , crib-biting in horses 24 , and pacing in tigers and other carnivores Stereotypies are commonly seen in captive animals, both wild and domesticated, but seem to be absent in nature Many environmental and genetic factors may induce the development of stereotypies.
The occurrence of stereotypies is, at least to some extent, heritable 26 and it may be correlated with personality 27 — Furthermore, early weaning has been shown to increase stereotypic behaviour in captive and laboratory animals 1 , for example, tail-biting in mink 31 and wire-gnawing in mice In domestic dog, early weaning and poor maternal care has been associated with stereotypic tail chasing However, early weaning does not necessarily produce stereotypic animals, especially when combined with environmental enrichment Furthermore, sometimes the increase in stereotypic behaviour can be temporary 7.
One companion animal in which early weaning is very common is the domestic cat Felis catus Linnaeus , which may be the most popular companion animal in the world, with close to million domestic cats living in Europe alone Feral cats wean their kittens at four to eight weeks of age, but kittens usually stay with their mother for the first four months of their lives In cats, the critical period of socialisation occurs between 2 to 8 weeks of age Consequently, separation from the mother and littermates at an age of eight weeks is common.
For example, The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 37 recommends a minimum separation age of eight weeks. Moreover, The American Veterinary Medical Association considers 7—9 weeks of age to be the ideal time to move to a new home 38 , but the effects of weaning at this life stage have not been evaluated. In a previous study, laboratory kittens reared in isolation in a brooder showed deficits in social behaviour, behaved anxiously, and showed difficulties in habituation to novel objects, displayed aggression towards other kittens and showed more random movement than kittens reared with the mother and littermates Similarly, laboratory cats separated from their mother and siblings at two weeks of age behaved anxiously in novel environments, showed aggression towards other cats and people, and displayed random movement However, laboratory cats separated at 6 weeks of age did not display higher levels of aggression or random movement than cats weaned at 12 weeks of age 40 , indicating that, at least in laboratory settings, the timing of weaning is important.
Stereotypic behaviour in cats is proposed to be in part caused or worsened by early weaning 1. In a recent study, early weaning was indeed correlated with stereotypic wool sucking in Birman cats The aim of this study was to examine the effects of early weaning on the behaviour of domestic cats using the large population-based survey data from our feline health and behaviour questionnaire Here, we have focused on the effects of early weaning by examining the behavioural differences between early and late weaned conspecifics in a sample of home-living domestic cats in 40 breeds using logistic regression.
In our study, cats separated from the mother before 12 weeks of age are considered early weaned, following the recommendation of The Humane Society of the United States Accordingly, we considered late weaned cats to be weaned after this week recommended age, with our recommended weaning age group consisting of cats weaned at 12—13 weeks of age and late weaned at 14 weeks of age or older. As early weaning is common in farm and companion animals 1 , research on the topic is important since it may identify possible neural mechanisms and intervention approaches that could significantly improve the welfare and health of millions of animals, including cats, which are popular pets Using logistic regression, we studied the effects of early weaning on behaviour in home-living domestic cats in 40 breeds.
Our study revealed that behavioural problems are common in cats We also discovered that our behavioural traits besides stereotypic behaviour grouped into three personality factors: extraversion, aggression, and shyness, and these personality factors influenced behaviour.
In this study, we focused on the effects of early weaning. As personality factors may influence the effect of weaning age on behaviour, we first ran all the models without any personality traits and then with the relevant personality traits as defined by model selection included.
We report the former models when the removal of personality traits alters the effect of early weaning significantly. Results of logistic regression analyses on the association between different environmental factors and the response variables.
P values are controlled for false discovery rate. In the logistic regression analyses Table 1 , cats weaned before 8 weeks of age were significantly more likely to behave aggressively towards strangers than cats weaned at 12—13 weeks of age Table 2 ; Fig. Moreover, cats weaned in adulthood or not weaned at all were significantly less likely to show aggression towards other cats, family members, and strangers than other weaning age group cats.
Furthermore, cats weaned at 14—15 weeks of age were significantly less likely to display aggression towards strangers than early weaned cats. Contrasts between different weaning age groups in logistic regression analyses. The effect of weaning age on social behaviour in logistic regression analyses. Grey circles are the groups considered early weaned. Cats weaned at 14—15 weeks of age were less aggressive than early weaned cats.
Furthermore, cats weaned in adulthood were less aggressive than other cats. In logistic regression analysis Table 1 , cats weaned in adulthood or not weaned at all were significantly less likely to display shyness towards novel objects than other cats Fig. Weaning age affected the probability to display stereotypic behaviour as well. However, the probability of stereotypic behaviour increased with increasing scores in shyness and aggression, and wool sucking increased with increasing extraversion score as well.
Despite not detecting significant multicollinearity, when these personality traits were included in the models, as favoured by model selection, the differences between these weaning age groups decreased slightly Fig. The effect of weaning age on non-social behaviour in logistic regression analyses. This study showed that early weaning can have detrimental effects on cat behaviour: we found a predisposition for aggression in early weaned cats, and discovered that the late weaned cats were less likely to behave aggressively and display stereotypic behaviour.
The lower probability of stereotypic behaviour in the late weaned cats was partially explained by a lower probability of aggression, which in turn was correlated with stereotypic behaviour. These results suggest delayed weaning as a simple means to improve the quality of life in domestic cats. Given that the cat is one of the most popular pets 34 , understanding the genetic and environmental factors that affect the welfare of cats is important.
A high prevalence of behavioural issues was observed in our study cohort, indicating a need for improving welfare. We utilised a citizen science approach by involving thousands of cat owners and breeders in the data collection, and collected a large behavioural data of home-living cats in multiple weaning age groups. However, the questionnaire approach has a few limitations. Questionnaires have a subjective component, but the reliability of questionnaires has been good in previous studies and the answers have strongly correlated with the behaviour of the animals 44 — Furthermore, sometimes questionnaires can detect some aspects of behaviour other methods may not detect As we used an online questionnaire, our behavioural data is a convenience sample.
Enthusiastic cat people and people using social media were, therefore, more likely to respond to the questionnaire. However, this is not expected to affect our results, but this effect is likely seen in the high proportion of pedigree cats and low proportion of early weaned cats. Finally, our study is cross-sectional, rather than experimental. Therefore, based on our results, we cannot conclude that early weaning is the cause of the behaviour changes seen in this study.
However, our results are in agreement with previous experimental studies on cats 39 , 40 and other animals 1 , 7 , We discovered that early weaning increased the probability for aggression. In earlier studies conducted on laboratory cats, early weaned cats have showed elevated aggression towards both people and other cats 39 , However, these cats were separated from their mothers much younger than separation usually occurs in companion cats.
Once she has finished, take a warm damp cloth and clean her face. Try and make feeding time relaxing for all of you, by feeding them in a quiet place and making sure that you are comfortable too. If the kittens are waking you up during the night, keep in mind that eventually the kittens will be able to sleep through the night. You should find a way to regularly and accurately weigh the kittens to ensure that they are gaining weight appropriately. See our recommended weight chart.
Note: never give newborn kittens any milk other than kitten replacement milk formula, as it is highly likely to upset their delicate stomachs.
If their mother is not there, you may stimulate their visual, hearing and touch senses by petting them, handling them and talking to them gently when they are awake. The transition to solid food occurs over a period from four to seven weeks old. At four weeks old, you may begin to mix a little wet food with the formula to create a kind of mush.
Let your kittens get used to the taste and gradually increase the amount of wet food. At around 5 or 6 weeks, you may begin to introduce dry food, softened with water. By 7 to 8 weeks, your kittens should be weaned and eating only solid food. Surprising as it may seem, until four weeks old, a kitten is not able to eliminate i. The mother cat normally helps her kitten to do this by stimulating her genital or anal areas The things mothers have to do!
And while I know you might not be exactly thrilled to hear this, if she is not around you will have to do it too after each feeding until she is able to eliminate on her own. At this point you are probably asking yourself just exactly what this process entails? However, it is actually easier than it sounds. You need to gently rub under her tail with a warm damp cloth or paper towel, until she urinates and defecates.
But then you start to notice some queer habits, such as biting objects constantly and even nibbling on your hand. This article aims to shed light on what might be the cause and what happens if kittens are separated from their mother too quickly.
However, if they are separated too early, it makes the kittens vulnerable to illness and diseases. According to Hannah Shaw, the Kitten Lady, kittens that are weaned too early should be bottle-fed with a formula for kittens. However, this is still not enough for kittens to acquire the antibodies that they need. Kittens learn to be calm and feel safe when they are with their mama. If they are separated too soon from their mother, they may experience behavioral issues.
They tend to be more shy or fearful unless they become properly socialized. Fearful kittens tend to run away and hide when approached by humans that they do not know. Cat experts recommend that these furballs should have interaction with humans around 10 to 12 weeks old so that they will learn not to be fearful. Kittens that are exposed to people and other animals, like dogs, during their first few months grow to become confident and dynamic cats.
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