I currently see a lot of announcements from people who, thinking well, give 8 week old kittens for adoption.
Before separating a kitten from its mother, it is necessary to take into account certain details which are of paramount importance for the good physical and psychological development of the kitten. Separating it early (before weaning the kitten) can lead to behavioral problems and even serious nutritional deficiencies.
Habemus Papatte explains why, here we go!
First of all, where does this figure come from?
8 weeks is the age of food weaning; that is to say the age from which Mrs mother cat no longer breastfeeds her young. In France, someone once decided that this was also the age at which kittens could be legally separated from their mother.
A bit of conscious anthropomorphism [Anthropomorphism is the tendency to conceive of human functioning, emotions and behaviors as universal to all animal species. It's not great when you practice it without realizing it, but it can be useful for becoming aware of aberrant logics.] allows you to understand that it's not because a young person can feed on something else so much mother's milk that he's ready to live his life without a mom: “Come on Martin! Now that you can eat small salmon-carrot pots, it's time to find a job to pay the rent for your studio! “Delusional? Exactly !
Social withdrawal, what is it?
It is quite different from food withdrawal. What is called social weaning is the moment when the educational role of the mother ends.
As soon as the kitten is weaned from food, Madame Maman will teach him independence (yes, it is not a question of rejecting the kitten but of teaching him autonomy). We will speak of a socially weaned kitten around the 12th to 15th week. This is why the ideal age to adopt a kitten is from 3 months to 3 and a half months and why, in Finland, the minimum age recommended to separate the kitten from its mother is 12 weeks.
What the mother cat teaches her little ones is ultimately quite close to what our parents taught us: not to bite our comrades, to behave well in society, to adapt to our environment, to feed ourselves properly, not to hit our brothers and sisters, manage our frustrations, etc.
In short, Madame Maman teaches her kittens everything they need to know to become a balanced adult who is comfortable with their paws.
Related Article: What Does My New Kitten Need?
So, what is the risk if we separate the kittens from their mother too early?
A 2017 study published in the journal "Nature" shows that the age of separation of the kitten from its mother in cats has a direct impact on the future behavior of the animal. The University of Helsinki team studied the consequences of early separation (before 12 weeks) on 5726 cats of 40 different phenotypes.
The humans of these nearly 6,000 cats responded to a questionnaire in which they rated, on a 5-point scale, their cat's activity, its tendency to seek contact with humans, its fear of strangers and novelty as well as as the existence of aggression towards members of the household, towards strangers and towards other cats. Humans were also asked if their cat exhibited stereotyped behaviors (excessive grooming, wool sucking, etc.).
The results showed that there was a significant correlation between early social withdrawal and behavioral problems in adulthood.
If the harmful effects of early weaning had already been studied in other species, this study confirms that the behavioral consequences also exist in our domestic felines. Early weaning generates anxiety in the cat, which will follow it throughout its life and will promote aggressive and compulsive behaviors.
Not separating kittens from their mother before they are 12 to 15 weeks old is a good way to ensure the cat (and its human) a better quality of life.
What if the damage is already done?
If your cat was weaned early and shows problematic behaviors, you now know that it is not for anything. It is therefore useless to scold or punish him. These techniques do not work on cats and have the particularity of harming the relationship between you and your cat because they destroy his trust in you. They also increase the cat's stress level which, for an animal with an anxiety problem, is, you will agree, a strange way to proceed.
Fortunately, cats can show great resilience provided they are offered adequate solutions.
These consist in adapting and enriching the environment so that it corresponds more to the ethological needs of your cat and that he feels more at ease there. You may also need to think about how you interact with him to become less unpredictable to him or to help him thrive more.
Conclusion
In any case, the best way to help cats is to be their spokesperson and participate in the dissemination of knowledge so that practices that are harmful to them, such as early weaning, no longer take place. .
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