Ragdoll Kitten Adoption: When to Bring Your New Feline Home

If you’ve ever owned a cat, let alone a kitten, you know how they can react to change. Consider this next time you’re in a rush to bring home a new pet immediately after its been born. Changing homes can be extremely stressful on anyone, let alone a newborn kitten. While most people expect to be able to open up the newspaper, look to the classified ads, and find a six week old kitten up for adoption, this is often not realistic.

New cat owners sometimes fear that if they do not adopt their kitten early enough, it will not bond properly with them. This is not necessarily true. Stray cats that are several years old can form bonds with humans who take them in. It is understandable to want a small, young kitten, but it is harmful for a newborn cat to be away from its mother. Taking it away from its mother before it is at least 12 weeks old can cause quite a bit of psychological stress leading to developmental problems.

I am a firm believer that a kitten shouldn’t go home before 12 weeks of age.  So when a reader asked me if I had read this article, “How old should a kitten be when it goes to a new home?“, I thought it was time to address this on the site!

A Kitten’s Immune System
Just like newborn babies, kittens are especially susceptible to germs and illness in general. This is particularly true between the ages of eight and twelve weeks when their immune system begins to rely more on vaccines rather than the mother’s milk. During this time, kittens can more easily develop upper respiratory issue and sometimes experience diarrhea. They are already vulnerable to disease. If you move them into a new environment during this time, you’re pushing their immune system to work even harder. In addition, mental stress can weaken the immune system.