Expert: Norman Auspitz - 1/6/2012

Question
QUESTION: Hi I will be adopting a 6 week old Siamese Kitten Soon Do you think this is an appropriate age for Adoption?also I mostly care about cleanliness so will the seperation of the kitten from its Mother at that age affect its litter box training?Thank you

ANSWER: Tony,

I suspect you are not going to like my answer, but 6-weeks of age is altogether too, too young for a kitten to go to its new home.  At 6 weeks, the kitten has not had any of its shots yet, is barely weaned, and may or may not be litter pan trained.  At 6 weeks they are usually not yet socialized to humans.  In addition, the kitten's immune system is not fully developed until it is 16 weeks, although at 12-13 weeks of age, the kitten's immune system should be sufficiently developed so that the normal kitten shots should provide immunity to the worst diseases.

So my advice is to wait until the kitten is at least 12 weeks of age. It will do much better in your household than it might at 6 weeks of age. By 12 weeks, all the litter pan habits should be ingrained, it's bathing instincts will be fully working.  Cats/kittens do not bond with their humans any better at 6 weeks than they do at 12 weeks or at 12 years of age, for that matter.

If you have any further questions about raising your new kitten, please send me a follow up.

Best regards... Norm.



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank You for your First answer and I definitely Will take that into consideration! Yet I have another question , this is the Picture of the Litter that my Kitten is in.  http://s1135.photobucket.com/albums/m639/tnasreddine/?action=view¤t=utf-8B   can you tell me what colour these 4 weeks old kittens Will grow up to be? The Mother is a seal point while the father is a blue point and also judging the Picture what Do you think about the quality of these siamese kittens?Thank You!

Answer
Tony,

<The link you gave me failed. You can attach photos to a question or a follow up.>

I did get the link to work, finally.  It appears there are two seal points (towards the bottom of the photo) and one blue point (towards the top of the photo). I think they are too young to be able to tell much about show quality at this point. It has been a long time since I bred Siamese (not since 1976), but I could never evaluate my kittens until they were at least 12 weeks of age. At that point their type is more apparent.

You can often tell the color by looking at paw pads and nose leather.  At 4 weeks, the kittens often do not have enough point color to tell any other way!

Seal points have dark sepia to black paw pads, blue points have slate gray to mauve paw pads, chocolate points have taupe colored paw pads, and lilac points have pink colored paw pads.

If the seal point is carrying blue, you can get seal points or blue points. If the seal and the blue are both carrying chocolate, but the seal is not carrying blue you could get chocolate points.  If the seal and the blue points are carrying chocolate and the seal is carrying blue, you could get lilacs. If the seal is not carrying blue point and not carrying chocolate point, you can only get seal points.

I do look forward to seeing the picture.

Best regards... Norm.