weening kittens

Question
My cat had kittens 3 weeks ago, and I'm not sure when to ween them. Someone told me to seperate the kittens from the mother at 4 weeks of age--is this correct?

Answer
It is not necessary to separate them from mom unless she is not letting you touch them. It is important that you are touching and caressing them so that they learn to love human contact and make great pets. But mom is probably still feeding them. So if they can stay with her that is fine, She will also teach them the litter box, keep them clean and do many other things for them. If you need to separate them from mom in order to have contact with them, then that is different. If that is the case then you must take over and start bottle feeding them with kitten formula - NOT MILK. Milk will cause diarhea. You will have to buy kitten formula at the pet store and bottle feed at least three times a day. And you will have to help them pass waste as well by rubbing their bellies. Gently rub their bellies before and after each meal to stimulate urine and poop. They can't do it alone just yet. This is very important and they can get very ill if you fail to do it. Also they should go to the vet for deworming to begin. Other tests and innoculations are needed too so get them to the vet at this point. Very important - failure to deworm can cause serious illness too. And any serious illness, be it worms, constipation, diarhea or whatever can be fatal in tiney kittens. At about 4 to 5 weeks you can start offering them canned kitten food. They may still take milk as well. Let them eat as much and whichever they want, or both. Also make fresh water available, and the litter box available too even if they aren't using it yet. Generally by 6 weeks old they should be eating canned kitten food on their own, pooping and peeing in the litterbox on their own and be ready to be separated from mom and even adopted to new families.