How to determine the age of a kitten

As a rule, when buying a kitten in the bird market, from the owner of the cat-mother or through the club, you know exactly the date of his birth or his age with a variation of several days. However, sometimes kittens invade our life without warning. It is impossible to pass by a plaintive squeaking club, thrown out by heartless people on the street! It remains only to pick up to warm and feed. And there you already look - in a day you can not imagine your existence without a sweet foundling.

But care for kittens varies greatly depending on their age. How to determine the age of a kitten so that caring for him is correct? It's best to take it to the vet. The specialist can easily determine the age and gender of the kitten, and with a more detailed examination will identify possible diseases that require immediate treatment. By the way, in the veterinary hospital, you can make all the necessary vaccinations for a healthy kitten and draw up a document (passport), which in the future will be necessary to transport the animal in a train or plane.

If the visit to the vet is not possible, you need to think about how to determine the age of the kitten by yourself. The size of the animal in this is not a fundamental factor, because at birth the kittens can be large or small, and further growth is determined by good or bad feeding in the mother's nipples. Therefore, you need to pay attention to other signs - eyes, ears, teeth, movements.

How to know the age of the kitten in the eyes? All kittens are born blind. A week later (but with long-haired rocks later), the eyes begin to open slightly, and the whole beast begins to see in 10 days or 2 weeks. It happens that a neglected kitten, which the mother has not licked for a long time, has "sour" eyes. In healthy, but blind kittens (less than 2 weeks), the eyelids are closed tightly or slightly ajar, between the eyelids there is no yellow-green discharge. Regardless of the breed, all the little kittens have a blue iris . This lasts until the age of 3 weeks, then in cats, whose breed does not provide for the presence of blue eyes, a change in pigmentation begins, usually ending with 2.5 months of life of the kitten. That is, if the kitten has blue eyes, he does not have another 10 weeks.

How to determine the age of the kitten by the ears? In newborn kittens, the auricles, like the eyelids, are tightly closed. A week after birth, the shell opens, and the kittens begin to hear. But the ears are fully raised and become, as in an adult cat, only at the age of 3 weeks.

You can also estimate by eye the age of the kitten by how confidently it moves. Two weeks after birth, the kittens are already actively crawling, after 3 the beast begins to try to raise itself independently on the feet, although it does not always succeed. A week later the kitten makes insecure and amusing steps. This means that it can already be fed not from the nipple, but from the saucer of liquid and mushy food. At a month's age, kittens move more confidently, run and play.

But the best and right way to determine the age of a kitten is to examine his teeth. There were milk incisors? A kitten is 2-4 weeks old. At the third week fangs are cut, in 1.5 months - premolars, and in 2 months all dairy teeth are present. At 4 months, the process begins when the baby teeth are gradually replaced by indigenous teeth, and it ends at the age of six months.

By the way, you can tell by teeth the age and more of an adult cat. If a cat catches you, the examination of her teeth is almost the only factor to determine how old she is. How to know the age of a cat in the teeth, because all of her teeth are already indigenous? We need to look closely at them. The one-year-old cat is already starting to wear off the incisors on the lower jaw in the center, and in two years - the middle incisors on the same lower jaw. In 3 and 4 years, the process of aging comprehends the upper jaw. From the age of 5, fangs begin to erase, then the process of memorizing covers the incisors, and, therefore, the cat - 6-8 years. From the age of 10 the cat begins to lose its teeth - first the central incisors, then the fangs.