How to know how old is your cat

This cat developed her paunch around 2 years old. As cats age, changes in their muscle tone and fur occur. A cat is considered a senior between 8 and 10 years of age. When a kitten is born, it has thick, short fur. As they age, their fur becomes softer and finer. When a cat reaches senior age, the fur becomes thick and coarse again and may turn grey in certain places. Younger cats will have better muscle tone because they are more active. Older cats may be saggier-skinned and bonier on the rump or shoulder blades.

It is said that a cat who lives outdoors ages nearly twice as fast as an indoor cat. Often a vet, who has seen thousands of cats and petted many coats of fur, can get a pretty good sense of how to tell a cat's age just by petting them!

Cats tend to have relatively bright, crisp eyes for most of their life. Only in the senior cat age at ten years will they begin to develop eye problems. Therefore, if your cat has cloudy eyes or has any eye discharge, that's a reliable indicator that you have a senior or geriatric cat. Older cats love to sleep, while kittens love to play. While some older cats are spry and active, generally speaking, the more mature the cat is, the more sedentary it will be.

Senior cats and kittens need to sleep approximately the same amount of time each day - 20 hours. Adult cats, on the other hand, need to rest between hours per day.

Again, much of this is cat-dependent, but if you take a few days to time how much your cat is sleeping, you should get a rough idea of if they are an adult cat or a senior one. There are many cat age charts online that provide photos of cats at each of these aging stages. If you find one, you can use it as a reference.

Look at your cat and compare it to the ones you see. You might find that it looks like the junior cats, or you might find that it seems older like the senior ones. Regardless of where your cat is, a cat age chart is one method for how to tell a cat's age! As we've seen, it's possible to get a ballpark estimate of how old your cat is by looking at a few features. If they have lots of energy, appear smaller, have soft fur, and don't have all their teeth, you're looking at a kitten.

If they still have lots of energy, smooth hair, but have all their teeth, you're probably looking at a cat in its prime. Finally, if you're looking at a cat that has eye discharge, has a duller coat, and has less energy, you probably have a senior cat.

When in doubt, ask a vet! Since they have seen so many cats before, they often have remarkably accurate guesses on how old these felines are. For the most part, cats get slower, have a less shiny coat, and sleep more. Conversely, younger cats are sprier, have a softer fur coat, and sleep fewer hours per day. For the most part, yes.

The premolars start coming in at weeks, and by the time the kitten is 8 weeks old, they should have all of their baby milk teeth. Starting at about 4 months old, kittens start to lose their baby teeth and the adult teeth start to emerge. By 6 months old kittens have a full mouth of adult teeth. Determining a cat's age by teeth over 6 months old can be tricky. Generally, if the back teeth have yellow stains, also known as tartar, the cat can be anywhere between years old.

If all the cat's teeth contain some tartar buildup, then the cat is likely to be between years old. If they have a lot of tartar buildup on their teeth and may have some signs of wear, the cat might be between years old. Missing teeth can be an indicator that the cat is about years old. In terms of size for kittens, a general rule of thumb is that they gain a pound for every month of age, meaning a 3-month-old kitten is about 3 lbs.

However, this is only accurate until about 6 months of age as well. Also, this can only be an age indicator if the kitten is healthy. If the cat allows it, feel the body and muscles. Younger cats will more likely have tighter skin and have toned muscles. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products.

List of Partners vendors. Featured Video. Related Topics. If you suspect your pet is sick, call your vet immediately. For health-related questions, always consult your veterinarian, as they have examined your pet, know the pet's health history, and can make the best recommendations for your pet.

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