Do you know when your cat’s birthday is? If not, it’s important to understand that cats from different age groups have different needs. For example, an older cat will be healthier if it is fed a higher protein diet, which is not the case with younger kittens.
We suspect you are now curious about how to determine the age of your child feline pet. In fact, knowing if you didn’t have your cat from birth can be quite difficult. However, in this article we want to help you estimate your cat’s age based on a number of factors.
Initially, a kitten will gain a pound every month for up to 4 to 6 months. So if you’ve adopted a kitten who weighs 3 pounds, it is most likely 3 months old.
5 tips to find out a cat’s age using different methods:
Once your cat reaches adulthood, it is quite difficult to pinpoint her year of birth, but there are some indicators that can make a wild guess, such as the following:
- Check out those teeth
Kitten milk teeth (milk teeth) begin to come out between 2 and 4 weeks of age. Then, at 4 months of age, these milk teeth begin to fall out and the permanent teeth begin to erupt. Typically, all of your cat’s permanent teeth will be present by 6 months to 1 year of age.
Once all of those adult teeth have fallen out, you can check your cat’s age by the color of their teeth. The yellower the teeth, the older the cat. Why? To blame for its wear and tear.
If all you see is a little tartar, your cat is usually young and around 1 to 2 years old. Between the ages of 3 and 5 you can notice an increase in the yellowing of the teeth.
As your feline pet gets older, say from 10 years of age, all of their teeth will glow yellow already!
Color isn’t the only indicator of age. Check the quality of the teeth. This means that the older cats have dull looking teeth, a lack of shine, whiteness, and even fewer in number, unlike those that are beautiful and sparkling with a full set of teeth that you see in advertisements. This type of wear and tear shows up from around 5 years of age.
Some of the teeth are no longer as pointy and in some cases have broken off. At the age of 10 Some of his teeth may be missing and also show signs of gingivitis or inflammation Gums.
- Check out these furs
A kitten’s fur is baby-fine and soft, but the texture changes as your cat gets older. The fur becomes thicker and coarser. The color can also change – from lighter to lighter or vice versa.
Once your cat is in the past few years, you will see some strands of gray or white hair looking pretty too much like what happens to his human parents.
- Review your cat’s grooming habits
Are you impressed with your cat’s obsession with cleanliness? Your cat is constantly cleaning itself to stimulate blood circulation, cleanse the wounds, and maintain body temperature. But the older cats get, the less they groom themselves.
There are many reasons why your cat will stop cleaning itself after a certain age, but the dental problem is one reason. At around the age of 5, tartar and plaque begin to build up, causing pain and discomfort.
If your cat has painful teeth and gums, it will be reluctant to take care of itself.
The other reason your cat will stop grooming itself is because of the arthritis caused by aging. It can be very painful for your cat to keep moving, especially to reach areas like the neck. As a result, maintenance is done less frequently.
- Check your cat’s eyes
Cats have the most unique eyes in the animal world. So beautiful that these are mimicked by many women in the form of makeup applications known as cat eye makeup.
Healthy kittens and adult cats have clear, light eyes. If you examine your pet’s eyes closely, you will not notice any clouding and discharge. But as your cat ages, those once bright eyes turn into dull and cloudy eyes.
Usually by the age of 10 you will notice that the clarity of your eyes has changed.
Aside from clarity, try examining your cat pet’s irises. This is the colorful part of the eyes. As your cat gets older, you will notice some changes in the iris called iris atrophy. What happens is that the inside of the iris collapses and becomes thinner, and some strands manifest on the iris.
- Puberty
Don’t be surprised if your hangover starts sexual maturity as early as 6 months of age. Around this time you will notice a change in behavior caused by hormones. For example, it shows aggressive behavior, especially when you have other cats around the house.
Other signs of sexual maturity in male cats include urine splash and nighttime vocalization (the sound you hear like a human baby screaming loudly) and a desire to flee your home.
On the other hand, your Molly will reach sexual maturity between the ages of 5 and 12 months. She’ll get into heat every few weeks. This means that she is in season and ready to find a perfect partner.
The signs that your female cat is in season are cute overloads like a desire to keep her body rubbing against your legs, excessive grooming, and vocalization.
Your Molly can soon become a queen and have her first litter at 7 1/2 months of age.
What are the signs that your cat is old?
With good care, your cat can live up to 15 years. Many fur parents like you want to find out whether or not their pets are at an advanced stage. To help you figure out, here are the symptoms of an aging cat:
It starts to lose its muscle mass and weight.
Your cat will either drink more or less water than usual.
The sound of his meowing is different.
Your cat will experience movements caused by arthritis.
Stages of Life in Cats by the American Association of Feline Practitioners and the American Animal Hospital Association:
- Kitten: 0 to 6 months old.
- Junior: 7 months to 2 years old.
- Adults: 3 to 6 years old.
- Tires: 7 to 10 years old.
- Senior: 1 to 14 years old.
- Geriatrics: From 15 years.
How can you determine the age of a cat in human years?
Like many pet owners, we’re pretty sure you want to know your cat’s age and the human years equivalent. Here it is:
- The kitten stage: Corresponds to 0 to 10 years in human age.
- The junior stage: Corresponds to 12 to 24 years in human age.
- The adult stage: Compared to 28 to 40 years in humans.
- The mature stage: 44 to 56 years in human age.
- The senior phase: Corresponds to 60 to 72 years in humans
- The geriatric stage: Corresponds to 76 to 100 years plus human age.
Conclusion
Knowing the year your cat pet was born is made up of several factors. While determining your cat’s age isn’t really important, it is important to know roughly so that you can adjust necessary grooming, such as your cat’s diet. This is especially true if you’ve adopted a stray cat that’s roaming the streets.
By examining your cat’s eyes, teeth, grooming behavior, and other physical characteristics such as coat and weight, you can more or less determine the year your cat pet was born.
Author bio:
Jaden is the author of mypetience.com, a pet blog that shares knowledge about how to care for a pet. He has more than five years of experience raising small animals such as dogs, cats, hamsters and freshwater fish. He is always focused on providing valuable and useful information to animal lovers.
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