Calico

How Old is My Cat – Guessing a cat’s age – Pet tip 201

When people adopt a new cat or are thinking about buying a cat they often want to know how old that cat is. If the cat is a kitten this is usually easy. The original owner should know how old the kitten was or if you bring the kitten to a veterinarian, the vet should be able to tell how old the kitten is with a reasonable degree of accuracy. If good records were kept from kitten-hood or previous adoptions, again this is an easy task. The problem occurs when you are considering getting an adult cat whose age and/or history are unknown.

The truth is, is that it’s very difficult to accurately tell how old an adult cat is just by looking at it. A five year old cat can look very similar to an eight year old cat and a two year old cat looks very similar to an 8 year old cat. Sometimes we can make educated guesses as to how old a cat is by looking at its teeth, but even this can be very misleading. The condition of a cat’s teeth has a lot to do with its environment specifically what it eats. A cat that eats hard kibble will have very different looking teeth than a cat that gets fed out of a can. Indoor cats have different looking teeth than stray/feral cats. There is also genetic variability that helps determine what a cat’s teeth look like. Basically there’s no real pattern to look for that helps determine age.