How old is my cat?

[david13]

I have a new cat. He has to have vack, vaccine vacination, a shot when he is 8 weeks and then 2 booster shots before he is spayed or neutered.
How do I tell how old he is?
He is pictured in my other New Cat thread. I imagine he is stunted from living on the street or wherever, and not getting good nutrition.
There is no such thing as a pygmy cat, is there?
He eats plenty of wet food, and dry, and uses the box on his own. And is playing and running like crazy.
Who could make a good estimate? I don't know.
dc

[Sanity Claws]

1. Young -- definitely a kitten

He hasn't grown into his ears yet.

My wild guess is six months. No way is he more than 8 months

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Looks like 3-4 months, maybe. The big ears indicate

that he's a fairly young kitten -- they don't usually grow into their ears until 6 months or so. What do his teeth look like? If they are small and needle-like they are his baby teeth. If he still has his baby teeth he's younger than about four months. A vet can give you a more accurate estimate.

[david13]

3. I do think his teeth are small and needle like. I can't get him to open his

mouth to see. But he will bite and chew a little and it feels like little tiny teeth. But he is tiny all around.
The ears are definitely way too big, so that may be a good clue. I guess I could take him in for his first shot and see if they say he's ready.
I have not been able to get specific, but I think he is way younger than 6 or 8 months.
If the clinic said 8 weeks for the first shot, then I guess he is ready.
Thanks for your help.
dc

[Warpy]

6. Let the vet be your guide in this

Vets see a lot of kittens, stunted or not, and can usually give a reliable estimate of the kitty's age.

I know my shelter old lady cat was supposed to be a year old when I got her, but I guesstimated 7-8 months and the vet agreed. We operated on that guesstimate and she's 17 years old now, so it must have been fine.

Getting that first shot a little early won't make that big a difference. You want to make sure they're not given when they're really tiny, though, since their immune systems aren't well developed enough. Since weaning takes place at about 6 weeks or so, you're probably in the 8 week ballpark with your new friend.

[badgerpup]

4. If you can do so...

...try to keep an eye on his teeth.
The ones you want to watch for are easy to see...the saber-tooth 'fangs'. These show up (I think) between 8-12 months.

Watch too for the growth spurts. They're fun. You can almost see the difference in his size from day to day...blink and he's bigger than he was just a second ago.
:wow:
I call this the 'exponential kitten' stage.

I thought Wimsey was older than he was when he joined the clowder and went for the not-so-ceremonial vet visit (neutering), but he didn't have his fangs yet. He was just a big cat-in-training.
At 3 1/2 he's 15 lbs...big-boned, muscular, solid.
Hope he's done growing...he's quite the arm, lap, and carrier-ful. :yoiks:

[david13]

5. Well, the vet clinic says 10 weeks. So he got his first shot. Then

one a month for 3 months, then spay or neuter. ( I always say neutralizing )
He got some flea junk called Vectra; another lady was in getting some so I tried it. Vet only, I'll see if it works.
This cat will be like my others - inside only. So once the fleas are gone and the carpet is treated, the fleas should not come back.
The clinic also says he is a female; I don't know how to tell with cats, or kittens. I do know how to tell with people, adults anyway.
So he has been fooling me; I think they just want the extra $10 for the neutralizing.
Thanks for the advice and estimates.
dc

[Warpy]

7. Hold the kitty across your palm

and lift the tail and look the situation in the eye.

One hole and a lump, it's male. Two holes, it's a female.

[david13]

8. Oh. Expert advice. I never look under the tail. I did receive

a perfessional opinion today. I'll just go by that. But I will continue to call him him.
dc

[badgerpup]

11. Or...

An upside-down exclamation point- ! -is a female*. A colon- : -is a male.

That's how I learned it from my kitten book (mumble) years ago...:shrug:


*can't turn it upside down...sorry! :blush:

[david13]

12. By now I've accepted their word on it, and I think when she is standing

in a walk away position, I can see no scrotum? or I think Butters favorite word is nut sack.
And I think there may be a different behavior as well. Or is that just my prejudices? She seems to play very gentle, like to carry things around, can play with a ball fantastic, direct it in any direction, control exactly where it goes.
And she has almost doubled in size.
dc

[japple]

9. Re: Vectra I just googled it because I'm not familiar with it, and

it says not to use it on cats. The info that came up on google is for Vectra 3D, so maybe there's a different one for cats.

[david13]

10. They recognized this as a female, I hope they recognized it

as a cat?
Yes, there were two ads on their counter. I think it was Vectra and Vectra 3d? Perhaps one was for cats, one for dogs. They had a number of ads and products like that, for dog, for cat.
Another lady came in and got several Vectra? for cats, she said cats, I think she talked about 3 in house cats and more from outside. So she may be a neighborhood cat lady.
The girl at the desk applied the stuff.
dc