Domestic cats are generally small animals, but they have teeth strong enough to easily break rodent and bird bones. If they catch our fingers when we are playing with them, they can do us a lot of damage, which is why it is so important to teach them not to bite us.
However, we cannot ignore that it is a very necessary part of their body, which we must take care of so that they remain healthy and strong for as long as possible. Therefore, we are going to tell you at what age do cats grow teeth so that you know when to start caring for them.
At what age do teeth start to come out?
Kittens are born blind, deaf ... and toothless. Their first teeth, the milk teeth, will begin to emerge around the third week of life, and will be visible at six weeks. This first set consists of 26 teeth, which will fall between three and four months of age as the definitive ones begin to emerge.
The final set of teeth will be fully developed at six months of age and will be composed of 30 pieces composed of 12 incisors (6 upper and 6 lower), 4 canines (2 upper and 2 lower), 10 premolars (6 upper and 4 lower ), and 4 molars (2 upper and 2 lower). But ... between the third and sixth month the kittens will need us to have a lot of patience with them. Not a lot, a lot.
Do kittens' teeth hurt?
The little furry ones can feel a lot of discomfort and even pain as their permanent teeth develop, and to relieve themselves what they will do is bite everything they can find, including human hands. During this time It is crucial that we have a lot of patience, and that we always have a toy -a stuffed animal, for example- between our hand and his mouth.
In addition, they are likely to chew on shoes or other objects. If this happens, never hit or yell at them; simply by providing them with cat toys and playing with them every day we will gradually make them stop doing it.
Tooth loss in cats
If the cat is a baby, it is completely normal for you to lose your baby teeth. Not only because the definitive ones as they come out 'push' the milk ones to come out, but also because it is an animal that, due to the annoyance that this produces, nibbles on their toys, furniture, etc.
Is it normal for adult cats to lose teeth?
When we talk about adult cats the situation changes. Yes you can lose one or two permanents in your lifetime, but not considered normal if not rather a problem caused by:
- an incorrect diet: the cat, as a feline that it is, has teeth that serve to chew and grind meat from its prey, not feed or pate. Although it is precisely the prepared food that almost all of us give them (myself included), no matter how high its quality is, that is, even if it is free of cereals and by-products, we have to be very clear that this is not the food that he it would eat in the wild (by 'wild' I mean in its natural habitat, in the wild).
On the other hand, meat from butchers, although it has passed a series of quality controls, it is not advisable to give it raw due to the risk of diseases (such as toxoplasmosis) that it could have. - poor dental hygiene: is closely related to the above. When an animal feeds on fresh meat, just hunted, as it chews its teeth are cleaned by the rubbing of the bones. But if we feed the cat as feed and patés for cats, food residues accumulate on the teeth, residues that we would have to get used to removing with a brush and a specific toothpaste for cats every day.
- have any oral or dental infection or disease: one of the most common - and potentially fatal if left untreated - is feline chronic stomatitis gingivitis, whose symptoms are inflammation of the gums, the appearance of ulcers or sores in the mouth that do not heal, bad breath, loss of appetite and weight, and possible loss of teeth.
As soon as we notice the first symptoms (that he eats a little less, or that he does not close his mouth completely as he did before), we must take him to the urgent vet.
How to prevent tooth loss in adult cats?
The ideal would be to give him natural food or a BARF diet, but only if we have the supervision or help of a nutritionist veterinarian because if we do it wrong and the cat lacks some essential vitamin or nutrient, it can have very serious health problems.
Precisely for this reason, although I am a defender of the BARF diet, I consider that if you do not have time and / or money, you should choose to give them high-quality feed, without grains or by-products. And then have his teeth cleaned to prevent tartar from appearing.
I hope this article is useful to you .