# Kitten size/age



## ofallxtoxpieceso (Sep 6, 2011)

I took home a slightly older foster kitten about 3 1/2 weeks ago. At the time, the shelter estimated him to be about 6-7 weeks old. When I picked him up I was a little surprised to see he was quite a bit bigger than I expected. I had three other fosters at home that were around 4 1/2 weeks old and he was at least double their size. He had a URI and needed to go through a round of antibiotics. I took him back to the clinic a little over a week ago bc the uri was still present after he finished the medicine. According to the shelter's estimate he would have been 8 1/2- 9 1/2 weeks old and weighed a whopping 3.7lbs. He is not overweight at all and if I was guessing off of his size I would think he was at least 3-3 1/2 months old. Is it likely the shelter was a bit off on his age? The only reason I'm asking is because he will be finishing his vaccines and getting fixed on Saturday so it's time to start looking for a forever home and I don't want to mislead any potential adopters. I know no one can give me a definitive answer, but I was hoping to hear from some people with more kitten experience than I have  TIA


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## pkbshrew (Feb 13, 2013)

Have you looked up a feline teething chart and compared where he's at with his teeth? That might give you a reasonable idea .


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## ofallxtoxpieceso (Sep 6, 2011)

I tried using his teeth to determine age but I have no experience and the teething information online is so varied. Most of the information I came across states that kittens should have all their baby teeth by 8 weeks and their adult teeth should start coming in around 14-16 weeks. He doesn't appear to have any adult teeth coming in but he falls between the development ages either way. According to the shelter's estimate he is about 9 1/2 - 10 1/2 weeks but his size and weight make me think he's around 12-14 weeks old.


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## pkbshrew (Feb 13, 2013)

Yeah, in my experience kittens can vary enormously in size so it can be very hard to tell. I'd love to see a photo of him


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## asnnbrg (Mar 26, 2013)

Oh, this is interesting! I have been wondering the same. Vastra and the boys are all 4.5 months. Vastra is right at 5 lbs. Strax is 6.5 pounds and Rory is just under 7.5. That seemed like a huge size difference to me, but I chalked it up to them being boys. They are definitely 4.5 months, though -- were born at a foster mom's house, so we have an exact birthday.


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## Kelly524 (Aug 9, 2013)

I have a brother and sister, about 4.5-5 months old, and Nash weighs a good pound or more than his sister Hallie. Their mother was not a big cat, and the father (at least who we think is the father) is a stray, so I'm not sure of his exact size. I have a feeling Nash is going to be a big boy, and Hallie will always be petite.


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## dt8thd (Jan 7, 2013)

It can be really difficult to age kittens because once they're old enough that they're eating solid foods and charging around like your typical crazy kitten you have to rely more on size to determine age. Just like any other animal though, some kittens grow faster and bigger than an average kitten of the same age, while others are smaller.

I trapped a mother cat and her 3 kittens on Sunday for a feral spay/neuter clinic. They were all fixed, vaccinated, and microchipped on Monday. In order to indicate which microchip corresponds to each cat, the vets write the colour, "breed" (eg. DSH), gender, and approximate age of the cat on the plastic baggy containing the microchip tag. The vets recorded 2 of the kittens as 2 months old, but the 3rd kitten was labelled as 3 months. The "older" kitten is discernably larger than the other 2, enough so that I _would_ wonder if it were older if I didn't happen to know that they're all from the same litter. The colony they came out of contains about 15 adult cats, but this mother cat was the only unspayed female left.


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## Leah00 (Aug 26, 2010)

I have absolutely no help for you. This whole kitten age thing confuses me. Lol.

According to what I've read online....

Mu looks to have all of his kitten teeth...which would make him at least 8 weeks old.
He only weighs 13 ounces which would make him about 4 weeks old.
His eyes seem to slowly changing from the blue to a greener color which would make him 8-12 weeks old.
His appearance looks more like a 6 week old kitten.

I'm just going to say Mu's 6 weeks old and stick with that!


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