Determine kitten age

[Abe]

Hello, I was recently adopted by a black kitten who showed up on our land in the middle of no where. He is very friendly and tame with no skills for living in the woods. I’m confused by his age. He is either a really big 4-5 month old cat or a really small 7-8 month old cat. I took him to the vet and was told he’s 7-8 months old based on weight. I know I probably should believe an educated vet over Google but I’m just not very confident. He has not yet lost his canine Or any of the teeth further back. I just noticed a tiny bud of one of his canines coming through. He weighs 7.7 pounds. What are the features to go by to determine age of a stray kitten?

 

[Abe]

forgot to mention- I know cats come in all shapes and sizes but I have another cat who was way taller and longer at seven months than the new guy is now. the new guy just seems so short and overall petite, even his head. I’ll try to add some pictures.

 

[game misconduct]

when we took in the stray that showed up at my dad's the vet guessed age by his teeth and size/weight not sure its to reliable since too many other factors affect it like genes how much food it was able to eat during growth etc.probably easiest to just do like tarantula keepers do when they buy a sub adult or adult sized one and just give the day you took it in as its birthday

 

[Abe]

 

[game misconduct]

better put that tool bag away before handles get used as a teething toy

 

[silent meowlook]

He looks about 6 months or so. The rule of thumb is 1 lb per month but of course this can vary.

 

[stephanietx]

If you don't know the exact date a kitten was born, it's all a guesstimate based off of teeth and weight. I would probably follow what the vet says since they see a lot of kittens and cats.

 

[Kris107]

My kitten is just over 5 months and she just lost her last baby tooth. That isn't super helpful I guess because I know they can lose teeth at different ages.

 

[GenCat]

Hello, I was recently adopted by a black kitten who showed up on our land in the middle of no where. He is very friendly and tame with no skills for living in the woods. I’m confused by his age. He is either a really big 4-5 month old cat or a really small 7-8 month old cat. I took him to the vet and was told he’s 7-8 months old based on weight. I know I probably should believe an educated vet over Google but I’m just not very confident. He has not yet lost his canine Or any of the teeth further back. I just noticed a tiny bud of one of his canines coming through. He weighs 7.7 pounds. What are the features to go by to determine age of a stray kitten?

My vet thought I was insane when I told her my girl is 5-6 months old, by weight she is 12 weeks but I adopted her at ten weeks, two months before that her brother weighed 5 pounds at the time but was the same size as her when they came home. They promptly shoved some fingers in her mouth, looked extremely confused then agreed that she was older than they thought but underweight, they were still very unsure how old she was though and wrote it in her chart that she was “allegedly“ 5 months old

You will probably never know exactly since teeth come in differently for every cat but if the doctor didn’t examine teeth definitely get them to check that further. It may give a bit more information to work with.

 

[Abe]

Update: after taking him to get neutered a few weeks later, they were able to look at his teeth better and decided maybe he was closer to 4-5 months instead of 7-8 months. They said he is an interesting cat because based on his weight he’s big, but based on his teeth he’s small. He’s now neutered and a month older. He still looks like a tiny short cat but hes solid. He is confusing to figure out, so I wasn’t totally off.