Kittens are born blind and deaf, and their senses do not start working until after 10-12 days, and after birth, the mother licks the young to clean them and stimulate their blood circulation, and cats reach reproductive age between the ages of 7-12 months.
The average life expectancy of cats is between 10-15 years, and there are records that the oldest age a cat reached was 38 years, and it was found that cats that undergo a sterilization process, i.e. removal of the genitals, can live longer, perhaps because castration of a male cat reduces From his desire to mark things around him through his urine, and the removal of the female’s ovaries reduces her chances of developing breast cancer and uterine diseases.
Cat growth stages
During their lives, cats go through three stages of development, which are:
Childhood stage: extends from birth until the age of one year, and is characterized by a rapid growth rate, especially in the first six months of life.
Puberty stage: It extends from the age of 1-10 years, and at this stage cats stop growing, and at the end of it, the level of activity begins to decline.
The pyramid stage: starts from the tenth year and cats at this stage suffer from diseases similar to diseases of aging in humans.
Knowing the age of cats
The approximate age of cats can be estimated by noting the following:
Size: During the first six months of life, cats gain 454 grams each month, so by knowing the weight of the cat it is possible to guess its age, but this method is not completely accurate; Because the weight changes with the change in the health of the cats.
Teeth: Cats’ teeth can be relied upon to determine their age during the first six months of their life only, as milk teeth begin to appear when cats reach their second week and are completed when they reach their eighth week, then begin to fall out and permanent teeth appear in their place when they reach the fourth month, and when cats reach The sixth month, the number of permanent teeth is complete, and once this happens, it becomes difficult to rely on this method of determining age.
Eyes: Veterinarians use an ophthalmoscope to examine the lens of a cat’s eye to find out its approximate age, as the lens of the eye becomes denser when the cat reaches the sixth or seventh year of age, making the eyes somewhat hazy.
Health status: Old cats suffer from diseases that do not usually affect younger cats, including kidney failure, and the inability to process protein, which causes weight loss.
