Do Kittens Baby Teeth Fall Out

Kittens start losing their baby teeth around 9 weeks of age and from that time until their adult teeth are fully grown in at 5 to 6 months you can count on lots of chewing action.

Do kittens baby teeth fall out. When deciduous kitten teeth don t fall out to make way for the permanent teeth they are called retained deciduous teeth. It s important to know what s happening during teething as baby teeth don t always fall out. Although the timing varies between animals as much as it does among humans the average kitten will have lost all her baby teeth by between 6 and 9 months old. The most commonly encountered tooth problem in kittens is the retention of baby teeth.

The deciduous teeth begin to fall out and be replaced by permanent teeth starting at around 11 weeks of age. By 6 months all 10 premolars are in place. By this time the majority of the permanent teeth should have erupted provided there are no complications. By 5 months all four canine teeth are in place.

Although the baby teeth should all fall out of their own accord when the permanent teeth erupt sometimes that doesn t happen with a particular tooth. Your kitten may well have swallowed these tiny baby teeth so you never saw them come out. By 4 months all the permanent incisors are usually in place. This is medically known as retained deciduous teeth.

You may even find these hollow shells of the baby teeth on the floor or in your kitten s bedding but more often than not the teeth will fall out while the kitten is eating and they will swallow them with the rest of their food. If the baby teeth are not lost when the corresponding permanent teeth are coming in it can result in abnormal tooth position and bite tartar and plaque buildup and even abscesses. She has 26 baby teeth that are replaced by 30 permanent or adult teeth. Your kitten could have that baby tooth next to the permanent one where the adult tooth will have trouble maintaining a normal position.

This can cause malocclusion an abnormal bite. By 5 months all the canine teeth fangs are in and by 6 months all the adult premolars the teeth just behind the fangs have erupted. Although this can happen to any teeth the most common teeth which this happens to are the canine teeth. You may have noticed your cat chewing on things more lately and that s part of what kittens do to help their loose baby teeth fall out.

Sometimes the kitten teeth fail to fall out and it continues to occupy space where only the adult teeth should be. Retained deciduous teeth should be surgically extracted once they are discovered to avoid dental problems. The four molars do not come in until late kittenhood or even early adulthood. Cats begin losing their baby teeth at around 12 weeks or 3 months.

Do cats ever end up keeping their baby teeth. Yes unfortunately there are some cases where baby teeth will not fall out.