Do Kittens Teeth Fall Out

Infected teeth become loose and fall out as bacteria.

Do kittens teeth fall out. Teething causes minimal discomfort in kittens but you may find your kitty starts to chew more during this time. Cats begin losing their baby teeth at around 12 weeks or 3 months. If your kitten was altered at 6 months and encounters this problem an additional procedure might be required. When deciduous kitten teeth don t fall out to make way for the permanent teeth they are called retained deciduous teeth.

If your vet elects to remove these teeth it is usually done at the same time of the spay and neuter appointment. These retained teeth are usually removed to prevent further dental issues or infections or to ensure the adult teeth come in without obstructions. These teeth are barely strong enough to chew food and typically fall out around 6 months of age. And of course it hurts a little when the baby teeth fall out and your kitten s gums are all raw where his teeth used to be.

Three upper and three lower incisors on each side one upper and one lower canine on each side and three upper and two lower premolars on each side. However teeth that fall out on their own usually do so because of uncontrolled dental disease. These deciduous milk teeth will fall out when they are 3 5 4 months old and the kitten s permanent adult teeth then grow in. Some kittens have teeth that do not fall out.

Retained deciduous teeth should be surgically extracted once they are discovered to avoid dental problems. By this time the majority of the permanent teeth should have erupted provided there are no complications. It can also be comforting to sore gums believe it or not. 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.

Kittens have a total of 26 deciduous teeth. 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. 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. When do cats lose baby teeth.

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. Sometimes the kitten teeth fail to fall out and it continues to occupy space where only the adult teeth should be. They have no molars. Kittens are born with their milk teeth which allow them to latch onto the nipple and are only made to comfortably handle mother s milk.

Animals generally do fine with missing teeth. The most commonly encountered tooth problem in kittens is the retention of baby teeth. Their first baby teeth appear when they are around 2 4 weeks of age.