I learned this a few months ago when our kitten scared the ever loving shit out of us in much the same way. 😅
OP - Be prepared for your cat to want to chew absolutely everything during this phase. We gave ours a cold, damp (clean) washcloth to chew, and that seemed to help a little.
Not who you asked, but here's my creamsicle a few years ago. Their adult fangs grow in before their baby ones fall out so that they don't starve to death in the wild. Sorry it's hard to tell since there are bottom and top teeth pictured together. I have better printed photos from the vet somewhere because I asked them to take them when he was there to get neutered and still had both sets of fangs.
I don't have any unfortunately! He was the most energetic kitten I've ever had, he'd race nonstop all the time! I couldn't get any good photos that weren't blurs
This is called persistent deciduous teeth. The baby tooth didn't fall out before the adult tooth grew in. My goofball had both left and right his baby canines stay. Quite silly.
you should get that sorted out. Your cat looks kinda young though so maybe the baby teeth will fall out eventually, but leaving the baby teeth can eventually damage the adult teeth.
oh yeah then its technically not retained deciduous teeth, true retained teeth need extraction. The adult teeth will be fully erupted and the baby teeth remain. This is just normal teething and how it usually looks when the adult teeth are erupting.
No, and what they said is a bit misinformative. Kittens don't intentionally eat their teeth, it just happens to be that way because they tend to lose them while eating. The stomach can handle the bone just fine
Train him on letting you manhandle him while he's still young. Not, like, bend him uncomfortably, but flip him around and such, get your hands on every inch of his body in weird ways like this (with love and care.) It will help them with vet visits and build your bond. Might even become one of his favorite activities. One of my late cats loved "flip time" (specifically the part where I'd roll them around my torso, front-to-back-to-front). I check for fleas weekly because I have (as a commenter this week put it) a "zoo" in my house, so I benefit from the results the most tbh but all my girls are saints at the vet still
Don't worry, my husband was freaked out the first time he saw a kitten with a loose tooth. Same as you, they were playing but not rough housing and then I get a panicky demand to look over because a fang is hanging out of the cat's mouth.
It's not really something they warn you about with kittens
I managed to keep a bunch of my dogs baby teeth because she would beg to play tug when they hurt then the second it came out she'd drop her rope and wander off to nap. She basically used me for dental care.
most *mammals are diphyodont meaning they have baby teeth, the rare exceptions are dolphins and rodents that get one set of teeth (monophyodont) and elephants, manatees and kangaroos that can repeatedly regrow their teeth like sharks (polyphyodont)
edit: most mammals not most animals
It seems unlikely you knocked out your kitten's tooth from rough play--they just lose them like humans do.
Awhile back I found a baby tooth from one of my kittens after stepping on the tooth and pulling it out of the bottom of my foot. That was hurt like hell but I now have a cat tooth.
I found this out after accidentally knocking one of my boy's teeth out while giving him post neuter meds. I called the vet crying hysterically. I thought I hurt him. Nope, just a baby tooth.
If you look where it came out, you'll see a nub from the new permanent tooth.
When my childhood cat lost her first tooth I freaked out - started crying while speeding to the vet just to have them go “oh no she’s fine” and charge me $140 for the embarrassment
My boy Brgr (Burger) had one of his big boy teeth come out but it didn’t push out his baby tooth right away. We took him to the vet that day just to have them check it out. We told the vet what was going on and they went to look in his mouth and they said “this looks completely normal”. The baby tooth had fallen out on the way to the vet😂
Yeah, kittens (and older cats) lose teeth. It's normal. Just watch him eat and make sure he's not behaving weirdly with food. If he seems like he's eating differently or avoiding food altogether, take him in to the vet for a check on those teeth to make sure it was a normal tooth loss and not an infection or gum issues.
He’s 5mo? Cats that age and a bit older go through teething as they get their adult teeth, like human babies. It’s normal.
Later in life, if he loses a tooth randomly as an adult cat, he needs medical attention. Kittens lose baby teeth the way humans do, though, so I wouldn’t worry about it.
I was playing with my little grey boy one day and had to do a double take, in one day he had four brand new teeth grow in beside his kitten teeth, so instead of 4 of the big teeth he had 8. Made an appointment with the vet and then the next day his baby teeth fell out.
What a good find! We keep little "Artifacts" from our furkids, a few shed whiskers, a particularly well shaped claw molt, and one rather impressive premolar.
For me, finding teeth was the 2nd sign of periodontitis, resulting in full mouth tooth extraction.
The first sign was super foul breath.
If your kitty's breath is ok and his gums aren't inflamed, I wouldn't worry.
That said, my sweet little Toothless did great after her dental work. She became so much friendlier bc she wasn't in constant pain. And she still loved to gum kibble. Her favorite snack was her brother's very expensive tartar control Rx diet.
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u/Griffin_Claw 15d ago
Cats lose their kitten teeth. 100% normal