Question about age, wet food, & tartar buildup

So, I adopted Matilda on October 3, 2007. The petfinder listing said she was 9 months old (she had only been on petfinder for a week), and when I adopted her the paperwork said her birthday was "04/01/07" which would mean she was only 6 months old when I adopted her.

There is no way that she was 6 months old when I adopted her. She already weighed 8 lbs and looked like a full grown adult cat. I took her to my vet a week after I adopted her and my vet looked at her teeth. She agreed that there was no way Matilda was only 6 months old, and that based on her teeth she was "at least a year old, maybe even 2. Definitely a young cat though"

She said this was b/c there was some tartar buildup and one of her front teeth is chipped. She said this tartar buildup could also just be from eating a lot of wet food.

So I looked online for more information about cat's teeth/age: and found:
http://www.sheltermedicine.com/docum...age_how_to.pdf
which basically says:
*2-4 weeks, deciduous (baby) incisors coming in
*3-4 weeks, deciduous (baby) canines coming in
*4-6 weeks, deciduous (baby) premolars coming in on lower jaw
*8 weeks, all deciduous (baby) teeth are in
*3.5-4 months, permanent incisors coming in
*4-5 months, permanent canines, premolars, and molars coming in
*5-7 months, all permanent teeth in by 6 months
*1 year, teeth white and clean
*1-2 years, teeth may appear dull with some tartar build-up (yellowing) on back teeth
*3-5 years, teeth show more tartar build-up (on all teeth) and some tooth wear
*5-10 years, teeth show increased wear and disease; pigment visible on gums
*10-15 years, teeth are worn and show heavy tartar build-up; some teeth may be missing.


I am inclined to think that the adoption center wrote her birthdate wrong, that it should have been "01/04/07" instead of "04/01/07" and that's where they got the 9 months from.

So my question: could a younger cat (younger than 2) show a lot of tartar build-up if they ate predominantly wet food? I don't know what she used to eat because I know nothing of her old home. I know that the whole "dry food cleaning the teeth" thing is not well-supported and I'm not asking if dry food for teeth.... I'm just trying to figure out how old my baby is. Is it uncommon for a 10-month-old cat to have tartar buildup?

I know it doesn't matter how old she is, I'm just so curious!

Some cats are prone to getting tartar earlier and more persistently than others, so she could still be young and genetically predisposed to tartar build up. I would start trying to get into a toothpaste/brushing routine earlier, as that will help.

I think you're the one with the cat named Matilda who was kind of stand off-ish? Or at least you had problems getting her to lay in your lap and be cuddly like most people want their cats to be? (I could be mistaking you with someone else. )

I agree, brush her teeth if you can. But you can always try dental treats too - I recently found a vet that had the CET ones. They work great for getting Sho's teeth clean. So,so for Tomas's, but then he doesn't really chew anything.
They also make a gel type rinse that looks interesting and the nozzle/lid looks like it would make it easy to squirt into a cat's mouth (maybe I can talk the vet into ordering me some? )

We had some cats in the rescue recently which were taken from a hoarder situation. These were young cats, but due to poor nutrition and health, their teeth were bad and a vet or anyone looking would have guessed them at much older.

^Good point. And in those sort of situations, if there's any inbreeding, bad genetics are more likely to be obvious.