How do vets do this??

How do vets find out how old a cat is by looking at
they're teeth? i have always wondered

I believe it is usually told by the amount of plaque on the teeth. That is however, if the cat has never had a professional teeth cleaning

Others can correct me if I'm wrong though.

I did a quick search on Yahoo for something for you. This is the most detailed information I could find. Though it is dated May/June 1996.

Determining the age of a cat via teeth

Though if a cat has had dental cleaning, this can affect things and result in an estimate of a cat being younger than what he/she really is. And vets do use other factors such as possible history ad lifestyle, condition of body structure, muscle tone, eyes.

Thanks for the link

I am a vet tech and I can easily guess by looking at the cats teeth their age.

If they are under 4 months they have their baby teeth, some adult teeth depending on how old. Under 6 months their baby canine are longer than that of a 3 months old kitten b/c their adult teeth are pushing them down, they have most of their other adult teeth. When their adult canines are in and depending on how long they are you can guess on the age.

1-3 years their teeth donot have much plaque and arent very worn down. As they get older they have more plaque and their teeth are more warn down. When they are very old they are also missing some teeth.

It takes practice and knowledge to figure out this trick!!

Thanks for that link. I've been wondering about my boy's ages & that chart helped me really feel like they are about 4 & 5 months old. I do have to say it must be tough for vets if someone has no idea how old a cat is because my Smokey died at 17, she had never had a cleaning & vets always said she had really good teeth for her age. I think it was about 2-3 months before she passed before her teeth really started getting bad & I think that was due to her kidney failure & the over production of acid.