Snow Leopard

Snow Leopard
Snow Leopard cub (7 mos old) - Cape May County Zoo

Friday, January 14, 2011

How old do you think he/she is doc?

I get asked this question a lot whenever anyone finds a new puppy/kitten or even an adult animal.
We use the wear and tear on teeth or , in the case of the young ones, how many baby teeth or adult teeth are present. There are other things that can help, like size of animal (we know generally how a 2 month old kitten should appear in size), appearance of changes in the lenses of the eyes, graying of the muzzle, etc. All of these things can have some variability. Factors such as breed and environment the animal has been in can alter what the "normal" would be for that age group.

Still, there are some basic guidelines that help when examining the mouth.
Baby or deciduous (d) teeth fall out to be replaced by adult (a) teeth. The following are ERUPTION times or when these teeth appear (not when they fall out).

Dogs


Puppies have 28 teeth (3 upper and lower incisors, 1 upper and lower canine and 3 upper and lower premolars on EACH side of their mouths)

Adult dogs have 42 teeth (3 upper and lower incisors, 1 upper and lower canine, 4 upper and lower premolars, 2 upper and 3 lower molars) - again on each side.



Incisors        d:   4-6 weeks       a:  2-5 mos (the 3rd one usu appears last)
Canines       d:   3-4 weeks       a: 5-6 mos
Premolars    d:  4-8 weeks        a: 4-6 mos
Molars                 ---                 a: 5-7 mos


Cats

Kittens have 26 teeth (3 upper and lower incisors, 1 upper and lower canine, 3 upper premolars and 2 lower premolars)  x2

Adult cats have 30 teeth (3 upper and lower incisors, 1 upper and lower canine, 3 upper and 2 lower premolars and 1 upper and 1 lower molar) x 2

Incisiors        d: 2-4 weeks      a: 3.5-4.5mos
Canines        d: 3-4 weeks       a: 5 mos
Premolars    d: 4-6 weeks (3rd and 4th premolar), 2 mos (upper 2nd)
                          ***cats HAVE to be different**
                      a: 5-6 mos (3rd and 4th), 4.5-5 mos (upper 2nd again!)

Molars        a: 4-5mos



Tomorrow's topic should be a little more fun...I'm thinking on Saturdays to change it up, I'll do a breed feature or maybe something on exotics (ferrets, rabbits, etc).



No comments:

Post a Comment