When do kittens open their eyes?

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Your cat has given birth to kittens! What could be better? Just watch them grow and learn more about their development. How they grow from little blind kittens to big beautiful cats as they explore the big beautiful world. But when? When it will be?! When do kittens open their eyes, when do they start to walk, eat, play on their own? Here are some questions most often asked by novice cat owners. And to answer them, you need to study the development of kittens in detail.

A cat or cat is considered a newborn kitten up to and including the 8th week of life, i.e. up to 2 months. By the way, after this period they can be sold, since at this time they are fully developed. So, what happens to kittens at certain stages of development? Below is a table in which I will describe in detail the entire development of the kitten.

Life Weeks	description of development
1st	Can't control his own body temperature, needs mother's attention. Day 7-10 is the period when kittens open their eyes. Can find food by smell.
2nd	The kitten develops hearing, the baby intensively gains weight. Kittens 2 weeks old look like this:
3rd	Kittens become curious and restless, eager to explore the world.
4th	Kittens' eyes change color, fur also changes color. Babies develop movement and motor skills. The percentage of weight gain increases even more. From this week you can start feeding them. At this age, it's time to teach the kids to the tray.
5th	Kittens have fully developed eyesight and can be weaned (started on solid food).
6th	It's time to get vaccinated, depending on the lifestyle, the character of the kitten is finally formed.
7th	Kittens are developing an adult sleep pattern, staying awake for 3-4 extra hours a day.
8th	Kittens are completely weaned from the mother's breast and finally switched to solid food. It becomes possible to determine the sex of the kitten. Babies are noisy and playful.

Perhaps, while reading the description of the fourth week, you noticed the phrase "the eyes of the kitten change color." No, I'm not mistaken, it really is. When kittens open their eyes, they are always blue. Over time, they change color like a kaleidoscope. For some time they can be each of their own shade, or several colors can be present on one eye at once, for example, a green eye with yellow dots. Butit's not scary, over time, each of them will acquire the same even shade.

It would be appropriate to add a couple of notes to the table about the role of the owner in the development of cat offspring. When kittens are teething, it is advisable to buy them a toy that would play a double role for them: entertaining and as a simulator for new teeth. These toys are available at any pet store. They look something like this:

If you want your furniture to be safe and sound, I highly recommend buying a scratching post, because kittens grow claws that will interfere with them at first. Scratching posts are also very common in pet stores:

And these are the development phases of kittens only up to 2 months. But life goes on, and everything in their body continues to grow. At 3 months, the eyes of kittens acquire a permanent color, and at 5 the milk teeth of babies fall out and change to permanent ones. From the sixth month, puberty begins. Young cats may start marking their territory, and kitties may start to roll around on the floor in heat. From the eighth month, especially heartless owners can take their "young and early" to the veterinarian for castration or sterilization.

That's the whole description of the physical development of a kitten. Now you know the answers to questions about when kittens open their eyes and how many weeks after birth a kitten begins to hear the sounds around him, as well as many others.