How Does a Cat Grow up
Do you know that the most longevous cat that is named Creme Puff is 38 years old in Guinness World Records? However, the life expectancy of a cat is 12 to 15 years. With the advance of health care technology, cats can live up to 20 years. Also, people nowadays like to keep a cat as one of their family members, and the owners of cats are often considered “the slaves of cats” in Taiwan. Hence, to be an excellent owner, we need to know how cats grow up. The following paragraphs will explain the five life stages of cats, which are Kitten, Junior to Prime Adult, and Mature Adult to Senior.
When you keep a cat from their birth, cats in 0-6 months are called Kitten. According to the research from Cuteness Team in Healthypaws Pet Insurance and Foundation (2019), “after kittens are born, they usually double their size in their first week. After their first week, kittens grow an ounce about every three days.” In this period, cats grow extremely fast and change the most. Nevertheless, it’s also their most impressionable phase；therefore, the owners have to care more about the kitten, such as cleaning the environment frequently and taking them to veterinarians when cats seem abnormal.
Junior refers to the cats during 6 months to 2 years old, and Prime Adult is the next stage which is in 3-6 years old. Junior is the process that a kitten becomes a “real cat”, the adult. Generally speaking, most kittens will be adults at the first year, which is the most important phase. From 7-12 months, a kitten still grows up and then reaches its full size. It is also crucial that you have to have your kitten spayed or neutered, for kitten does through sexual maturation when 4-9 months. If you don’t do it, you will have more kittens, or even your cutie will suffer from some health troubles like inflammation or cancer. On the other hand, after Junior, cats are deemed the Prime Adult, which means that cats have settled into lives, and they are usually in their healthy prime. Your cat now is socially and behaviorally mature. Even though cats might sometimes ignore your existence, you still have to play and interact with them and check their health regularly for preventing illnesses.
When it comes to Mature Adult, which is between 7-10 years old, cats will become less active as they age, and will soon enter the Senior. Cats in Mature Adult are just like a human, since they are in fact aging and prone to gain weight and catch health issues like kidney disease and diabetes. Consequently, when your cat does not explore and run all the time, you have to pay more attention to it and continue to interact with it in order to make sure its health condition. When cats are beyond 10 years old, they are senior, which means their health often begins to deteriorate. This is the eternal truth that time is cruel. Time will take a person away, and so does cat. All you have to do is stay with it and be thankful.
Through observing for thousands years, we human can divide the life of a cat into five phases, including Kitten, Junior, Prime Adult, Mature Adult, and Senior. Each stage has its growth and things that need to focus. Make sure that you realize all the facts of cats so that you can take good care of your “family member.” People love to keep a cat and don’t forget to treat it friendly and gently.
References:
Healthypaws Pet Insurance and Foundation (2019). When Do Cats Stop Growing?
Reliable Ways to Know When Cats Reach Their Full Size. Retrieved from
https://www.healthypawspetinsurance.com/blog/2019/11/12/when-do-cats-stop-growing-reliable-ways-to-know-when-cats- reach-their-full-size
