Kitten Development Myths

Kitten development not only encompasses kitten growth physically, but also feline emotional well-being. The first year of life is a crucial time in cat development and is the best time to begin setting your kitten on the right path to becoming a strong and healthy adult cat.

Many mistruths about cat development abound. As felines are notoriously mysterious, humans come up with beliefs to explain what they do not know or understand. Here are some common kitten tales.

• Myth: “Kittens can’t become pregnant before one year of age.”
  
  Reality: Kitten often become sexually mature and can get pregnant and give birth as early as 5 or 6 months of age. This is despite not reaching full maturity until around 1 year of age or more. Although pregnancy in kittens is hard to detect and there are no cat pregnancy tests readily available, kittens may display some early warning signs such as morning sickness.

  Help make your cat's delivery go smoothly by getting essential kitten birthing supplies.

• Myth: “Kitten play is not that important.”

  Reality: Kitten play tends to peak at 3 months of age. Kittens prior to this age spend much of their day engaged in play with their siblings. Play is important to kitten development in that it helps kitten learn how to socialize with their mom cat and siblings.

  Play shows kittens what’s safe and what’s not. It also teaches them behavior that they can model later on in their lives. A lack of play socialization in the kitten years can lead to behavioral problems later in life.

• Myth: “All kittens develop (physically and behaviorally) and mature at the same rate.”

  Photo by Paul Reynolds/BigTallGuy @ flickr.com

  Reality: Like humans, all kittens are individuals. Also, some breeds mature at slower or faster rates that other. The Maine Coon cat for example takes almost 5 years to complete reach maturity.

• Myth: “Human handling is not important for kittens. Besides, kittens can die from being handled too much.”

  Reality: Kittens need human interaction and handling after 6 weeks of age. This interaction teaches them that humans are okay to be around and established a human to cat bond at an early age.

  This time is crucial in kitten development to create a cat this is adoptable later on down the road. However, it’s not a good idea to handle kittens extensively before 24 days of age. It most likely won’t harm them. But, mom cat will likely not be too pleased.

• Myth: “Getting kittens spayed or neutered will make them become obese.”

  Reality: While there is some evidence that altering a kitten will slow down its metabolism, spaying or neutering will not cause obesity. What does cause obesity? Overfeeding and inactivity.

  Feeding a kitten too much food helps pack on the pounds. Feeding adult cats food designed for kittens can lead to obesity as well as it is calorie packed. Kittens that are not given enough time to play and run around can become overweight.

• Myth: “Kittens can readily adapt to eating vegan/vegetarian diets.”

  Reality: Urinary tract problems and slow growth in kittens are just a few problems caused by a diet absent of meat. Cats need more protein than humans and even dogs. Some owners have tried to put their cats on meat-free diets.

  However, this usually doesn’t work out well as cats are obligate carnivores. Being obligate carnivores means felines must have at least some meat in their diet to best function. Kittens especially need the added protein in meat as they are rapidly growing.

• Myth: “Male cats are mean and unfriendly. Female cats love attention and affection.”

  Reality: While I’ve also heard the reverse said as well, neither male or female cats have one singular temperament. What really affects a cat’s temperament is whether or not they have been altered.

  Both genders are rather aloof and preoccupied with mating when not spayed or neutered. Getting fixed usually calms most cats down. Temperament also depends on genetics and environment.

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