Is there any way of telling the age of a cat?

[redclover79]

We got our cat from Wood Green and were told she was approx. 4 years old, which would make her about 7 now. But she seems much older... I know with horses you can look at their teeth to estimate age, but is there any way of telling with cats?

[misi]

cats.about.com/od/catcare/f/catsage.htm

[GodzillasGhastlyPutridBumcheek]

OOoooh, Ruby - i was going to say similar

[2cats2many]

vets can sometimes tell by having a look at their teeth.

[redclover79]

misi thanks for the link, she's not going grey yet so not a 'senior' then!
Ruby she's a tortoiseshell so that probably wouldn't work, I'd probably mismatch the splodges when I stuck her back together!

[DevilishDisasterArea]

bugger ruby got there first,. although i think it is the leg you cut off.

[redclover79]

Ah yes, the leg would be the more sensible option...

[jojosmaman]

damn it... I was going to go for chopping tail off...[note to self, must be quicker]

[ClaireDeLoon]

Ask the vet next time you're there for a check-up. Although a vet did say to me that if they're very young or very old it's usually easy to estimate an age but if they're in the middle (2-10ish I think) they are hard to age. Then again when I got my old boy the vet said 8-10 and the current estimate for him 8 years later is 18 so they are quite accurate!

And PMSL at counting the rings