Rat Health Care & Information

Kitten Growth

When kittens are born they tend to average about an inch long and normally weigh between 6-7g. You can see the white milk bands across the stomach area on the 2 hour old kittens below. The kittens pictured below are Sapphire and Axel's litter unless otherwise stated.

2 days old - you can start to see the pigment showing that some of these kittens are going to be quite dark in colour and also that they have dark eyes. On marked kittens you can see the skin pigment where the hood or dark patches will be later as per the 3 day old kittens from Faith's litter below right.

4 days old - by now you can clearly see the different colours starting to develop. By 4 days, these kittens are now 9g.

1 week old - these kittens weighed 12g and you can now see that they are developing a very soft velvety start to a coat.

1 week and 2 days old - coat is very soft and velvety at this age. Kittens weighed 16g at this age.

1 week and 6 days old - average weight 27g. One or two of the kittens opened their eyes today - eyes open between 12-16 days normally, although most open their eyes on day 14.

2 weeks and 2 days old - average weight 30g - as you can see, these are really starting to look much more like miniature rats now. Once they have their eyes opened, they start moving around and eating solids very quickly.

3 weeks old - these kittens are now terrorising their poor mum and she will probably appreciate somewhere to hide from them for a quick nap! Sapphire ended up having to foster Bianca's kittens so had 23 to look after!!

3 weeks and 2 days - kittens averaged at 50g - these kittens behave like they have springs under their feet, they 'boing' everywhere!

5 weeks and 2 days old - average weight 125g - between 5-7 weeks, the kittens will moult out their baby coats and start to develop their adult coats.

At 6 weeks old the kitten averaged 170g and at 7 weeks and 2 days old, kittens averaged at 230g. Photos below are at 7 weeks and 2 days old.

As you can see, kitten development during the first couple of months of life is very rapid, so it is important they get a good nutritional diet to help enhance their growth and development.

Article written by Estelle

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