Kitten Growth Chart: How Big a Kitten Should Be in the First 12 Weeks

Have you already implemented a kitten growth chart at your veterinary clinic? Monitoring these adorable developmental milestones of young kittens as they progress from birth to their full adult weight isn’t sentimental; it ensures they receive the care they need. 

With a growth chart in full view, proud fur parents can visualize their pet’s development while your veterinary team helps each kitten stay on track to becoming a fully grown, healthy adult cat. 

Below, the veterinary practice management experts from Weave share tips on creating a growth chart for kittens, depending on your veterinary practice.

Understanding Kitten Growth Stages

Vets already understand the behavioral and physical development stages that all kittens progress through as they age from birth to adulthood. Most kittens grow the most during their early stages of life, from birth to eight weeks of age. During those weeks, many changes impact their body condition, behavioral development, feeding schedules, food sources, socialization abilities, litter box habits, and whether they spend enough time sleeping.

The kittens you’re seeing at your practice progress through each stage with certain markers. Each kitten should hit the target healthy weight categories and developmental milestones, such as beginning to crawl at two weeks. You can create a detailed growth chart for your veterinary clinic based on the stages discussed below.

Newborn Stage (0-1 Week): Full Dependency on Kitten Formula and Mother

Is there anything more precious than a newborn kitten? Typically, the animal has eyes closed, ears folded, and the umbilical cord remnant still attached, where the mother severed the connection herself. A newborn kitten can fit in the palm of your hand and weighs between 3 and 5 ounces. Your practice may also need to advise breeders or owners not to remove the umbilical cord connection, allowing it to fall off on its own.

A less-than-one-week-old kitten is fully dependent on its mother for warmth, comfort, and feeding as frequently as every two hours. During these early days in a kitten’s life, it absorbs critical immunity antibodies from its mother through nursing, much like a human. Newborn kittens lack a gag reflex, so supplementing with bottle feeding must go slowly and carefully.

While a newborn kitten cannot move around much yet, it may attempt to seek warmth. A one-week-old kitten cannot stay comfortably warm on its own as it relies on its mom or an external gentle heat source for everything (the kitten’s environment typically needs to be around 80 degrees during this time). There’s no harm in owners providing a gentle heat source to help keep the kitten warm.

Early Development for Newborn Kittens (1-4 Weeks): Introduction to the Litter Box

A one-week-old kitten goes through a lot of growing, but it still has many changes to experience before it is fully developed. During the next 30 days, the kitten will go from depending on its mother entirely to eating cat food with baby teeth, exploring, using a litter box, and slowly turning into a miniature cat.

Here’s a week-by-week kitten growth chart breakdown of the first four weeks of a kitten’s life:

One-Week-Old Kittens

Newborn kittens begin life with eyes closed and ears folded. By the end of the first week, their eyes begin to open, allowing them to experience the world around them. 

One-week-old kittens have doubled their birth weight. They no longer have the umbilical cord attached, as the remnant has healed.

Two-Week-Old Kittens

In the first two weeks, their ears unfold. A two-week-old kitten begins crawling. Two-week-old kittens may be a bit wobbly on their feet, but they do exhibit mobility. 

The kitten’s baby teeth also begin growing during the second week. The ear canals also open up.

Three-Week-Old Kittens

A kitten’s age is more obvious as a three-week-old when its ears begin perking to a typical kitty triangle shape. Owners can introduce three-week-old kittens to the litter box, as well as early social interactions. 

Typically, vets can also tell in the third week whether kittens are male or female.

Four-Week-Old Kittens

During the fourth week, these tiny kittens become more confident. They find their stride as their balance improves. 

Four-week-old kittens can begin trying solid food as their tiny teeth allow. Typically, kittens have enough social skills at this point to begin confidently exploring and interacting with their humans.

Cat Growth Chart: Weeks 5-12

As kittens progress into their fifth week of life, the rapid physical development continues. You can tell how old a kitten is by its size, so let’s go over a brief cat growth chart to see how kittens usually progress during these early weeks:

• Four weeks: 12 ounces to 1.3 pounds
• Five weeks: 14 ounces to 1.8 pounds
• Six weeks: 1 to 2 pounds
• Seven weeks: 1.2 to 2.3 pounds
• Eight weeks: 1.4 to 2.6 pounds

During these tender weeks of age, milestones abound. The mid-development stage for a 5- to 8-week-old kitten and the late-development stage for a 9- to 12-week-old kitten have a lot going on.

Mid Development (5-8 Weeks)

From five to eight weeks old, kittens’ eyes sharpen and change colors; they play more, and they gain a lot of weight. Kittens with green, gray, or yellow eyes are usually at least seven weeks old, as all kittens have baby blue-colored eyes at birth. A kitten’s eyes may stay baby blue, but the adult eye color depends on the breed.

What are some other changes cats will go through during each mid-development stage on the kitten growth chart? Your veterinary practice may document the following:

A Five-Week-Old Kitten 

In the fifth week, a kitten begins to truly engage in its surroundings. The kitten’s environment should be welcoming and playful. 

Kittens may still nurse at this time, though some owners may provide supplemental feeding as the kitten’s teeth come in. Kittens can experiment with wet food, or they may be bottle-fed.

Six-Week-Old Kittens 

At six weeks of age, behavioral development truly takes off as kittens socialize with others their age, humans, and adult cats. The baby’s blue eyes are still obvious.

At this time, a kitten can have its first FVRCP vaccine at your practice, along with other immunizations, such as:

• Distemper.
• Feline viral rhinotracheitis.
• Feline calicivirus.
• Other respiratory diseases.

Seven Weeks of Age

At the seventh week of age, a kitten’s environment becomes full of fun. A seven-week-old kitten has almost fully weaned from its mother and reached the age to socialize, play, and learn from its friends.

The kitten’s baby blue eyes transition to the adult eye color around now, as well.

Eight Weeks Old

By their eighth week of age, kittens should have all of their canine teeth. With their new teeth, an eight-week-old kitten can eat wet food or dry kitten food, depending on your recommendations as the vet. 

By this point, an eight-week-old kitten should have doubled in weight since its fourth week.

Late Development (9-12 Weeks): Weaning to Wet Food

During this late development stage, kittens transition to solid food–they’re fully weaned from their mother. The owner no longer needs to worry about keeping the kitten warm. The canine teeth come in, and they can prepare for adoption and long-term care.

Here’s the late-development stage broken down for kittens:

• The ninth week: In the ninth week of age, kittens are enjoying solid food, including dry food. They may also show more attachment to humans.
• Ten weeks old: During the tenth week, you can spay or neuter kittens to prepare them for their forever home.
• Eleven weeks of age: An 11-week-old kitten grows permanent teeth, plays with its toys, and develops its own personality.
• Twelve weeks old: A 12-week-old kitten still behaves energetically. They can be fairly destructive at this age.

From there, your veterinary practice will be able to watch these kittens continue to age and gain weight until they’re about 12 to 18 months old. Six-month-old kittens will look lanky, resembling fully grown cats, but they still have lots of weight to gain and development ahead.

The Importance of Monitoring Kitten Development

By monitoring kitten development, your practice’s pet owners can tell how big their kitten will get and ensure that their pet is on the right growth track. 

Veterinarians also use growth charts to detect developmental issues and adjust nutritional needs as needed. For example, if a kitten weighs less than it should at its age, your clinic may recommend a higher-calorie diet or a test to confirm that the kitty will be smaller simply because of its genetics.

Tools and Resources

Veterinary practice management experts like Weave also offer digital solutions to make kitten growth tracking easier for your facility. For example, vet visit reminders, digital forms, and online scheduling tools can ensure owners arrive at their recommended visits and track their kitty’s health for each age milestone.

Weave: Keeping Your Clients Connected

An accurate and accessible kitten growth chart ensures that your practice’s kitty patients stay on track into adulthood. Why not guarantee the care you can provide by getting those kitten owners onto a streamlined schedule that’s easy to manage? Get a demo of Weave to see how we can help you get more kittens through the door.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Kitten Growth