5 Essential Images for Understanding Kitten Growth Phases

While we tend to think of kittens as rambunctious furballs exploring the world around them and getting into trouble with their tiny needle toes, their high-pitched screams, and their adorable little faces, there are actually a bunch of different phases of kitten growth. No one can argue that the mouse-sized, barely-mobile, close-eyed kittens are the same as the lanky blurs zipping around your living room, right?

Let's walk through the five main stages of kitten growth on their way to adulthood, with images to illustrate what they look like.

#1: Fresh, Newborn Kittens

First up, take a look at this image. These are two kittens carefully cradled in a towel, but if you didn't know what they were, you could easily be convinced they were any number of different kinds of animals.

Kittens at this stage of life are extremely vulnerable, which is why mother cats don't leave their side. Their eyes are closed, so they can't see anything around them. Their ears work, but they're folded over, and anyway, a kitten this young – only hours or a few days at most – is unlikely to know what any of those noises it hears mean.

Kittens of this age are completely helpless. They can't move, they can't walk, they generally can't even do more than make noises. They can't keep themselves warm and rely on cuddling with mama to transfer body heat. They're still figuring out how to digest food, and they need help to even eliminate waste.

When kittens are this young, they're spending the vast majority of their time sleeping, growing, and "waking up" to life. They can purr, and they can cry, and they can eat, and that's about it.

This is a very critical time for kittens. Mama needs to be in a comfortable place and attended to to ensure she has her own nutrients to produce milk for the kittens. The kittens seek out milk to eat when they aren't sleeping, and mama keeps them warm, grooms them, helps ensure they can eliminate, and protects them.

If left unattended, kittens of this age are extremely vulnerable and can pass away at any moment. If they get too cold or aren't fed, they can pass, or they can end up with poor growth or health issues as they get older. If you're caring for a kitten of this age – especially if mama didn't make it for one reason or another – you're going to be giving up sleep so you can attend to them because they aren't going to make it through the night on their own without assistance.

The biggest concerns at this stage

Kittens that are only a few hours or a few days old are extremely vulnerable, weak, and still developing. They don't do much more than sleep, externally, but they're very active internally, getting their organs sorted out, strengthening their tiny skeletons, growing muscles, and more.

Kittens at this age are very vulnerable to starvation, dehydration, and the cold. They need active care.

#2: Two-Week-Old Kittens

For number two, take a look at this picture. From one to about three weeks old, kittens are rapidly developing and starting to transform from helpless lumps of fur and hunger into living beings. They're still very dependent on mama, but they aren't quite as helpless. They can move a little and often love to pile together on top of one another in their litter so they can share body heat and enjoy their purring and socialization.

While they're starting to look and act more like kittens, they're still relatively helpless. They can move a little, but they're shaky and stumble around, wobble, and generally aren't confident in themselves. Most of their movement will be crawling around the pile with one another, or maneuvering to seek out mama for some more food. They still need to be eating regularly.

Physically, they're developing more. They're growing in size, though you can still easily hold them in one hand. Their ears are perking up, and they're opening their eyes so they can start to see the world around them.

One striking feature of kittens of this age is that their eyes are a clear, vibrant blue. This is because the cells that produce the pigment that will give them their final eye color aren't active yet and won't be for at least the first six or so weeks of the life of the kitten. As they age, their true eye color will fade in, and you'll be able to tell what kind of eyes they have by the time they're about two months old.

It can be pretty fun interacting with kittens of this age, as long as you're very careful and have permission from mama. Mama will be very defensive if she doesn't trust you, and with good reason: her babies still need her. But, the kittens are able to start wandering by the time they're two weeks and change, and while they're very wobbly, they may happily wobble their little ways over to you, especially if you're warm.

In some cases, if mama trusts you a lot, she may bring her babies to you for warmth and protection while she gets a spare moment to herself. It's quite adorable when it happens, but of course, you're then stuck being mama and protecting these kittens for however long you get to be their nest.

At this age, kittens can knead, though they can't really control their claws, so there's a bit of risk in letting them knead on your tender flesh. They will also hiss – or try to hiss, anyway – at anything unfamiliar and scary. You may notice that some kittens hiss more than others; the ones who don't hiss as much may just turn out to be the brave troublemakers of the family.

The biggest concerns at this stage

At this stage of development, the biggest concerns are feeding and getting into trouble. As kittens get more mobile but are still not very confident, they can run the risk of getting into places they shouldn't or trying to eat things they shouldn't. Most of the time, while they still need some active care, they'll stick close to mama – and mama will keep them close – so they'll be a little safer.

#3: Month-Old Kittens

Next up, we have an image like this, along with billions of other kitten pictures on the internet.

By the time a kitten is around a month old, they're starting to reach the point where they're active and developing their personalities. They're going to be more confident on their feet and won't have that kitten wobble. They won't exactly be jumping up on the couch, but they know their claws can help them climb, so they'll happily try to make their way up the furniture, the curtains, nearby pants, and other surfaces they can hook into.

They're also developing their voices more, their eyes are starting to turn the colors they'll be as adults, and they're going to be more curious. You can start to play with them with toys, they'll start to learn to pounce and play with each other, and they'll be learning behaviors from their mama like grooming.

At this age, you can start giving the kittens some "solid" food – that is, wet food. They still can't eat dry food, and their teeth are only just starting to come in, so they can't crunch through the harder kibble you give mama.

This is also when you can start providing a litter box for the kittens to use. They might not know what to do right away, but litter training should be done as early as feasible to engrain the habits in the cats as they age.

While caring for kittens at this age is no longer about around-the-clock care and feeding, it's still important to spend time and effort on it. This is the most important time for kitten socialization, with each other and with you. You want kittens to be accepting and sociable with other cats and with humans so they don't end up scaredy-cats. You'll get to see them develop their own personalities and preferences and can adapt your training to their little kitten minds.

The biggest concerns at this stage

At this point, kittens are starting to get rambunctious but don't have a good awareness of danger. They are also going to be vulnerable to illnesses. A surprising number of kittens at this age end up falling ill or ending up with an injury because they tried a jump they couldn't handle or a fellow littermate caught a claw in the wrong place at the wrong time. I've seen a few kittens lose eyes at this age, though they adapt quickly, and it doesn't seem to hinder their development all that much as they go.

#4: 1–3-Month-Old Kittens

After your kitten has reached a month old, they'll look a lot like this. They may be a little gangly, and they're rapidly growing during this period as they age into their adult size. They may look a little scruffy as their fur smooths out, and they'll definitely have a lot more energy and curiosity.

At this age, they can control their claws, they'll be working on finishing teething as their molars come in, and their mama will probably stop feeding them. This is when you transition to full wet food (and make sure to seek out a kitten formula to make sure they get all of their nutrients) and work more on litter training. You want to avoid dehydration, constipation, and other distress as much as possible.

Around six weeks is when you should start getting vaccines for your kittens. Vet trips to check up have been regular up to this point, so you should have a lot of guidance on how to proceed.

The biggest concerns at this stage

Curiosity can get the best of a kitten at this stage, and they can get into a lot of trouble. Most professional fosters set aside a dedicated kitten room with plenty of enrichment and, critically, nothing they can chew on or dig into that will hurt them. Illness is also a concern, which is why vaccinations are important.

#5: Full Kittenhood

At this point, kittens have aged into full cats. They aren't full sized yet, and they have a lot more energy than their older brethren, but they're still essentially cats. You can transition them fully to wet food and start introducing semi-dry food. You can work on more training, socialization, and more health checkups.

This is also around the age when foster kittens can start to be adopted. Unless kittens were born in your care, or you're a worker at a shelter or care facility, you probably won't encounter the earlier stages of kitten very often.

These are some of the most fun, rambunctious, playful, and entertaining cats you can encounter. They're also prone to getting into trouble, figuring out how to stake their territory, developing a social hierarchy amongst their litter or other household cats, and figuring out precisely how much respect they should be giving you. Training is in full force now, so make the most of it.

The biggest concerns at this stage

At this point, you need to do things like check for parasites, intercede in more serious cat fights, and get your fur babies fixed to prevent hormonal problems and unwanted additional kittens. Other than that, it's all about caring for them as you would any other cat.

Kitten Development FAQ

Time for some frequently asked questions!

How can you tell how old a kitten is?

Other than some signs, like their eyes being closed or blue, their ears being folded, or the confidence in their walk, it's a sliding scale. A kitten with slightly stunted growth might appear younger than it is. Of course, if you're encountering such a kitten and you don't know a specific age, it also kind of doesn't matter; you just need to get them the care they require to succeed in life.

When can you give kittens food?

Kittens start to wean off of their mother's milk around 3-4 weeks of age, and you can start supplementing their diet with some kitten-formulated wet food. After that, around two months is when you can start giving them semi-wet and dry food.

When should you vaccinate kittens?

Kitten vaccines start around 6-8 weeks old, though different vaccines have different schedules. Talk to your vet about a specific schedule and stick to it, and it will be easy to handle.

Do you have any other questions? Feel free to ask me below!