Kitten Baby Teeth

Did I tell you that I found kitten baby teeth!

Many years ago, when our very first kitten, Emma was a little baby she was gnawing on my hand (hands are not toys but apparently, they do make good teething tools) when she lost one of her baby teeth.  I put it somewhere safe (so safe that I have no idea where).

This year, in late September, I saw something that looked like a piece of thicker-than-usual kitten nail, like someone had ripped the tip of their claw off.  When I picked it up, I realized that it was a tooth!  I was relieved; it would have been more unusual and a cause for concern if it had been claw.  Since they were still recovering from getting fixed, I didn’t get into their mouths to figure out who it came from, but my guess is Anabel.  I didn’t want to tell Mr. Man because I found it right after the cone freak-out episode but eventually, I did spill the beans because it was too interesting to keep it a secret.

In mid-October I found a second tooth.  I thought that I stepped on a crumb from something (don’t judge) but it was awfully hard.  I had to take a photo of it with my phone so that I could blow it up enough to be sure what it was (old eyes, what can I say).  It is fascinating but sort-of gross so I’m not going to post it here.  This tooth was not a canine (don’t you think that cat’s pointy teeth should be called “felines”?) but the short, jagged teeth that are behind them.  It was interesting because it sort-of looked like a three-in-one tooth, there were three distinct zones on the one tooth.

One day in the beginning of November Sally was really mouthy.  He was trying to chew on my arm, on anything he could get his mouth on.  I went in the other room for a minute and when I came back, I found a tooth on the dining table right where he had been bothering me. Ah ha! No wonder.  A few hours later I went into the office to check up on him and found another one on the floor next to where he was napping.  The mouthy-ness pretty much stopped immediately, go figure.

Turns out that kittens have 26 baby teeth.  With all my hunting, I only managed to collect five of 52.  Good thing that they’re not worth anything or I might be feeling disappointed with my effort.

I quite proud of my collection of kitten baby teeth.  I’m not sure what to do with them now, but I think I’ll hold on to them at least for a little while.