Do cats lose baby teeth? A nurse's guide to teething

It was 4 a.m. in our Chicago apartment, the radiators were hissing, and I was walking barefoot to the kitchen for a bottle. I stepped on something sharp. My first thought was a rogue Lego, but the pain was too specific. I picked it up under the dim stove light. It was a hollow, translucent little dagger.

I did five years in pediatric triage before becoming a stay-at-home mom. I know exactly what human incisors look like, and this thing was definitely not human. I checked the monitor. Rayan was fast asleep in his crib. Then I looked down at the orange street kitten my husband had dragged home two weeks prior. The kitten blinked at me, looking entirely unbothered.

I just stood there holding a microscopic fang, thinking, do cats lose baby teeth.

The morning I learned about animal dentistry

I called our vet as soon as they opened. The receptionist answered, and I launched into a full clinical handover about finding a detached biological specimen on my rug. She just laughed at me.

Apparently, they do. I guess I missed that day in nursing school since we were focused on human babies, but kittens go through an accelerated teething process that mirrors what our kids do, just a lot faster and sharper. My vet told me they usually swallow the evidence while they eat, which sounds like a terrible choking hazard to my mother-brain, but I suppose animal digestion is just built differently.

Finding a tooth on the floor is actually pretty rare. They usually drop them in their food bowls or swallow them whole, passing them through their system without a single issue. It felt entirely unfair that my toddler was waking up screaming every two hours over a single emerging molar, while this cat was quietly shedding an entire mouth of daggers and moving on with his life.

Drool on the vintage baby tee

Listen, you think human teething is messy until you've a kitten going through it at the same exact time. I had two small mammals in my living room, and both of them were constantly moist.

The crossover was the worst part. One afternoon, Rayan was wearing his favorite baby tee, a faded little vintage band shirt I spent too much money on at a thrift shop. I turned my back to stir some oatmeal, and when I looked back, the kitten was perched on Rayan's chest, just absolutely gnawing on the collar of the shirt.

The whole neckline was soaked in this distinct, foul-smelling kitten saliva. Animal breath during the dental shedding phase is deeply unpleasant. It smells like old tuna and metallic pennies. I peeled the cat off my son, tossed the ruined baby tee straight into the washing machine, and realized I needed to set some strict physical boundaries in the house.

You basically have to act like an air traffic controller, redirecting the cat to safe chew zones while pulling another wet baby tee over your kid's head to replace the one that just got chewed on.

Boundaries and the shared chew toys

Having a teething baby and a teething kitten means all the floor toys are sudden targets. I had to get really aggressive about what belonged to who.

Rayan's absolute favorite thing in the world is the Sleeping Bunny Teething Rattle from Kianao. It has this untreated beechwood ring and a crochet organic cotton bunny head. It was the only thing that calmed him down when his top front baby teeth were coming in. I love it because I know exactly what it's made of, and it's pretty easy to wash.

The problem is, the kitten also loved it. The wood is just hard enough to provide resistance, and the cotton absorbs whatever weird mouth pain the cat was experiencing. I caught the cat trying to drag it under the sofa twice. I had to start treating the bunny rattle like a sterile surgical instrument, keeping it sealed in a high cabinet when Rayan wasn't actively using it.

I tried to give the kitten the Panda Teether instead. It's just okay in my book. Rayan never really took to the flat silicone shape, he prefers the tactile feel of wood. But the kitten actually seemed to like gnawing on the little textured bamboo details on the panda. I just threw it in the dishwasher every night on the sanitize cycle. It kept the cat away from our hands, at least.

Explore the full collection of organic teethers here if you're fighting your own teething battles.

The double fang situation

A few days after the rug incident, I was checking the kitten's mouth to see how the gums looked. You know, assessing the patient.

I pulled back his little lip and almost had a heart attack. He had two upper fangs on one side. A tiny needle tooth, and a thicker adult tooth growing right next to it. It looked like a shark.

My son's pediatrician had casually mentioned once that human kids sometimes get shark teeth when the permanent ones drop before the baby ones fall out, but seeing it in a tiny orange cat was unnerving. I assumed I'd need to book an expensive surgical extraction right then and there.

I texted a picture to the vet. She replied hours later, telling me to just wait a week. The adult tooth usually just pushes the deciduous tooth out naturally. Arre yaar, the waiting game is awful. I spent a week hovering over this cat with a flashlight, checking his gums every time he yawned. Eventually, the tiny tooth just vanished. Probably swallowed. It's fine.

Hunting the pacifiers

The worst part of the feline teething phase was the pacifier hunting. I don't know what it's about the smell or texture of baby pacifiers, but a teething cat will hunt them down like prey.

I was finding chewed up silicone nipples under the couch, behind the radiator, and inside my own shoes. It's actually a massive safety hazard. If a kitten bites off the tip of a pacifier and swallows it, you're looking at a life-threatening intestinal blockage and a surgery that costs more than my car.

We had to lock them down. I started using the Baby Pacifier Holder from Kianao for everything. It's just a silicone shell that you can loop around a bag strap, but I hung it on the wall hook out of reach. It snaps shut tight enough that the cat couldn't pry it open with his claws. It's a very simple product, but it saved me from throwing away thirty dollars worth of pacifiers every week.

Cold therapy works for everyone

When you've a screaming infant and a destructive cat, you rely on whatever works. Cold therapy is pretty much universal across species.

My grandmother used to tell me to freeze wet rags for fussy babies, so I just adapted the methodology. I'd take a couple of cheap washcloths, soak one in water for Rayan, soak another one in low-sodium chicken broth for the kitten, wring them out, and throw them in the freezer until they were stiff.

You basically just hand the water one to the toddler in his highchair and throw the broth one onto the linoleum for the cat and buy yourself fifteen minutes of absolute silence.

You just have to be incredibly careful not to mix them up. Handing a toddler a frozen chicken broth rag is a mistake you only make once.

I also started adding warm water to the kitten's dry food. It makes a disgusting brown gravy, but it seemed to help him eat without crying. The whole phase passes in a blur of drool and anxiety, much like human parenting. You just clean up the mess, guard the good toys, and wait for the permanent teeth to settle in.

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My messy answers to your teething questions

Is it bad if my cat swallows a tooth?

No, it's totally fine. I panicked the first time I realized the tooth was just gone, but my vet assured me their stomach acid handles it easily. Unless they're choking right in front of you, just let nature do its weird thing.

Can babies and kittens share teething toys?

Listen, absolutely not. The bacteria in an animal's mouth is not something you want near your kid's developing immune system. Keep the wooden rings and fancy crochet rattles only for the baby, and buy cheap, durable rubber things for the cat. If cross-contamination happens, boil the toy or run it through a heavy sanitize cycle.

How long does the kitten teething phase last?

It's shockingly fast. They start losing them around three months and usually have a full set of adult hardware by six months. Unlike human kids who string this torture out for two years, cats just power through it in a single season.

Why does my kitten's breath smell so awful right now?

It's just the teething process. The gums get inflamed, the baby roots break down, and it creates this metallic, slightly rotten odor. As long as they're still eating and acting normal, the smell will pass once the adult teeth fully lock into place.