• Question: why cant kittens see when they are born?

    Asked by to Anna, Elaine, Fiona, Kevin, Darren on 23 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Elaine Cloutman-Green

      Elaine Cloutman-Green answered on 23 Jun 2014:


      Kittens are born without being fully developed as they share the available space with a number of other kittens (usually cats have between 1 and 6 kittens). This means that they are born earlier as the cat would not have enough room to carry them all to the point of full development.

      They keep their eyes closed in order to protect their retina which is usually fully developed 7 – 10 days after they are born. They cannot see as well as adult cats for several weeks after birth, although they can see.

      Interestingly this is the same for new born humans who also take time to develop their vision (usually a couple of years) even though we are not blind at birth. Although as they can’t talk it’s hard to know definite details 🙂

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