How do you tell the age of a cat?

I remember one time my friend and I went to an animal shelter. He adopted a cat there. They found the cat on the main street in town. After he asked "How old is he?" The lady worked there took a look at the cat for a few seconds and said "About 7".

I have no clue what she was looking at.

Are you able to tell the age of a cat by just look at it?

What physical characteristics can be used to identify the age of a cat?

You can get a good educated guess by looking at the physical condition, the teeth especially. But nowadays, with allot of people taking cats in to get their teeth cleaned regularly, that throws that off allot of times. Also the behavior of the cat, but it really is nothing more than an educated guess as far as I know.

You nailed it, Fishbone. It's much easiet with kittens that are still growing. Their age can be determined by growth milestones; eyes opening, teeth coming in, adult teeth emerging, etc. With adult cats, it's harder.

According to you, there is no way to accurately tell how old a cat is?

Good question. Honestly, I don't know the exact age of my family's cat, and neither do they. Just an "about" guess, because we didn't have her since she was a newborn kitten. It would be nice if there was a way to know.