Do you know why kittens are born blind?

Kittens are born blind and open their eyes only after 7-10 days. However, even after this, the retina is still poorly developed. Seeing as keenly as adult cats, they start only after the tenth week of life.

But why is this happening? In fact, this is a feature of the development of not only cats, but also dogs, as well as many other predators.

Herbivores like cows, sheep or deer give birth already sighted cubs, which have formed both the organs of vision and the nervous system responsible for the perception of the image.

This is necessary so that a young calf, deer or lamb can immediately see the danger and quickly run away from it.

So plant-eating animals increase the chances of survival of their offspring. But there are problems with this reproductive strategy: Pregnancy lasts longer because the eyes and brain in the womb take a long time to develop. And the number of babies born at a time is limited to one, two or three.

Pregnancy does not really interfere with a large herbivore - you stand and chew yourself chewing gum, you don't need to run anywhere. In addition, when you stick together with a large herd, it is not so scary that some crazy predatory chipmunk will jump at you from the bushes.

But it is impossible for carnivorous animals to walk for a long time with a giant belly full of offspring: this interferes with hunting. And without food, the female will not survive and will not be able to produce milk. No one will feed and take care of her in the wild - you will have to protect yourself and the cubs on your own.

Therefore, pregnancy in predators takes place on average fasterthan herbivores. The nervous, auditory and visual systems of the offspring do not have time to fully form in the womb and continue to do so at an accelerated pace after childbirth.

In addition, this method of reproduction allows you to bear more cubs. At first they will be blind and much more helpless than young fawns and calves. Besides, not all of them will survive. But due to the number of them, at least one of them will survive.

By the way, in young kittens and puppies, at first, not only their eyes, but also their ears are completely closed. This allows protect their immature sense organs from various infections and pollution. So they look for mother's nipples with milk only by smell.