How Old Is My Cat In Human Years?
How old is my cat in human years The Cat Year calculator below that converts your cat’s age to human age or vice-versa – try it ?
Notice how rapidly cats become teenagers, and how rapidly they grow during the first few years of life.
Cats spend a relatively small proportion of their lives in the immature stage:
- Cats are physically and sexually developed within about 1 year, whereas people reach the equivalent maturity at 15 years, so the first years of a cats life is equivalent to 15 years of a person’s.
- Likewise, at two years of age a cat has reached the same maturity as a person of 25 years, so the second year of a cat’s life is equivalent to 10 years (25 minus 15) of a person’s.
- Thereafter, each calendar year a cat ages the equivalent of 4 human years.
These factors are expressed in the following table.
Cat Lifespan and Feline Health
The conditions in which a cat lives will greatly affect its lifespan. It is not unusual for a house cat to reach 15 years or even 20 years of age, whereas an intact tomcat living in the wild has an average life expectancy of about 3 years. Some general factors that affect lifespan are:
- Gender. Female cats tend to live slightly longer than male cats.
- Neutering. Neutered cats tend to live longer than intact cats.
- Diet. The three major natural causes of death in cats are kidney failure, cancer and infectious diseases. Suitable foods (including special reduced protein cat food for older cats) can significantly delay kidney problems and may also reduce cancers. There are a range of cat foods specially adapted to different cat ages and medical conditions, even a speciality food for neutered cats.
- Living conditions. A suitable environment will result in a healthier cat who can be expected to live longer. For this reason house cats typically live longer than barn cats or feral cats.
- Medical Attention. Cats should have vaccination against the common feline diseases.
- Individual characteristics. Just as some people are born with a strong constitution, so are some cats. Consequently, while one can talk about the expected lifespan of a cat based on the above factors, individual cats will vary somewhat from this.