The Real Way To Calculate Your Cats Age In Human Years
Rebecca Hart
Cat owners across the country are known for treating their cats just like their human offspring, so it’s natural to complete the process by figuring out how old our cats are in human years.
Luckily, it’s pretty easy to do, says Marty Becker, DVM and founder of Fear Free Pets. But if math isn’t your thing, feel free to simply scroll down to the handy-dandy chart below. We won’t mind!
How Long Your Cat Can Live For
Up until six months old, your pet is considered a kitten. Then, it goes from kitten to junior up to two years old. Around three to six, your cat enters its prime years of development, before moving into the mature stage of life, around seven to 10 years old. When your cat finally reaches its senior age , care begins to change more dramatically. In fact, your cat’s life begins to change even more so during the geriatric stage, when reaching a whopping 15 years of age and older.
Your cat can live for a long time, depending on lifestyle. Consider if your cat is an indoor or outdoor cat, for instance. Some wild cats live for about four to five years, while many indoor cats live for about 13 to 17 years. Despite this, it’s not unusual for an indoor cat to live up to a long 20 years. If your cat is overweight, however, they are likely to live between 12 and 15 years old.
What Is The Average Life Expectancy Of My Cat
The true answer is that it depends, but indoor cats usually live longer than outdoor cats. On average, indoor cats live 16 to 18 years and some even reach the venerable age of 20.
Life expectancy in cats also varies depending on the breed, as some cat breeds will naturally live longer than others. For example, Siamese and Manx breeds are said to live the longest, so could reach a ripe age in human years!
Did you know that according to some sources, the worlds oldest cat lived to be 34? Thats 153 in human years! Read more fascinating cat facts here.
Cats life expectancies have increased dramatically in the last few decades. Although its never enough, were spending more and more time together with our feline friends and that can only be a great thing.
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How To Tell The Age Of A Cat
Many pet owners adopt cats and kittens without knowing their exact age since many cats come into shelters and rescues off the streets. Knowing your cat or kitten’s age isnt imperative, but can help you determine the right diet and care they need.
Look at the teeth
Generally, the younger the cat is, the easier it is to determine an accurate age. If your cat already has their adult teeth, determining the age becomes significantly more difficult. For kittens under 6 months old, using their teeth can be a great factor in pinpointing their age. When kittens are between 2-4 weeks old, they receive their baby incisors, and their canines come in between 3-4 weeks old. The premolars start coming in at 4-6 weeks, and by the time the kitten is 8 weeks old, they should have all of their baby teeth. Starting at about 4 months old, kittens start to lose their baby teeth and the adult teeth start to emerge. By 6 months old kittens have a full mouth of adult teeth.
Determining a cat’s age by teeth over 6 months old can be tricky. Generally, if the back teeth have yellow stains, also known as tartar, the cat can be anywhere between 1-2 years old. If all the cat’s teeth contain some tartar buildup, then the cat is likely to be between 3-5 years old. If they have a lot of tartar buildup on their teeth and may have some signs of wear, the cat might be between 5-10 years old. Missing teeth can be an indicator that the cat is about 10-15 years old.
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Measure The Weight Of Kittens
The general rule of thumb is that kittens gain about a pound of weight every month of their life until they reach about 6 months of age. So, if a kitten is 3 months old, it should weigh about 3 pounds. If it is a month old, it should weigh only about a pound. A kitten that is 5 months old should weigh about 5 pounds and so on. But there are a few caveats to gauging age in this fashion.
For instance, a kitten that is in poor health likely will not weigh as much as they should. Therefore, a sick kitten that is 3 months old may only weigh 1 or 2 pounds. On the other hand, a kitten that eats too much and becomes overweight may weigh more than they should. So, a cat that is 3 months old might weigh 4 or even 5 pounds. Therefore, this is not a foolproof way to determine a cats age. You must be discerning when using weight for guidance when determining your cats age.
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There Are 6 Life Stages For Cats:
- Kitten 06 months
- takes the cat up to the equivalent of about 70 human years
- Super Senior 15 years and overmany cats do reach this stage, some not showing any signs of being so senior in age
The table below shows all of the stages and also the equivalent human age. What these stages let us do is to appreciate how old the cat is inside, since, as has been pointed out, this is often not very obvious from the outside, as cats seldom go grey or show outward signs of pain or illnesses such as arthritis.
International Cat Care has set up a preventative healthcare initiative called Cat Care for Life. The programme looks at the health checks your cat should be having;dependant on its age and what age-related changes you can expect to see in your cat.
For full details please visit the Cat Care for Life website.
How To Tell A Cat’s Age When Their Birthday Is Unknown
;How do you tell a cat’s age if their birthday is unknown? To determine their age, veterinarians generally make estimates based on body and dental condition, presence of disease and coat quality, all of which can vary based on a number of factors.
We look at the condition of their teeth, whether they have gingivitis or loss of teeth, Dr. McConigle says. But some juvenile cats have serious dental conditions that are either autoimmune or viral in nature, so that can be kind of a red herring.
Coat quality and the presence of disease also offer important clues.
If we have a cat and were not sure how old they are, but they look like an adult, well often do lab work, she says. That doesnt tell us specifically their age, but its more common to see kidney disease, hyperthyroidism or diabetes with middle age to mature cats. So, if one of those diseases is present, it kind of confirms that this cat is older.
As with humans, some cats simply age more quickly than others, Dr. McGonigle says, but you can take steps to help provide your cat with a high quality of life for as long as possible.
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Assessing Your Cats Age
Cats obviously mature much more rapidly than people, but once they are fully developed physically and behaviourally from about 3 years of age for many years their outward appearance changes very little. They usually still appear very youthful, and it can actually be very difficult to tell the age of an adult cat.
Despite the youthful outward appearance, inside the cat will be getting older. It is much easier to understand how to manage our cats lives, health and behaviour if we can associate their age with an equivalent of our own human years. It has often been suggested that we simply need to multiply a cats age by 7 to get a comparative human age. However, this is very crude and does not take into account a number of aspects of how cats mature and age. A much more appropriate method is to take the;end of the first year of the cats life to be equivalent to 15 human years, the end of the second year to be approximately equivalent to a 24-year-old person, and;thereafter to consider each year of a cats life to equate;to approximately 4 human years.
The chart we have provided can be used to easily determine approximately how old your cat is in human terms. It should be remembered that this is just an estimate though as each cat, just like each human, is an individual and rates of maturation and ageing will vary.
Select your cats life stage;below to find out more about your cat and the preventative;healthcare it should be receiving.
Calculating Your Cat’s Age
We showed you;how to calculate your dog’s age in dog years. We didn’t forget about our feline friends!
A while ago, we showed you;how to in dog years. We didn’t forget about our feline friends! Just like dogs, cats age very rapidly during their first two years of life.;A cat reaches the approximate human age of 15 during its first year, then 24 at age 2. Each year after, it ages approximately four “cat years” for every calendar year. This means that a 5-year-old feline would be approximately 36 in cat years.
This chart from;The Cat Owner’s Manual will help you calculate your cat’s age:
It’s worth pointing out that cats who lives outdoors age far more quickly, perhaps even twice as fast, than an indoor cat. Typically, indoor cats may live 12 to 18 years, with many surviving into their 20s. Outdoor cats face greater threat of accident and/or illness, and average roughly 10 years.
How old is your cat in cat years?
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Signs Of A Senior Cat
Just like in humans, there are some tell-tale signs of senior status among cats. While senior cats are often still healthy and full of life, they may begin to slow down a little. As your cat transitions into senior status, itâs important to take note of any changes as drastic shifts could be indicative of serious health conditions.;;
Senior cats may exhibit:
- Weight loss and loss of muscle tone
- Frequent urination
- Confusion or disorientation
Beyond physical decline, senior cats may also exhibit dementia. Some common signs of feline dementia include frequent meowing, disorientation, and excessive sleeping.
Senior cats can still have many wonderful years ahead of them, so donât be discouraged or distraught if your cat is starting to slow down. Simple lifestyle tweaks, such as specially formulated food can help your senior cat make the most of their twilight years.
Ask Your Vet To Check For Cloudiness In Your Cats Eyes
Beyond teeth, vets may also look to your cats eyes to help determine age.
Around the age of 6 or 7, a cats eye lenses become denser, not unlike what happens to humans around age 40. If you look with an ophthalmoscope, you can see a bit of cloudiness around this age, Dr. Horvath explains.
Its not really noticeable to owners until a cat is about 10 years oldthen their eyes might start to look a little cloudy.
Dr. Nappier adds that looking at the cloudiness in the eye is something that vets must do, especially when the cat is younger. Its a fairly reliable system with a set of standards, but its not something owners can do at home without having certain tools and knowledge, he says.
As cats age into their senior years, their iris can show changes. Called iris atrophy, the inside of the iris can break down so that your cats pupil doesn’t get as small as it used to. Or, sometimes the inner edge of the iris becomes wavy.
Either way, this is a normal aging change and does not cause any pain or problems for your cat.
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How To Know The Age Of A Cat
It is very important to know the age of your cat to give your pussy the care it needs. Often the date of birth of a pet is not known because it has not been with us since birth. If you do not know when the pussy cat was born, you have to approximately calculate the cat’s age through certain observations. Even the best cat experts may get it wrong, so it is quite complex to determine a pussy’s age. In this fascinating article, we explain on OneHowTo.com how to know the age of a cat.
The best way to tell the age of a cat is by looking at the pussy’s teeth. This is considered the most reliable method to estimating a cat’s age. To look at the teeth, you have to lift up the pussy’s lips gently.
Young cats have 26 temporary teeth which are like the milk teeth in humans. They will have 14 teeth in the upper jaw and 12 below. At birth, cats have teeth which start appearing within two weeks of birth but they can take up to four weeks to appear.
The hair on your cat can also give you a rough idea of the pussy’s age. A very young cat has short and thick fur. When it grows older, the coat becomes thinner and softer until the cat gets old and then his fur becomes dense, thick and grey in areas.
One way to know how old your pet is, is to observe and feel the cat’s muscles. Caress your pussy to determine how thin or muscular it is. Normally, older cats have saggy skin and protruding shoulder blades. When a cat is young, it is usually more toned and fit.
Cat Years To Human Years
Converting between cat years and human years isn’t as simple as using a factor of 7 . The main reason is that cats mature quickly in the first couple of years of life.
To convert cat age to an equivalent human age, an accepted method is to add 15 years for the first year of life. Then add 10 years for the second year of life. After that, add 4 years for every cat year. This means that by year two, a cat has matured to about the same as a 25 year old human.
Not everyone agrees on the same conversion formula. For a slightly different calculation, the Cat Bible, a book by Tracie Hotchner, provides the following list:
- 1-month-old kitten = 6-month-old human baby;
- 3-month-old kitten = 4-year-old child;
- 6-month-old kitten = 10 human years old;
- 8-month-old kitten = 15-year-old human;
- 1-year-old cat ;= adulthood, the equivalent of 18 human years;
- 2 human years = 24 cat years;
- 4 human years = 35 cat years;
- 6 human years = 42 cat years;
- 8 human years = 50 cat years;
- 10 human years = 60 cat years;
- 12 human years = 70 cat years;
- 14 human years = 80 cat years
- 16 human years = 84 cat years;
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Do Indoor And Outdoor Cats Age The Same Way
Another factor that may play a role in how cats age is whether theyre indoor or indoor-outdoor cats. In fact, the AAHA actually states that this is a controversial topic and there is valid rationale behind both sides of the argument.
According to the AAHA, indoor cats are less likely to experience trauma and exposure to certain infectious diseases which may result in longer lifespans. On the other hand, indoor cats may be at a greater risk for illness due to environmental limitations.
For outdoor cats, the reverse is true. Although outdoor cats can benefit from a natural and stimulating environment, theyre at a much greater risk for trauma and exposure to disease.
Ultimately, its up to each cat parent to decide which of these lifestyle options works best for their cat, but its worth noting that this decision may contribute to the way your cat ages.
How To Tell Your Cats Age In Human Years
07th March 2019
For their size, cats live quite a long time. Generally, an animals longevity is proportional to its size .
A tiny mouse has a short lifespan, a rabbit somewhat longer and a dog between 7 and 20 years depending on its breed or size, its activity, or both. Cats arent much bigger than rabbits, but whereas the rabbit may live about 8 years, a cat will live on average about 1214 years, and its not unusual for cats to reach their late teens or even their early 20s.
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How To Keep Your Cat Young
Lifestyle and dietary factors greatly impact an animals health and their chances of living well into old age. Thats why Dr. McGonigle emphasizes preventative care for cats of all ages.
Disease prevention, a balanced diet and routine vet visitsall of those things can keep cats healthy for as long as their genetics allow, she says. Here are some tips:
- Be proactive. Preventative treatments for such parasites as heartworms, fleas and ticks are important. Why? Because fleas and ticks carry diseases, Dr. McGonigle says.
- Focus on diet. Though she doesnt endorse a particular brand of cat food, Dr. McGonigle recommends a premium, balanced diet that keeps in mind a cats unique nutritional needs.
- Go for regular checkups. As a general rule, cats should visit the vet once a year up to the age of seven, and twice a year for cats past that age. We can help extend their lives and keep up the quality of their lives, Dr. McGonigle says.
- Brush your cats teeth. This can be tricky, so its best to get them used to a toothbrush while theyre young. Dr. McGonigle says its for a good reason: Good dental health is associated with better overall health outcomes for cats. Learn how to brush your cats teeth here.
Cats should eat and drink regularly throughout their lives, Dr. McGonigle says. Abnormal food or water intake, especially if accompanied by weight loss, should prompt a visit to the vet.
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