How Old Is A Senior Cat
Though cats are considered senior when they turn ten years old, they are known to live past their teens and into their early 20s. Around the age of 10 to 12 years, cats start slowing down noticeably, and health issues such as arthritis and diabetes begin to appear. As they grow older, cats develop vision problems and loss of hearing. At 15 and above, cats start to show age-related cognitive dysfunction; you will notice that they nap a lot more and tend to become very irritable and grumpy.
Your cats movement will become slower, and his or her appetite might change. Regular veterinary check-ups can help your kitty live a long and healthy life. Look out for tell-tale age-related signs such as reluctance to move, loss of appetite, pain, constipation, sudden aggression and report it to the vet immediately. Your vet will be able to address these issues with appropriate diet, exercise and medicine.
Time Flies For Humans And Cats
It may seem like only yesterday that you brought home that playful, bouncy kitten. But by age 7, your cat has entered middle age. By 12 years of age your cat is becoming a senior citizen, and by 15 she is considered “geriatric” . While the average lifespan for a spayed or neutered house cat is 14-16 years, many felines are now living into their late teens and even their early twenties.
Physically Cat Years Are Not Equal To Human Years
In other words, its not a 1:1 relationship. A 20-year-old cat is not 20 years old in human years.
International Cat Care, including their veterinary division, The International Society of Feline Medicine have set up a feline-human age scale.
Note that this scale represents physiology, not cognitive maturity. In other words, how the body is maturing, not the brain.
The International Cat Care scale is represented in the chart below.
As the chart shows, the first six months of your cats life is the time when it ages the most.
So, by the time a kitten is six months old, it is 10 years old in human terms.
During the next stage, Junior, things slow down a bit. By the end of this stage, a two-year-old feline is 24 years old.
To get a feel of the slower rate: if the 2-year-old junior cat would have continued to age at the same rate as in the kitten stage, it would be 40 years old, not 24.
For those who want the math: if a six month old cat = 10 human equivalent years old, then a cat aged 2 = 4 x 10 human equivalent years or 40 years old.
From the Adult to the Super Senior stages , the age difference slows down.
Each feline year is equivalent to roughly four human years.
International Cat Care very kindly let us use this chart from their site.
Diseases That Are More Common In Older Cats
Certain diseases are much more prevalent as cats age. Don’t assume your cat’s signs are just from old age and therefore inevitable. They may indicate a common medical problem that is quite treatable. Examples include:
Dental Disease. This is the most common disease affecting older cats, and its significance is often underestimated. In fact, one study showed that 80 percent of cats already have a form of dental disease by just 3 years of age. Dental problems can cause pain, difficulty eating, and gum line infections that can travel via the bloodstream and affect vital organs. Your veterinarian will recommend a dental care plan that may include home care , special diets, and professional cleanings. Learn more: “Home Dental Care for Cats.”
Chronic Kidney Disease. Cats’ kidneys commonly undergo several aging changes that can eventually lead to decreased function. Signs vary widely but can include increased thirst and urination, weight loss, vomiting, and lethargy. The disease itself is irreversible, but early detection and modern advances in treatment can dramatically improve quality and length of life for these kitties. Learn more: “Kidney Disease in Cats.”
Two Ways To Look At Age
Though the common perspective on cat years and human years is trying to figure out how old our cats are in human years, that conversion can be applied both ways.
That is to say, if you consider the maximum age of a human to be 100 years, then, based on the Cat Calculator, the maximum age of a cat is 20.8 years. On the other side of the coin, if you consider that, as The Cat Bible suggests, 16 human years is comparable to 84 cat years, then a 100-year-old human could be said to be the equivalent of 525 cat years.
Though this is a generally less practical way to consider the relative aging rate, it does serve as an important reminder The way we experience time, the length of our human years, and the meaning we assign to certain-numbered years , is a matter of perspective. Some other oft-quoted ideas come to mind: Its not the years in your life, but the life in your years and Youre only as old as you feel.
How old is your cat according to this formula? Or perhaps I should ask, how old are YOU in cat years?
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The Effects Of Ageing
With increasing age, there are many changes to a cats physiology, behaviour and vulnerability to particular illnesses. Physiological changes include reduced ability to smell and taste food, reduced ability to digest fat and protein, reduced hearing, immune function, skin elasticity and stress tolerance.
When Is My Cat Considered To Be A Young Adult
Cats are considered to be adults by the time they are 1 year old. It is not uncommon for them to live up to 20 years or longer. Once they reach 7 or 8 years of age, however, cats are considered to be “senior citizens,” and age-related diseases and metabolic changes begin to emerge. The time between kittenhood and the senior years is young adulthood, and it is important to recognize the feeding goals and nutritional priorities of this life stage.
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 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?
Four Weeks Old Kitten
Its been one whole month! Its amazing how quickly these helpless kittens have grown up over a four-week period. Darling, Denby, Corduroy, Tweed, and Wembley are thriving babies, starting to explore the world around them and play frequently with friends and toys.
At four weeks old, Corduroy is ready to explore!
Senior Cats: What To Expect At 1012 Years
It happens to all cats eventually. Your cuddly is now officially entering her senior years. That does not mean that she does not have many healthy and happy years left to enjoy with you. It only signals that now you will need to become your cats advocate to help ensure she enjoys her golden years. You will need to learn more about the signs of changes in her health, and when to seek the advice of your veterinarian.
Make Their Litter Box More Accessible
If you notice your older cat struggling to get in and out of a high-sided litter box, it might be time to consider lowering the barriers. If your cat doesn’t feel comfortable or struggles to get into the litter box, they might start eliminating outside the box You might even consider adding additional litter boxes around the house to really spoil your golden-aged feline.
Kittens From Birth To Six Months
The first six months of a kitten’s life are filled with eye-opening experiencesliterally. A kitten’s eyes and ears open shortly after birth at around one to two weeks of age, and from there its physical and mental development takes off. A kitten is exposed to sights, sounds, and smells just like that of a human infant. Each new animal, person, and object it comes in contact with helps to form its personality. Over the course of the next few weeks, the socialization skills of a kitten are greatly affected depending on all of these interactions and exposures.
After a kitten leaves its mother at about two to three months of age, it will start to become more independent and curious. It will explore its surroundings, get into a little trouble, and potentially chew on things it shouldn’t chew while its adult teeth are starting to erupt. Growth happens fast during these months and by the time a kitten is six months old, they are comparable to a 10-year-old child in age.
A series of vaccinations will need to be performed and kittens are typically spayed or neutered around six months of age. Most hereditary or congenital issues are usually discovered by your veterinarian during this time, if there are any at all.
How Old Is My Cat In Cat Years
How Old is My Cat in Cat Years: Want to Calculate the age your cat, then this would have done if it is a person with these explanations and with the table of equivalences like a human age vs age of the cat. For humans it is easy but for the pets like cats you need to see the cat years calculation. It is not the same as the for all the pets. For our Catsfud followers we are providing a simple guide to know about age of cat like cat years and also you can know the cat years to human years with us.
If you have a cat, surely you have considered how old you are and it is not worth applying what is said of the dogs of 1 year of them is 7 of our years. Check the table to find out exactly how old your cat is. You can see the below image and tell the age of your cat in cat years. Actually a cat can live up to 25 years of age so we cannot calculate exactly, for that we need to check the cat years calculator that will simply show the age of our cat and cat years to human years. So we can simply get our cat age with this.
Once if you have got an idea of how to see how old is my cat in cat years then obviously you can see the calculation of this cat years to the human years and also human years to cat years. For complete information on this cat years chart and how to calculate the age of cat simply check our guide below. You can have a table that shows the cat to human years with that you can simply estimate the cat age in human years.
Contents
How Old Is My Cat In Cat Years How Do I Calculate My Cats Age
The image above is an approximate calculation of how many years a cat would be if it were human.One of the important issues to keep in mind are the life stages of the kittens. During the first two years, cats become adults, so their first two years would be like our 24 years.
From there, the most common equivalence is to think that each year of the cat equals 4 human years. With this you can get the answer for your question how old is my cat. And also you will get the cat years chart too.
World Oldest Cat Ever
Creme Puff was born in August 1967 and lived until August 2005 in Texas USA
As humans, we love anthropomorphizing cats. However, giving human years to our cats is not as whimsical as it sounds at first. In fact, it is quite helpful. Knowing our cats age in the calendar or human years helps us determine their life stage and therefore understand their needs and provide life-stage specific care.
Apathy With A Decrease In Activity
Apathy with a drop in her usual activity can also mean illness, so check her eyes to see if her third eyelid is showing. If she passes this test and is not significantly different, such as not grooming herself at all or being less responsive to activity in her environment, chances are that shes just slowing down with age. At any time that your cat refuses to eat, get her to the vet immediately. Not eating can cause fatty liver disease, which is both quick and fatal.
Image:Sheli Spring Saldana/Shutterstock
The Special Needs Of The Senior Cat
Cornell Feline Health Center
The Special Needs of the Senior Cat
Courtesy of Cornell Feline Health Center and the American Association of Feline PractitionersJust as people are living longer than they did in the past, cats are living longer too. In fact, the percentage of cats over six years of age has nearly doubled in just over a decade, and there is every reason to expect that the graying cat population will continue to grow.
So how old is my cat, really?
Thinkstock
What happens as my cat ages?The aging process is accompanied by many physical and behavioral changes:
Is my cat sick, or is it just old age?Owners of older cats often notice changes in their cats behavior, but consider these changes an inevitable and untreatable result of aging, and fail to report them to their veterinarian. Failure to use the litter box, changes in activity levels, and alterations in eating, drinking, or sleeping habits are examples. While veterinarians believe that some behavior problems are due to the diminishing mental abilities of aging cats, it is a mistake to automatically attribute all such changes to old age. In fact, the possibility of some underlying medical condition should always be the first consideration. Disease of virtually any organ system, or any condition that causes pain or impairs mobility can contribute to changes in behavior. For example:
If you cant answer yes to all of the following statements, please call your veterinarian as soon as possible.
My cat:
So It Makes Sense To Adjust The Old Formula And There Are Several Ways To Do This
The easiest way is simply to create a chart that allows a good estimate to be made: see below for our best effort to do this.
A cat age chart like this one can give you a rough idea of your cats age in human years, but its not a precise science.
This will never be a precise science, however, and a general guide like the one below, which puts cat life stages into human terms, is the best answer.
A cat age chart works well if you have owned a cat since kittenhood, and you already know their age in calendar years. But what about if you have a rescue cat, or if you have adopted an adult cat? Is there any way that you can find out how old they are?
Again, this is not a precise science, but there are signs that you can look for to make a good guess.
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.
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.
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
Do Not Sedate Your Cat
Even if your senior cat is a cranky customer who has to fly long haul, it is advisable not to sedate the cat during the flight. Tranquilisers and sedatives affect the ability of the cat to regulate body temperature and can have severe consequences at high altitudes. A better alternative to calm a grumpy cat would be to spray the crate with calming essential oils.
Physical And Mental Development
While still your purring buddy, you will notice that your is getting a bit slower. She might not decide to climb the cat condo quite as often or leap from that high bookshelf onto the couch. Mentally, shes still sharp, but at this age it may take her longer to adjust to changes in her routine or environment. In fact, she may not handle any well, and even act fearful of anything new or different. While these may just be indications of getting older, dont assume that every change is part of the aging process. You should always discuss any alterations in your cats physical condition or behavior with your veterinarian. Signs of disease, conditions or illness can be subtle, and your observations may be the first indication of a problem. Early diagnosis and treatment is the key to providing the highest quality of life for your cat.
Stages Of Life Of Cats
In recent years, and taking into account this increase in feline life expectancy, the stages of life have been redefined. A cat has different stages in its life, not like other pets, the cats have somewhat different. These are like humans, it mainly depends on how we judge, below are the stages of life of a cat which you can see below.
As indicated in the table of equivalences, the stages would be:
Give Them All The Comfy Places
Although cats aren’t nearly as large as humans, they still suffer from the same aging process, and thus they often suffer from the same ailments that we do. Osteoarthritis is common in older cats and can lead to decreased mobility and make lying on tile or hard surfaces uncomfortable, even painful. Providing your cat with plenty of soft, comfortable orthopedic beds can help ease joint pain and lead to more restful and comfortable sleep.
How Do I Calculate My Cats Age In Human Years
So, if youre asking How old is my cat in human years? the calculation is fairly simple. Compared to dogs, which have greater variation based on size and breed, the method to calculate a cats age is pretty standard.
According to the American Animal Hospital Association , these age guidelines have been created and agreed upon by the AAHA, the Feline Advisory Bureau , and the American Association of Feline Practitioners :
- The first year of a cats life is equal to approximately 15 human years.
- The second year of a cats life is equal to an additional nine years.
- After the second year of a cats life, each additional year is equal to about four human years.
So, how old is your cat in human years? You can use our cat age to human years chart below to find out!
Elderly Cats Special Considerations
30th July 2018
Cats are living much longer now than was the case 20 years ago, thanks to better nutrition, veterinary and home care. In recent years, feline ages and life-stages have been redefined, cats are considered to be elderly once they reach 11 years with senior cats defined as those aged between 11-14 years and super-senior cats 15 years and upwards. When caring for older cats it sometimes helps to appreciate their age in human terms.
The formula for calculating the equivalent age is fairly simple:
the first two years of a cats life equate to 24 human years and every year thereafter is equivalent to 4 human years. For example, a 16-year-old cat would be equivalent to an 80-year-old human.
See our information on how to tell your cats age in human years.
Pacing Pacing And Pacing
An older cat that continuously paces during her waking hours is showing one of the classic signs of feline cognitive decline , a condition that mimics dementia in humans. Though it can be unnerving to see your cat constantly walking back and forth, it can also be a bonding experience for the two of you. Try walking along with her and carrying on a conversation, even if its one-sided; surprise her with treats along her path; or drag a shoelace in front of her if she seems playful. Consult your veterinarian for possible options for your cat.
Image:Daniele Pieroni/Flickr