How long do cats live is a question that can come up in a cat lover or cat owners mind for a variety of different reasons.
You may want to know how long to cats live because you just became a new cat parent and you are so overwhelmed with love that you don’t want to loose it ever.
Maybe you want to know how long do indoor cats live because you want to adopt a new kitten and want to know which breed will provide you the longest companionship.
Or maybe you are just curious and want to know what parameters determine how long a cat lives.
If all these questions are simmering in you about the life expectancy of a cat, I am going to cover all these questions in a comprehensive way.
How Long Do Cats Live : Avoid The Short Answer
If you just want to know the lifespan of a cat out of mere curiosity, I won’t make you wait long.
The average life expectancy of a cat is 15.1 years.
But wait don’t satisfy yourselves just yet. That is because knowledge goes hand in hand with ignorance.
And having just a little knowledge on anything is as good as having no knowledge at all, truth be told.
So hold and look at all the factors that will determine how long do cats live and how you can ensure the right ecosystem around your fur babies so that they live a long and happy not to mention healthy life.
Factors That Affect The Average Lifespan Of A Cat
First off, let’s have a panoramic view into various factors that determine life expectancy of a cat.
Cat’s ecosystem, cat breed, dietary habits, neutering etc are some major factors that will determine how long cats will live.
Now many people just pick one factor such as what breed the cat is to predict the lifespan of a cat.
It will not be a comprehensive understanding you see. It will just be a conclusion.
Now if you go to various cat health related forums and discussions and if you ask anyone how long do cats live ?.
They will probably say 20 years. And they are not wrong, with the advanced vet facilities and dietary attention, a typical indoor cat may live beyond 20 years.
But now let’s go ahead and see if other factors are also considered what can we know about life expectancy of a cat.
How Long Do Cats Live Given Their Breeds
So how long will a cat live will definitely depend upon what breed the cat belongs to.
But again that won’t necessarily be a conclusion of how long your cat belonging to that particular breed will live.
Now what is important for you to know is not how long every single cat breed lives for but understanding what to do so that your cat leads the best life it can.
So with regards we will need to understand certain other factors.
But you must know as per research mixed bred cats in general have more lifespan than purebred cats.
Apart from that what is also found that females cats generally outlive the male counterparts.
So definitely what breed of cat that you are looking to get how long will it live will to some extent will depend on what genetics she is carrying.
How Does Nutrition Affect How Long A Cat Lives ?
Now this must be very intuitive for you. The better nutrition a cat has, the better her health will be and longer will she live.
But here’s the important part that needs to be understood. How do we know what nutrition is good for cats ?.
As a background for this I want you to understand how cats have evolved from wilderness to our household domestication.
Given the lifespan we have it may seem like a large chunk of time but if you truly understand how old existence is, every time stretch is small.
So right from the time they ventured into the wild cats are and have been carnivores.
But since they have been domesticated what we eat has to a great extent understood by many cat owners as an okay edible for cats.
We covered a lot of this in a previous post on whether cat can eat bananas and chocolates.
Do give them a read as having a comprehensive understanding as to what diet your cat should and should not be subjected to in a domesticated environment is very very important.
And over a course of time will dictate how long will your cat live.
In any case understand that cats are essentially carnivore in their nature. And cats derive most of their nutrition from meat.
And with that understanding their dietary habits and supplements should be maintained to ensure their healthy and happy living.
But don’t worry there has been enough research that has gone into dietary requirements of a cat and as such there are a lot of options available for cat owners to ensure nutritious diet of a cat.
With that said there are a certain aspects cat owners can take note of regarding cat diet.
- Adult cat diet should not contain carbohydrates and lactose in excess amounts as their digestive system cannot handle them.
- Cat food must be rich in proteins owing to their unique digestive mechanisms.
As a benchmark an average cat needs somewhere around 20 grams of proteins every single day.
How Long Do Cats Live Given Their Eco Systems
Most of us cat owners are very accustomed to our fur babies living blissfully I am sure in a domesticated environment.
However, we do realize that it is not the only environment cats are subjected to. And not every environment is as friendly as that of Istanbul.
And the ecosystem a cat dwells in has a direct impact on how long do cats live.
Now when we talk of ecosystems we immediately have a gradient of ecosystems flashing in front of us in which we have already seen cats live.
Our domesticated environments are of course the first, the streets, localities and the the wilderness.
Cats That Live In The Wild
We immediately think the wild cats may have the the smallest lifespan. But that isn’t necessarily true.
On the contrary, we have to understand life evolves around situation in which it flourishes in. A polar bear won’t come into existence in desert.
Birds that you will find in part of the world, you won’t find them in other areas of the world. You get the point, right.
So a wild cat may very well have a good lifespan in the wilderness because the ecosystem of the wild is such that it adopts the cat’s body to the situation.
So while you may sometimes think how long do cats live in the wild, don’t feel they have a very short lifespan.
They are always active, always alert and eat what they are supposed to eat.
Having said that there are many other variables that determine how long will cats live in the wild but if you are looking for a figure.
Cats in the wild live anywhere from 3 to 10 years on an average. But they live fuller lives, and it’s not just a matter of years.
How Long Does A Cat Live If It Is Stray
Now moving in the spectrum from wilderness to semi-wild ecosystem.
Now I think you can perceive this is that spectrum of cats that live relatively short than the wild or the spectrum that we are going to discuss next, domestication.
These are the cats that have to live in a stupid life situations that we as humans have created as a consequence of irresponsible action.
Cats living in the thick of wilderness are very true in their existence and they live and die in absolute grace of nature.
They have a certain kind of fullness in their existence.
But stray cats are the ones that have to take the majority of our stupidity.
And not just cats an irresponsible outlook towards environment in general has a negative impact on everything an everybody.
The infections and parasites that an animal’s body gets subjected to in this shared ecosystem is in most cases a consequence of us treating this planet like a dust bin.
Think about it. Polluted waters, irresponsible disposal of plastic waste, disrupted natural resources.
The imbalance in the ecosystem is slowly coming back to bite us on our behinds.
And we can feel it now don’t we.
And the lifetime of a cat or any animal for that matter is not determined by how long a cat lives rather by how rich and full her life was.
For example, Lil Bub just died and I heard the news while writing this post, such a coincidence han !.
She lived a pretty short life when compared with other domestic cats owing to her physical problems.
But her life experience was much richer owing to the environment she received. And that’s what counts not the number of years.
Isn’t that true with everything ?.
Still as an information it is important to know how long do cats live if they are stray.
There is some research to it but again there are a lot of variables involved. The average lifespan of an outdoor cat is 5.625 years.
How Long Do Cats Live In Domesticated Environments
If you look at it in strict terms of numbers these cats live 3 times more as compared to outdoor cats.
The average lifespan of an indoor domesticated cat is around 16.875 years.
And I know you can guess why that is. Same reason why the lifespan of human beings has grown from what it had been in the past due to medical facilities among other things.
Indoor cats in domesticated environments are sterilized, vaccinated and removed from all the problems the in between ecosystem that we just discussed offers.
Proper feeding, healthy diet and nutrition helps them lead a long, healthy and happy life.
Now one thing that I want to point out here which is very important.
I see many wannabe cat parents searching for a specific cat breed to adopt. They go to the extent of paying money to have a specific breed created.
Please don’t behave like an idiot in an educated world.
We have a lot of these intellectual idiots who think they are smart in the world and look at what havoc they are causing.
If you have read this post till here I request you to understand that it is our responsibility to give those cats that are stray and living in the middle ecosystem home.
Please don’t be picky in choosing life. Go and adopt the ones that appeal to you from your locality or local cat shelter.
We brought them from the wild where they lived fuller lives to our homes and left them in the middle.
And let me assure you this, I am not the kind of person that goes after things for self satisfaction.
I do things that make my life experience rich, that makes me move towards freedom.
And when out of your compassion you give a home to a cat or cats that need it.
The richness you will experience cannot be put into words.
The richness that I experienced when I gave a place to these three mischief makers.
Right from the day when you adopt them, feed and care for them to their adulthood and happily bury them when they leave this world.
Allowing the cats to experience this whole cycle of life fully and out of your compassion, you won’t be able to put a description to this process.
And if you are somebody who has already done this, post something about your experience in the comment section and I will make sure to mention you in the next post that I make.
I am even creating a segment on the website where I post images of cat owners and their cats and start a community discussion or something like a forum on the website.
You can be the first one to be featured here.
I hope you enjoyed this post on how long do cats live and I dearly hope I was able to answer your query and with that excuse instill some more love towards the world we occupy.
I will see you again in the next one :).
Tada !!.
