Pets live incomparably less than people, but go through the same age stages - from infancy to old age. And the owner, striving for complete understanding with the animal, often wants to know how old the cat is by human standards.
Using the online calculator on our website, it is very easy to obtain this information. Let's take a closer look at the principles of its operation and draw a parallel in the development of cats and people.
Comparison of the age periods of a cat and a person
Like the life of humans, the development of cats can be divided into 6 age stages.
Infancy
This period begins at birth and lasts up to about a month. The kitten grows quickly and learns to interact with the world around it. By 4 weeks, all his senses are working perfectly, and his baby teeth are erupting.
On a note. A one-month-old kitten can be compared to a 1.5-year-old child.
Childhood
Kittens remain in the status of children for up to six months. By analogy with a person, 6 cat months are 10 years. The starting point for the next period is the replacement of baby teeth with molars.
Teenage years
Puberty and the final formation of the cat’s body occur at this stage. It is completed by 1.5-2 years.
Youth
The prime age of a cat's life is from 2 to 5 years. At this time, animals are most active, rarely get sick, and are ready to mate and bear full-fledged offspring.
Maturity
A mature cat is between 6 and 10 years old. With proper care, it is difficult to distinguish it from a young one, but age-related changes are already noticeable - gray hair, grinding of teeth, etc. After 7 years, it is not advisable to use pets for breeding.
Old age
This category includes animals from 11 to 14 years old. Their activity decreases, they may develop diseases, decrease visual acuity, hearing, loss of teeth, etc. Cats that have passed the 15-year mark become long-livers.
What is the average life expectancy of cats?
In the wild, animals live a maximum of 5–7 years.
At home, life expectancy is significantly longer and averages from 13 to 18 years. True, there are also centenarians who are happy to celebrate their 20th anniversary.
Stages of life
The life of a pet goes through several stages:
- childhood . Ends at six months of age;
- youth _ The period lasts from six months to two years. Puberty occurs and changes in behavior are noted. Already at the age of one and a half years, a cat can give birth;
- youth . The stage lasts from two to five years. The blossoming of strength is noted. The pet is active and full of energy;
- maturity _ Lasts until the age of ten. The pet continues to remain active, but reacts more calmly to everything that surrounds it;
- pension and old age . Occurs between 11 and 15 years of age. The animal already requires special care. He is calm, less active. There is a deterioration in the condition of the coat.
Stages of life
A table of cat ages according to human standards (in years) will help you better understand how your pet feels and what stage of life it is at.
| Age of the cat | Person's age |
| 1 | 15 |
| 2 | 24 |
| 3 | 29-33 |
| 4 | 34-36 |
| 5 | 37-40 |
| 6 | 41-45 |
| 7 | 46-47 |
| 8 | 50-52 |
| 9 | 55-56 |
| 10 | 60-62 |
| 11 | 64-65 |
| 12 | 67-68 |
| 13 | 70 |
| 14 | 72-73 |
| 15 | 75 |
| 16 | 76-77 |
| 17 | 78 |
| 18 | 83-84 |
| 19 | 90-91 |
| 20 | 100 |
For your information. The table shows approximate data. Even representatives of the same breed develop differently, and it is not possible to derive an exact translation formula.
How to count cat years correctly
Let's look at another fairly popular option for converting cat years of life into human equivalent. In this case, the first year of a cat’s life is equal to 15 years of a person’s life, the second is equal to 24 years of life, and each subsequent year you simply add 4 years of life. Using this calculation system, we come to the conclusion that a cat aged 12 years corresponds to a human age of 64 years. Well, if your cat lives longer than 16 years, then all subsequent years of her life can be considered as 1 year of a cat’s life for 3 years of human life.
Age characteristics of cats
1 year of your cat's life is equal to 15 years of a human's life
I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that the second option of converting cat years of life into human years is more truthful and objective. So, for example, in the first year of its life in your house, a cat really learns to live independently and masters all the classes of the school of life - learning to get food for itself (begging for food from the refrigerator is not an easy task!), caring for itself and providing for itself. During this same period of time, puberty occurs in humans - similarly with cats, which can reach puberty at 6 months, 9 and 1 year.
Another thing is a cat that has lived in your house for 2 whole years. She has already fully formed her character and habits, and she perfectly knows how to manipulate the people around her when she needs something from them. Well, why not a 24-year-old young man or girl?!
A midlife crisis (by human standards) occurs when a cat turns 8 years old. Sometimes, the cat again becomes uncontrollable at this age, and you cannot cope with it, and sometimes it falls into real cat depression or begins to stare at young cats and kittens...
Well, at the age of 12, it’s time for your cat to retire, respectively, a 15-year-old cat is already a 76-year-old man, with all the age-related characteristics and diseases that arise from this age, but up to 20 years of cat age, as well as before Few people live to reach 92 human years...
How to determine the age of a cat by external signs
If the cat's age is unknown, you should carefully examine it and observe its behavior. The approximate number of years lived is revealed by the eyes, teeth, condition of the skeleton, coat and other signs.
By the eyes
A healthy and young animal has a richly colored iris with clear contours. With age, irregularities and inclusions appear on it, the color fades, and the edges blur.
Older cats' eyes become cloudy. However, whitish spots can be a symptom of cataracts, which sometimes affects young animals. The same goes for increased tear production. It can indicate both old age and the presence of pathology.
Tough
You can also roughly determine the age of a cat based on the condition of its teeth:
- 26 primary teeth erupt from the 2nd to the 6th week after birth;
- the change to primary ones takes place from 3 to 6 (rarely up to 9) months;
- a one-year-old cat has 30 white teeth without plaque or signs of wear;
- at 2 years of age, slight yellowing of the enamel becomes noticeable if cleaning is not carried out regularly;
- by the age of 3, the middle incisors begin to wear off, by the age of 4 – the central ones;
- in 5-year-old cats, a yellow coating is clearly visible; after another year, the outer incisors and canines are clearly worn down;
- In the future, the teeth continue to wear out; after 10 years, the incisors and then the canines may fall out.
On a note. Adjustments should be made for care and genetic factors. Some animals have teeth that remain strong and healthy into old age.
According to the condition of the musculoskeletal system
Another way to lift the veil of mystery about a cat’s age is to assess the condition of its musculoskeletal system:
- one-month-old kittens are disproportionately built - they have a large head, but short and weak legs;
- in adolescents, on the contrary, the limbs look excessively long and the ears large;
- after the end of puberty, the cat acquires developed muscles, moves easily and gracefully, and jumps high;
- Signs of aging appear by the age of 7-8: the spine “sinks,” the shoulder blades protrude, the gait becomes heavier, and the volume of the body decreases due to a reduction in the number of muscles.
Older cats may develop arthritis, arthrosis and other diseases.
By other external signs
You can get a rough idea of the age of a cat by other signs:
- Wool. In kittens it is soft and silky. With age it becomes a little tougher, with a clear pattern. After 8 years, gray hair appears, sometimes tangles due to severe coarsening.
- Behavior. Kittens and “youth” are usually active and playful. Mature pets prefer to rest more, while older pets have a hard time with any activity.
These criteria should be taken into account in conjunction with other signs. Then you will be able to determine the cat’s age more accurately.
Childhood (3-4 – 6 months)
A kitten, like a child, actively explores the world and reaches out to its elders (keep in mind that the owner is like a parent for a kitten). Physically, he is growing very quickly, and his irrepressible energy and thirst to explore everything around him require active action. On the one hand, this is a very interesting period for observing a kitten - every day will bring something new. On the other hand, it’s not for nothing that they say that disadvantages are the other side of advantages (as well as vice versa). All this is very good if you or someone in your family are willing to devote a lot of time to the kitten (at least several hours a day): for play, for feeding 6-7 times a day, for frequent visits to the veterinarian (like children, kittens often get sick). You need to be prepared for sleepless nights (however, active games during the day will allow you to sleep better), for overturned things (and, if you are careless, broken), and for the fact that the kitten will require a lot of attention. If you are not ready for this, if you don’t have time for this, then you yourself will miss such an interesting stage in your pet’s life, and you will make him unhappy, perhaps even jeopardizing his health. Or the kitten will simply find something to do alone, and you will be angry about the disorder in the apartment and, in the worst case, decide to part with it.
To avoid all this, if you have a shortage of free time, we recommend that you take an adult pet - it is calmer and more independent and can tolerate loneliness more easily.
Read more: Adopting an adult cat is not a problem!
How to extend the life of cats
For a cat to become a real long-liver, the owner should:
- take care of a balanced diet and sufficient physical activity;
- maintain hygiene;
- carry out routine vaccination;
- systematically treat against parasites;
- Visit your veterinarian regularly.
A calculator for calculating a cat's age by human standards helps you understand your pet's feelings and worldview. This is necessary to ensure proper care and a happy existence for the cat next to its owner.
Lifespan of cats and its extension
There is a pattern in nature: the smaller the animals, the shorter their life span. Cats are an exception in this regard - they live relatively long for their size. They usually manage to live to be fifteen to twenty years old.
The oldest one, according to the Guinness Book of Records, is 38 years old (about 145 years old by human standards).
Among the factors on which the longevity of these animals depends are the following:
- Breed. For example, Snowshoes live on average 11 years, American Bobtails - 13, Scots - 14, Persians, Sphynxes and British - 15, Maine Coons and Kuril Bobtails - 16, Tiffany - 18. Siamese, Thais and American Shorthairs, which often live up to 20 years.
- Lifestyle. Movement is a very important need for an animal. Passive pastime shortens his life.
- Nutrition. An unbalanced diet negatively affects the general condition of the body. Both a deficiency and an excess of certain substances have a negative impact.
- Sexual activity. Unsterilized cats and cats must have the opportunity to realize their sexual instincts - otherwise the hormonal balance in the body is disrupted.
- Psychological condition. Stress and emotional stress lead to neuroses and shorten life.
Long-lived cats: records, breeds
Long-lived cats can live 29 years, which has documented evidence. But there are cats that lived longer and are listed in the Guinness Book of Records:
- Cream Puff from Texas (08/03/1967 - 08/06/2005), 38 years, 3 days.
- Sphynx Granpa Rex Allen, a hybrid of Sphynx and Devon, from Texas, although he was born in Paris (02/01/1964-04/01/1998), 34 years, 2 months.
Both animals lived with Texan Jake Perry. It is believed that the long life of these animals in one owner is explained by their diet: bacon, broccoli, eggs, asparagus.
But the oldest cat is considered to be Lucy, Lower Wales, England. Her age cannot be confirmed with absolute certainty. This is an ordinary yard cat, whose age its new owner tried to determine after the death of its owner. He found witnesses who confirmed that the cat was born in 1972 and in 2015 she was 43 years old.
Age ratio
The age of cats in human terms can be determined using a ratio. With this calculation option, one year of a pet’s life should be equated to a certain number of years of a person’s life. Example:
- 15 human years is 1 year of a cat’s life;
- 24 human years is the second year of a cat’s life;
- Then, each year of the cat’s life adds 4 human years to its age, until the figure reaches 16 years;
- After this period, each year is equivalent to 3.
In this way, you can track the maturation of the cat. A two-year-old cat and a 24-year-old guy can easily be considered peers. At this age, the pet's character is already fully formed.
Age-related diseases usually begin by age 15 (76 human years for a cat). The pet's behavior also changes significantly:
- Interest in any cat games decreases sharply;
- Drowsiness appears;
- Diseases associated with wear and tear on the body may begin.
Age characteristics, behavior and character can be influenced by the breed of the animal.
Is it possible to increase the lifespan of a cat?
Any owner dreams of having a furry family member to please him for as long as possible. And he has the power to do everything so that the cat lives for 15, or even 20 years. What will prolong the life of your beloved four-legged animal:
- Annual vaccination
. The kitten is vaccinated in the first 2-3 months of life and then the procedure is repeated every year. This will protect both your indoor and outdoor cats from the most terrible viruses with a high fatality rate.
- Routine examination by a veterinarian
. Non-pedigreed cats get sick less, so they can be shown to the veterinarian during vaccination once a year - just ask the doctor about this. Pedigree animals and animals with chronic diseases require more frequent visits to the veterinary clinic - the frequency will be determined by the veterinarian himself.
- Sterilization and castration
. If you do not plan to breed kittens, be sure to sterilize your pet - this will help avoid many problems, including diseases of the genitourinary system and mental disorders.
- Attention to any changes in your pet's behavior
. Has your cat started drinking a lot? Stopped sleeping in your favorite chair? Is he limping? Are there strange discharges? Even such little things require close attention from the owner. The first action in case of suspicion is to call the veterinarian, he will tell you whether you need to take the animal to the clinic or if you can watch it at home.
- Purity
- the key to health. Cats groom themselves, but this is not enough to maintain hygiene. For example, long-haired breeds cannot cope with caring for a luxurious fur coat, and it must be combed regularly to prevent parasites or skin diseases. It is necessary to thoroughly rinse the cat's food and water bowls, disinfect the trays, and wash the bedding.
- Nutrition
must be maintained at a high level. It is not so important what you feed your cat - the main thing is that the selected diet suits it. A young cat will benefit from both natural food and high-quality dry food. But kittens and elderly individuals require a special menu, which cannot be cheap. Therefore, before getting a cat, think about the fact that in old age, in 95% of cases, it will require greater expenses than in youth.
- Treat your cat like a family member
. Consider the nature of the pet and its needs. If she doesn't tolerate loneliness well, you shouldn't leave her in the apartment all day. And on the contrary - if the kitty loves isolation, respect her personal space. There are many such points, and if you do not pay attention to the psychological state of the animal, it will constantly be sick and will not live very long.
This is not a complete list of what a loving owner can do. The most important thing is to be attentive and patient, treating your pet as a younger member of the family. Then he will live very long and happily.
