Lifespan Of A Cat

Kablamo!

i have a 14 year old cat.
shes an indoor/ outdoor cat, but over the past year or two she only spends maybe 5 hours max outside a day.

i was wondering just how long (roughly) is the average lifespan?

any help would be appreciated

Liam90

an outdoor cats life expectancy is 4-5 years but some have been knowen to live 10 years for an indoor cat 12-18 years, the world record for the oldest cat is 34 years

LegacyUser

34 years!! Wonder what the quality of life was like .. got any links to where you read that?

Alun

Liam90 wrote:

an outdoor cats life expectancy is 4-5 years but some have been knowen to live 10 years

Where did you get that gem of misinformation from? Both of our previous two cats have been outdoor cats and lived to be 17.5 and 14.5 years old repectively, with neither of their deaths being in any way remotely connected to being outdoor cats.

Quarrybaby

A cat who spends most of it's time in doors could have a life expectancy of up to 18 years.

A cat's life expectancy goes down if they spend a lot if time outdoors, because there is the possibility of them getting hit by a car, attacked by other animals etc.

I once had a cat who was always out gettin into scrapes, he was a mad little thing. In the end he died of feline AIDS, possibly picked up from fighting with stray cats.

I have a cat at the monent who is around 11 years old and he's still going strong. He spends all his time sleeping or eating and he's looked after like a king so i expect to have him around for a few more years!!

Liam90

Alun wrote:

Where did you get that gem of misinformation from? Both of our previous two cats have been outdoor cats and lived to be 17.5 and 14.5 years old repectively, with neither of their deaths being in any way remotely connected to being outdoor cats.

just because yours lived that long that doesn't mean that is the life expectancy of a cat.

here is a link to pets life expectancys
http://estateplanningforpets.org/faq2.htm

Alun

Liam90 wrote:

just because yours lived that long that doesn't mean that is life expectancy.

Ok, let's see ... I know a lot of people who have cats, and none of them subscribe to this (to my mind, crazy) idea of keeping them cooped up indoors all the time. None of them have had the misfortune to lose their cats after only 4-5 years, and all of them have lived to a ripe old age. So, you see, my own personal experience is that this is not the case, and until I see some compelling evidence to the contrary, rather than some unsubstantiated claim by someone I don't know on the internet, I'll stick to that opinion.

P.S. Just read your link. They are referring to cats who live solely outside, which isn't what we're talking about here I think. Most domestic cats will spend large amounts of their time indoors anyway (usually sleeping), increasingly as they get older, with occasional forays outside. Anyway this is an American site, home of declawing and other crazy ideas, so I treat anything they say with a large pinch of salt.

Re-reading that article, many of the arguments they put forward against letting a cat outside are preventable with appropriate immunizations (FIV) and other treatments (fleas, ticks, worms).

EDIT: I liken this trend a bit to the current one of mollycoddling young children by not allowing them out to play on the street, and taking them everywhere in the car "in case something happens". Just you wait, someone (probably in America) will probably soon start advocating keeping your children as "indoor children" just in case

Irish-Lass

Alun I had 4 cats but sadly had to put one down in August as before coming to me he was an outdoor cat and he had FIV.....my other 3 cats are indoor cats and until such time as I get a run built they will stay indoor cats. I live near a main road and am not prepared to let me cats play chicken with the traffic every day. Sometimes people have good reasons for keeping cats inside and certainly don't think it is crazy

LegacyUser

Does anyone on this thread think that a cat should not be allowed out??
I think, cats should be allowed out to discover and play in a more natural environment.

I think that when you get yourself a cat that it is a BIG responsibility. It is up to you to make sure that the area surrounding your house is suitable for a cat. In other words, if a railway track runs behind your house .. NO .. if your neighbour uses pellet guns on animals .. why take the chance. If the area is not suitable for a cat then it is not fair on the animal to lock it up for life!
A longer and less natural life.

With my cats you can see when they get bored .. they alternate between outside and inside. When I look outside the window .. one cat will be chasing a leaf .. the other lying on her back in the middle of the grass.

There are other cats around, I worry about them .. but once they have their jabs and also they are wormed and flea checked I am happy enough. I bring them to the vet when there is any sign of sickness. They also have a nice warm house and a little bed they share together in the kitchen (mother and daughter).

They are a happy pair .. with their outside world and their cosy inside world. I would never take that variety away from them.

Alun

Well said, bubby. Our cats are immunized against FIV (along with the usual ones) every year, are wormed regularly and are treated for fleas and ticks every month. We live in a quiet cul-de-sac, far away from any main roads, and as far as I know we don't have any mad, gun-toting neighbours, so I see no reason to keep them indoors. OK, there's a risk, of course there is, but that's life I'm afraid.

Kablamo!

cats are outdoor animals really.
when my cat wants out; she gets out.
if i had it any other way; she'd kill me
obviously outside is dangerous (she nearly choked on a collar as a kitten, ate poisonous berries...), but i'm sure if she licked bleach or some other inside danger it'd kill her too.

thanks for all the info; my mother keeps telling me she's dying.
i got super pissed off!

Arcadian

Alun wrote:

Our cats are immunized against FIV (along with the usual ones) every year

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't think there is a readily available effective vaccine against FIV. FeLV yes, but not FIV.

Alun

Arcadian wrote:

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't think there is a readily available effective vaccine against FIV. FeLV yes, but not FIV.

Sorry, you're right it is FeLV. A bit of Googling reveals that there are FIV vaccines, but whether they're really effective or not I can't tell. One snag seems to be that there's no way of telling a FIV infected cat from one that's been immunized when they're tested.

Sigma Force

It can be pot luck that an outdoor cats lives longer, with all the dead cats on the roads it's obvious how often cats get killed on them. There are alternatives to keeping cats in the house full time eg proofing your garden or an aviary type enclosure these things have been covered before on here.
Back onto the topic of the older cat, it is pretty normal for an older cat especially to want to spend more time indoors, as they get older they start to feel the cold more, mine will only pop into the garden for a pee and a look around but spends I would say about 99% of her time indoors, she's going to be 17 in May and feels the cold terrible bless her.

Another thing that can depend on a cats life span is neutering/spaying and uneutered animal has more of a chance of wandering further and taking more chances.

Kablamo!

no; we had her neutered as a kitten.
thanks for all the replies

Irish-Lass

Bubby - you made a comment about you know when your cats are bored inside, while mine on the other hand never are the have toys to beat the band they have climbing frames to run up and lounge on and they have the dogs to attach and chase.....you are right when you say cats are a big responsibility thats why when I decided to keep them indoors we looked into all different toys etc. there is 3 of them so they have each other to play with which they do, they have free run of the whole house and are not lacking in anything.

We have 2 cats since they were 4/5 weeks old and our 3rd cat we got when she was 10/11 months old. Before she came to us she was an outdoor cat, she was abused etc the usual cause, if you happen to open the back door she isn't interested in the outside world and much prefers to sit in the door rather then go out.

I will agree that some cats more then others are suited to an indoor life, but it certainly doesn't make it wrong. I respect other people's believes if they feel cats should be outside, but at the same time I have a right to choose a safe environment for my cats and that is an indoor one....where they lack nothing and want for nothing:D

LegacyUser

I don't want my cats running all over my house when I'm not there .. scratching the sofa etc ..

Also, don't want massive cat frames all over the house either! (small house).

If you have loads of toys for them .. and they don't know any better .. and they potter around your house looking happy instead of backed into a corner looking bored to pieces then I reckon your okay.

Irish-Lass wrote:

Bubby - you made a comment about you know when your cats are bored inside, while mine on the other hand never are the have toys to beat the band they have climbing frames to run up and lounge on and they have the dogs to attach and chase.....you are right when you say cats are a big responsibility thats why when I decided to keep them indoors we looked into all different toys etc. there is 3 of them so they have each other to play with which they do, they have free run of the whole house and are not lacking in anything.

We have 2 cats since they were 4/5 weeks old and our 3rd cat we got when she was 10/11 months old. Before she came to us she was an outdoor cat, she was abused etc the usual cause, if you happen to open the back door she isn't interested in the outside world and much prefers to sit in the door rather then go out.

I will agree that some cats more then others are suited to an indoor life, but it certainly doesn't make it wrong. I respect other people's believes if they feel cats should be outside, but at the same time I have a right to choose a safe environment for my cats and that is an indoor one....where they lack nothing and want for nothing:D

Gordon Gekko

Alun, in fairness America isn't the 'home' of declawing etc. Yes, it used to be practiced by a minority there, but is now strongly discouraged by the American Veterinary Medical Association, and all major animal charities and welfare groups.

Secondly, while you might feel confident to disparage American animal care practices, please don't be so smug as to think that your way/the Irish way is better. We ain't exactly paragons of animal welfare in this country - for example, we put down many times more dogs and cats per head of population than do the Americans, or for that matter the British.

I'm sick of hearing people waffle on about how indoor cats are unnatural etc. Cats are not native animals in Ireland. Therefore, them being outdoors is of itself 'unnatural'. They belong in urban streets/country fields in Ireland as naturally as a polar bear does in the Sahara.

Saruman

It depends on the cat. My cat is indoors. She will go out the odd time but not far. Since she is new to our house im not letting her out for a while. She has got out twice but never left the back yard and was scared. Last time she got out she came back pregnant. That was before we got her and we have one of the kittens too.

Anyway i will start letting her out more but she is an indoor cat. She does not like it too much outside except curiosity.

The kitten is too young right now but i will let her do what she wants.
Its not wrong though to keep them in.

Alun

Gordon Gekko wrote:

Secondly, while you might feel confident to disparage American animal care practices, please don't be so smug as to think that your way/the Irish way is better. We ain't exactly paragons of animal welfare in this country - for example, we put down many times more dogs and cats per head of population than do the Americans, or for that matter the British.

Who said I was Irish? I'm perfectly aware of the appalling animal welfare situation in this country, thank you very much, but I don't see what that has to do with the discussion regarding indoor / outdoor cats.

And while cats may not (now) be native to Ireland, there are still small wild cats that are native to the highlands Scotland that once lived all over Britain, and I believe, other parts of Europe, so the polar bear / Sahara analogy is nonsense.

Many have pointed out that their cats are perfectly happy to stay indoors and play with their toys and climbing / scratching posts. Well, my experience is that all the cats we have had have roundly ignored these things. When we got our current two kittens, we got them one of these huge climbing things and it did nothing but gather dust in the corner. They much prefer playing with a twig or a cranefly in the garden than with any of their toy mice or balls.

RotalicaV

I'd say this little incident shaved a few years off my cats life..

http://www.yorema.com/~vac/haha.JPG

Irish-Lass

bubby wrote:

I don't want my cats running all over my house when I'm not there .. scratching the sofa etc ..

Also, don't want massive cat frames all over the house either! (small house).

If you have loads of toys for them .. and they don't know any better .. and they potter around your house looking happy instead of backed into a corner looking bored to pieces then I reckon your okay.

Bubby the cats don't scratch the sofa I bought a product called feliway and it stops vertifical scratch, plus there is a large cat frame and 4 smaller scratch posts and 3 door scratch posts around the house they have enough to use.

as for cats backed into a corner.......you come into my house you normally have Kissy (my black and white) in your bag to see if there is anything in there she can either eat or play with....if that fails she gets on you and rubs into you until you relent and rub her and tell her she is pretty then she is happy and buggers off. or she wants the tap turned on so she can play with the water....there all mad in our house hold

LegacyUser

Irish-Lass wrote:

Bubby the cats don't scratch the sofa I bought a product called feliway and it stops vertifical scratch

Excellent! Must have a look for that. Where do you get it from?

Irish-Lass wrote:

plus there is a large cat frame and 4 smaller scratch posts and 3 door scratch posts around the house they have enough to use.

I don't have one of these for mine. They have toys that they carry around with them all the time .. no scratcher though. Must get one. BTW - my cat has one of the wand toys with a long strip of fur attached to it. She drags it everywhere .. even through the cat flap!

Irish-Lass wrote:

as for cats backed into a corner.......you come into my house you normally have Kissy (my black and white) in your bag to see if there is anything in there she can either eat or play with....if that fails she gets on you and rubs into you until you relent and rub her and tell her she is pretty then she is happy and buggers off. or she wants the tap turned on so she can play with the water....there all mad in our house hold

Sounds a lot like my younger cat. She LOVES shopping day .. noisey little thing

Playing with water .. mine hasn't got to that yet. She doiesn't like Simon Cowel as she sits on the telly during x-factor with her tail right down the centre of the screen!

Kablamo!

Irish-Lass wrote:

Bubby - you made a comment about you know when your cats are bored inside, while mine on the other hand never are the have toys to beat the band they have climbing frames to run up and lounge on and they have the dogs to attach and chase.....you are right when you say cats are a big responsibility thats why when I decided to keep them indoors we looked into all different toys etc. there is 3 of them so they have each other to play with which they do, they have free run of the whole house and are not lacking in anything.

my cat has no toys. she has no such time for such trivilaties, and prefers spending her time attacking everyone who comes into the house besides myself
she also loves bottle caps and clawing the furniture.
she's like me; she makes her own fun

Arcadian

Here's a link for feliway

http://www.petvetcare.co.uk/acatalog/starter.jpg


You can get it at your vets also, but it's better value for money at petvet.

Irish-Lass

bubby the feliway comes in two froms a plug in one which I have in the house just to keep them happy and then to help with vertifcal stratching like furniture etc I have the spray.....I buy them on line from a pet shop in England as they are 1/3 of the price at times and shipping is free here is the address

http://www.petvetcare.co.uk/acatalog/Feliway.html

If you don't have room for scratch post they do ones that you can hang out of the door which are good as well

LegacyUser

Excellent website!! Brilliant! This Feliway stuff is something I am definitely going to try!

Tabitharose

Irish-Lass wrote:

.......you come into my house you normally have Kissy (my black and white) in your bag to see if there is anything in there she can either eat or play with....if that fails she gets on you and rubs into you until you relent and rub her and tell her she is pretty then she is happy and buggers off. or she wants the tap turned on so she can play with the water....there all mad in our house hold

I can vouch for that Kissy's been in my handbag more than once can also vouch for the fact that Irish-Lass's cat are all very happy & contented as indoor only cats

Irish-Lass

oh Tabitharose just Kissy has no manners and sees us humans as her personal chin scratcher went shopping in heatons last night and the cats had great time run in and out of the paper bag..............that was until a certain DOG ruin their fun and ran into the bag and ripped it..........seriously my dogs have issues they both think they are cats :rolleyes: