So how long do cats live? Several large domestic cats have been known to live for well over 30 years.
Those kept in zoo’s often live much longer than their wild outside relatives. The following is from my own experience from owning cats for over 35 years.
Generally speaking, we had one cat live to the ripe old age of 20. She holds the household record to this day. Most of our cats have not made it quite that long.
Answering your question, how long do cats live, I’ll take an average of all the indoor cats we owned and cared for. The average age of our personal house cats lifespan has been 17 years of happy and healthy living.
With that said, Riley the gray tabby you see on many of our pages, has just celebrated her 17th birthday. And according to our vet she is healthy as a horse. So it looks like we might set a new record.
How Long do Cats Live Indoor vs Outdoor
A common belief among the experts and one that makes a lot of sense is if the cat remains an indoor cat, and never goes outside their lifespan can triple over a cat that frequently goes outside.
In doing some research on cats that go outside I’ve found several authority, articles stating the average lifespan of an outdoor cat would be about six years.
The reasons for this shortened lifespan are obvious. Just a few would be automobile accidents, picking up parasites and diseases, being hunted by larger animals and territorial fights with other felines.
As far as increasing the lifespan of an indoor cat there are several things you can do to not only increase how long cats live but the quality of this together time. Of course number one on this list would be regular visits to the veterinarian.
This is easier said then done with some pets. We have one cat that walks right into the pet transporter when we open the flap. The other one runs straight up the wall at first sight of it.
A good rule of thumb would be to visit your veterinarian about once a year.
In questioning my own personal vet, he stated that our indoor cats would have lived longer if they had regular dental care.
This has been proven in both feline and human study’s about gum and teeth care related to long term health.
Gums and teeth health are very important to the cats lifespan and overall well being.
My vet stated our last cat that died at age 17, passed away due to circulatory and heart problems that he traced back to bacteria collected in the teeth and gum area.
He recommends that all cats should have a teeth cleaning. Once a year, along with a regular vet visit.
The domesticated cat diet is not very beneficial for teeth and gum cat health. We fell behind on dental care for our boy cat Thomas and he needed to have a few infected teeth pulled.
How Long Cats Live with Proper Dental Care
My vet says the sky is the limit with proper feline dental hygiene. Here are a couple of tips on how I accomplish our regular dental exams.
I take the index finger and thumb of one hand and placed it in the corners of the mouth, while the other hand gently draws the lower jaw down.
This will not be easy at first but your cat will learn not to mind and latter may appreciate the attention. What you’re looking for is if there is any described sign of discoloration on the teeth or gum’s.
Also you can look for inflamed and redness of the gums and a for sure early warning sign is unusually overpowering bad breath.
If you should find this definitely seek a vets advice.
Our cat, Riley has become use to this dental exam to the point where she allows us to gently brush her teeth with her own toothbrush.
We are still working on our second cat Thomas to comply with his dental exam. He is gun shy because he had a few teeth pulled as I mentioned above.
To sum up the question how long do cats live? The answer is directly related to the cat health care provided and if the cat goes outside. Another longevity factor is the health and strength of the pet’s gene pool.
When the parents live long and prosper often the offspring will have a similar experience. Although evaluating genetic information is difficult when adopting pets from shelters, which we all should do.
We have a page with more interesting facts about cats. This next link takes you from how long do cats live to cat facts. Learn more about us and this feline friendly website. This next link takes you to the homepage for cat health and cat behavior.
Learn more about common cat illness and the prevention of these aliments on the page that answers cat health questions.Scratch at the cat box for more cat related information.