Prime (3 to 6 years) – the equivalent of a human in their 20s and 30s.Junior Cat (6 months to 2 years) – equivalent of human adolescence.Kitten (0 to 6 months) – the equivalent of a human infant.When looking at how long do cats live it helps to take into account the classic cat life stages. These days cats are considered to be geriatric at the age of 15 years but are living into their late teens and early 20s. The study acknowledged a lack of research in this area that means no one really knows how long cats could live a healthy life. This study was conducted in 2016 so of course, it doesn’t take into account medical advances for cats in the last five years. The experts believe that cats are living longer because medical advances are helping to prevent diseases in cats. The study found that an estimated 20% of cats were 11 years of age or older. Just a few decades ago the average lifespan of a cat was single digit. A study that has been published in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery found that the average lifespan of a cat is now around 15 years. The good news is that it appears that domestic cats are living longer. Different studies come up with different results but when they’re taken together and averaged 15 years sounds like a sensible benchmark. Taking out all of the factors that we are going to cover, the average age for a domestic cat appears to be around 15 years. These genes can cause deafness and odd-eye color.There have been several major studies across the US and the UK that have looked at how long cats live. The white spotting gene is also called the piebald gene and it creates the bicolour cat (white and another color). In these cats the migration is partly or completely halted.īecause the cell in the skin in which the hair strand is embedded is unable to produce pigment ( eumelanin and phaeomelanin) there is no pigment inside the hair strand and therefore looks white. The reason why this migration does not take place is because of the white cat carries the white spotting gene or the dominant white gene. The point of origin of melanoblasts is the trunk neural crest cells. The reason why there is no pigment in the hair of white cats is because cells which are created very early on during the develop of the foetus inside the womb called melanoblasts – which turn into melanocytes (which are pigment producing cells) – do not migrate from their point of origin to the hair shaft. Therefore, the unpigmented hair strand must be opaque to a certain extent and very light in colour.Ĭlick to see cat hair pigmentation types with illustrations. You would have thought that if there is no pigmentation in each hair strand, each strand of hair would be transparent but clearly not. In short, white is the absence of colour in this instance whereas in an absolute sense white is the merging of all the colours of the visible spectrum. The hair is not white because there is white pigmentation in the hair. It is not white because there is white pigmentation embedded in the hair strands.įor a cat and perhaps for other creatures white is the absence of pigmentation in the hair strands. Once again you might say that if an all-white cat who is deaf is allowed to go outside a lot he is probably more vulnerable to being injured or killed by cars or predators than a hearing cat but also once again I’d argue that this is insignificant as most owners of deaf cats will keep them confined.īelow I discuss how white fur is the lack of pigmentation in the fur. Clink on this link to read about white cat deafness and this link to see a cat with odd eye color. But totally white cats can be deaf and odd-eyed. The gene that makes the cat white has no health consequences which directly affects the cat’s lifespan. If neglected this may shorten their lifespan but as mentioned good cat caregiving would prevent this by keeping the cat inside in hot weather. Also, white cats can get sunburnt ears which might cause skin cancer. Under these circumstances I’d expect a deaf white cat to be a full-time indoor cat with a typical lifespan. Deafness would make survival harder ‘in the wild’ clearly but we are referring to domestic cats in homes. There is the issue of a significant percentage of white cats being deaf. However, this is not significant enough to say that in general white cats have a shorter lifespan than the average. I suppose that there may a slightly enhanced risk of a white cat which goes outside a lot getting skin cancer. No, white cats do not have a shorter lifespan although their ears are prone to sunburn and frostbite.
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