Average life expectancy of indoor and outdoor cats...

[Kirsten]

Can anyone help me here with exact numbers? I know it has been posted before and I would like to use this information for www.catmom.de . I can only remember that the life expectation of indoor cats is much higher, and that somewhere was mentioned the average lifespan of an outdoor cat was only 2 years.

Does anyone know a link I can relate to?

Thanks in advance,
Kirsten

[Craftlady]

Heres one link

Life Expectancy

[Kirsten]

Thank you!

This is exactly the information I was looking for!

I've bookmarked it to have it at hand when I'm writing the article!

Kirsten

[Grace]

Originally posted by Craftlady
Here's one link

Life Expectancy

I'm speechless. Until just recently our cats have all been indoor-outdoor. Only one of those died really young - 2 years. All the rest, and I'm talking about 8 cats over the years, lived to be 14 to 17 years old.

I agree they should be indoor only - just really surprised at the ages quoted.

[Kirsten]

just really surprised at the ages quoted.

I think the quote is so low because many outdoor cats have accidents in their first year when they are still unexperienced and don't know the dangers.

Kirsten

[DJFyrewolf36]

Originally posted by Kirsten
I think the quote is so low because many outdoor cats have accidents in their first year when they are still unexperienced and don't know the dangers.

Kirsten

This is true. I've noticed that an outdoor cat generally lives quite a long time if it gets past the hurdle of inexperence. The other thing is the high mortality rate of outdoor kittens *due to disease, exposure etc*...do they count kittens younger than a year the averages? If so, that would explain why the average is so low.

[wolflady]

I was reading in Cat Fancy about this same topic. I can't remember which issue it was in, but they also stated indoor cats average lifespan is 17 years, and average life span for outdoor cats was 2-5.

Interesting point about them considering kittens in these stats. I have to imagine that so many outdoor kitties die before the age of one year

[Tonya]

Yeah, all of the outdoor cats that I know are old. My husband's childhood cat, Sparky, has the worse outdoor situation you could think of. When they were building the house, he was a little stray kitten that showed up on the property. His mom hates animals, so they were only allowed to feed him outside. (Over the years, she's grown to love Sparky.) He lives in the foothills where there are rattlesnakes, coyotes, etc...I cannot believe he's made it this far. Now, he's at the age where he doesn't care to go out anymore.

I just assume keep my cats inside, but if someone is going to make their cats outside cats, the least they could do is wait until they are adults.

[Kirsten]

I'm pretty sure that kittens are in the statistic. Maybe not those who are born wild, but adopted kittens that have lost their lives... And not only the babies, also young adults are still at high risk. Remember Luna's childhood friend, Cleo? She died a couple of weeks before her first birthday; she was hit by a car.

I think - like Fyrewolf has said - when they have reached a certain age and know that they have to be careful, they can get old. I saw a cat living in my old neighborhood that must have been VERY old because she seemed to have been there forever. She always sat on the pavement or under the parking cars, but nothing ever happened to her.

Kirsten

[DJFyrewolf36]

The feral cat near my apartment, Slice is at least 7 or 8 acording to some people who have lived in our complex for a while. I think he was hit once by a car already. Poor guy, don't think anyone took him to the vet either. He walks with a bit of a limp and he doesn't seem to have all of his motor skills

[Kirsten]

Poor boy!

Kirsten

[DJFyrewolf36]

Don't know if you've seen it but this is him



Poor guy is right. Wish I could just adopt him but he doesn't seem to play well with other cats.

[catmandu]

I do know that Outdoor Cats,are outlived by Indoor Cats,by several years!

[Fox-Gal]

Wow I have to say I'm suprised too. I knew that the life expectancy was lower on outdoor cats but I didn't think they would say it was that much lower.

Even sense I was a child we had indoor/outdoor cats and not one of then had a short life. Snowpaws lived to be 28! Tasha was 17, Tigger was 18, so on and so on. Of course we where lucky and lived in areas where they could be indoor/outdoor cats safer then the average area.

Maybe the study needs to have a thrid catagory: Live expectancy of a indoor/outdoor cat, with proper care. Not that I don't think that the study is right, but sometimes studies are to black and white. They most likely did full outdoor cats and fully indoor cats not acounting for the hafe and hafe group.

if someone is going to make their cats outside cats, the least they could do is wait until they are adults.

I think that's that's that most inportant thing, every stray kitten I've taken in lived inside till they reach a age where I felt they where safe/smarter etc. and then the outside time was supervised for ahwile. Not that I want them to be outdoors, but I have too many for them all to be indoors full time, but they ALL are allowed inside when they want. My only other choice would have been to take then to the shelter and in our area they most likely would live a caged life, so sometimes you have to make a choise of the better of two evils.

[K & L]

A "feral" cats life span on the average is 1 - 2 years. This is due to not being fed on a regular basis, diseases from poor nutrition, and lack of vet care. At least with an "outdoor pet cat" they are fed and cared for, which helps their life span to be longer.