How long do pedigreed cats live? It depends on a lot of factors, including whether they’re neutered, if they receive regular veterinary care, if they’re overweight, what breed they are, and even what country they reside in. Happily, research appears to show a trend of increased average lifespan in cats, likely due to more frequent veterinary visits, improved veterinary care and nutrition, and the elevated status many cats now enjoy as family members.
What is the average lifespan of a household cat?
Household, mixed-breed, moggy, crossbred, or domestic cat are all terms used to describe non-pedigreed, random bred domestic cats. A wide variety of ages have been quoted as ‘average’ for the household cat and are usually broken down by sex and neuter status, but the most commonly cited are an average of 15 years, or a range of 13-17 years, with some cats living much longer. For example, in one study of vet clinics in northern Italy, 0.5-2% of cats were over the age of 19. A cat in Wales named Lucy was claimed to live to 39, but the Guinness-record holder for longest-lived cat on record is Creme Puff, an American cat in Texas who lived to 38 and enjoyed turkey bacon, coffee with cream, and a touch of red wine.
The oldest breeding cats
As cats do not undergo menopause as humans do, queens can theoretically produce kittens well into old age, although their fertility will decrease and it is not recommended for the health and safety of the mother. Toms can also remain fertile into old age. Litters of kittens of older queens or toms tend to be less frequent and smaller in size. Several queens in the UK have been reported to successfully birth and nurse kittens at 27-30 years of age.
What are the longest- and shortest-lived pedigreed cat breeds?
Large studies of pedigreed cats and their life expectancies are sorely lacking. The largest studies to date have focused on random bred cats with side mentions of pedigreed breeds and tend to come from veterinary chains or pet insurance companies. Some of the shortest-lived in one geography will be the longest-lived in another. This could mean that the lifespan of your pedigreed cat depends on what country you’re in due to gene pool differences such as founder effects or breed popularity. But those differences could also have to do with standard of care or lifestyle, incomplete data sets or sampling bias rather than true differences in the lifespan of the breeds themselves. No studies utilized end-of-life surveys of pedigreed cat owners or breeders, so true lifespan and the cats' quality of life in senior and geriatric stages are unknown. Here are some of the largest studies including pedigreed cats and lifespan:
UK
A publication utilizing the VetCompass research database of cats seen for veterinary care in the UK showed that the mean longevity was 14 years for moggies, and 12.5 years for pedigreed cats, with female cats, cats of lower bodyweight, and neutered cats living the longest. However, after accounting for other risk factors, the researchers said that crossbred cats had a life expectancy of only 0.6 years longer than pedigreed cats. Pedigreed breeds in many cases included only 10-20 cats of the breed, so this study may not provide statistically-meaningful life expectancies for pedigreed cats in the UK. The longest-lived breeds were:
- Birman – median 16 years
- Burmese – median 14 years
- Siamese – median 14 years
The shortest-lived breeds were:
- Ragdoll – median 10 years
- Abyssinian – median 10 years
- Bengal – median 7 years
The top causes of death for all the studied cats were trauma, which tended to disproportionately affect younger cats, renal disorders, non-specific illness, and cancer. The researchers believed outdoor access strongly affected mortality, as almost half of cats under 5 years of age who passed away did so because of trauma, the majority of which were ‘road traffic incidents.’
Sweden
A study of roughly 50,000 Agria-insured cats in Sweden expressed longevity in terms of probability of survival to certain age benchmarks (5, 7.5, 10, and 12.5 yrs), broken out by cats insured between 1999-2003 and 2003-2006. All breeds improved in longevity between the first and second date ranges, again suggesting better care for the cats over time. Cats with the highest probability to survive to 10 years of age in the most recent data set were:
- Birman – 81% probability
- British Shorthair – 78% probability
- Norwegian Forest Cat – 78% probability
The cats with the lowest probability to survive to 10 years of age were:
- Ragdoll – 56% probability
- Siamese group – 64% probability
- Maine Coon – 69% probability
Overall, the median survival for all the cat breeds studied was >12 years of age, but detail as to median lifespan by breed was not available. As in the UK study, trauma and infections were the most common causes of death in younger cats of all breeds, and urinary or renal disease, cancer, and cardiovascular disease were more common causes of death across all non-pedigreed and pedigreed older cats. Of the pedigreed breeds, the Persian and Ragdoll were most likely to die of urinary or renal disease, and the Siamese and related breeds due to cancer. Other breeds did not have a primary leading cause of death. Domestic cats, on the other hand, were most likely to die of trauma, the majority of which were car accidents.
US
A study of 2.4 million Banfield Pet Hospital cats with electronic medical records in the US showed that the life expectancy of pedigreed cats at birth was 11.5 years, and 11 years for non-pedigreed cats. Female cats and cats with overweight body condition scores vs. obese body condition scores also had higher life expectancies. Of all the cats studied, including pedigreed cats, the median age at death was 12.30 years. Cat life expectancy increased by 1 year for pedigreed cats and 1.41 years for mixed-breed cats between 2013 and 2018, again suggesting better care for cats over time. Unfortunately, breed-based life expectancies were not available in this study for cats. They did suggest the higher survival times for pedigreed cats could be related to indoor lifestyles.
Lifespans reported by the International Cat Association
The longest-lived breeds, according to The International Cat Association (TICA), belong to a variety of breed groups, with the Siamese group and breeds more recently derived from naturally-occurring landraces tending toward longer lifespans. The following are some of the longest-lived breeds, though TICA is quick to point out that care and lifestyle also play a large role, as the studies above have noted.
- Balinese – 10+ years, with many living to 20+
- Bengal – 12-20 years
- British Shorthair – 12-20 years
- Cymric/Manx – 16+ years
- Kurilian Bobtail – 15-20 years
- Oriental Shorthair – 10+ years, with many living to 20+
- Ragdoll – 15+ years
- Russian Blue - 10-20 years
- Siamese – 10+ years, with many living to 20+
- Siberian – 11-18+ years
- Thai – 17-20+ years
Conclusions
True lifespans of pedigreed cats, and their relationship to things like their lifestyle, nutrition, body condition, veterinary care, genetic background, neuter status, and breed remain unclear. None of the largest publications of cat breed longevity to date have had large enough numbers of pedigreed cats to give reliable estimates of median lifespan across most breeds, but numbers appear to fall short of the often-claimed 13-17 years range, or 15 years overall average. The UK reported average lifespan across all pedigreed cats at 12.5 years, the US reported 11.5 years, and Sweden reported 12+ years for pedigreed cats, but the most popular breeds varied by geography and per-breed sample numbers were low in most cases.
Healthy body weight, indoor lifestyle, neutered cats, and regular veterinary care are associated with longer lifespans. Previous studies in dogs and other species have shown that genetic diversity also plays a strong role in average lifespan, but research of this type is lacking for pedigreed cats. The studies all agreed that younger cats (i.e. under 5 years) are most in danger of premature death due to infections and car accidents, but in older cats, diseases of a chronic nature, such as renal disease, cancer and cardiovascular disease are more likely. Happily, cat breeders and owners have many factors under their control to give their cats their best chance at a long, healthy life by addressing lifestyle and care factors, and we hope that in the near future, more information about heritable factors for life expectancy will be discovered.
Resources:
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Cozzi B, Ballarin C, Mantovani R, Rota A. Aging and Veterinary Care of Cats, Dogs, and Horses through the Records of Three University Veterinary Hospitals. Front Vet Sci. 2017 Feb 14;4:14. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2017.00014. PMID: 28261586; PMCID: PMC5306394.
Carbone, Nick. “Time-Worn Tabby: At 39, Is Lucy the Oldest Cat in the World” https://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/09/time-worn-tabby-at-39-is-lucy-the-oldest-cat-in-the-world/. January 9, 2011.
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