How long do non pure bred cats normally live

[elliejjtiny]

Just wondering as Ds1 is worried and i wanted to reassure him.

We have 2 british short hair boy cats without health issues, both are 9 years old.

Ds1 is at university and he is worried the cats will die of old age while he is away. Can i reassure him that the cats still have a good few years left? I vaguely remember someone telling me that cats live about 10 years but I think that might be pure bred cats and moggies live longer.

My cats have lived until 15, 17 and 20, the last one was 18 and my current cat is 14 so hopefully a good few years left.

Moggie owner here, mine is 15 and plodding along nicely so far.
ExDP had a cat when I met him who was 19 when he died. Also, sister in law’s cat was found having died peacefully in her sleep this summer at 19 too.

My last cat lived til almost 20, after a very tough life! Previous cats have lived to their mid to late teens.

Well my grand wee moggy is 17 and still going strong, she's definitely an old lady and she makes me laugh at how crabbid she can be but she walks about the house like she owns it, and purrs on my lap. She can still make the jump from the floor up to the worktops too!

Her brother died last year at the age of 14 and only because he got killed on the road, prob chasing a mouse or bird.

I've had many cats over the years and I'd still consider 10 to be pretty young! Our oldest cat was nearly 20! All of them allowed outdoors too, and not a vaccine in sight!

My childhood cat lived to 20. I have 9 year old girl cats and they are extremely active and sprightly. Does your DS have anxiety? Why does he think the cats are going to die imminently?

Our indoor cats lived to 14 and 16.

Moggies have hybrid vigour! Mid teens at least. I had one cat get to 20. My vet says this is more and more usual because cats have better diets and medicine than before.

I have one spritely older gent of 16 now. He needs a brush sometimes but recently caught five mice in a week. Likes going outside and being a cat. I had pedigree cats which didn’t last nearly as long

My moggy was 18. I was impressed but the vet said that with the new cat foods, which are so much lower in salt than Whiskas etc used to be, that 18+ is very normal now.

My tortie is 16, had a blood test at the vets recently and everything fine. Vet jokingly remarked that as she was a tortie she could have another 10 years in her!
i do understand the anxiety though, i keep telling the cat that she has to stay healthy until after DS1’s final uni exams in the spring as she’s his emotional support animal.

My moggies have generally been around 12 apart from one who made it to 22
Pedigree mainecoon made 15 but I was told by vet that was an exception .
I guess what I’m trying to say is it varies .
My son went to uni when our mainecoon was around 11 and used to say when he left after every holiday ‘Don’t go dying when I’m away’ 😢
When we got our new kitten this summer our son was adamant he wouldn’t be bonding with him as he no longer lives at home and it was our cat . Pleased to say he’s obsessed with the kitten and loves to get an update & photo .
Pretty sure when he’s not in a rental he’ll get his own kitty.

Both of mine got to around 16 - we adopted them as adults, one of them was an ex stray so we weren’t 100% sure of his age

Ours was 17.5 but had hyperthyroidism from the age of 13 so was on daily tablets from then. Later developed heart problems and was on a beta blocker. Then developed an embolism and we had to have him euthanised. They break your heart.

Husband's family cat lived to 21.

My DSH (moggy) is 16, he had a heart scare 18 months ago, but well recovered now. He spends a lot of time on his heat pad sleeping, but still playful with his toys. Loves a bit of cat grass.

I lost my Devon Rex when he was only 8. Completely out of the blue, he was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and died days later. Congenital apparently, nothing could be done for him. I don't know about BSHs and congenital conditions, but might be worth finding out?

All my generic moggy type cats have lived 15-20 years.

Do you mean your cats are British Short Hairs (which is a specific breed with shorter life expectancy) or Domestic Short Hairs (aka "moggies", which do live longer on average)?
Note that life expectancy is based on averages - there are always outliers.

My last two died at 18 and 19.

All of my non purebreds have lived good active happy healthy lives between the ages of 15-20.

We've had lots of cats (none of them any special breed). I would generally think that about 18 is a ballpark life expectancy, unless they have an accident or a particular illness.

One poor moggy passed away at 10 from kidney disease - but it's fairly unusual for that to happen (apparently a few cats are particularly prone to early kidney disease). On the other hand, another cat of ours was living a good enjoyable life till he was 23 (although that's also unusual).

One way of calculating "cat years" is that a 2 year old cat is about the equivalent of a 24 year old human (because cats mature very quickly to start with). After that, each cat year is about the same as 4 human years. So a 10 year old cat would be about equivalent to a 56 year old human. Not in their first youth, but not normally at death's door either!

(This is obviously only a rough way of calculating cat age. As the cat gets into old age, I personally think that each cat year becomes significantly less than 4 human years - it's not a linear thing. Cats age differently from humans: they mature fast when they're young, but age slowly when they're old.)

I'm also assuming your cats are Domestic Short Hairs (mogs) rather than British Short Hairs (posh cats 😹)?
We've had 10 cats - all mogs.
Previous ones lived to 13, 13, 14, 16, 17 and 20 (from memory).
Current have 4 cats, two coming up to 8 amd two coming up to 15.
Nowadays mid teens plus is probably a reasonable expectation.

Oldest in my family is 16!

Childhood moggy: 18 years
Our moggies: 12 (brain tumour), 1.5, 16 lived with cardiomyopathy all his life)

My family's cats were there through literally all of my childhood, DM got them around the time I was born and they lived to 18 and 19.

More recent cats have been 14 and 15, plus one we sadly lost at 11 due to an aneuysm. Still miss that daft ginger lump.

Our previous two lived to 19 and 17. Our current little beast is 21 - a couple of years ago we moved from London to Montreal and recently she has had two major dental surgeries. Still going strong.

My previous cat went aged 10 but he had diabetes and died of complications from that. I still miss him.

Bless him! Our dcat is now 16 and I remember the angst ds felt going away to university - actually it was me that worried she might die whilst he was away, or worse, during his finals or something. She's a black cat and he insisted I sent a picture of her every day before he sat and exam for good luck!
She's bit slower than usual and has stopped toileting outside but otherwise no health problems