Oldest Cats in the World

In countries where veterinary medicine is at its peaks, the lifetime of a domestic cat, which can be neutered also, and if accidents are not involved, is likely to be of fourteen years of age. This age is also very likely to increase. More and more cats are growing to be of late teenage or even reach their twenties. This is influenced by some factors like the genetic heritage, the proper general care, good diet, good and healthy general care from the part of the owners, and the safety of the environment the cat spends most of its time in. Cats that live in wilderness may be prone to accidents of all sorts, to all kinds of diseases, to lack of food or become prey for predators, which would shorten their life span to about 6-8 years. The fact is, cats get to maturity really fast, but then the aging process is slowing down.

Some cat owners argue that an indoor cat may live longer than an outdoor one, which is not entirely correct. Although they may be protected from predators and traffic accidents, indoor cats may suffer from health issues like obesity, which can result in diabetes or heart diseases, fact which would certainly shorten poor animals’ life. Not to mention the lack of exercise and sometimes the stress an indoor cat has to face.
Under proper conditions, a few feral cats have reached twenty years of age or more. Nonetheless, most of them were helped by people who protected them and feeders therefore, did not rely only on scavenging and hunting abilities. According to the UK’s Cat Action Trust, there was recorded a feral female cat aged 19, who managed to survive outdoors with allotments and breeding. Another great example in this respect was given by Mark, a male cat 28 years of age, who lived in a shelter, namely Haslemere Cats Protection shelter, until 1997, when he died.

Ida M. Mellon initiated a survey in 1940, to see the maximum age a cat may reach. Her strategy was to send questionnaires to cat owners in Canada and the US. She thus discovered no less than 17 cases of cats between 21 and 31 years old. However, most of these ages were merely estimated by their owners. And one cat was said to have reached the age of 33. There were also nine neutered male cats and four female cats with ages between 21 and 31, and also three unneutered male cats between 23 and 26. A fully documented case was the one of a unneutered female aged 31.

Later on, in the year of 1956, Dr Alex Comfort, a British gerontologist (i.e. an old age expert) managed to conduct a yet more scientific survey. He succeeded in recording ten cases of cats with ages that surpassed 19 years. And the oldest cat among the ones found by Alex Comfort was an unneutered male purchased in 1927 as a kitten, and which was still alive and kicking in the year of 1954, so he was 27 years old.

Present day cat magazines frequently publish certain claims of cat old age. At any rate, in order for the cat to get to an official Guinness World Record, the cat’s age must be verified and fully documented. And because most domestic felines do not have any birth certificate, the pedigree cats certainly have a great advantage over them, because in their case, their age is mentioned and recorded in the pedigree documents. In cases where the cat has had the same veterinarian all its life, the vet records can replace the missing birth certificate.

When trying to check the true age of a cat, there are many obstacles. Cats have better teeth and fur health and longevity than dogs, and for this reason it is harder to estimate their real age. And when owners have a succession of cats with the very same name, of the very same breed or very similar physical characteristics, they are likely to confuse the cats among them. Not to mention the fact that the owners may be so proud of their beloved pets, that they may be adding some years to their true age, in order to impress other people.