When you live with a four-legged friend, you often wonder how old is the cat or dog with whom you share the daily life of your home. To know how to count the years of cats in proportion to human age there are different calculations to be made.
Here’s specifically in one table how experts manage the calculation of a cat’s age.
How do you count cat years into human years?
Animal growth occurs faster (indeed, very fast!) than human growth. For such reasons, a cat’s years are determined with this in mind their average life and the fundamental stages that determine it:
- l’young agewhen the cat is still a puppy;
- the first heat, which marks themature age of the cat in terms of reproduction and physical growth;
- l’adulthood and senile age, which is characterized by some typical behaviors of animals.
The table for calculating the age of cats in human years
To understand how cat years are counted into human years, experts have come up with a comparative table which defines, facilitating the mathematical equation, the difference between cat and human years.
For example, did you know that two cat years equal 24 human years? Below we have grouped the comparative data from cat years into human years.
What to keep in mind when comparing cat age to human age?
If you want to compare the age of a cat to that of humans, you need to keep in mind some factors such as:
- a cat’s environment and lifestyle (it won’t be the same for a stray or apartment-dwelling cat);
- health conditions, with the possible presence or not of chronic or hereditary pathologies;
The breed and the type of diet followed can be decisive for its life expectancy and can make it difficult to establish exactly its age, as well as whether the cat is a foundling caught on the street.
How is the age of cats calculated?
If you have made a great act of love by adopting a cat that is no longer a puppy, it could be difficult to understand how the cats’ years are counted, unless you rely on a veterinary doctor who, surely, has much more experience in the field.
The dentition of the cat
When rescuing a cat from the street, for example, the first thing to do to figure out how old it is is to look at its teeth.
Usually the adult cat presents on the teeth of spots that a young cat, between 4 months and two years of life does not have, since between 4 and 7 months they tend to change their dentition just like humans.
The coat of the cat
The coat is another very important indicator for deciphering the age of cats.
If it is shiny and soft then the cat will certainly be young, while if more bristly and less shinythe cat may be of a certain age.
Cat eyes
The same evaluation criterion is to be applied to the cat’s eyes.
If they hint at a sort of patina and look opaquethen the cat will be an adult, while, on the contrary, if bright and with a lively look, they will certainly be the eyes of a young cat still insatiable for life.
The muscles of the four paws
Il muscle tonePerhaps harder to notice, if the cat is reluctant to be petted, is the last factor to keep in mind if you want to understand a cat’s age.
The distinctive traits of cats according to age
As soon as they are born, animals are very limited, they do not see or hear and they need a lot of care from the mother cat.
After a couple of months, the exuberance of the kittens is characterized by aninfinite curiosity and liveliness. They jump, play and never stop.
With the passage of time, maturing, the natural aptitude to look for one’s own partner ea mark the territoryleads them to be more aggressive and protective of the environment in which they live.
If neutered and in old age, the animals will have the aptitude to a calmer and more relaxed temperamenttypical of apartment cats, which we must not forget.
Sometimes they are the undisputed protagonists of hilarious pranks. In fact, between one nap and another, even adult cats will not fail to prove theirs feline natureeven if they will do it in their own way depending on their personal character.
Whether they have seven or nine lives, we still don’t know, what is certain is that the age of cats doesn’t show itself as much as the time that passes on the life of human beings, visibly marking it. They, the cats, stay always beautiful and elegant.