How to calculate the age of a cat by human standards

With the advent of a kitten in the house, many owners think: how to estimate the age of a cat by human standards? The method of multiplying cat years by seven was once popular, but its fallacy is obvious to any cat owner. After all, one-year-old Murkas and Barsiki are already reaching puberty, that is, it is more reasonable to compare them not with first-graders, but with 16-year-olds. How to calculate the age of a pet – further.

The easiest way to calculate a cat’s age in human terms is to use the table included in the International Veterinary Passport. According to her data, two cat years in human terms correspond to 24 years, and then each year goes beyond four.

The life of a cat can be divided into several conditional periods:

• Infancy and childhood – 0-6 months. Having learned to walk, kittens actively explore the world around them. They are inquisitive and playful.
• Adolescence – 6-12 months. Cats are becoming more active and more and more often show character.
• Youth – 1-3 years. The animal is in full bloom, all body systems are working at full capacity.
• Maturity – 4-10 years. A cat can live a fairly active life, but gets tired faster, by the end of adulthood, health may deteriorate.
• Old age – 11 years and more. The pet begins to sleep more, the sense of smell and hearing gradually decrease, and the appetite worsens. The joints no longer have the same flexibility.

You need to know the age of the cat in order to properly care for it. For example, older animals need special food to take into account age-related changes and help with hair care. They are also more difficult to endure radical changes – moving, traveling, the appearance of babies or new animals in the apartment. If the cat can already be called middle-aged, it is important to gradually and carefully prepare it for such changes.

Learn more about the length of a cat’s life and how to keep your four-legged friend active in this article by Hill’s veterinarians. And if you need to calculate the age of another pet – a dog, the calculation method proposed by the experts in this article is suitable.