Mortality (lifespan and causes of death)

Research by numerous animal groups and pet food manufacturers places the life span of the average cat at 12 years, a vast increase of their projected life span just two decades ago, when it was half that number. Better nutrition and medical care is the core of that improvement.

As with dogs, it is common to measure cats' age relative to humans in a formula converting cat years to human years and vice versa. The simplest, based on the average mortality of each, is to use the comparison that one cat year equals seven human years, but many use a different scale.

Overall, these scales compare the amount of development per year in the cat and human. A cat matures as much in its first year of life as man does in its first 15 years of life. Using that logic, a two year old cat is, in terms of developmental maturity, the equal of a 25 year old man. Beyond that, one year for the cat roughly equates to four years for man.

Cat Age	Equivalent Human Age
1	15
2	25
3	29
4	33
5	37
6	41
7	45
8	49
9	53
10	57
11	61
12	65

Predation

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that Americans have 60 million pet cats. Further, they extrapolate that if every single one of those cats kills one bird a year that means 60 million birds meet their doom annually. That's a catastrophic number even if the estimate is off by a bit, and has many worried about the long term effects of cats as predators. In addition, estimates place the number of feral cats at least 60 million nationwide, all of them hunting for their food.

Because they themselves did not evolve as part of most food chains, feral cats and house pets allowed to roam free are decimating the population of birds and small mammals in many areas where the cat has no natural predators. This has led biologists to classify cats as an invasive species, a designation greeted with dismay with those who love these delightful animals.

While it varies by location, cats hunt and eat mice, rats, squirrels, voles, chipmunks, rabbits and birds of all varieties. The growth in popularity of cats as house pets has had a catastrophic effect on wildlife around the globe because only 35 percent of all pet cats are kept exclusively indoors. Dozens of national and international associations are working together to educate cat owners on the importance of keeping their house pets exclusively in the house, rather than letting them run wild for portions of their day.

Diet and Nutrition

Cats are strict carnivores; the term often used is ‘obligate carnivores’ meaning they are biologically designed to eat nothing but what can be found in the prey they eat. We humans and our dogs are actually omnivores, meaning we can survive and thrive on all that is available in the plant and animal world as our foods. But our cats cannot, and that is the basis of understanding how to provide them with the nutrition they require to live long, healthy lives.

Nutritionally formulated cat foods, wet or dry, contain proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals and vitamins. Both varieties also contain water, roughly 10 percent or less in dry foods versus 70 percent or more in canned (wet) foods. Pound for pound, cats require almost three times as much protein in their daily diet as we do.

The animal-based proteins cats are designed to consume also contain taurine, arginine, cysteine and methionine in their complete form essential for cats since their bodies don't synthesize them in adequate amounts.

Cats use carbohydrates less efficiently, since they do not occur in large quantities in their meat-only diet. Felines do derive energy from carbs just as people do, but they do so less far less efficiently. Biologically, they get their energy from a unique metabolic design that provides a steady supply of glucose from protein. The fats in cat food provide essential fatty acids that the animal would be unable to synthesize otherwise, and fats enable felines to absorb fat-soluble vitamins as well. Those fats also provide essential fatty acids that a cat can't synthesize well otherwise; these include omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. Cats need the full range of vitamins and minerals that they would normally find in the small animals that they prey upon: Vitamins A, B, D, E and K, and minerals including calcium and phosphorus.

Today, diet is contentious subject for most species, including our own. Humans are arguing the benefits of high carb/low protein regimes while others promote raw foods while another faction believes high protein/low carb is the secret to health. The same debates are raging around cat nutrition. In the simplest terms, here the argument is between proponents of dry versus wet (canned) food; within those two camps are still further debates regarding holistic and natural diets versus using foods with lab-created preservatives and proteins. Speak with your veterinarian for advice and read all labels carefully. Most of all, recognize that the best nutrition for your pet is a food they will readily eat that provides a complete diet for these energetic carnivores.

Dangerous substances

There is no substitute for the proper nutrition for your pet. Owners must recognize that some very pleasant people foods can cause serious harm to their cats. Considering ‘spoiling’ your little darling with a can of your favorite tuna for dinner each night instead of cat food? Think again: while your cat may do cartwheels for your tuna, it doesn't contain the nutrients a healthy feline needs to survive. In fact, a steady diet of human tuna would result in a cat suffering malnutrition.

Cats have the same deadly reaction as dogs do to theobromine, so chocolate can cause severe illness. They also share an intolerance to theophylline, a sister compound found in tea, and to caffeine, present in chocolate, coffee and tea. Nine milligrams (mg) pound of body weight of these substances in a cat can cause mild symptoms of poisoning; 20 mg per pound can cause severe illness, and 27 mg per pound can lead to death.

If your cat accidentally consumes chocolate, coffee or tea, contact your veterinarian or animal care clinic immediately. By inducing vomiting, performing gastric lavage and introducing activated charcoal to absorb the toxins, the animal may survive the episode.

Many people toss the fat trimmings from the family's roast or steaks to their house cats, and many of those cats seem to relish those tasty tidbits. However, they can lead to pancreatitis in felines. Symptoms of the condition can include lethargy, loss of appetite and weight loss; fever and jaundice may also be present. Your veterinarian will treat the condition by correcting the cat's dehydration and preventing further complications. Fluids by injection to raise electrolyte levels, monitoring of pancreatic enzymes, and may include ancillary treatment of the liver and intestines if they are involved. The prognosis is good: many cats are cured of the condition with proper diet and medical care.

Those that are not cured often develop so-called ‘maldigestion’ which is actually chronic pancreatitis. Ongoing medical treatment includes replacing compromised digestive enzymes and special diets, both of which can be expensive over the long term.

Liver, fish liver oil and some dairy products contain Vitamin A in the form of beta carotene. While your cat requires Vitamin A to be healthy, it does not have the ability to retrieve the Vitamin A it needs from beta carotene. It needs to get its Vitamin A in the form of retinyl palmitate — the form used to store this vitamin in the liver. Well-balanced cat foods will note the inclusion of retinyl palmitate on the nutrition label.

Cats are more sensitive than dogs to poisoning from garlic and onions. The culprit here is a quartet of toxins: S-methylcysteine sulfoxide, n-propyl disulfide, methyl disulfide and allyl disulfide. Vomiting, diarrhea and liver damage may result from ingesting onions and garlic, and cats may develop Heinz Body Anemia, a condition where red blood cells are continually broken down, becoming useless and causing anemia. Owners please note that some commercial pet foods do contain garlic in minute quantities as a flavoring agent; no harm has been shown in these minute amounts.