The longest-lived breeds of cats, together with Birmans and Burmese, dwell greater than twice so long as the shortest-lived breed, based on a research of 1000’s of pet cats within the UK.

“When it comes to life expectancy, there was little or no analysis achieved on cats,” says Dan O’Neill on the Royal Veterinary Faculty within the UK. “They’re type of invisible to science, particularly in comparison with canine.”

To study extra about cat longevity, O’Neill and his colleagues analysed knowledge on 7936 cats that died between 2019 and 2021, taken from vets within the UK.

General, cats had a life expectancy of simply over 11.7 years. Feminine cats outlived their male counterparts, with an anticipated lifespan of 12.5 years in contrast with 11.2 years.

Crossbred cats tended to dwell longer than purebreds, with the 2 teams having anticipated lifespans of 11.9 and 10.4 years respectively.

Twelve breeds, together with crossbreeds, had 15 or extra deaths within the knowledge – sufficient to estimate their life expectancy. Topping the longevity checklist are Birman and Burmese cats, each with life expectations of 14.4 years. On the backside are Bengal cats and sphynxes, with life expectations of 8.5 and 6.7 years respectively.

Not like with canine, how lengthy cats dwell doesn’t seem to correlate with traits corresponding to physique dimension.

“Cats are boring – the variance between cats is often simply the size or color of their hair,” says O’Neill. “We’re not speaking like in canine, the place some breeds have twisted spines or no muzzles.”

The workforce additionally created what are often called life tables, which predict the typical remaining lifespan of cats at totally different ages and can be utilized to assist cat house owners resolve deal with their ailing pets.

“In case your cat is 11 or 12 years previous and is just anticipated to dwell one other yr, then it’s most likely not price doing surgical procedure, for instance,” says O’Neill.