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Male cat vs. Female cat life span? Anonymous
Hey /an/, I have a question for you that I've been wondering about for a while.

All my life my family has had cats for pets, we all love cats very much. Up until I when I turned 9 or 10 we had male cats (all fixed of course) and they all lived fairly long lives, with the exception of the cats who developed life threatening problem. We had one live to 18, another to 17 (at that point he developed heart cancer that would require specialized treatment to live, and even then the chances were low so we put him down) and another to 15.

Anyway, my current cats (in the blurry pic) are females, and they are about 11 years old now. For what it's worth, they have been spayed. I'm wondering what the lifespan is of male cats vs. female cats, or if it's the same. Barring any serious illnesses, about what age should my female kitties live to with good care?
>> Anonymous
My female spayed cat is 17 years old and healthy as a horse.
>> Anonymous
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>>67650
Thanks for the reply.

My cats are both pretty healthy, except the one pictured here had some digestive problems that are gradually improving. She is extremely skiddish and the slightest noise will scare her and make her jump, which our original vet thought could be causing strain on her insides and especially her intestines. Our new vet thinks it's something else and we now give her medicine for it that appears to be working. I have no idea if a digestive issue like that would shorten her life, but I really hope she lives a very long life. They are both very sweet.
>> Anonymous
All of my female cats have lived fairly short lives D: I'm going to stick with males for now on. They seem to have more luck.
>> Anonymous
My vet has always told me that female cats tend to live longer, mostly because males tend to have lots of potentially fatal urinary tract problems.
>> Anonymous
>>67660
Yeah, that's how my male cat died at the age of 15. Male cats can have a problem develop in their bladders, my vet had explained it as crystals (like smaller versions of kidney stones) building up in their bladders so that they can't pee, causing their urine to poison their system. We were really puzzled when it was happening to our cat, he was an outdoor cat and he would go outside and just yowl probably because he was trying to pee. He became more and more lethargic, we made him as comfortable as we could and then he died at home while I was at school. Of course I was like 8 at the time so my memory could be kind of fuzzy regarding those events.
>> Anonymous
I don't think that there's much of a difference.
The only problem i've heard about with female cats (according to the vet) is that they're at a much higher risk for cancer (i forget which type) if you don't have them spayed before they go into heat for the first time.
>> Anonymous
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The crystals develop in both males and females. Domestic cats are descended from the African Wildcat. Because they are primarily arid climate dwellers their bodies are adapted to retaining moisture from their food.

The more popular food for cats is dry food. Because dry food has no moisture cats must take in additional water. Even if they drink a lot of water it is not really the same as taking it in from food. Because of that they are in a perpetual state of dehydration.

This forces their kidneys of work extra hard to remove as much water from their urine as is possible. This makes the % of urea higher. Urea is a crystalline. Over time this then builds up in their kidneys and bladder eventually causing kidney failure.

Female cats on average live to be older than males.

I believe they are prone to tit and uterus cancer if they are not fixed before their first heat.

I got my female cat when I was 2. She died when I was 23, 25 now. She was on a strictly dry food diet her whole life. She died of kidney failure, in the process of reading up on it was how I learned all this. She probably would have lived well into her 20s if that was not the case. Other than what killed her she had gone deaf in her old age but that's not a biggy, she was an indoor only cat anyway.

That is another thing that will greatly extend their life, indoors only.
>> Anonymous
>>67680
I'm>>67650and my cat is an outdoor cat. She comes in only in bad weather and to eat. We've had her since I was 5, and I'm 22 now. I couldn't dream of having her stay inside all the time. D:
>> Anonymous
>>67680
Wow, thanks for all that information and for answering my original question! That does make sense since we used to feed our cats only dry food (back when my other cat died if kidney/urinary problems). Because of one of my current kitty's digestive problems, we've been feeding the both of them a mix of wet food once a day and then they have dry food for if they get hungry after that. Do you think that's enough to prevent the crystal problem from happening to them?
>> Anonymous
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<-67680

From what I understand there is really no need for dry food unless there is a specific medical necessity for it. I will give mine some a couple times a week because it can help clean crap off their teeth but that's about it. This is only necessary because in the wild they eat bone and such which would clean their teeth.

Basically the moar wet the better, amirite?

Back to my lurking, if you have any other questions just post and I will delurk.
>> Anonymous
You know, cats can sometimes reach the age of 30 and it's quite usual for well-cared cats to live to be 20. Our cats are siblings, male and female, both 14 years old, and the tom is the one that won't see his 20'th bithday (he's been sickly for a couple of years now).
>> Anonymous
>>67680

Yup, kidney failure is what killed my kitty. He was about 18, but had been having kidney problems for 2 years. He had a urinary blockage when he was 5 and went on this special food recommended by the vet...and it was dry food. In the last year of his life, we discovered that there was nothing special about the vet-recommended food other than it's low ash content, and therefore kidney problems could've easily been averted. Sigh...if only I would've known...
>> Anonymous
Our oldest cat was female...she lived to be 22, and we finally put her down when she couldn't control her going to the bathroom... she was indoors only and spayed.

The cats we have now (all female... go figure) are 13, 4, 5, 3, and almost 2.
>> neko-chan
my mommy cat have live for around 3 years so far.but the daddy cat has live for over 5.
>> Anonymous
>>67707
OP here, and I always thought dry food was vet recommended as well, except in the case of my cat's digestive problems when they told us to give her a low residue wet food. Is there really no reason to give your cat dry food except that it's cheaper than wet food? I kind of assumed that we got dry food for them to eat whenever they feel like eating because you can't really leave wet food out all day (they'd probably eat it all at once anyway and throw up later).
>> Anonymous
The thing about Vets is that they receive absolutely no education in nutrition. Therefore they know as much about it as an electrician, trash-man, bush, or anna nicole. That is unless they seek out additional education which most will not do because people assume since they are a vet they have an unlimited understanding of all things animal related.

There really is no reason for dry food. In addition to the stuff I posted about perpetual dehydration, dry food almost always has a lower nutritional value than does wet.

I feed my 4 Friskies Prime Filets canned. They get 6 cans daily, 2 in the morning, 2 around 6:00, and 2 before bed. My cats seem to like the Prime Filets because it has actual pieces of meat in it not like the loaf shit.

The key is to figure out the amount they are gonna eat in a sitting and stick to providing only that amount. That way there isn't excess food left out.

Something I have been looking into is a raw meat diet. It requires a lot of commitment but is ultimately the best for them. I don't really have a lot of info on it at this point but it is something I will eventually be doing.

Back to dry food though, there isn't really a reason for it as I said. If your cats are adults now you might have some trouble getting them switched but it can be done and is better for them to do so.
>> Anonymous
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>> Anonymous
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>>67817

OP this is what I feed my four cats. 2 cans 3x/daily. At .30 cents/can it works out to $1.80 daily which is really pretty cheap imo.
>> Anonymous
I only have one small cat, she probably wouldn't eat more than one can in an entire day. Do I just put the rest in the refrigerator? Won't it dry out?
I never knew that dry food was so bad for cats, where's a site that I can research this more?
>> Anonymous
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http://www.catinfo.org/

The main page article is pretty good. Covers topics from dry, wet, raw through health problems and such. The author is a DVM.
>> Anonymous
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>>67831
OP here again. We currently feed our cats half a can of each of these every morning, mushing them together because they dislike the taste of the eukenuba low residue formula, and mixing them is a compromise. I'm not sure where these lids are available (especially in cat shapes) but I doubt my parents scoured far and wide for them, you can probably pick them up at your local big pet supplies chain store.

>>67834
Thanks, I'll send that info to my dad and maybe he'll switch them to wet food for all meals and not just once a day.
>> Anonymous
>>67831

I'm pretty sure that refrigerating it is a bad idea; cats can get really picky about food and tend to not eat things that are cold, in my experience. It has to be either room temp or slightly warm.
>> Anonymous
>>67827

Perhaps you should look into pre-made raw pet food? If you've got the cash, it's pretty easy to feed your pets a raw diet...just buy pre-ground, frozen raw meat patties and defrost as needed. There's more info here: http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/products/Natures-Variety-Raw-Food-Diets/131069.aspx

I haven't personally had any experience with feeding a raw diet to a kitty, but my mother in law does, and her cat seems to be in good health at the ripe old age of 24.
>> Anonymous
I've never heard any of this stuff before about dry vs wet food, so now I'm seriously thinking about switching my kitty over. She's almost 5 now and in good health. My primary concern is how healthy the wet food would be versus the dry food. I've always been taught the opposite, that wet food tends to be less nutritious, but apparently I've heard wrong :\ Right now I feed her Iams hairball formula, and she eats a quarter cup a day (she's a pretty small cat). What would be a comparable wet food and how much do you think I should give her? I fed her a can of friskies today and she barely even finished half of it, but she's kind of picky so she might have just not liked it...
>> Anonymous
I've been feeding my cat dry food because every time she eats wet food she gets a really messy stool that sticks to her backside and is difficult to get off. Does anyone have advice on how to get around this problem while giving her a more varied diet?
>> Anonymous
is wet food > dry food for making a fatass cat lose weight? and just how expensive would it be to feed a fatass cat on wet food for a month?
>> Anonymous
>>67937

I refer you to http://messybeast.com/overweight.htm
>> Anonymous
>>67937
Dry food actually contributes to obesity, so yes, if you switch the cat's diet to high quality canned food, he should lose weight.
>> Anonymous
>>67937
You would have to do it forever though not just for a month.
>> Anonymous
>>68062

For budgeting purposes, one generally plans for weeks/months. Once you get the ballpark of "a month", you can figure out if you'll be able to support it.
>> Anonymous
>>68075
So, is a wet food/dry food mix still horrible as far as the urinary problems go? Don't know if I got an answer on that one yet.
>> Anonymous
Think about it this way. A cat has to contribute water to the digestion process of dry food. Therefore any dry food the cat ingests means less water for everything else.

So, basically this means the less dry food the better. Obviously this is not feasible for everyone so just remember that the more wet food you can give in place of dry food is better for your cats.