Mary Allen
The information on life expectancy in the breed portraits of breeding cats is not very reliable. Only in practice does it become apparent that pedigree cats do not live shorter lives than domestic cats, as is often assumed.
If you want to buy a cat from a specific breed or want to find out more about the different breeds, you will find extensive portraits on numerous websites. The description of the external characteristics and character traits are usually very similar, as they are usually based on the breed standards that are set by the breeding organizations for recognized cat breeds. There are large deviations in terms of average life expectancy. There, the information varies greatly between and within the individual breeds.
In the breed libraries of two large feed manufacturers, for example, a life expectancy of 9 to 13 years and 12 to 16 years respectively is given for the Abyssinian cat. On the one portal, the Persian cat has an expected lifespan of 8 to 11 years, on the other, it is 12 to 17 years and for the Ragdoll, the numbers are even further apart at 7 to 12 years and 12 to 17 years respectively. For the popular British Shorthair cat, one website assumes a life expectancy of 7 to 12 years, another of 14 to 20 years, while the breed portrait of the Swiss British Shorthair Association states that a four-legged friend of this breed “will be happy to live 15 years”. can be up to 18 years old».
Sandra Achermann, President of British Shorthair Switzerland, does not know exactly what the information on her website is based on: “I assume that these are empirical values or that the average life expectancy of a cat was assumed.” The feed manufacturers either did not respond to inquiries or they cited the World Cat Congress (WCC), to which the most important worldwide active breeding organizations are affiliated, as a source.
Little Scientific Research
One of them is the World Cat Federation (WCF), founded by German Anneliese Hackmann. She did pioneering work in documenting breed standards: These were recorded for the first time in her book “Cat Breeds”, published in 1979. “However, the breed standard relates exclusively to the phenotype of the cat and says nothing about the life expectancy of individual cat breeds,” says Anneliese Hackmann. The experienced cat expert, therefore, assumes that information on the lifespan in books or breed portraits is based on the experience of breeders.
Basically, life expectancy is the result of an evolutionary process and depends on many factors. Scientifically, the lifespan of different pedigree cats has not been researched very much. One of the few studies was conducted five years ago in England with the participation of the Royal Veterinary College, University of London. The data of 4009 deceased cats have been collected in around 90 British veterinary practices. Their average lifespan was 14 years. The domestic or mixed breed cats in the study achieved exactly this lifespan, while the pedigree cats lived less on average at 12.5 years.
Breeds that survived the median lifespan of 14 years in the study included the Persian (14.1 years), Siamese (14.2), the Burmese (14.3), and the Sacred Birman ( 16.1). Below the mean were the British Shorthair (11.8), Maine Coon (11), Ragdoll (10.1), Abyssinian (10), and Bengal (7.3). The study thus confirms the generally widespread opinion that pedigree cats live shorter lives than domestic or mixed-breed cats.
Alfred Wittich, President of the Helvetic Cat Association (FFH), to which most Swiss cat breeders belong, takes a more differentiated view: “One cannot say in general that pedigree cats have a shorter life expectancy. There are many breeding cats that live to be very old.” Wittich has been breeding Exotic Shorthair and Persian cats for over 40 years, many of which have reached the age of 20 or more. According to the breeding expert, it is the breeds with a large gene pool, i.e. a large number of breeding lines and breeding animals, that also have a longer life expectancy. “If the gene pool is too small, there is a risk of inbreeding, which can lead to a number of health problems,” says the FFH president.
Animal Husbandry is Crucial
Although genetics does not use the term “overbred”, it is commonly used to refer to one-sided or excessive breeding, in which hereditary defects and diseases are passed on to the next generation. These animals are no longer resistant, which is why they have a low life expectancy. Anyone who wants to get a pedigree cat should do some research beforehand and only buy from a reputable breeder who attaches greater importance to the health of the offspring than to their appearance.