The School for Champions is an educational website that shows you how to achieve your dreams.

SfC Home > Animal Health >

Explanation of the age of animals as compared with humans, as well as the longevity of a variety of animals - Succeed with Healthy Animals. Also refer to diet, exercise, cats, kittens, dogs, productive years, elderly, mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, Ron Kurtus, School for Champions. Copyright © Restrictions

Comparison of Animal Ages

by Ron Kurtus (1 February 2005)

Most animals age more rapidly than humans. Just as humans need different nutrition, exercise and health care at the various phases in their lives, so too do your pets need different care as they age. Older animals suffer from the same ailments as elderly people, such as arthritis and loss of hearing and vision. A comparison of the actual age of the pet and the corresponding of a human can give you a good idea of how to take care of your pet and also to understand its behavior.

Questions you may have include:

What are the age phases in a cat?
What are the age phases in a dog?
What is the life span of other animals?

This lesson will answer those questions. There is a mini-quiz near the end of the lesson. Animal Health Disclaimer

Ages of cats

Cats need different care in the various phases of their lives. Small cats tend to live longer than larger cats, although the difference is not as noticeable as it is in dogs.

The following chart shows the phase in the cat's life, cat years and the equivalent human years.

Phase	Cat Years	Human Years
Kitten	3 months	5 years
Adolescent	6 months	10 years
	1 year	15 years
Productive Years	2 years	24 years
	3 years	28 years
	4 years	32 years
	5 years	36 years
	6 years	40 years
	7 years	44 years
Middle Age	8 years	48 years
	9 years	52 years
	10 years	56 years
	11 years	60 years
Senior Citizen	12 years	64 years
	13 years	68 years
	14 years	72 years
	15 years	76 years
Elderly	16 years	80 years
	17 years	84 years
	18 years	88 years
	19 years	92 years
Extremely Elderly	20 years	96 years
	21 years	100 years

Ages of dogs

Since dogs can vary from weighing only a few pounds to over 100 pounds, size is a major factor in the animal's longevity.

	Age	2-20 pounds	20-50 pounds	50-90 pounds	>90 pounds
Pup	1-11 months	Juvenile	Juvenile	Juvenile	Juvenile
	1 year	12 years	12 years	16 years	20 years
Productive Years	2 years	19 years	21 years	23 years	26 years
	3 years	25 years	25 years	29 years	34 years
	4 years	32 years	32 years	35 years	42 years
	5 years	35 years	36 years	39 years	50 years
	6 years	40 years	42 years	45 years	56 years
	7 years	44 years	48 years	50 years	62 years
	8 years	48	53	56	68
	9 years	53	58	62	74
	10 years	57	62	67	80
Middle Age	11 years	63	66	72	86
	12 years	67	70	77	93
	13 years	70	74	82	101
	14 years	73	78	88	108
	15 years	76	83	93	115
	16 years	80	87	99	123
Elderly	17 years	84	92	104
	18 years	88	96	109
	19 years	92	101	115
	20 years	96	105	123
	21 years	99	109
	22 years	102	113
	23 years	104	117
	24 years	107
	25 years	109
	26 years	112

Longevity of other animals

The longevity of other animals ranges from about 193 years to 6 months.

Animal		Typical Maximum Life span
Mammals
	Elephant	70 years
	Camel	50 years
	Donkey	45 years
	Horse	40 years
	Lion	35 years
	Deer	35 years
	Bull	28 years
	Pig, wild	25 years
	Cat	23 years
	Tiger	22 years
	Cow	22 years
	Ox	20 years
	Wolf	18 years
	Dog, small	17 years
	Sheep	15 years
	Goat	15 years
	Fox	14 years
	Dog, large	12 years
	Rabbit	9 years
	Mouse	4 years
Birds
	Amazon Parrot	80 years
	Macaw	50 years
	Pigeon	26 years
	Blackbird	18 years
	Chicken	15 years
Reptiles
	Galapagos Land Tortoise	193 years
	American Box Turtle	123 years
	Crocodile	45 years
	Rattlesnake	22 years
Insects
	Ant, queen	3 years
	Ant, worker	0.5 year
	Bee, queen	5 years
	Bee, worker	1 year

Summary

Most pets and other animals have a shorter life span that humans. With dogs and cats, a relationship between their age and the equivalent human age has been estimated. As they age, they require different care, as do humans when they age.

Answers to Readers' Questions

Live a long and fruitful life

Resources

The following are resources on this subject.

Websites

Cat Club - Cat Facts

Westonka Animal Hospital - Pet ages

Central Dakota Humane Society - Dog ages

Animal life span

Pet doctor - animal life span

Pet Health Resources

Books

Top-rated books on Pet Health

Miscellaneous

Mini-quiz to check your understanding

1. Can a cat live longer than 21 years?

2. Is a dog year equals 7 human years valid?

3. Which animal lives about as long as a human?

If you got all three correct, you are on your way to becoming a champion in animal health. If you had problems, you had better look over the material again.

What do you think?

Do you have any questions, comments, or opinions on this subject? If so, send an email with your feedback. We will try to get back to you as soon as possible.

Share link

Feel free to establish a link from your website to pages in this site.

Or use our form to send this link to yourself or a friend.

Students and researchers

The Web address of this page is
www.school-for-champions.com/animalhealth/animal_ages.htm. Please include it as a reference in your report, document, or thesis.

Where can you go from here?

School for Champions

Animal Health Topics

Comparison of Animal Ages

The School for Champions helps you become the type of person that can be can be called a Champion.