Realistic Cat Behavior: Aging and Responsibility
So this will be based on a post I made forever ago on an old worldbuilding forum made by @sparrowminder called Feline Fiction. Canon has ridiculously unrealistic ways of dealing with kittens and aging. First off they often have kittens speaking straight after birth or close to it, or kittens opening their eyes and being able to walk very early. Fun fact, thats not how it works. And it has always bothered me how the fandom sees elders, making warriors retire earlier than necessary. So I’ve compiled a post discussing realistic aging and maturity levels.
Before going into this discussion, it’s important to address some misconceptions about aging.
People like to point out that the average lifespan for feral cats is 5 to 7 years. However that is… flawed. See, when average lifespans are calculated, they usually include things like infant mortality. This is very important, as in most feral populations, the average kitten mortality rate in the first year alone, without human assistance, is of about 50%. So imagine how that might push down the average lifespan.
Another thing to consider, is if these numbers refer to cats who are mostly alone, in small groups, when compared to colonies. Life expectancy within colonies is generally a lot better, because it addresses a few of the main issues affecting cats: availability of food, and protection from predators. Alone, cats do indeed seem to have an average lifespan between 1-5 years, but colony cats live between 3-10 years, with some surviving even past that.
Now I mention colonies, because here is how I see it. Clans are a group of cats coexisting and working to serve and protect each other. Sure there will be plenty of deaths, and not that many cats will live to be elders, but because they are in a solid group which is not competing within itself (and also does not include many practices of true cats such as males killing kits or fighting for territory or what not) their lifespan and quality of life would be greatly improved. Now when you also consider medicine cats, which depending on your worldbuilding may have varying degrees of actual potency and effect on sickness, this quality of life also improves. Not to mention, as battered as cats are, they are unlikely to show signs of old age necessarily until at least 8 or so years, when they begin to enter later middle age. So while you may have plenty of cats who die of other issues, dying of old age is unlikely to happen until around 10 or so… maybe even later.
Part of this takes into account how cats die. In canon Shadowclan is more likely to lose cats to disease, and Windclan, due to its less common prey, to malnutrition and lack of food. Thunderclan seems to be more likely to get in fights and have predators around. These factors would contribute to what lifespan your clan has and what ways your cats are most likely to die.
This is incredibly important for how you treat ages and length of life for cats. It affects things from when does you clan start training kits, to when do they decide a warrior is considered a senior warrior, to when they encourage cats to retire, and even when they decide a cat is old enough or has enough experience to become deputy or leader.
Now with that settled, we can move on to discussing aging.
As part of my forums I have a simple guide to aging for kits, but for this guide I will attempt to be more specific.
At Birth: Kittens are born blind and deaf, with their ears folded to their heads, the only things they understand are instincts, the need for food, the scent of their mother and siblings. They cannot regulate their body temperature, which means they in danger if it is too hot or too cold, their mother is what keeps them warm. All they do eat, poop and sleep. Unfortunately mothers have to clean up after them, and groom them often. They have very little control over their movements.
1-2 weeks: Kittens have begun to open their eyes and ears around the days 7-10, though they are still almost functionally blind and deaf. Kittens eyes cannot dilate, so drastic changes in light would be dangerous. They should have increased dramatically in weight, doubling at the very least from birth weight. The mother is still most responsible for the kittens temperature, although they can now be absent from their kittens for small bits of time.
2-3 weeks: Their ear canals open around week 3, but it still takes time for them to recognize new sounds and equate them with specifics. They begin to have better coordination, enough to start jerkily walking, but its not for very long. At this point they begin to recognize their siblings. Towards the end they begin to communicate with their family with purring and other noises beyond just kitten mews. They no longer need their mother to clean up after them, and have slightly better control over their guts.
Week 4: At this point their sense of smell is fully developed, and they are better at walking without falling all over the place. They begin to form social ties with siblings, and have preferences among them.
While everyone may have their own ideas, I have decided in order to have a better idea of how to write and roleplay kittens, to designate the first full moon/month as the human equivalent of 0-2 years of age.
Weeks 4-8: Early on they begin teething, and as their teeth grow in, mothers begin weaning their kits. By the end of this period the kits should be almost completely weaned, and their teeth grown in, although some may still suckly occasionally. During this period, adult eye color should become obvious, and should be completely settled near the end or early into the third moon/month. During this moon, kittens become their typical playful selves, tumbling all over the place, and begin to learn many social and body language cues, displaying them while playing.
My human age equivalent is 2-4 years.
Month 3: Kittens are pushing their limits physically, and rapidly learning independence and how to act in social situations. This is when training and education on clan matters and life could begin, though in short bursts since they are still developing and very sporadic with energy and attention span. They will begin clawing to scent mark.
Human equivalent 4-6 years.
Month 4-6: There is a lot of growing, both physically and mentally. This is the prime time for teaching kits about clan ways and laws, as kits are more able to easily adapt and learn. They are beginning to reach a decent size, about ⅔ to ¾ the size of adults. For some kits, this may be  the time they reach sexual maturity.
Human equivalent 6-12 years.
Here is another chart, with slightly different calculations, which can be very useful as a visual aid for aging.
I would tentatively call this a cat’s adolescence, which fits in really well with how apprenticeship works. A good average for when cats reach full maturity and adulthood is around 12 months, 1 year. At this point their general adult personality is fully developed. Of course feral cats are often independently living from theirs mother between 5-7 months old, but there is a difference between capability to live independently and maturity.
For clans, cats have the opportunity, the ability, to learn and to mature at their own rate. They learn skills in a highly specialized way. They are likely to have far more ability than feral cats just from training, and the time to develop their skills without starving or being exposed to as many dangers. They dont have to grow up as fast as feral cats, but they learn skills which allow them to live in a group and care for and protect them. Feral cats have the standard of survival, clan cats must learn how to live in community and by their rules.
As the chart above explains, there are many years in which a warrior can serve his clan faithfully. However, they likely serve in different capacities during this time. Of course it depends exactly how you decide to build and structure your clan, but just as we as humans have different imes in our lives where we do different things, I wouldnt be surprised if the clans had something similar.
This can be something as simple as young warriors, warriors, and senior warriors. Where they all have different levels of responsibility, when they are allowed or expected to mentor apprentices or help raise kits, or when they are leading patrols or helping around camp or being involved in leadership.
Here is where I find most issue with the way both the fandom and canon deals with age. In general ages for characters, particularly high positions, skews to be very young, but for elders it is often the same, too young to be realistically old.
I see people putting their elders at 60 or 70 moons, which, as I mentioned at the beginning makes little to no sense when you look at how aging really works for cats.
Personally, I change this by making my cats elders at the youngest at 85 moons, but more commonly in the 90s or early 100s moons. To be fair, 85-95 moons is a decent range, when you take into account that these cats have lived vigorous lives and would be more likely to develop arthritis or what have you from overworking their bodies.
However, this is something that depends on your worldbuilding. You could make elders younger if cats have a tendency to die very young due to disease or what not. This also isnt counting cats who had injuries which they elected to retire to an elder position. This count is for the most part for cats who have reached an advanced age and decide to enter a period of rest and be around camp more.
Not every elder has to be a creaky ancient codger who is always in pain, they might be a cat who has decided to take on teaching younger cats or advising the leader full time. But they should have at least reached some threshold decided by the clan about what constitutes an elder.
Now that we have discussed all that, what are some practical questions to bring up for your own clans.
What is the average survival rate of kits in your clan?
What is considered the average lifespan in your clan (not counting kit deaths)?
What are the most common ways that cats die?
When do kits first begin to understand the world around them?
When do they begin to talk?
When are they allowed to leave the nursery/explore?
Who are they most likely to be in contact with? (Mother, other caretakers, littermaters)
Who educates the kits and when do they start?
How is it determined if a kit is ready to be apprenticed? Is it simply age or other factors?
How is progress determined in an apprenticeship? Through goals? Through responsibility and trust? Through maturity?
How does the clan decide when an apprentice is ready to become a warrior?
How are new/young warriors treated in the clan?
Do they have restricted privileges/requirements they need to meet? (Maybe a required [period of service to the clan like some countries have required military service)
At what age is it considered appropriate for them to have kits?
At what age is it considered appropriate for a warrior to become a mentor?
At what age are cats eligible for certain positions in the clan? (deputy, medicine cat apprentice, senior warrior)
At what age are cats eligible to become elders?
Im sure there are more, but this is what Ive come up with now. Hope you guys enjoy!
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