Have you ever wondered how long can a cat go without food or water?
This article will give you the answers you need!
Food and water are essential for the life of all mammals, including cats. Regardless of their age or breed, cats need to drink water and eat cat food every day to stay healthy and live a long life. Unfortunately, in some situations, cats don’t want to eat or drink and you can’t really force them. It is a sign that something is wrong and you should never neglect this type of behavior with your cat.
How Long Can A Cat Go Without Eating Or Drinking?
Indoor Cats Vs. Wild Cats
Wild cats are used to finding their own food and water, which adapted them to go without either food or water for some time. This influences the lifespan of the cats living in the wild. But indoor cats cannot go without food or water as long as wild cats and they aren’t used to surviving on a wildlife diet.
What Happens If A Cat Doesn’t Eat?
All cats will experience the same symptoms when they are deprived of food. Their organism will turn to body fat as its way to find energy. This process is helped by the liver. But if the liver isn’t getting enough protein, it isn’t able to function properly. That can also lead to liver failure, which means your cat living in captivity will be in fatal danger.
How Long Can Cats Go Without Food?
There is no definite answer to this question that can apply to every single cat out there. It depends on a few different factors but on an average cats can go a week or two without food.
Other Essential Factors
Some other factors that contribute to the cat’s survival rate when they are deprived of food are their age, emotional state, genetics. Older cats won’t survive as long as the younger cats. It also highly depends on the amount of water they are drinking. It also depends on their activity level- the more active they are the less time they can go without food.
What Happens If Cat Isn’t Drinking Water?
If your cat isn’t getting enough or any water, it will become dehydrated and it influences on kidneys so it’s good to be informed also about how long can cat live with kidney failure. Without enough water cats also don’t get enough minerals in it which can have a detrimental effect on your cat’s health. When your cat gets too dehydrated, your cat might start to get constipated, vomit, and start to experience organ failure as well. Dehydration can also happen due to losing a lot of fluids through urinating or high physical activity.
How Long Can A Cat Survive Without Water?
Even though nutrition is important for cats, water is essential. Usually, no cat can go without water for more than 3 to 4 days when organ failure occurs. Unfortunately, cats don’t have a very strong sense of dehydration which is why it is important to make sure your cat is getting enough fluids.
What To Do If Your Cat Isn’t Eating Or Drinking?
Contact The Vet
If you notice your cat not eating or drinking, it might be good to take him or her to the vet. There they can do some testing a determine whether or not your cat has any health problems. It can happen for a variety of reasons which don’t include health problems, such as stressful surroundings, the presence of a new animal in the house, or even a new and unfamiliar furniture piece. In that case, you can purchase a natural cat tree where your cat will feel comfortable.
Other Tips
Aside from contacting the vet, there are a few other things you can try to do and see if they help. Feeding your cat’s wet canned food makes them survive longer without water as that food is high in moisture. You can try getting them a drinking fountain or even a bottle and see if they prefer to drink their water that way.
To Sum Up
Malnourishment and dehydration can have fatal consequences for your cat, which is why it is important to monitor their eating and drinking habits. If you notice your cat stopped eating and drinking, you can try some of the tips we give in this article, but we highly recommend you contact your vet first. If you want to make sure you know whether or not your cat is eating even when you aren’t at home, read this article where we reviewed the best indoor pet cameras. If you want to treat your cat when they do something good, you need one of the cat cameras to treat dispensers, which we discuss all in this article.
