Obviously depends on the other critters in the woods as well. Coyotes or foxes would dramatically shorten its life span.
Any individual cat in the wild has an enormously greater chance of dying from injury or illness before they ever see old age. They have more opportunities to breed before that time comes than domestic cats in general so feral colonies survive. Feral colonies are more than able to sustain cats as a species in the wild but the individual cats don’t live the 15-20 years that domestic house cats do. Far from it.
Their ability to survive as a species in the wild by breeding more rapidly than they die is no indication of how long one individual cat will live in the wild. Any one cat might survive anywhere from a few hours to a few years, not likely ever more than that. That is whether they are a skilled hunter born into a feral colony with a mother to teach them, or a domestic cat dumped on the side of the road after living in a house all their life. A well cared for domestic cat might live up to 25 years.
Cats have all the skills they need to survive instinctively. Mothers may teach their young some hunting skills, but left in the wild instinct will give them all they need to survive. But as others noted, survival in the wild is hard, and I’d think most domesticated animals live much longer on average when being cared for by humans than they would in the wild. Besides the predators, there may be an inconsistent food supply (less of a problem for cats who can survive on very small animals), disease, extreme weather, and a lack of medical care.
We had a beautiful feral cat live on and around our property for many years. She looked like a calico Persian, and she was a prodigious hunter. We managed to capture her to get her spayed after her first litter, but she hated us for it, wouldn’t eat, and we let her back out after she healed. Another cat we had seemed to have a hitch in his instincts. He would stalk a bird with great care, but when he got within leaping distance he would jump straight up in the air, and the bird would take flight. He would look around, pace a bit, and then wander away with that typical cat thing meaning ‘I intended to do that’. He caught mice well, so one bug in his instincts wouldn’t have doomed him to starvation.
When we moved here to RI, there were many feral cats in the area. Coyotes moved into the area soon after, and the feral cats (and some of the house cats) all disappeared. Now there are foxes in the area, and I think they are also keeping the feral cat population down. We haven’t seen as many skunks, geese, ducks, rabbits, or wild turkeys in the area since the foxes moved in. And now there are Fishers in the area too. Life is tough in the wild.
Probably won’t live very long at all. Call it a few weeks before a hazard they don’t understand bites them. Fatally. I’ve taken in a few formerly abandoned to-become-feral cats. Never found one more than 3 years old that could re-adapt to living in a human residence. Hardly ever seen one older than that at all. If (very big If, here) they are successful, they will probably learn to NOT like, nor approach, humans, again. And that was in a city where some people feed them, (including me :(). Put them out in wilderness, and they are dead, quickly. They probably won’t even eat once, let alone breed. Not a good idea. Shoot them yourself. It’s more humane. Although ugly as it gets.
It also depends on the local climate and conditions. One of the biggest challenges a domestic cat gone feral would face is shelter. Cats don’t really have a nesting instinct – they don’t dig burrows, build nests in trees like squirrels, etc. To shelter themselves from a week of driving rain, or feet of snowfall, they depend on human-built structures. Even if they can survive on mice and bird in a jumble of crates in an abandoned alley – how can they rely on finding one? Anyway, catching small animals in an urban or suburban (not rural) setting isn’t very likely. Most urban feral cats just eat human garbage – saw a NOVA episode where feral cats just licked the grease spilled in front a meat market’s garbage. Made me feel sad, but I’m not a cat – he may have really liked that meat grease served on pavement.
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I see I missed the OP’s premise – house cat into woods. Still, like I said, weak nesting instinct in the domestic cat.
Have you ever been to a city outside the U.S.*? There are stray cats everywhere. They do just fine.
(*some U.S. cities, like Los Angeles, do have a fair amount of stray cats too - just not as many as I have seen in foreign countries - I especially remember seeing a lot in Rome & Florence when visiting Italy)
Pretty much true. Ok the indoor-outdoor cat who is car-savvy etc, and know how to hunt may do OK. But the entirely indoor moggie will just get run over or eaten very quickly, unless it gets adopted or picked up.
In the wild, they’d get eaten fairly fast. Now, it’s true that cats can survive in certain wilderness areas just fine. But those are mostly born to the hunting life ferals.
In Australia, there are few cat predators. Here in the USA, in fairly deep wilderness, there are plenty of predators who hunt more effectively or will simply eat the cat. The cat will either starve or be eaten.
Now in certain areas, like in parks or in wild areas in or around cities, feral cats will fit into a nice eco-niche and do fine.
Their whole life! 
Hunting is not instinctive in cats, it is learned. Mother teach kittens to hunt.
Usually, a domestic cat abandoned by its owner will starve, or be killed by stray dogs, raccoons or coyotes.
I see this far too much at Nashville International, where I work.
I urge everyone to take an unwanted pet–cat, dog, or otherwise–to the Humane Society. The chance of adoption is small, but far better than the chances of survival in the wild, which approach zero.
I don’t think so necessarily.
My ex- had a declawed cat that had never spent a day out of doors. When she moved in with me, I got one of those cat harness things so that it could spend some time outside on a long, thin rope. It got used to being outside pretty quickly.
I started letting it out on its own soon after. It started returning with voles within days. And remember–no front claws.
A friend of mine had a cat since it was a kitten. No mother to teach it. It brought back squirrels and rabbits.
I believe cats are instinctive hunters. They crouch, stalk and pounce without ever being taught. They just get better at it through repetition and trial-and-error.
They are instinctive hunters. Hunger and instinct and their health are all they need to start catching food the first day they are outside.
The things their mother teaches them (which is no small advantage) are what makes for good eating, where to find it, what bites back, how to avoid the yard full of dogs nearby, etc. They all have instinctive hunting ability but like any raw ability, it is much more effective if guided by example and experience instead of trial and error.
A lot of the hunting teaching is what we think of as play. When you dangle a fake mouse on a string for the cat to chase, or a laser pointer, or whatever, you’re teaching the cat how to stalk and pounce.
I’m not entirely convinced. We owned a cat once who was a pure house cat (no outdoors). When we had a mouse in the house, she managed to chase it just fine and even corner it behind a piece of furniture. Then she started mewling sadly, clearly having no idea what to do with it. She knew how to chase but had no idea how to kill. I finally set a box down (which it bolted into) and took it outside that way since the cat was confused as hell about the next step in her mousing.
I think the missing element was hunger. If there are easier or more palatable options available it might not occur to her to kill or eat the mouse. But the same hunting instinct that makes it good entertainment just to chase them when well fed would allow her to catch prey outdoors if she had no other options and got hungry. That isn’t to say she would be a successful hunter long term, but she would almost certainly do her best to try.
In my childhood we had a cat who was permitted outside but was mostly inside. One fall day Dad was cleaning out the garden and a number of mice were in a pile of end-of-year garden debris. Said cat had a lovely time all afternoon catching them and depositing them in a line but had no idea what to do next. However, at some point she bit into one and discovered, Hey, there’s MEAT in there! She was also getting hungry at this point, having been engaged in this vigorous activity for hours. She went back and devoured all of her victims in very short order.
Our family adopted a kitten that was still nursing and had to be bottle fed. We kept him indoors for most of his life, but as he got older he wanted to go outside more and more and so we’d let him out during the day.
And yet despite his sheltered upbringing it wasn’t long before I’d see him hanging just outside the screen door, happily munching on his latest prey, usually a field mouse or squirrel. Given how quickly he became a proficient hunter without any outside help makes a strong case for their hunting being largely instinctive.
Domestic cats that go wild have a relatively short lifespan. Even ones that remain in cities don’t last long- feline aids, all manner of parasites plus wounds take care of them very quickly. The above answers that they can live forever are not true. There may be a heap around, but how many were actually bred?
Like all wild animals, all they have to do is live long enough to breed. And breed they do - I live in a city that must have five street cats for every domestic cat, and all of the domestic cats I know were originally found on the street as kittens. They’ve adopted to the urban environment almost as well as humans have.
Cat’s released into the wild suddenly become immortal?! :dubious:
I think the point of the OP is being missed. He/ she asked “How long could a domestic cat survive in the wild?”
Now interpretation of wild could be suburban streets; however I am guessing that the OP meant in the bush.
The other point is the OP is asking about one cat, not a species. Sure the cat possibly could live long enough to breed- obvioulsy heaps did- but the life of the individual cat in my opinion would not be long.