How heavy is your cat?

[bobb]

Boris the Blade went to the vets on Friday for his jabs etc...

The vet weighed him at 4.5 kg or just under 10lbs in old money. He's 2 and a half.

Vet bloke said that he shouldn't be allowed to get any heavier. I was quite surprised at this as I don't consider 10lbs to be particularly heavy at all for a domestic cat.

He told us to feed him dried food only (he'd normally get a mixture of meaty goodness and dried food).

Blade has eaten hardly anything all weekend as he's clearly turning his nose up at dried food only. He didn't look himself at all this morning.

Is the vet talking bollocks? Or is he just trying to get us to buy him some super expensive magic food from them?

The cat I had when I was a kid weighed in at over a stone! He lived to be 24 years old!

[little miss mac]

Milo is 5kg. He's a big cat, and Burmese are apparently naturally heavy - like they've swallowed a brick. That said, his pal Bertie (not from the same litter or parentage) is a weeny at about 3.5kg or less, from memory.

So it depends on whether your cat is fat, or just built. Is he active and muscly, or a layabout lardarse?

[Woofage]

Our dearly departed Pyewacket tipped the scales around 4.5kg. One vet thought he was borderline obese, another just a big cat. We never agreed with the first. You could tell by looking at him that he was just a big cat.

Would you expect a 6'6" human male to weigh only 10st?

[bobb]

So it depends on whether your cat is fat, or just built. Is he active and muscly, or a layabout lardarse?

He's very active first thing in the morning and during the night - he brings in plenty of "presents". The rest of the time he can be a bit lazy. He's not massive, but he was the biggest kitten in the litter....

Edit: He doesn't actually eat that much either....

[border-rider]

Ol has gone from 3.5 kg to 5 and back to 3.8 in the last 2 years (he was ill) and he's a reasonably skinny lad (now)

Amy went from about 4.5 to about 3.5, and she's small and stout.

Our previous cat weighed in at under 1.5 kg most of her life...

so yeah - depends on build.  If he's squidgy then he's overweight

[Kathy]

Part of it depends on the cat's build. Charlotte's Monty is terribly elegant and lanky, like a siamese. Our Ethel is a somewhat stocky little girl who looks like her legs were amputated at the knees.

Our vet says our cats are a little overweight, but she'd far rather see a neutered and overweight cat than an intact one with a perfect BMI. I like our vet - she talks sense. 

[Mrs Pingu]

Our vet told me (when I enquired about Pippin's weight loss) that you should be able to feel the back bone of a cat at the correct weight.
However, my suspicions were later confirmed as being correct when one of the other vets at the practice diagnosed hyperthyroidism. Since then Pippin has gone back to her previous 'lack of backbone', though she's never been a fat cat.
So I'm happier when I can't feel her backbone from a diagnostic perspective.

I can't remember exactly what she weighs, 4kg I think.

[Charlotte]

Monty was 4.1Kg the last time he was weighed and the vet said he was underweight.  Certainly I can feel the poor little bugger's ribs when I pick him up.

Mind you, he's not well at the moment and is more arthritic than elegant.  When he was younger, he was a big bruiser of a moggy...

[Kathy]

I forgot to say - Ethel The Stocky is about 3.95kg, and Emmie The Dustbin is about 4.10kg.* Ethel is about ten, and Emmie is about five years old. I think Ethel is proportionally more overweight than Emmie, because she has a much smaller skeleton. But both are borderline OK - the vet said not to bother dieting them.

*The only reason I can remember this is because all worming and flea medication comes in packets for "cats up to 4kg" and "cats over 4kg" so I have to buy twice as many packets.  

[Torslanda]

We used to have a tabby'n'white Heinz 57 (which was part Maine Coon -we think) who weighed in at over 14 pounds. He once took umbrage with the vet and kicked over the iron examination trolley!

Great fun was had watching him doing 'vertical take-off' to catch treats/yeast tablets/Wotsits which he never tired of.

Cancer took him ath the age of 12.  We all still miss him.

J

[Riggers]

Can't we have one: "Guess how heavy is your cat"? It's just one of ours, although quite slight in appearance and seemingly friendly, will put up quite a good fight if grabbed and man-handled. She's seems very happy living on the street and following all and sundry around the district, pops in for the odd meal, then sods off again. Actually, she is more friendly to us on the street. Whassgoinon?


Anyway, I'd put her weight at around 1.5 Ilbs. Do I win anything?

[mrcharly-YHT]

My part-burmese is about 4kg, feels solid and healthy.

I once had a part-feral cat in Australia that I weighed at 28lb. He was lean with a big head and shoulders. Used to pick fights with dogs. He was a monster, but nothing compared to the feral that was taking lambs near us. Got shot eventually, and weighed over 60lb.

tbh, you can tell if your cat is overweight. Can't you?

[robbo6]

Can't we have one: "Guess how heavy is your cat"? It's just one of ours, although quite slight in appearance and seemingly friendly, will put up quite a good fight if grabbed and man-handled. She's seems very happy living on the street and following all and sundry around the district, pops in for the odd meal, then sods off again. Actually, she is more friendly to us on the street. Whassgoinon?


Anyway, I'd put her weight at around 1.5 Ilbs. Do I win anything?

How many cats do you have for the size of your house? She could be felling a bit crowded inside.

[Pingu]

tbh, you can tell if your cat is overweight. Can't you?

Not necessarily - if there's a gradual increase in weight it may go unnoticed. Ask eck.

[bobb]

I think some people are mixing their imperial and metric conversions here!! 

I cannot see a 60lb domestic cat catching anything! Let alone standing up!

The only time a domestic cat could weigh 1.5lb would be when it's still a kitten!

The Blade seems to be perking up a bit so I'll try and take a pic and you can decide whether or not you think he's fat 

[Riggers]

I said I was only guessing Bobbers! The bloody cat's not here at the moment. I'm now saying 5kg. Where's my bloody prize?

[epa611]

Charlie: 17yo Siamese = 4kg
Morgan: 7yo DSH bruiser = 6.5kg

Both healthy and happy

[Regulator]

Fat Cat (who used to tease pig dogs for fun) weighed in at 9.6 kg.  When she sat on your lap you knew it.  Her nickname was 'Horse'.

Unfortunately, she died just before we came back from NZ... 

[eck]

tbh, you can tell if your cat is overweight. Can't you?

Not necessarily - if there's a gradual increase in weight it may go unnoticed. Ask eck.

Aye, I hope you're referring to our cat. My own gradual increase hasn't gone unnoticed. 
We always used to feed our cat on demand which, tbh, was quite often, and she did seem to be getting a bit chunky, but we didn't really think she was too bad. At her 2008 MOT, she was 7.3kg, which the vet reckoned was a good 2kg over her ideal weight, and put her at significant risk of diabetes  Since then, she has been given a finite amount of food each day and, at her last weigh-in, she was down to 5.6kg. She's still a big girl though, but she is much more active, grooms herself better etc etc.

[Mrs Pingu]

Right, I found the kitty weigh in sheet (started when Pippin got too skinny).
Before the drugs kicked in Pippin got down as low as 3.8kg, but when i last noted down in Jan she was 4.1kg.
Mojo was weighing around 5.2 - 5.5 kg in the same period.

Big Mojo:


Mojo in the foreground, Pippin in the background, for comparison:


She's only wee really (Pippin):

[rogerzilla]

Josh is about 14lb 

Boo is less than 4lb.

Boo stalks Josh and pounces on him 

[SteveC]

I don't seem to be able to find the latest set of figures, but Wes, our neutered Maine Coon tom is about 10kg.
That is a serious amount of cat to land on your bladder first thing in the morning.
He is fat, but his fighting weight would probably be around the 8kg mark.  Maine Coons are big pussy cats.

S

[Jasmine]

My pair of Maine Coons are currently 3.8 kg  and 4.7 kg, 18 and 20 month females respectively.  The bigger (but younger) one is probably going to get a bit bigger as she came to me underweight due to being bullied by my father's bengals.  She's big, but looks pretty skinny at 4.7 kg.  Her feet are about twice the size of most cats I've ever seen though.  Her daddy was a seriously MASSIVE cat.

[little miss mac]

We need some Maine Coon pics please 

[mrcharly-YHT]

Domestic cats have a huge range of healthy sizes, and they tend to breed to match their environment.

My 28lb cat in oz looked lean. Big, but lean. He took on an Alsatian once - and left it in a mess.

the 60lb feral I referred to was tracked down and shot after it started attacking newborn calves. Initially it was thought to be some sort of puma ('cause of the size) but the corpse was shipped off for identification and confirmed to be a domestic cat.