leaping problems

I have a bengal cat who is about a year old(turns one the 24th), and I've been noticing that he can't leap very high. I have a siamese that can leap from the floor to on top of the refrigerator, and this seems to frustrate my bengal because he wants to be up there as well. One day I found him desperately trying to pull up on the bar that's on the oven so he could get on the stove and then up onto the fridge, but he can't even jump onto the stove, which is not high at all. I'm wondering if anyone else knows anything about this--could there be a balance problem? or something wrong with his hind legs? he runs really fast and is very active, so I'm curious as to why he can't leap. he also seems as if he has a bit of an eye/paw coordination problem, as he can't pin down a fly the way my siamese can. Maybe I'm just expecting too much from him since he is still not a year. Please share if you have any similar experiences--thanks in advance

Hmmmmmm....I would think that your kitty should be able to jump to the stove by now unless he is obese. I'm going to move your thread to the health and nutrition forum to see whether any of the health experts can help.

chum: Hmm. I don't have an explination for this, so someone else can handle that.

Exactly how old is your cat?
Tage was about 6 months old before he could finally jump up on our counters/stove. He's not quiet the avid jumper that Asim is (a bangel/tabby mix). However Asim's sister, now 2 years old, she's part Maine Coon/Tabby, she's a HORRIBLE jumper. She was a lot worse when she was younger as well. We thing she might be a little cross eyed, but I've seen many cross eyed siamese that jump just fine.

Isha will take a long time trying to 'judge' the jump, sometimes she makes it, other times she only gets her front paws up there, and scrambles with her back feet to try and make it the rest of the way up.
She's in perfect phsyical shape, not obesse, very danty on her feet actually.

Well that's just my little story, I don't know if that's like your kitty.

My bengal girl is about 6 months old, and can jump up onto anything under 5' tall or so. She is also good at scaling just about anything, getting her up to the top of just about anything she wants.

Has he always had difficulty jumping, or just more so recently? Perhaps he strained a muscle or something during a play session and is just a little bit sore and not fully healed up? If it doesnt seem to be an injury or anything, maybe try to get out a feather toy, and spend a few minutes every day having him chase it around. See if you can get him to jump up into the air after it. A few weeks of that and I would think his jumping abilities would improve.

All cats are different I have a few persians and some of them jump on everything, some climb and some never, ever leave the ground. Cats have diffrent personalities and abilities. I really think one of my cats is afraid of heights she will not even jump on the couch. And none of my cats are overweight. I would mention it to the vet next time he is in but I would not worry.
Just my thought.
Denise

ceehorn: That is true, the last foster cat I had, zene, never liked to be 'off' the ground, she only recently would jump onto my futon (only but half a foot off the ground) sometimes. And jumped onto a counter once (food drive), she also hates to be held, she just digs her claws right into you to hold on, even when she puts her front paws up on your lap, she does the same thing.

My 2 year old female (Tabatha) was jumping and leaping the moment she came home at 5 weeks, however my 1 year old male cat (Mr. Socks) has never been a big jumper. There's nothing wrong with him, he's just well...a bit more lazy/scared. I don't think you should be worried about it unless your cat seems to limp or looks injured. I agree with CeeHorn....all cats are different.

Debbi