What kind of scale to buy?

I don't know where to post this, but I know you kitten people use scales to track the growth of kittens and such so I'm trying here first. Sorry if it's the wrong forum...

I was thinking of getting a scale to keep track of my cat's weight, because she lost a pound between the time we adopted her in January and a few weeks ago when I had her at the vet again. The vet didn't seem concerned about it though, but I am a bit. So I want a scale so I can make sure she's doing ok weight-wise and call the vet if she loses any more.

What kind of scale is good for a cat, where can I get one and how much do they cost?

Thanks!!

You can get a baby scale. Biggest problem is getting the kitten/cat to stay still enough to weigh them.

My adults cats get weighed by me holding them and stepping on the bathroom scale, remember the number, then putting them down and resetting it and weighing myself.......then subtract the two numbers. It gives a fairly accurate weight that way.

This is the one I use:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._ya_oh_product

I weight my crew at least every 2 months. Weight loss can be an early sign of illness and I want to nip excessive weight gain in the bud before it gets out of control.

Thanks for the fast responses!

Yeah, I guess i could do the weigh myself with cat then weigh myself without cat thing too... Should've thought of that first!

Originally Posted by mschauer

This is the one I use:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._ya_oh_product

I weight my crew at least every 2 months. Weight loss can be an early sign of illness and I want to nip excessive weight gain in the bud before it gets out of control.

Click to expand...

I have a very similar scale, I find it more accurate than my digital grown up people scale.

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

You can get a baby scale. Biggest problem is getting the kitten/cat to stay still enough to weigh them.

My adults cats get weighed by me holding them and stepping on the bathroom scale, remember the number, then putting them down and resetting it and weighing myself.......then subtract the two numbers. It gives a fairly accurate weight that way.

Click to expand...

That's exactly how I do it - it doesn't matter if the scale is that accurate, because you are subtracting the numbers right then and there. I have tested doing this before taking the cats to the vet the same day, and the weight was the same. IMO this is an easy and cheap way to do it

Well then it's settled. I shall just have to do the math if I want to know my G-cat's weight. I really don't know why I didn't think of that before, that's how I weigh boxes when I send something FedEx..

Thank you everyone!

Originally Posted by carolinalima

That's exactly how I do it - it doesn't matter if the scale is that accurate, because you are subtracting the numbers right then and there. I have tested doing this before taking the cats to the vet the same day, and the weight was the same. IMO this is an easy and cheap way to do it

Click to expand...

I've tried it both ways and I get much more accurate and consistent results with a baby scale. But that may be the fault of my bathroom scale.

It's easy to get mine to be still long enough to weigh them. I just put a couple of Greenies on the scale. They quite happily stay put for as long as it takes to eat them!

Originally Posted by DarkMavis

I don't know where to post this, but I know you kitten people use scales to track the growth of kittens and such so I'm trying here first. Sorry if it's the wrong forum...

I was thinking of getting a scale to keep track of my cat's weight, because she lost a pound between the time we adopted her in January and a few weeks ago when I had her at the vet again. The vet didn't seem concerned about it though, but I am a bit. So I want a scale so I can make sure she's doing ok weight-wise and call the vet if she loses any more.

What kind of scale is good for a cat, where can I get one and how much do they cost?

Thanks!!

Click to expand...

Surprisingly, you can find baby scales at garage sales. I only paid five dollars for mine and weigh my cats weekly.

Originally Posted by mschauer

This is the one I use:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._ya_oh_product

I weight my crew at least every 2 months. Weight loss can be an early sign of illness and I want to nip excessive weight gain in the bud before it gets out of control.

Click to expand...

Yep, I've got that one, too. I hope those guys are giving Dr. Pierson a commission on every scale they sell.

As for the cat/baby scale vs. the bathroom scale, well it depends on what you need. On a bathroom scale, you'll have +/- 0.5 pounds (with cat) on the first measurement and +/- 0.5 on the second (without cat), so you could easily see a difference of +/- 1 pound between measurements just because of random error. With the baby scale, you're doing a single measurement and, depending on the type of scale, it will be accurate to within 0.5-1 ounce. That's not to say the bathroom scale isn't useful. I think it's plenty if you just want to weigh your cats every month or two to make sure they're not gaining or losing. But for more accurate tracking or seeing the difference between a kitten that weighs 10 oz. or 14 oz., you pretty much have to have a baby scale.

To give an example, here are some numbers I posted on my "Tiny" weight loss thread. I weighed my cats on the bathroom scale and got these numbers:

Tiny – 19lbs; Thufir – 16lbs; Tre – 9.5lbs; Promise – 7lbs

Six days later, I weighed them on the baby scale and got:

Tiny – 18lbs-4oz; Thufir – 17lbs-4oz; Tre – 10lbs-9oz; Promise – 8lbs-7.5oz.

So using the bathroom scale, I was off by almost a pound and a half in some cases.