Ideal weight for cat

Here's a couple of charts:





I couldn't get shots of our kitties from the side because they wouldn't stand still long enough, but around dinner or just after I got them from the top.

Flowerbelle - a little bit on the thin side:

Ming Loy - chubby, but the vet isn't overly concerned:

Spooky - she's actually ideal right now:

Tuxedo - he's just high of ideal, but we still want a little more weight on him because of his problems with anemia in the past:

Lazlo - this pic is a little misleading because he's hunkered on his front haunches eating. But he's long, tall, and lean!

Shelly - same frame size as Lazlo. He's also in great shape:

Finally, Billy - our little piggy, who needs to lose weight:

...but this is what Bill used to look like - and this is after we'd been feeding him, his brother and sister outside for several months, poor guy:

You. Are. The. BEST.

I've been trying to keep an eye on Soph because the vet warned that she might put on weight a lot easier after her spay (and I'm in the process of adjusting her diet) - this is SO helpful. She looks pudgy to me sometimes, but based on both your photos and the charts, I'm thinking it's just the way she likes to sit most of the time (all smooshed together with her paws curled up to her chest) and I'm overreacting as usual.

Seriously, my post count would be 10x what it is if you guys and gals weren't always answering my questions before I ask them!

Thank you for the charts but for those looking at said charts... Please discuss it with your vet as they do know the difference between a fat pad and a fat cat , many of us do not.

at129, if you come back to this thread, I found out something really interesting when I was tracking down the charts. According to the information on Hills (Science Diet company) thread, according to them, a spayed/neutered cat requires 1/3 of the calories of a cat that hasn't been sterilized. Again, something to discuss with the vet (though I figure Hill's does know what they're talking about here).

i wish they'd show images with fur! Neko seems to be around a 5; however, I do not see an abdominal tuck. It's that fur We'll keep her diet the same until she sees the vet, which knock on wood, won't be until June!

Autumn looks like a 5-7 depending on how she stands, but actually needs to put on weight so it is just a norm, she just has a tummy from too many kittens but you can feel her ribs through her fur, but Bumps and Mags are clear 7s according to the chart and vet

Originally Posted by sharky

Please discuss it with your vet as they do know the difference between a fat pad and a fat cat , many of us do not.

Click to expand...

Exactly! I have one who would look like the obese body type from the side. He's not. In the past Sho was overweight, I got his weight down... and now he has some excess skin flab and a fat pad. Flabby cat. If you feel, you can tell where his waist is and that he's actually around a 5 body type.

All of my cats have fat pads but vets have never complained about that.

Sherman appears to be an 8 due to fur. Siri is a little fat - but she has one of the shortest bodies I've ever seen on a cat. And Boo, and outside boy, is a 7 in his winter bulk up.


Ultimately, discuss it with your vet. Each cat has their ideal and some cats will have a lot of muscle on them, too. (as my Boo does)

I truly think Hobo is a seven, could even be an eight.

Awesome chart! Thanks for posting.

I have a question for you, how do you feed all seven? Do you give them all the same food (with 7 dishes)? Separate them?

I have three right now and I'm having problems because one is too thin, the other is ideal but loves to eat and tries to steal food from others and one that is too heavy who is on a monitored portion set diet.

We've been separating the ideal weight cat so she doesn't steal anyone's food, but we would like to feed them altogether if possible. Any suggestions?

Thankfully you haven't posted a chart for humans!

They should post another chart for people with long-haired / fluffy cats.

I believe my kitten Magnus is normal weight (he's 9 months old though, and I he keeps changing his looks every week as he's growing) but I can never see a "visible waist" from above due to fluff.

But I can feel ribs and spine if I pet him (not as in he's too bony but as in he's not flabby). I keep checking his tummy though because he has a huge appetite and I want to make sure he does not gain too much weight (My last (RIP) cat Harley was probably a 7 or even an 8 unfortunately, due to me being ignorant about nutrition originally, and then it was hard to get him to lose weight after I figured out I was feeding him wrong). So I am trying to keep an eye on him to make sure he does not get too fat. (but I want him to get enough food too!). It's hard as he begs for food all the time (right now he gets 5.5 oz of wet plus another couple of ounces of raw a day).

A photo from a couple of weeks ago. He's 9 lbs something.... When he stretches out I an see his waist. 



Otherwise, it's just fluff.....





My (RIP) Harley Cat. He was a big guy. At his height he was 19 lbs. I had gotten him to 17 lbs with dieting (he should have been 16 or 15 lbs according to the vet). When he originally started losing weight I thought his diet was finally working but then it turned out to be cancer. He got down to 13 lbs. when he died and he was horribly bony, particularly around his waist and hips.

Here he is when he was fat (but healthy - he never had any major health problems despite his weight (prior to getting cancer anyway), except for some constipation, which I was able to fix with more wet to his diet when I realized he was eating too much dry).

Miss the big guy I'm guessing he was an 8 on the weight scale.

He originally gained weight when I moved from a townhouse (with stairs) to a two room efficiency. I think it was a combination of less exercise plus me free-feeding him dry food that did him in. Then I moved to a bigger space but at that point he was just lazy





Here he is when he was a lanky kitten (about six or seven months):

Oh, Lynette, your Magnus reminds me so much of my Stinkpot, even down to the way he lays on his back there in that one pix .  And I know just what you mean about trying figure out their size under all that fur!  And your Harley was a beautiful boy .

Violet, I've got the same issue here, with 4.  They each have their own bowls, but they don't stick to them.  Sometimes the piggy starts going around to the others' and runs them off, so i just try to stick around while they are eating and run interference.  (not always easy with 4 of 'em!!)

lol Stinkpot. I will go check out your photos.

I am looking at my guy now and he looks bigger this week.

I can't tell....

redvelvetone said:

lol Stinkpot. I will go check out your photos.

I am looking at my guy now and he looks bigger this week.

I can't tell....

Click to expand...

Check out the very last post in this thread:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/240134/post-pics-of-your-floofy-tails-with-their-tails-all-floofed'

That's my little guy.  (Sadly, I don't post very many pictures)

Oh I see what you mean. Yes, he does look pretty similar to my boy. Except mine has a few white hairs on his chest. I commented on your photo album too

redvelvetone said:

Oh I see what you mean. Yes, he does look pretty similar to my boy. Except mine has a few white hairs on his chest. I commented on your photo album too

Click to expand...

He's got a white spot on his belly, and some white hairs on his chest too.  He turned 3 last month (in answer to your question in "my profile".

redvelvetone said:

They should post another chart for people with long-haired / fluffy cats.

Click to expand...

I was thinking the same.

It might be helpful for some posters as well if we could get someone to give a description of the different body types.

Cobby, foreign, etc

Arlyn said:

I was thinking the same.

It might be helpful for some posters as well if we could get someone to give a description of the different body types.

Cobby, foreign, etc

Click to expand...

That would help. I've gleaned some of this info from reading this site but there's a lot I don't know. Although, if you have a moggie, would this still apply?

redvelvetone said:

That would help. I've gleaned some of this info from reading this site but there's a lot I don't know. Although, if you have a moggie, would this still apply?

Click to expand...

It definitely applies to moggies as well.

I have three moggies, one is cobby, and two are semi-foreign.

The only reason I would think body type would help is that I have often had people tell me that Baby (an average sized cobby) is fat and Jade (a large semi-foreign) is too skinny.

Both are actually at ideal weights for their size and build.

Baby weighs only 9 pounds, Jade weighs 12.

My young male is still a kitten, but I believe he will be a large cat as well, I'm going to predict he'll top out between 15 and 17 pounds.