is my little samara growing properly?

lonelykitten

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Samara is 4ish months old and i set her on the meat scale and she is 4 lbs. Samara is "supposedly" a maine coon/ragdoll mix. Her mother was a grey, kinda fluffy cat and the "breeder" would not take the male out of her cattery to show us. The mother, from what I could tell was probably about 9 or 10 lbs and was a ragdoll.

now we don't care what samara is or isn't we love her just the way she is. When we got her she was flea infested and quite underfed and was 8 or 9 weeks old. The vet doesn't seem too concerned and said she is coming along well seeing as how she was when she went in. but i'm worried she's not growing properly because I thought a maine coon or even a ragdoll would be larger at this age.





these are pretty recent pics of her.
 

stephanietx

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You forgot to include a cuteness warning! She's adorable!! Looks like she's doing just fine. She'll gradually put weight on with consistent food and love. Sounds like you rescued her from a less than ideal situation for her. If the "breeder" was reluctant to show you the father of the kitten, I highly suspect they don't know who the father is. If she was as malnourished as you say and flea infested, definitely not any breeder worth their salt. Most quality breeders keep their catteries impeccable.
 

darlili

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Oh, my goodness, she's beautiful - and I love her name - it's exquisite. If the vet isn't worried, and she's lively and eats, sleeps, poos, pees and plays well, I think she's doing beautifully. I'd just keep doing what you're doing, and never fear asking the vet to double check if you're worried about her diet or the quantities you should be feeding...but she looks perfect to me.

It does sound like you rescued her from a less than ideal situation - so perhaps she'll always be a bit on the small size. My Dharma only weighs about 6 pounds, but she's perfect, per the vet - just an itty girl.
 

Willowy

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Do Ragdolls even come in gray? I thought they were a pointed breed.

Anyway, I agree, the breeder sounds BAD. First of all, while I know occasionally a good breeder will have an accident, in general good breeders do not have mixed-breed litters. And a good breeder's cats and kittens are healthy, not infested and sick. So we already know we can't believe much of what that breeder said! She certainly is a darling kitten, though, and I'm sure you all are very happy together, regardless of her early difficulties.

For most kittens, a pound a month is considered on target. So she's just perfect by that standard. If she is supposed to be larger than that and is behind because of early issues, in my experience, she'll catch up eventually, now that she's healthy and well-fed. I've had tiny malnourished kittens turn out to be large strapping young cats, it just takes them a bit longer to get to their full size.
 
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lonelykitten

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well we got her for free off craigslist. The story behind Samara was supposedly the woman breeds ragdolls and maine coons and one of her maine coon males got in with her ragdoll female. We did not see her cattery her daughters dragged a box full of kittens to the front of the house and Samara was the only fluffy non tabbied colored kitten. The only reason we saw the mom was the daughter brought her out front because she was looking for a home as well and it was just a quick glimpse. We almost took Samara's sister too but I just wasn't sure what else besides fleas and being malnourished could be wrong, coming from that situation, and I didn't want to bring home 2 babies and not be able to afford them.

like i said we don't care what she is or isn't we love her regardless. And yes she is very playful, active, eats, drinks, pees poops (hence the name Samara from the movie The Ring, she never sleeps lol).

oh and I just looked and yes ragdolls are all pointed but I did not see mom's front end just back and back was solid grey so not sure if she might have been pointex. but i am not arguing the fact she is not a ragdoll mix as now that i look she really doesn't resemble a ragdoll or maine coon kitten. we just love her for the sparkling individual that she is (and hopes she learns that mommy is not a scratching post).
 

mrblanche

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What a gorgeous little baby!

Sometimes a poor start can stunt a kitten's growth, but Samara seems to be pretty close to average.
 

nekochan

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I don't know what my Maine Coon weighed at 4 months, but she was 5.5-6 pounds at 5 months. I think she was considered smallish for her age and breed as a kitten though. She's 3 years now and 11 pounds which is pretty average for a female Maine Coon.

This site has a weight chart for Maine Coons:
http://www.keoka.com/sie.htm

The guideline I've always read was kittens should gain about a pound per month, although I've had a kitten (Church) who consistently grew TWO pounds a month (and no fat on him) and I thought he'd be a large cat but he slowed down at about 8 months old and only ended up being a 10 pound adult.

If she was malnourished, she may be small for her age but sometimes they catch up. For example I rescued a stray (not feral) kitten once who I thought was maybe 3 months old due to her size, until I realized she had her canine teeth already in! She was under 3 pounds but the vet estimated her age to be 6 months! My sister adopted her and even though she was so tiny and underweight, she did "catch up" and she now weighs about 8-9 pounds as an adult.
 

my4llma

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What a cute little kitten! I was very worried about Midnight's growth when he was very little. He didn't appear to be growing at all. He was 3 weeks old when we got him. I spent 5 weeks thinking something was wrong. The vet wasn't concerned just thought he might have been the runt of the litter. Once Midnight hit 8 weeks old, he grew over night. I picked him up the morning of his 8 week birthday and he was longer, his paws were bigger, his face had changed, he had all his baby teeth or at least more than just his 4 fangs. He's 3 and 1/2 months old now he's a little over 4lbs, and judging by those paws he's going to be huge!

If your vet isn't concerned don't worry, your kitten will hit her growth spurt soon. Considering the way you got her, maybe she isn't exactly what the owners claimed, which doesn't matter your kitten is beautiful. Give her time to reach her full growth she may be huge when she grows up.

Also enjoy her being tiny. I regret all the time I spent worried about Midnight's growth, I never enjoyed him being that small. And their only babies once.
 
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