When will he stop growing?

I got Matt from the shelter in February...as an 8.6lb 2yr old stray he was skinny but healthy a great playful laid back cat.here he is then.


as of the 20thof this month when i had him chipped, matt was 13.86lbs and since then I have had to loosen his collar (which i bought that day) so he must have topped 14lbs now. When will he stop growing? this is him now....

He most likely is through growing, he's just at a healthy weight for his size now. He's a big cat so I would'nt be surprised to see him get a little heavier.

He was already finished growing since he was 2 yrs old when adopted.  Now he's just filled out.  If you're concerned about his weight, you can talk with your vet and set up a weight reduction/maintenance plan or just cut back a bit on dry food.
 

Definitly talk to your vet.  It's hard to tell how big Matt is from just one picture,  and it could be that his weight is just  right for his size.  Only a vet can tell you for sure.

He does appear to be getting a little chunky. Talk to your vet about what a good weight is for him. You may also have to change how you feed him if you're free feeding. Some cats don't do well at self regulating and will just eat eat eat out of boredom.

The vet  said he was perfect when he weighed in at 11.6 in April... still slim then but muscular. i gave him wet food (EVO,Hollistic Blend, Californianatural) during the summer to help keep him hydrated...he was starting to get a little pudgy then, I thought maybe wet instead of dry would help. But I have a hard time regulating how much of that he eats, since the cans are so big and wet is harder to measure. the label said 1/2 can per 6-8lbs body weight, so i gave him about that and a little less than half his dry alottment to keep him in between meals. i feed am and pm. at the time i started this, he was 12lbs. I am thinking about weaning him off the wet, down to half his dry and a3oz can per dayinstead ofthe5-6oz he's had.  He has a preference for dry, and doesn't always eat the wet if it's the wrong temperature, so 3oz cans might be better anyway.....i got fancy feast fish flavoured package to see how he takes the reduction this week and if it works I'll buy the better stuff in 5.5oz cans to be eaten over 2 days I think.

Hi

IMHO he will be way better off on wet only, if you can afford...... As a male cat, that is the safest diet you can give for his urinary tract, and in the long run, for his kidneys. Overall, for a cat really.... It is just better all the way around :nod:

Also, if you want him to lose weight, or maintain, then you really want to cut the dry and leave him on wet - Dry is carbs and calorie packed -while wet has more meat, and generally much less carbs...

The information on the can is generally on the higher side though..... You are better off feeding by calorie - 20 calories per lb of ideal weight. So, if his ideal weight is 12lbs, then you'd feed 240cal a day.
You can get that amount of calories in dry food in not time...... which is why it is so easy to pack up some pounds :nod:

I wonder, if I started eating wet cat food if it would help my kidney and bladder problems  Or would it not, because I am an inferior species to cats.

catspaw66 said:

I wonder, if I started eating wet cat food if it would help my kidney and bladder problems  Or would it not, because I am an inferior species to cats.

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Perhaps - I am luck on that department...... I am known to have attacked my kitties' freezer a time or two in the past when I was feeling like a little lamb or rabbit If that helped with my kidney health, I don't know, but for sure it was tasty :lol3:

I agree with cutting out the dry. There is an easy way to keep track of how much you feed him each day. Measure out the correct amount he is to be fed for the day, store it in a glass pyrex food container, in the fridge, and feed from that, only, for the day. If it is less than one whole can, store the remainder in another storage container and use the left over, plus some from a new cat the next day, and so on.

If he continues to gain weight, cut back slightly on the amount. Cats should lose weight very very slowly. No more than 1/4 pound a week.

I have three cats, each on different diets and different amounts. I use these:


I do weight my cats every 7 - 10 days.

I use this scale:


PS What a gorgeous Red Boy Matt is! :heart3: You are smart to care about keeping him at a healthy weight. Remember, that exercise is very important, too. Play several sessions of interactive Games with him every day. The more you play with him, the more he will play by himself, too. And put a bird feeder out side near a favorite window, that also will stimulate him to be active.

Good point on the slow weight loss and the scale otto..... I also weigh my cats once a week on a baby scale.....
My vet told me it is safe 1lb/month, so 4oz/week - no more than that..... Unfortunately Bugsy has other ideas, losing way, way slower than that :doh3:

Carolina said:

Good point on the slow weight loss and the scale otto..... I also weigh my cats once a week on a baby scale.....
My vet told me it is safe 1lb/month, so 4oz/week - no more than that..... Unfortunately Bugsy has other ideas, losing way, way slower than that :doh3:

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I made a mistake. I mean to say 1/4 pound a week. Which is 4 ounces. I have edited my post.

otto said:

I made a mistake. I mean to say 1/4 pound a week. Which is 4 ounces. I have edited my post.

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Yeah.... That's what my vet says - Don't you just wish the CATS understood the vets though? :lol3:

Everyone is right, he's definitely stopped growing. If your vet said 11lbs is perfect then that's your goal. :-)
If he already eats 5-6oz of wet each day then you are in luck! Cut out the dry and you should be golden; 5-6oz is all the average cat needs to maintain a healthy weight. Since he is closer to 14lbs now, I might feed him 7oz per day, especially since he's used to eating so much food. IMO, I wouldn't try to slowly take away the dry because that might make him get stubborn and start to refuse wet. Just donate it all to a shelter because if its around, he'll know! They can smell it through cubbards!!

Thanks everyone....I'm going to take him off the big cans of food(they're harder for me to keeptrack of what I feed him) and start buying smaller cans. he can have one 5.5 oz or two 3oz cans/day. now all i have to do is work out a feeding schedule, now that we're getting up early for school and he's used to getting fed when we get up. He's used to feeding every4 hours and this is not a whole lot of food to spread throughout the day. he's starving in themorning without the dry food to old him overnight, so he's waking me up for breakfast at 5am and wolfing a full oz can right then and there...then wants his breakfast at 8 which was his old time lol.  i usually  feed him lunch, supper and again at bedtime.....but there's no way 6oz is going to split that many ways.....so some meals will have to go.

Dry food was so uch  easier..I only fed him twice a day

I feed 1/16 can at a time for one of my cats. The cans are six ounce cans so she is getting .375 ounces a serving. The other two get usually 1/8 can at a time, or .75 ounces, per serving.

I feed these small servings every 15 minutes to half hour, during the three meal times. Meal times span 1 1/2 hours usually, morning, evening and bedtime. Each meal time total, depending on the time of day (and cat) is between 1.5 and 2 ounces. And the end of the day, the cats have had, depending on the cat, 3.75 ounces, 4.5 ounces, and 5.25 ounces.

You can add a little water to these small servings, to slow kitty down, and to help him feel fuller.

Thanks OTTO that's great..Matt prefers a little water in his pate...in fact he won't touch it right out of the can, so this plan sounds like it could work. 

who knew can feeding could be so complicated? lol

My last  was a grazer...i just put a bowl of food down, made sure she never saw the bottom and she was good.....no worries lol. But this guy needs constant supervision to make sure he doesn't wolf  it back too fast....watering down a patee seems the best way to go, since he laps it up and stays hydrated. Pls he's got an aversion to something in the dry foods

I might need to start adding water to Grim's food. He wolfs his food down and then comes back meowing tome...

Jennie gets water added, to slow her down and help her feel fuller. She has never lost her food anxiety, from being on her own and raising a family all by herself, even though she's been forever home with me for almost 5 years now.

This is what she looked like the day she came forever home:



She was five pounds, estimated age 1 1/2 years. Now she is 9 pounds 11 ounces and thinks she should be even fatter than that. :lol3:

 I like to add water to Matt's food too. He won't eat a straight patee anymore lol. He was a stray before I adopted him, so I'm sure the empty bowls worry him as much as any cat who knows the meaning of hunger......but he's really good at begging, so i have to be stubborn. Lately(since I cut him back) he comes to the kitchen to play pathetic every time i go in there. It's getting really annoying. I might set a clock and get him used to being fed on the sound of the alarm.....