Young Maine Coon, (5-6mnths) joint issue

I recently tried to discover if my adopted cat was a purebred Maine coon. It seems as though all of his qualities meet every single aspect that would allow him for showing. He's about 5-6 months, weighs near 7lbs(doubling the weight of his fellow house mate feline, who's a tuxedo.) Lovey physical appearance and personality. Since reading so many articles about the Maine coon breed I discovered that hip dysplasia often occurs and cow hocked legs is just a result of this displacement. I'm assuming his defect led him to be placed in a shelter. He occasionally does the bunny hop recognized with the anomaly but is still playful, fully active and shows now other signs of problems except he has trouble jumping on objects, such as my bed or couch. I was wandering if anyone had any advice other than surgery or diet regulation due to him being so young?

In dogs hip dysplasia is related to rapid growth and overfeeding. Studies have shown that feeding only two meals a day and feeding less fat slows growth and reduces the risk of hip dysplasia.

You don't want to restrict protein.

I don't know if the same is true for cats, but my last puppy was kept skinny and has not developed hip dysplasia even though her breed is often prone to issues. She went through some stages where her legs looked crooked, and by reducing her feed everything improved.

You want to cut back on food enough to slow growth. High calcium in feed is another trigger. I looked very carefully at calcium phosphorus levels and emailed several feed companies before selecting a food.

I finally ended up feeding Fromm as they give you the correct calcium phosphorus ratio at least for dogs.

Most companies only list minimum calcium levels, but you need to know the maximum to determine if the food is too high in calcium. This means you must email them.

I don't know if this holds true for cats, but both dogs and horses are sensitive to the right calcium and phosphorus ratio during growth. Both overfeeding and having an imbalance lead to bone development problems.

Since your cat has grown so much already, it may be too late to fix through diet. I looked for foods with 1.2 percent calcium or less, for puppies.
http://www.newmanveterinary.com/large.html

My puppy tended to have most growth problems listed here, at one point or another.
http://www.gsdcv.org.au/node/1148

Unfortunately hip dysplasia in cats has not been well studied.