Smaller Than Her Littermates?

[emmaandaria]

So, we added to out family last summer. My partner's mom found a momma cat and her babies that someone abandoned in a box at a tacobell drive-through. It took a couple days to rescue them because the babies were scared (Momma was friendly and happy to go, but the babies would hide) but she brought them home. The mom weaned them towards the earlier side of things and they hadnt had the best nutrition. So when the kittens were old enough, we brought Evie home. Now shes getting close to a year old. I was satisfied with her growth, she looks healthy. Small, but I thought cats don't finish their growth in one year. Then I saw her littermates. They seem full sized and filled out (maybe a little fat, but I mean more their growth) and look like adult cats. Now I'm worried that I have gotten her health needs wrong. She eats really well. We buy grain free food, and she gets 3 oz of wet food a day and free feeds from nice bowl of Blue Wilderness Kitten Food (chicken recipe). We don't limit her intake because neither of our cats have a problem with over eating. Their wetfood (we've been exploring different kinds recently) used to be "I and Love and You" chicken pate and they had a morsels one that Evie liked. Recently they've tried Nutrisca and Weruva, but largely have an obsession with Wellness Healthy Indulgence Morsels in chicken and chicken liver. My cats are obsessed with chicken and snub their noses at certain proteins.

Are her littermates larger because they eat whatever is affordable/cheap at TSC? Or am I going wrong somewhere with her nutrition?

 

[denice]

All kitties are different. Kittens in the same litter can have different father's. Even with the same parents the genes can still be different within a litter. If she is healthy I wouldn't be concerned . The other kitties could be overweight because of their diet. Cats, particularly young ones are generally supposed to be pretty lean.

 

[emmaandaria]

Thank you, Denice. My cats mean the world to me, so I couldn't help but be worried. She is on the lean side, but she looks healthy according to those charts for knowing if shes under or overweight. I can tell she's still growing, her legs are a little too long, but her body has been catching up. Her pictures from even a month ago show a difference. As long as she is healthy and happy, that's all I want .

I didn't think about genetics, but that could explain things. Most of her littermates were black or black and white except a couple, one was tiger striped and I think the other was grey.