# growth spurt?



## devianthellcat (Sep 9, 2005)

Hey, I was just wondering..around what age do cat's usually have growth spurts? We have a 3 year old cat and it seems like he just gained about 5 pounds all of a sudden, like in a matter of a week...If I didn't know any better, I'd say he was pregnant..lol..we did get two baby ferrets recently and have been paying alot of attention to them so could some of it be from the transition from playing with a little baby ferret to an older adult cat?


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## nanook (Jun 12, 2005)

Sounds like it's the kind of growth spurt from too much food  Cats usually finish most of their growing by about 1 year. Once I had a cat who, at the age of about 5, I turned around one day and it looked like he had swallowed a basketball! LOL I couldn't believe it. You may want to try to get him on a wet food diet if he's on dry. At least mostly wet as dry is full of carbs and very fattening (even the so called diet kinds). And if you're free feeding I found giving 2-3 mealtimes instead really helped. And, if necessary, cut down on the amount. You'll probably also find he eats a lot less on wet food. Hope that helps
Oh, and make sure you don't forget to give him attention too! Some extra playtime can do wonders.


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## badet (Oct 7, 2005)

I tried to cut back the food I give to my kitty but she cries a lot when she doesn't have food anymore. Should I just ignore the cries? Because right now I give her a little bit of food when she cries. She is just 5 months old.


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## nanook (Jun 12, 2005)

At 5 months I would still give her as much food as she wants. She's still growing and needs a lot of calories. When my cats were kittens I free fed them until they were around a year. Then I gradually switched them to 3 meals a day. If you're not free feeding you may want to consider feeding her more often or leaving more food out just because if she gets used to getting fed everytime she cries it could be a very annoying habit later on. Oh, an she is on kitten formula right?


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