# Can my kitten get fat?



## sarasaurusrex (Sep 17, 2012)

She is always, I mean _always_, hungry. She's been dewormed three times and is an indoor cat, so I don't think that's an issue. We had been feeding raw, but we're looking for a better supplier at the moment that offers more of a variety so they're not just getting chicken and large animals (beef, mostly). Now we're feeding her high quality, grainfree wet food, about 200g or 7 oz per day. She would happily and easily eat 200g per meal, though, and we feed her 3 times a day. She's 6 months now and has been like this since she was about 10 weeks. I think she's getting pretty chubby, too. Should kittens have flab hanging down between their hind legs? And how can I tell if she is overweight? I can feel her ribs and spine, but there seems to be a lot of extra skin, too.


----------



## scottd (Jun 28, 2011)

Kittens are like little piggies. Generally speaking, you should feed them severals good sized meals a day.

How much does she weigh? If I can recall correctly, she should be about 6lbs.


----------



## sarasaurusrex (Sep 17, 2012)

She's actually not quite 6 months, rather 21 weeks, and I just weighed her and she's 3 kg (about 6.6 lbs). She's not a particularly big kitten. She's still smaller than my cat, who is small and weighs 3.8kg.


----------



## catinthemirror (Jun 28, 2011)

You should be able to feel but not see the ribs, and you shouldn't be able to easily feel her spine, not in a cat that young. If her spine has no muscle/fat layer over top I would definitely start feeding her more. My one cat doesn't have much padding over her spine, but she's 15 years old and I think it's just due to her age and small appetite. If I press down I can just barely feel the spine on my 2 year old cat, and her body condition is perfect. 

Some cats do have a bit of extra skin that can hang down off their belly. I forget what it's called (a pouch?), but it's normal for some cats. If it's just skin then it's not due to your cat being over weight. Look at your cat from above - if they have short fur then you should be able to see a slight tuck in behind the ribs, giving them a waist. No waist means they're over weight, obvious rib bones/spine means they're under weight. If you do a google search for 'cat body condition scale' you should find a few charts with pictures showing what a healthy body condition looks like. 

One more thing. I feed my cats raw, and I've found that they eat a lot less raw than when they were on canned. I think raw is more nutrient dense, so they need less raw food to maintain their weight and feel satisfied. So depending on how much raw your cat used to eat, it's possible she does need to eat more canned food than raw food to feel satisfied.


----------



## Penny135 (Apr 6, 2011)

My lil man is 5 months old and weighs 7.6 lbs and he is not fat at all but does have a little sway pouch. All kittens eatabout double what adult cats do as they are growing and developing quickly. Let him eat as much as he wants during the first year.

Its hard to believe he only weighed 1.2 lbs at 8 weeks. He was so malnourished when I rescued him.


----------



## minikin44 (Aug 25, 2012)

I let Bear and Yoshi eat as much as they want, because Yoshi is skinny as a rail no matter how much he eats, and Bear was malnourished when he was a kitten as well (.85 lb down to .75 lb after the first day I got him, and he was at least 2 months old... poor baby!)... Maybe you could post a pic of your kitten so people can better assess her size to weight ratio?


----------



## rightsaidfed (May 31, 2012)

i don't think 7oz of food per day at 6 months is an unreasonable amount of food. on "average" an adult cat will eat about one 5.5oz can of food (give or take). you could probably feed up to around 10oz and no one here would bat an eye. Keep on eye on him based on the physical characteristics mentioned in previous posts, and start to cut him back if he starts to lose his "waist" as he approaches a year old.


----------



## sarasaurusrex (Sep 17, 2012)

catinthemirror said:


> You should be able to feel but not see the ribs, and you shouldn't be able to easily feel her spine, not in a cat that young. If her spine has no muscle/fat layer over top I would definitely start feeding her more. My one cat doesn't have much padding over her spine, but she's 15 years old and I think it's just due to her age and small appetite. If I press down I can just barely feel the spine on my 2 year old cat, and her body condition is perfect.
> 
> Some cats do have a bit of extra skin that can hang down off their belly. I forget what it's called (a pouch?), but it's normal for some cats. If it's just skin then it's not due to your cat being over weight. Look at your cat from above - if they have short fur then you should be able to see a slight tuck in behind the ribs, giving them a waist. No waist means they're over weight, obvious rib bones/spine means they're under weight. If you do a google search for 'cat body condition scale' you should find a few charts with pictures showing what a healthy body condition looks like.
> 
> One more thing. I feed my cats raw, and I've found that they eat a lot less raw than when they were on canned. I think raw is more nutrient dense, so they need less raw food to maintain their weight and feel satisfied. So depending on how much raw your cat used to eat, it's possible she does need to eat more canned food than raw food to feel satisfied.


That's good to know about the pouch. I always thought it was normal, and then I saw the cat body condition scale and thought that it was a sign of being slightly overweight. I try to stick to that scale for my adult cat and she's perfect. She has a slight "fat pad" on her belly, but it doesn't hang down or swing when she walks, like it does on my kitten. I can't easily feel her spine or ribs, by the way. They're definitely under a layer of fat and muscle, but still palpable.

When I was still feeding raw, she was still constantly hungry. I was giving her 7-10% of her body weight per day and she was still ravenous the entire day between and after meals.

I'll see about taking a picture and posting it tomorrow.


----------

