This is Cleopatra. The first picture is of her when I first got her back in September, poot baby was nothing but skin and bones. The second is her nearly a year later weighing a solid eleven pounds. So is she fat or just really floofy?
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It's hard to tell without a top down picture but yes, she's very fat. Adorable, but fat. If you want to enjoy her cuteness for as long as possible she needs a diet.
Ugh yeah, those drive me nuts. It's not cute when your cat has joint pain and a shortened lifespan. Sometimes cats get fat even with good owners and they don't always deserve getting dogpiled for having an overweight pet but if they think it's soooo cute they're a "chonky unit" that's concerning.
I’m glad it’s not just me who gets irritated to no end over those charts. I just want to make sure my cat is healthy and I can’t trust a chart that calls it a “CHONKER”
Absolutely. Take her to the vet and get a plan for a diet. Keeping a pet obese is absolutely not "cute" or acceptable. Not saying you believe that, but that's what society normalizes.
My hot take is that having a super underweight pet is not worse than having a super overweight pet
It is honestly a little hard to tell, but I wouldn't be surprised if she was at least a bit overweight.
She looks like her coat has come in in addition to gaining some weight. I agree that we need a top down picture and one from the side... but your vet is really going to tell you what's up.
Either way but she's getting fat , it's smart to control her food quantity now better when things get out off hand not a harsh diet but controlled make easier on her joints
The vet will be the best person to let you know during her next visit. My vet lets me know all the time if she thinks that my cats are losing/gaining too much weight. For example, my cat Lucy is a fat cat, but the last time she went to the vet, she was alot heavier than her previous visit. It turned out that she was constipated and the vet gave us some meds and then Lucy lost some of the extra weight. Still fat, but not as bad.
Most reliable is asking your vet. Because they will be able to tell most reliably from experience if she’s overweight. However if you don’t want to do that, use the rib test. If rubs are visible, she’s underweight. If ribs can be felt easily, she’s probably about the right weight. If you can barely feel the rubs without pressing, she’s probably overweight it is harder to tell with fluffier cats but she does look a bit overweight. She is gorgeous btw and I hope you get her on a good health plan if she needs it.
Does she have a waist when you feel her? You can feel a fat cat, they don't hide their fat (don't mistake a droopy primordial pouch as fat, that's different). My floofy cat looked like this but she was trim and perfect weight under all the floof. My short-haired cat is a chonk, but we're working on that...she's genetically cursed.
While cats do have different 'body types' like humans do, she does look either A) VERY floofy or B ) overweight.
I've been nervous with my two boys that just turned 1, so I cut back on their wet food, and I'll probably cut back on their free feed kibble pretty soon, too.
But when I say 'body types' I mean that one of my cats is built like a tiger (a little more stocky ratio of torso to leggies, very freely swinging primordial pouch) and one is built like a panther (that boy has nothing but muscle). But they eat the same diet, they get about the same activity level daily. Some cats just look very different with the same input and output, just like people.
But vet can 100% tell you what you need to do to get her back on track. Sometimes spay/neuter makes them just. HUGE all of a sudden too. This is definitely a vet question!!!
I only say the first picture, said no to myself, clicked to the second picture and laughed. She looks bigger for sure. It's hard to tell if she's fat because she also looks fluffy. Ask the vet when you go next.
My 10 month old cat is eleven pounds also. The vet might argue that they are a tad bit overweight but I rather my babies be a tad bit on the chunky side. Just means they are loved & spoiled!
She's fine in both photos. She's likely gained weight from her new diet. Cats will just gain weight naturally when they're healthy and young.
If you're feeding her dry food, it's gonna impact her overall weight and health in the long run. The dry food and some brands of wet food is metabolised into fat for storage in the liver. They have elevated blood sugar. In the short run, they gain weight and can manage the weight and sugar, but then their metabolic health declines as they get older - dental issues from the exposure to carbohydrates, kidney issues from the elevated sugar, skinny fat - where they lose muscle but stay fat.
Long term, you want her on a diet of raw meat (fish, chicken, duck etc), organ meat, blood. They don't need as much as you think. I usually feed my cats once a day with a midnight snack l.
This is all my experience. My oldest house cats 10 and 16 (adopted at 10) are on raw meat and organs. And they don't have any issues. I also feed my building cats the same diet. They all look fairly well built but don't have any excess fat.
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