Following a pretty unpleasant exchange with someone on Catster.com about whether her cats were overweight, I think it’s a good idea to bring up the topic here of how much your cat should weigh. The person arguing with me said her vet wanted to fatten up a 14 lb. cat, which I thought was terrible advice. Talking about average cats, my research indicates that a good rule of thumb for the weight of the average DSH cat is 8-10 lbs. Some can be in the low teens but above 14 lbs and you’re talking overweight – beyond 16 is obese. These are the operative rules that both Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins and I came to independently – she as a renowned feline-only vet and someone who breeds and shows Ocicats and myself researching THE CAT BIBLE with a background as an investigative journalist. In Dr. Hodgkins excellent book YOUR CAT on page 137 she has a section entitled “How to know if Your Cat is Overweight.” It says that an adult female cat should weigh between 7 and 11 lbs. at the most with exceptions being three purebred cats: Maine Coon, Norwegian Forest Cat and Ragdoll, in which females can weigh as much as 12-14 lbs. An average male cat should weigh 9-12 lbs. at the outside and males of the mentioned breeds can weigh 13 to 18 lbs. normally.
I brought this discussion topic to her attention – of a vet encouraging weight gain in a 14 lb. cat, or saying that 18 lbs was a healthy weight for a domestic shorthair cat – and this was her reply:
I have oodles of experience with all breeds, not only as a vet but as someone who has been in hundreds of show halls with thousands of these purebred individuals. Maine Coon cats, the largest breed, almost never weigh more than 15-16 lbs (adult MALES) in good show shape. The females are 2-3 pounds less in show shape. I have yet to meet any vet, I mean any vet at all, including my friends who are vets, who actually know what is the correct weight for any cat, and especially the pure breeds. I have heard breeders say they have 20 pounders at home who aren’t fat, but oddly enough, those cats are never in the show hall, leading me to suspect they are not in good enough shape to be shown.
I think that professionals don’t know that a cat should have a waist when you stand him on his hind legs. It has been years since most people (including vets) have seen truly svelte, healthy weight cats. The “norm” has simply shifted, and since no one, including vets, think of obesity as a cause of diseases (all kinds), no one steps back from a cat with, say, IBD or cardiac disease or hypertension, and evaluates whether the poor thing is fat or not…
Don’t look now, but physicians are just as derelict about this….
BTW, no Turkish Van should ever be more than 12-13 lbs. They are very finely boned cats, even though tall, and are not at all heavy, even in adulthood
Elizabeth Hodgkins DVM, Esq.
