Well it's actually closer to athletic/toned than skinny. She doesn't seem to gain much weight as far as her body fat goes, she's growing bigger but her frame still looks the same relative to her size. I posted about a month and a half ago about my cat eating from 9~11 oz per day, she's now down to 9 ounces per day and based on the information I'm reading up around, that's still a lot for a kitten/adolescent. Is this normal?
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8 Month Old Cat Eats So Much And Still Skinny?
- Thread starter Sammiches
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That's pretty normal for her age. They're like teenage humans---they can eat and eat and never gain an ounce! She should slow down soon; usually 10-12 months for females.
Hello S Sammiches and welcome to TCS! Yes, W Willowy is right. Teenagers of just about any species eat more than others think is possible
but they utilize it because they are growing! She'll even out after she reaches 1 year or so. I'd let her eat as much as she can hold while she's growing -- she needs all the nutrients and calories right now. 
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My 7 month old eats 11-12 ounces a day. It's completely normal - they are growing.
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- #5
Some young cats do take longer to slow down... ours certainly did! They were 2+ before they started eating much less. (They came to us as scrawny, underfed ten-month-old kittens but I think I've also read that Siamese cats sometimes take longer to taper down their eating!)
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- #7
*Fill 'er up!*
Gorgeous! And Siamese cats often have black kittens -- your kitten could very well have some Siamese genes.Oh alright, hopefully mines will slow down by 1 year. Mines is an American Shorthair Black Cat I think?
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- #10
Well then, I may have to empty my pockets for a while if she has that hungry gene
Hey -- *She's WORTH IT!*Well then, I may have to empty my pockets for a while if she has that hungry gene
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- #12
Well I already lost 2 hours of sleep per day for 2 and 1/2 month, can't back down now!
That's about right!*Fill 'er up!*
Your cat is beautiful, S Sammiches -- what is her name? Also, ours were eating about the same as yours is for some time after turning a year old: about the equivalent of 2 large cans per cat, per day, if not more, though the cans were of varying caloric value. They were extremely active! Even now (they're almost 5) they're still pretty active for their age so eat quite a bit for their size, though I'm not quite sure how to quantify it since a lot of it is freeze-dried raw food!
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- #14
Thanks! Her name is Luna. Jeez age 5 and they still eat 2 large cans? I assume 2 large cans are 5.5 oz and upwards, that sounds expensive! But based on the responses it looks to be okay to be feeding my kitty x2 5.5 oz cans a day. She seems in good shape so far so I think I'll raise it to that and just let her have her way until she becomes a little pudgy lol.
I think Link missed the memo about slowing down calorie intake when he got older. He's 3.5 years old and will happily eat 400-450 calories a day. When he was medically crated I capped him at 350 a day and he often would yell at me; but I didn't want him to get kennel chub. Keep in mind Link is a highly active indoor/outdoor cat. He has an activity tracker as part of his GPS so I can reliably say he averages 18 hours sleeping, 3 hours of walking around, about 2 hours of high activity and the rest is data fluctuation.
She is very cute. She's built a lot like the sleek tiny little feral I've been feeding since summer, who eats up to 300 calories a day at 7.5 - 8 pounds and a little over one year old. By comparison, I have a somewhat stocky one-year old 9.25 pound cat who eats 180 calories, and a 13 year old senior who weighs 13 pounds and only eats 160 calories.
So, yes, fill 'er up, unless she starts to get pudgy.
So, yes, fill 'er up, unless she starts to get pudgy.
Luna is a beautiful name for her, S Sammiches ! And she is a beautiful kitten.Thanks! Her name is Luna. Jeez age 5 and they still eat 2 large cans? I assume 2 large cans are 5.5 oz and upwards, that sounds expensive! But based on the responses it looks to be okay to be feeding my kitty x2 5.5 oz cans a day. She seems in good shape so far so I think I'll raise it to that and just let her have her way until she becomes a little pudgy lol.
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- #18
Thanks for all the responses guys!
I do have one other question while we're at it. This one I consider a bit mean but it's the type of thing that I feel like there's no other way.
I don't generally bathe her and usually just use the water-less shampoo on her when she's eating and I've only done that twice(one time when she got outside and lived through the day and came back pretty messy) since I've adopted her.
With that information out of the way, she does occasionally about once or twice a month step on her own poop and tracks poop wherever she goes. When this happens I have to force bathe her by holding her by the scruff and washing off the poop smeared all over her foot/paws. She struggles quite a bit but I can't think of any other way of doing it. Afterwards I gently let her down and pet her for a bit in which case she stops struggling and just walks off once she's let go. I then give her lots of treats afterwards and play with her a bit until she's back to normal which is almost instantly after terrible experience is over. So again, is there ANY other way I can do this? Scruffing her seems okay(which I avoid in most cases since I rarely ever have to outside of emergencies) when she's not struggling but when she is, it looks like it's painful. There's no other way I can think of to get her cleaned asap otherwise.
I do have one other question while we're at it. This one I consider a bit mean but it's the type of thing that I feel like there's no other way.
I don't generally bathe her and usually just use the water-less shampoo on her when she's eating and I've only done that twice(one time when she got outside and lived through the day and came back pretty messy) since I've adopted her.
With that information out of the way, she does occasionally about once or twice a month step on her own poop and tracks poop wherever she goes. When this happens I have to force bathe her by holding her by the scruff and washing off the poop smeared all over her foot/paws. She struggles quite a bit but I can't think of any other way of doing it. Afterwards I gently let her down and pet her for a bit in which case she stops struggling and just walks off once she's let go. I then give her lots of treats afterwards and play with her a bit until she's back to normal which is almost instantly after terrible experience is over. So again, is there ANY other way I can do this? Scruffing her seems okay(which I avoid in most cases since I rarely ever have to outside of emergencies) when she's not struggling but when she is, it looks like it's painful. There's no other way I can think of to get her cleaned asap otherwise.
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What kind of litter box arrangement do you have? Cats are usually fastidious about not stepping on poop.
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- #20
A jumbo hooded litter box. She does a good job at avoiding it most of the time but sometimes I smell poop all around the room which then raises the red flags to check her. It's not often but again, she does sometimes accidentally step on her own poop.
