Is there a correlation between a kitten's early life and eventual adult size?

[jmarkitell]

I have seen some comments regarding the final size of cats being greatly influenced by their early life health and nutrition. I know that a severely malnourished cat can develop slowly as does a cat with significant health issues, but how big of a difference does the early health and diet a kitten has determine it's final size? I realize that bad health causes problems but would a skinny, but not emaciated or starving, cat be notably smaller than his/her litter-mates?

   I have four cats ranging from Godzilla size to a little midget, but all of them were always pretty healthy and were either shelter cats or stray/feral cats. I would think that genetics would account for nearly 100% of the size unless the cat was suffering a significant deficiency  of food or nutrients. Am I way off base or are cats pretty well pre-determined size-wise?

Jim

 

[Columbine]

That's a very interesting question, and not one I instantly have answers for.  I would think that genetics would play the biggest part in determining adult size, but a significant period of malnutrition in the early months could well stunt growth - just as it can with people.

I had a pair of British Shorthair littermate as a kid. One was very definitely the runt of the litter (though the breeders and his brother made sure he got adequate nutrition in those early weeks). I can safely say that it had NO impact on his adult size. They were a particularly big (size) litter, and the so called 'runt' grew up to be an in proportion 16lbs!