Juliette’s body shape/condition

JulietteTruong

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Juli is 7 (turns 8 next month). I would say she’s more on the inactive side, she spends a lot of time napping and lounging lol. In warmer weather, we keep our back door open, so she’s able to hang in the enclosed little yard. She likes to walk the perimeter, maybe catch a bug.

When I adopted her at 2, she was 11 lbs. over the next few years, she went up to 15.5 lbs. I managed to get her weight back down through trial and error. Since this year, I feed her all wet, and she’s consistently weighed 12 lbs. Recently, I’ve been paying attention to her caloric intake, because I was afraid of underfeeding her. My grandma is always saying she seems skinny. Anyways, I’ve been aiming around 220 ~ 240, but she rarely eats that much in a day.

I know a lot of people say this, but I think she’s naturally a larger framed kitty. Her chest is 15 inches, and from knee to ankle is 5 inches. Those various body score charts online are weird to me. Juliette’s primordial pouch and chest/belly fur hangs low, so it’s hard to tell by sight. Sometimes, from certain angles, I think she’s slim. But then other times, I look at her and worry that she seems chubby lol.

Here are pics/video for reference!
309611DB-BA1C-4C40-98E7-A7A8B4E69182.jpeg 91AEFF01-07B8-4C0D-9336-BCE7EE3FBDF2.jpeg ADD795A5-BF4E-49C2-9C68-3C6729BF4448.jpeg C3F2862D-C8F3-4EA6-B3F6-7293378BF839.jpeg 068A31E1-EC69-4D79-90C6-7B740069B686.jpeg

what do y’all think?
 
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JulietteTruong

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yes, I’ve seen all these charts. I don’t know, they don’t seem to take into consideration if the cat is fluffy, or has looser skin. With Juliette, it isn’t just her pouch that sags, it’s her whole tummy and chest area. When she was 11 lbs, it was the same way. 🤷🏻‍♂️
 

tabbytom

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yes, I’ve seen all these charts. I don’t know, they don’t seem to take into consideration if the cat is fluffy, or has looser skin. With Juliette, it isn’t just her pouch that sags, it’s her whole tummy and chest area. When she was 11 lbs, it was the same way. 🤷🏻‍♂️
!2 pounds is pretty ok still, just a little overweight. Maybe she is just fleshy.
 

minish

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I guess she's a 4 on that chart like minish. Minish also has the pouch so I feel her ribs and backbone. With this weight you can feel the bones individually but with a layer of flesh on them.
As long as she doesn't put on more weight, I find this manageable. I've struggled with limiting minish's diet with only partial success so I call this a win. Otherwise she is unhappy and always thinking of food
 

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I don't think she looks too overweight, maybe a tad, at least from a visual perspective. And, she is very pretty, btw!!

Juliette may have some extra sagging skin just because she once weighed a fair amount more. After all, she has essentially lost about 20% of her body weight. Imagine that on a human being - I am pretty sure there would be some 'extra' skin left over!!!

About the charts - I'm sure you might have seen this one too (see below), but I like it better than most because it includes notations on using your hand to check certain areas of the body, rather than just rely solely on visuals. And, sadly, as you noted, none of these charts mention primordial pouches - which they should.
Body-Condition-Feline-Chart.jpg
 
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JulietteTruong

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Update: Juli had her wellness exam today. The vet also thinks she’s hovering around a 4 on the body score, but doesn’t think it’s anything to be concerned about. I asked if 12 lbs is okay, and she said yes. She felt her body and back, and did note that Juli has sort of “muscle conditioning...” lol. Not sure what to do about that? 🤔 I mean, I do try the play with her but she’s never been a very athletic kitty. 😹. I have all sorts of toy wands, and usually after a few minutes she ends up on her back and just bats her paws at it. During the day, her activity is basically walking the perimeter of my 100 sq ft of backyard.
 
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JulietteTruong

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A 4 on which of the above charts? Did the vet explain what they meant by 'muscle conditioning'?
Oops I should’ve clarified, she had a chart that was similar to the ones above, the 4 was the one just over the ideal weight. So slightly chubby. She said poor muscle conditioning but not too bad when she was feeling Juli’s back, she said she could feel her spine. Sorry I left out a few words by accident. I guess her back didn’t feel very toned 🤷🏻‍♂️.
 

FeebysOwner

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You really should be able to feel a cat's spine under a layer of tissue - similar in manner to what the charts above describe about the ribs. You shouldn't be able to see her spine, but slightly feel it when you rub your hand over that area.

You could try other types of toys to see if you can motivate her to play more. But, tbh, I never could do that with Feeby, and she always seemed to end up laying on her back and batting at the toys. Feeby also soon learned that she would never catch a laser light and gave that up too. But, a family member recently bought her a laser built into a rotating ball (operated off of batteries) and she was into that toy - UNTIL the bee on a stick on to the top of the ball kept smacking her in the face. I took the bee/stick off, but she was 'over' the toy by then. I've included a pic of something similar.
71sy4ZOIiuL._AC_SL1500_.jpg
 
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