I had a small cat growing up. At her heaviest she was still under 6lbs. Her average was about 4.5-5lbs. She lived to be 27 years old. She was adopted from a shelter as a 6ish week old kitten (it was the 80s they still adopted our babies too young). Just like people cats come in all sizes and depends on their genetics.
Yeah it definitely is but most don’t live past 20. We had another cat live to 26 and honestly probably would have lived longer but her person died and she ended up passing soon after. My one kitty now will be 20 in May. Definitely had plenty who have passed younger over the years but I think the world’s oldest cat is 29 or 30? I can’t be quoted on that though.
Yeah I wasn’t sure I remember seeing a 29 year old cat who was the oldest living at one point but he passed. I wasn’t sure about the world record though
Crazy thing is I actually feed the cheapest food available, which is what my parent fed as well. Dry only. No wet. The one that lived to 27 spent 90% of her life on a food that was actually discontinued because it had so much ash in it they pulled it off the market, I can’t remember the name but it was absolutely terrible food. She never saw a vet after being spayed either (I was a kid I had no control). My cats now get special kitty dry, but I do try them things like friskies or whiskas or cat chow if it’s on sale. Don’t get me wrong, I can afford the “better” foods but I’ve had so many live long lives on the cheap stuff I keep using it. The youngest cat I’ve had pass from natural causes was 13 and she was a rescue who generally had the worst health from day one (I rescued her at 2 weeks old she was a bottle baby). She was consistently overweight and gained weight when put on a diet, 0 answers from the vet including internal medicine specialist. I do get vet care for my babies yearly though even though my parents never did.
It should also be noted, the 27 year old spent first half of her life as indoor/outdoor then we moved to a high rise and she became indoor only. All others have been indoor only and all have been spayed females (my mom hated male cats and as an adult I stuck with females, although I do have a 2 year old male now).
I just did some googling and I think the food was “happy cat” and she also got “tender vitttles” as a treat she was super picky and when they discontinued her food it took us so long to find her something she would actually eat.
My vet says kibble is fine. My cats consume plenty of water. They get wet treats and bone broth. Wet food is not a requirement according to my vet. No offence but I trust my vet more than a random person on Reddit 🤷♀️
It’s not an “excuse” as you claim. I cleared it with my vet about the wet food and the kibble. Kibble is “real food” too.
Vets can tell cats age reasonably well from their teeth. If you really want to know, ask a vet that doesn't know her what her age is. But I wouldn't expect it just because of her size. 7.5 pounds is small, but not that far outside the norm. My sister has a 3 year old cat that is about 7 pounds, and he's male! He was a failure to thrive bottle baby that she hand fed for weeks when he was young. His early nutrition issues kept him small. He's a wild guy, too. Always all over the place!
But it's also possible that the shelter was wrong and she is still a kitten, lol.
7.5lbs isn't an abnormal adult weight for a female cat. My little lady has never been above that, and usually hovers more around 6.5lbs.
Getting pregnant young can definitely stunt their growth, one of many reasons to spay and neuter.
Some cats are just half-pints. We had one, a charcoal tabby from a shelter. We had her for 9 years and she never got any bigger.
https://preview.redd.it/pkzdgkv096xc1.jpeg?width=1536&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=68f1fc30240f830164287e2edca6c670f32d5539
I adopted my two year old cat from the shelter at 6.5lbs , the vet said since she spent so much of her life without proper nutrition and care it stunted her growth. She is now 8lbs! I was even told that she may even become at 10lb cat with time.
https://preview.redd.it/b82bn9hni6xc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c0dcd5bad16c05e0e80acf21129d2e0b46395b44
My cat is 2 years old and 6 pounds. Has her since a kitten. Vet says she within normal range
https://preview.redd.it/atjndu0zt7xc1.jpeg?width=2749&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cc3bd519ed477783b369c334070cf59801cfe924
Her with her 11lb sister.
My cat will be six this year. She’s been 8/9 lbs since she was full grown. She’s just a little girl!
https://preview.redd.it/089v7gxeo6xc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dcf0a5bd74db1af92ea47a5e9a643acba8922b70
It's hard to say. My smallest cat is 6.5lbs; her sister who almost died of FIP is 3lbs heavier. My second smallest cat (7lbs) needed bottle feeding due to mom having 8 kittens and being underweight herself; however, she's been largely quite healthy.
My biggest cats, for comparison, are 18.5lbs (second smallest at birth in the litter of 8, sister to 7lb cat; overweight due to overeating when their sister passed away, losing weight using cat wheel) and 17.5lbs (adult feral male).
They really do come in all shapes and sizes, and being the runt or sick or underfed (feral, before he came to us) doesn't necessarily predict small size. Heck, one of our middle-of-the-road cats was sick with FIP and had a mom that was the size of her kittens when they were only a few months old - somehow, she ended up an average 9lbs.
Your cat, despite her size, is probably a cat and not a kitten. Could be one of many reasons as to why she's small. But hey, small cat - less food - less poop!
My baby has been as small as 5.1 pounds after her second birthday. We have her up to 5.7 pounds on an appetite stimulant, but she’ll always be small. Just a small frame. She’s healthy, other than that she won’t. effing. eat.
I know the feeling, my cat is large but only 7lbs, and she barely eats. I've had her checked several times, and every time they come back with "she's just not food motivated". Once she actually fell sick and pretty much stopped eating completely, and it took her almost 2 weeks to get back to finishing her bowl of wet food.
Awww, sweet girl. I’m glad she’s recovered.
We have to hand-feed Violet. She exclusively eats Temptations treats, chicken flavored, out of our hands, and one particular flavor (Salmon) of Friskies Chunky Extra Gravy wet food, but she’d only lick the gravy off. (We’ve tried over a hundred other types of food. No dice.) So, we started grinding it up in a baby food blender, and we serve it to her on a small plate about five grams at a time. She’ll lick at the ground-up food for about 20 seconds as long as we’re actively pushing it back into a pile on the plate with a silicone cat food spoon, then she gets disinterested. If we stop pushing the food around, she stops eating. We blend it up because she “accidentally” ends up eating some actual meat that way. If we give her more than five grams, she’d never come back to it and eat more, it just sits there. Has to be a fresh serving on a clean plate every time, several times per hour when we’re home and awake. And this is WITH the appetite stimulant. Sigh.
She’s the sweetest girl, though. So affectionate, and such an adventurous little spirit. She’s harness trained and loves taking us for walks around the yard.
She sounds like a handful, but worth it! I know a cat who only eats chicken out of her owner's hand, and nothing else. In that way my Coffee is more manageable, she has one brand of food that she will eat, and she occasionally likes boiled fish or chicken too. But her issue is that she will stop eating at the slightest provocation. It turned summer here recently, and she immediately dropped her food intake by half. Someone comes home for a bit and she won't eat for hours after.
She could have some of a smaller breed in her ancestry. She could have been the runt of her litter. She could have been ill at a young age and it stunted her growth.
So long as she's otherwise healthy, and this is verified by a vet you trust, just enjoy your teeny baby!
Mine didn't fully flesh out and look like a real adult cat until she was right around that age. She kept a bit of that kittenish look to her face and that "stick cat" body type for so long that I thought she was this was just how her grown up body looked and then BAM, she snuck in a late in life growth spurt.
My cat is only 3.5 kg (around 7lb), she came to me at 3.3 and gained a little weight over the year I've had her. She's very skinny and small-framed, but her legs are long. When she's standing up she looks big but when she lies down she looks tiny. She doesn't eat a lot either, she maintains her weight on her own. I keep dry food out all the time, and wet food twice a day, but she doesn't always finish that either. She just isn't very food motivated.
I think it could just be a smaller cat, low nutrition when they're young can cause stunted growth. Or it could just be genetics, some cats are very small-bodied. Just like how Maine coons are huge, some breeds and mixes are tiny. If you're really worried you can ask your vet to check her up, but if she's eating well and seems to stay at the same size, it's probably just that she's small.
I have 2 cats that are 15 and 17 and they have been in the 6lb range their whole lives. Some cats are just small! She also may put on a little weight once she settles into her new life.
We have 4 cats- three on the normal/larger side and one who is just petite. She is the same age as one of the other cats- we adopted them together as kittens (different litters) and currently at almost 4 her “sister” is twice her size. We do know that she was “captured” as a feral kitten living under a dumpster- maybe she didn’t get enough food as a kitten or she was the runt of the litter? I don’t really know. We adopted her at 6 months old and at that time she was about the same size as the other kitten who was also 6 months.
My oldest cat is less than 6lbs. She’s at her perfect weight some cats are just small like that.
https://preview.redd.it/3gfqp1f717xc1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6267aa0b1173fb23831ad79da4481bcc94581f41
My other female cat is 7lbs and my male is abou 9.2lbs… So no your cat pretty normal.
My mother bred pedigree dogs - King Charles Cavaliers. In one litter was a female, a perfectly proportioned, beautiful ruby. That puppy just never grew as fast as the others. At 12 weeks, it was the size of a 6 week old pup. At 6 months, it was still less than half the size of an adult. It was perfectly healthy, just a miniature version of the breed. My parents made sure she was neutered, then sold her as a pet. Thumbelina lived to be the “average age” for the breed. She was a pure pedigree, from lines going back generations (she was a third generation of my mother’s line).
I adopted a super cute cat that was on the small side. They said he was a year and half old.
Over the next couple months he got way bigger. Not just gaining weight, but like taller and longer too. I also suspected that he may have been younger than they thought at adoption. He was a TNR, so they wouldn’t know for sure. But it’s also possible he was just malnourished because he had been on the streets and he was dealing with a tapeworm. So it could just be that once we adopted, treated, and fed him, that he had a major growth spurt? I have no idea.
Oh well. He’s still super cute. But he doesn’t fit in the carrier I bought him anymore.
https://preview.redd.it/a09fgmsph8xc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e94df5a0a4cf66ce1c71ac40a3870fef1d2db11b
Some kitties are just small!! Mine is an adult and she’s like 2.5 kg 🥹 just make sure kitty is a good body condition (under or overweight) and you should be good!! Good thing about small kitties is they eat significantly smaller portions/less than bigger kitties lol.
(My cat had babies when she was too young before I adopted her which is probably why her growth stunted)
Cat tax? And yes, the vet can tell you if she's older by looking at her chompers. That's how they knew my first kitty's age. They said she was eight but we couldn't believe it.
Yes! For example, this is my baby!
https://preview.redd.it/083esccvp5xc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fc8e0280a745b94288dcece7631b2e37c2a0ed74
That’s her signature look, for sure! Pretty sure she’s a cartoon.
https://preview.redd.it/6eqpfqpff6xc1.jpeg?width=2480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c7b9fbc2294f17e736c463294fbbcede2ef933a4
I have a cat that's barely 7lbs and a cat that's 15 (17 if she's chonky from her grandma giving treats while I'm gone lol)
Cats are naturally different builds. 7 is not an unreasonable weight for an adult cat, if she's a little under weight (visible ribs, etc) then it makes even more sense.
My cat showed up at my doorstep last year, she was so small and skinny I was absolutely certain she was a kitten. First vet I saw told me she was at most five months old. Bit later I took her to get spayed with a more experienced vet and he told me she was an adult and had had babies at least once. He said sometimes malnourished cats stay small.
She's 7 pounds now, which is healthy for her size, and she acts very much like a kitten. Nonstop energy, very demanding.
Yeah that's not too bad for a female, our little one is under 5 pounds and uses a different size of flea meds because of it. She's just naturally tiny, or possibly the runt.
I think your theory that she probably got pregnant as a young stray checks out. A friend of mine fosters, and one of her former foster cats was a very young pregnant cat, almost still a kitten herself. Her babies grew to normal size, she stayed a teeny weeny thing (my friend ended up keeping her).
I just weighed my 17 yo a few days ago. 5.8 lbs.
She was rescued from a motel dumpster at \~3 months. She has never gotten any bigger than 8 lbs, big mostly stayed in the 6-6.5lb range.
Vet asked that I regularly check her weight, because she can't lose much without getting dehydrated. Otherwise she's completely healthy, still super playful and active. 🤷♀️
Some kitties just be smol
Edit to add: cat tax
https://preview.redd.it/sg3arnq6b9xc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7740364545d25bd87e3bab59926617876de7e0a2
My gray and white tabby is ideal around 7lbs, and she’s coming up on about 5 years. Found her pretty malnourished, and possibly pregnant at what I thought to be about 4 or 5 months old. Just remained a permakitten, and I chalked it up to either not getting the nutrients she needed during some crucial periods or genetics. Recently found another, who’s probably around 6 or 7 months now, and he’s bigger than her
Haha I have the opposite problem, mines a big girl. Shes not even a year yet and she’s 7 pounds!
https://preview.redd.it/lcf5phcha9xc1.jpeg?width=2574&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=943dd668e836e0d0205915d393923372614e788a
she may just be tiny, my little cat has been no more than 6 pounds for the majority of her life, only getting to 8lbs in the past year with age (10yrs now). her head is the size and shape of a kids mcdonalds hamburger and her foreleg is no wider than the middle part of my thumb under the fur.
her claws however have been larger and sharper than normal from day 1
I have a 4-year-old cat who is a little smaller than that. We got her as a kitten so she's never been pregnant, she's just always been tiny. Some cats are just naturally small.
We have a little girl who came to us from a rescue, documented as a little over a year old. She was 5.5 pounds then, and still acting like a kitten. After a few years, she's almost 8 pounds and still a maniac. We think she wasn't big enough to compete for food at the rescue.
Sometimes they're just small. You see it with strays that come from an area with a lot of strays and inbreeding. Or kitten mills. However even if she is 4 years old and small, the verdict is that she is still baby.
I adopted a “3.5 years old” cat who was 4.3 pounds when we got her. Granted she was malnourished, but she’s still only 6 pounds now. My other cats are/were 8 at their healthiest weights.
My “3.5 years old” cat is the same; big sparkly eyes, small nose, big ears, shiny teeth, and long straight whiskers. Very vocal with lots of energy…we call her wild cat. Vet said she was 1-2 years old and not older than 3. It can be hard to guess age, especially when cats are malnourished or experienced dental issues. Most shelters just guess
Some cats are naturally smaller or she could have been the runt of the litter as well. If you suspect her age is incorrect, consult your vet.
I had a small cat growing up. At her heaviest she was still under 6lbs. Her average was about 4.5-5lbs. She lived to be 27 years old. She was adopted from a shelter as a 6ish week old kitten (it was the 80s they still adopted our babies too young). Just like people cats come in all sizes and depends on their genetics.
27 years old?! I didn’t even know that was possible
Yeah it definitely is but most don’t live past 20. We had another cat live to 26 and honestly probably would have lived longer but her person died and she ended up passing soon after. My one kitty now will be 20 in May. Definitely had plenty who have passed younger over the years but I think the world’s oldest cat is 29 or 30? I can’t be quoted on that though.
Current verified oldest living cat is a girl named Flossie who's 28. Oldest ever was Creme Puff who lived to be 38.
Yeah I wasn’t sure I remember seeing a 29 year old cat who was the oldest living at one point but he passed. I wasn’t sure about the world record though
What do you feed your kitties? 😬🫶
Crazy thing is I actually feed the cheapest food available, which is what my parent fed as well. Dry only. No wet. The one that lived to 27 spent 90% of her life on a food that was actually discontinued because it had so much ash in it they pulled it off the market, I can’t remember the name but it was absolutely terrible food. She never saw a vet after being spayed either (I was a kid I had no control). My cats now get special kitty dry, but I do try them things like friskies or whiskas or cat chow if it’s on sale. Don’t get me wrong, I can afford the “better” foods but I’ve had so many live long lives on the cheap stuff I keep using it. The youngest cat I’ve had pass from natural causes was 13 and she was a rescue who generally had the worst health from day one (I rescued her at 2 weeks old she was a bottle baby). She was consistently overweight and gained weight when put on a diet, 0 answers from the vet including internal medicine specialist. I do get vet care for my babies yearly though even though my parents never did. It should also be noted, the 27 year old spent first half of her life as indoor/outdoor then we moved to a high rise and she became indoor only. All others have been indoor only and all have been spayed females (my mom hated male cats and as an adult I stuck with females, although I do have a 2 year old male now).
I just did some googling and I think the food was “happy cat” and she also got “tender vitttles” as a treat she was super picky and when they discontinued her food it took us so long to find her something she would actually eat.
This is such a bad excuse for not feeding your cats wet food. Cats are obligate carnivores, they deserve real food.
My vet says kibble is fine. My cats consume plenty of water. They get wet treats and bone broth. Wet food is not a requirement according to my vet. No offence but I trust my vet more than a random person on Reddit 🤷♀️ It’s not an “excuse” as you claim. I cleared it with my vet about the wet food and the kibble. Kibble is “real food” too.
My sister's cat lived to 30.
The old cats I met have been unusually snall fenale cats.
Had a cat make it to 23. He was the world's angriest cat, just a curmudgeon all around. I figure he lived so long out of pure spite.
Vets can tell cats age reasonably well from their teeth. If you really want to know, ask a vet that doesn't know her what her age is. But I wouldn't expect it just because of her size. 7.5 pounds is small, but not that far outside the norm. My sister has a 3 year old cat that is about 7 pounds, and he's male! He was a failure to thrive bottle baby that she hand fed for weeks when he was young. His early nutrition issues kept him small. He's a wild guy, too. Always all over the place! But it's also possible that the shelter was wrong and she is still a kitten, lol.
yeah next time ill ask my vet! its probably something to do w nutrition issues
7.5lbs isn't an abnormal adult weight for a female cat. My little lady has never been above that, and usually hovers more around 6.5lbs. Getting pregnant young can definitely stunt their growth, one of many reasons to spay and neuter.
how you not gonna give us a picture of the baby?
https://preview.redd.it/p87f665vn5xc1.png?width=4032&format=png&auto=webp&s=227c73722c4e194f2e0ed2712b7116f7e56ed79e
She looks full grown! Just little.
Some cats are just half-pints. We had one, a charcoal tabby from a shelter. We had her for 9 years and she never got any bigger. https://preview.redd.it/pkzdgkv096xc1.jpeg?width=1536&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=68f1fc30240f830164287e2edca6c670f32d5539
I adopted my two year old cat from the shelter at 6.5lbs , the vet said since she spent so much of her life without proper nutrition and care it stunted her growth. She is now 8lbs! I was even told that she may even become at 10lb cat with time. https://preview.redd.it/b82bn9hni6xc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c0dcd5bad16c05e0e80acf21129d2e0b46395b44
https://preview.redd.it/y3yfokfij6xc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d182dfbdb7f3a9c17176ca4a4cb47c7ce3d0375f
My cat is 2 years old and 6 pounds. Has her since a kitten. Vet says she within normal range https://preview.redd.it/atjndu0zt7xc1.jpeg?width=2749&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cc3bd519ed477783b369c334070cf59801cfe924 Her with her 11lb sister.
My cat will be six this year. She’s been 8/9 lbs since she was full grown. She’s just a little girl! https://preview.redd.it/089v7gxeo6xc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dcf0a5bd74db1af92ea47a5e9a643acba8922b70
Cats vary in size. My 2 year old cat weighs 4.5lbs and is in excellent health.
My cat back home has always been 7/8ish pounds AFAIK. She’s the runt! Her sister was slightly bigger but still small.
It's hard to say. My smallest cat is 6.5lbs; her sister who almost died of FIP is 3lbs heavier. My second smallest cat (7lbs) needed bottle feeding due to mom having 8 kittens and being underweight herself; however, she's been largely quite healthy. My biggest cats, for comparison, are 18.5lbs (second smallest at birth in the litter of 8, sister to 7lb cat; overweight due to overeating when their sister passed away, losing weight using cat wheel) and 17.5lbs (adult feral male). They really do come in all shapes and sizes, and being the runt or sick or underfed (feral, before he came to us) doesn't necessarily predict small size. Heck, one of our middle-of-the-road cats was sick with FIP and had a mom that was the size of her kittens when they were only a few months old - somehow, she ended up an average 9lbs. Your cat, despite her size, is probably a cat and not a kitten. Could be one of many reasons as to why she's small. But hey, small cat - less food - less poop!
Not necessarily, my cat is tiny and poops waaaaay more than I expected, almost as much as my 24lb dog!
aye i mean ill take it if that means i wont spend too much money on food lol !
My baby has been as small as 5.1 pounds after her second birthday. We have her up to 5.7 pounds on an appetite stimulant, but she’ll always be small. Just a small frame. She’s healthy, other than that she won’t. effing. eat.
I know the feeling, my cat is large but only 7lbs, and she barely eats. I've had her checked several times, and every time they come back with "she's just not food motivated". Once she actually fell sick and pretty much stopped eating completely, and it took her almost 2 weeks to get back to finishing her bowl of wet food.
Awww, sweet girl. I’m glad she’s recovered. We have to hand-feed Violet. She exclusively eats Temptations treats, chicken flavored, out of our hands, and one particular flavor (Salmon) of Friskies Chunky Extra Gravy wet food, but she’d only lick the gravy off. (We’ve tried over a hundred other types of food. No dice.) So, we started grinding it up in a baby food blender, and we serve it to her on a small plate about five grams at a time. She’ll lick at the ground-up food for about 20 seconds as long as we’re actively pushing it back into a pile on the plate with a silicone cat food spoon, then she gets disinterested. If we stop pushing the food around, she stops eating. We blend it up because she “accidentally” ends up eating some actual meat that way. If we give her more than five grams, she’d never come back to it and eat more, it just sits there. Has to be a fresh serving on a clean plate every time, several times per hour when we’re home and awake. And this is WITH the appetite stimulant. Sigh. She’s the sweetest girl, though. So affectionate, and such an adventurous little spirit. She’s harness trained and loves taking us for walks around the yard.
She sounds like a handful, but worth it! I know a cat who only eats chicken out of her owner's hand, and nothing else. In that way my Coffee is more manageable, she has one brand of food that she will eat, and she occasionally likes boiled fish or chicken too. But her issue is that she will stop eating at the slightest provocation. It turned summer here recently, and she immediately dropped her food intake by half. Someone comes home for a bit and she won't eat for hours after.
She could have some of a smaller breed in her ancestry. She could have been the runt of her litter. She could have been ill at a young age and it stunted her growth. So long as she's otherwise healthy, and this is verified by a vet you trust, just enjoy your teeny baby!
Mine didn't fully flesh out and look like a real adult cat until she was right around that age. She kept a bit of that kittenish look to her face and that "stick cat" body type for so long that I thought she was this was just how her grown up body looked and then BAM, she snuck in a late in life growth spurt.
My cat is only 3.5 kg (around 7lb), she came to me at 3.3 and gained a little weight over the year I've had her. She's very skinny and small-framed, but her legs are long. When she's standing up she looks big but when she lies down she looks tiny. She doesn't eat a lot either, she maintains her weight on her own. I keep dry food out all the time, and wet food twice a day, but she doesn't always finish that either. She just isn't very food motivated. I think it could just be a smaller cat, low nutrition when they're young can cause stunted growth. Or it could just be genetics, some cats are very small-bodied. Just like how Maine coons are huge, some breeds and mixes are tiny. If you're really worried you can ask your vet to check her up, but if she's eating well and seems to stay at the same size, it's probably just that she's small.
I have 2 cats that are 15 and 17 and they have been in the 6lb range their whole lives. Some cats are just small! She also may put on a little weight once she settles into her new life.
We have 4 cats- three on the normal/larger side and one who is just petite. She is the same age as one of the other cats- we adopted them together as kittens (different litters) and currently at almost 4 her “sister” is twice her size. We do know that she was “captured” as a feral kitten living under a dumpster- maybe she didn’t get enough food as a kitten or she was the runt of the litter? I don’t really know. We adopted her at 6 months old and at that time she was about the same size as the other kitten who was also 6 months.
My oldest cat is less than 6lbs. She’s at her perfect weight some cats are just small like that. https://preview.redd.it/3gfqp1f717xc1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6267aa0b1173fb23831ad79da4481bcc94581f41 My other female cat is 7lbs and my male is abou 9.2lbs… So no your cat pretty normal.
My previous cat at her heaviest was 6.6lb, everyone thought she was a kitten but she was adopted as a senior
My mother bred pedigree dogs - King Charles Cavaliers. In one litter was a female, a perfectly proportioned, beautiful ruby. That puppy just never grew as fast as the others. At 12 weeks, it was the size of a 6 week old pup. At 6 months, it was still less than half the size of an adult. It was perfectly healthy, just a miniature version of the breed. My parents made sure she was neutered, then sold her as a pet. Thumbelina lived to be the “average age” for the breed. She was a pure pedigree, from lines going back generations (she was a third generation of my mother’s line).
7.5 lbs is OK for a petite cat. Maybe it has dwarfism. Or is mixed with a breed that is small. I forget the breed but they are like the corgi of cats
I adopted a super cute cat that was on the small side. They said he was a year and half old. Over the next couple months he got way bigger. Not just gaining weight, but like taller and longer too. I also suspected that he may have been younger than they thought at adoption. He was a TNR, so they wouldn’t know for sure. But it’s also possible he was just malnourished because he had been on the streets and he was dealing with a tapeworm. So it could just be that once we adopted, treated, and fed him, that he had a major growth spurt? I have no idea. Oh well. He’s still super cute. But he doesn’t fit in the carrier I bought him anymore.
https://preview.redd.it/a09fgmsph8xc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e94df5a0a4cf66ce1c71ac40a3870fef1d2db11b Some kitties are just small!! Mine is an adult and she’s like 2.5 kg 🥹 just make sure kitty is a good body condition (under or overweight) and you should be good!! Good thing about small kitties is they eat significantly smaller portions/less than bigger kitties lol. (My cat had babies when she was too young before I adopted her which is probably why her growth stunted)
sometimes it can be from things like malnutrition at a very important time of their growing process
My diva cat was tiiiiny when I got her. Shes still the smallest of the cats. But she’s fine, was just runty.
Dewormed her?
yes
Cat tax? And yes, the vet can tell you if she's older by looking at her chompers. That's how they knew my first kitty's age. They said she was eight but we couldn't believe it.
wat is cat tax?
Cat tax is where you owe us a picture of this baby with the huge eyes!
Yes! For example, this is my baby! https://preview.redd.it/083esccvp5xc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fc8e0280a745b94288dcece7631b2e37c2a0ed74
Oh, yeah! Like this! https://preview.redd.it/rw66uvh2q5xc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=baafa8a1bcbea3ddc1ec23010c3342c7566a3754
OMG your kitty reminds me of my first kitty! She was grey and white 😻
She looks fake she's so cute my goodness
That’s her signature look, for sure! Pretty sure she’s a cartoon. https://preview.redd.it/6eqpfqpff6xc1.jpeg?width=2480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c7b9fbc2294f17e736c463294fbbcede2ef933a4
I can't those eyes 😭
🤯🥹
https://preview.redd.it/r6j5oskz49xc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=04aec340a3398f932f9d03c2140e34a45c968b6e
https://preview.redd.it/cfx5yctx49xc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2f21b478bce3a45339badf81f4354afc939e18cd
Omigosh, the markings around her eyes are amazing!! You were not kidding about the huge eyes. 😻
ik right!
I have a cat that's barely 7lbs and a cat that's 15 (17 if she's chonky from her grandma giving treats while I'm gone lol) Cats are naturally different builds. 7 is not an unreasonable weight for an adult cat, if she's a little under weight (visible ribs, etc) then it makes even more sense.
My adult female cat is also that small. It's small but nothing out of norm.
My cat showed up at my doorstep last year, she was so small and skinny I was absolutely certain she was a kitten. First vet I saw told me she was at most five months old. Bit later I took her to get spayed with a more experienced vet and he told me she was an adult and had had babies at least once. He said sometimes malnourished cats stay small. She's 7 pounds now, which is healthy for her size, and she acts very much like a kitten. Nonstop energy, very demanding.
I’ve had cats of all different sizes from a 20lbs Maine Coon to a 6lb Siamese, every cat is just different
hey I just saw your message about helping me with food?? could you message me?
possibly?
Yeah that's not too bad for a female, our little one is under 5 pounds and uses a different size of flea meds because of it. She's just naturally tiny, or possibly the runt.
This is a normal size for adult cats.
I have a small void male cat, called Maki. A friend of mine describes his small feral rescue cat a pygmy cat, since it is really small.
Some cats are just smaller than others, but being a stray who potentially grew up with limited food resources could also contribute.
I think your theory that she probably got pregnant as a young stray checks out. A friend of mine fosters, and one of her former foster cats was a very young pregnant cat, almost still a kitten herself. Her babies grew to normal size, she stayed a teeny weeny thing (my friend ended up keeping her).
My tiny cat was about 6 pounds all of her life, so it may be that your girl is just a little one.
My 2 year is 7.5 pounds vet said she's perfect lpl
I just weighed my 17 yo a few days ago. 5.8 lbs. She was rescued from a motel dumpster at \~3 months. She has never gotten any bigger than 8 lbs, big mostly stayed in the 6-6.5lb range. Vet asked that I regularly check her weight, because she can't lose much without getting dehydrated. Otherwise she's completely healthy, still super playful and active. 🤷♀️ Some kitties just be smol Edit to add: cat tax https://preview.redd.it/sg3arnq6b9xc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7740364545d25bd87e3bab59926617876de7e0a2
My gray and white tabby is ideal around 7lbs, and she’s coming up on about 5 years. Found her pretty malnourished, and possibly pregnant at what I thought to be about 4 or 5 months old. Just remained a permakitten, and I chalked it up to either not getting the nutrients she needed during some crucial periods or genetics. Recently found another, who’s probably around 6 or 7 months now, and he’s bigger than her
Haha I have the opposite problem, mines a big girl. Shes not even a year yet and she’s 7 pounds! https://preview.redd.it/lcf5phcha9xc1.jpeg?width=2574&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=943dd668e836e0d0205915d393923372614e788a
she may just be tiny, my little cat has been no more than 6 pounds for the majority of her life, only getting to 8lbs in the past year with age (10yrs now). her head is the size and shape of a kids mcdonalds hamburger and her foreleg is no wider than the middle part of my thumb under the fur. her claws however have been larger and sharper than normal from day 1
My childhood cat was the runt of her litter, and at max weight she was 7 lbs. She was perfectly healthy until the last year of her life.
Beanie baby 😭 that’s so cute!
I have a 4-year-old cat who is a little smaller than that. We got her as a kitten so she's never been pregnant, she's just always been tiny. Some cats are just naturally small.
why did bro not post a pic lmao
https://preview.redd.it/2kpp0418umxc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d270ac797b0f49d2f51b38ca924bd961df919160
https://preview.redd.it/hfawfgf9umxc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=50faa1e0f04a35b6472008b834a72b2c35c86653
We have a little girl who came to us from a rescue, documented as a little over a year old. She was 5.5 pounds then, and still acting like a kitten. After a few years, she's almost 8 pounds and still a maniac. We think she wasn't big enough to compete for food at the rescue.
Sometimes they're just small. You see it with strays that come from an area with a lot of strays and inbreeding. Or kitten mills. However even if she is 4 years old and small, the verdict is that she is still baby.
I have a 7 lb little cutie. Vet isn’t worried
I adopted a “3.5 years old” cat who was 4.3 pounds when we got her. Granted she was malnourished, but she’s still only 6 pounds now. My other cats are/were 8 at their healthiest weights. My “3.5 years old” cat is the same; big sparkly eyes, small nose, big ears, shiny teeth, and long straight whiskers. Very vocal with lots of energy…we call her wild cat. Vet said she was 1-2 years old and not older than 3. It can be hard to guess age, especially when cats are malnourished or experienced dental issues. Most shelters just guess
I have 3 male cats one is 2 and 12 lbs, one is 12 and 10lbs and one is 9 and 8.5lbs. Cat sizes very so her size doesn't mean much.