What's a healthy weight for kittens?

darkrabbit213

I recently took Winks to Pet Quarters and weighed him on one of their pet scales, he's 9 months old and weighs 8.6lbs is that a healthy weight? He's pretty long and lean, but I'm always worried about over or under feeding him, I generally follow the instructions on the bag...

Mary_NH · Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 1:11 am Post subject:

each cat/kitten is different. Mine range from 6 lbs. up to 13 lbs!!!
Don't go by the feeding directions supplied by the cat food manufacturer. They'll have you overfeeding so you have to buy more cat food. This was just a huge discussion in the foster group as one foster has a cat that weighed 14 pounds at intake and he's up to 17!!!! She's been feeding him 6 cans of Fancy Feast/day according to the can. He's getting fatter and he should be losing weight.
I free feed dry cause none of my cats are overweight (well Dixie but she has lost) and give wet food now and then throughout the day. I never read the feeding instructions.
He'll let you know what he needs. 8.9 sounds good but I wouldn't let him get much over that unless he's going to be a large boy. Long, lean is good.
this is a good chart for weight reference
http://www.placervillevet.com/feline%20body%20condition.htm

sunset05 · Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 3:31 pm Post subject:

I agree, it probably depends on the kitty. My Mittens is about 8 pounds and to me she is a little thin but is healthy.

Socks weighs abour 16 pounds and she is definitely overweight. I'm mixing diet food in with their regular dry food and I don't know if that is helping or not. Even when Socks was a kitten she was chubbier that Mittens.

I usually leave dry food out all the time so they can graze.