Daisy in High Places

Daisy found a way to get up to the wooden beams in my kitchen:









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What Should My Cat Weigh?

How much should a cat weigh? It all depends on the cat. Most cats are between 7 to 10 pounds, but larger breeds can weigh more. Daisy, my Maine Coon mix, is a healthy 12 pounds. My little girl, Baby, weighs only 8.5 pounds, but Simon is 13 pounds. She is not underweight, and he is not overweight. If they stand side by side, you can see that Simon's body is much longer than Baby's, and he is easily 2 inches taller at the shoulder.

A better way to determine a healthy weight for a cat is to look at her body shape. The cat should have a waist when you look at her from above. Run your hands along her sides; you should be able to feel the ribs with a small amount of covering fat. If you can see the ribs, the cat is too thin. If you can't feel the ribs, kitty is overweight. Her tummy should tuck up slightly, but I have seen some healthy cats with extra abdominal skin. I think it's a genetic thing. Here is a chart to help you evaluate your own cat.

If you think your cat is overweight, do not put her on a crash diet. Losing weight too fast can be dangerous. Find a good quality canned food, avoid "light" or low calorie dry food, and exercise her several times a day. Here then is another topic for another day.

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How Much Should You Feed Your Cat

When I started learning about cat nutrition, an obvious question was how much should I feed my cat. Feeding guides on the labels of cans or bags recommended a quantity, usually in terms of cups or cans, to be fed daily. Since I wanted to combine wet and dry food, I needed to know how many calories a cat needed per day. Then I needed to know how many calories were in the foods I intended to feed my cats, so I could portion them accordingly. I could not find this information on the labels, and even the websites of many pet food companies seem to be reluctant to share this information.

Cats need about 20-30 calories per pound of body weight. So a 10 lb. cat should have 200-300 calories per day, depending upon how active the cat is. I think most cats should have between 200-250 calories per day of a good quality, no grain food. I was able to find these sources on the internet of nutritional information of some cat foods:

• Calories for Canned Cat Food
• Calories for Dry Cat Food

If you can't find the information you need there, go to the website of the brand that you currently use. Send them an email requesting nutritional information and specifically ask for calories per cup or can.

I am currently feeding four of my cats 215 calories per day. Abby, my IBD kitty, is getting 277 calories, but now that the diarrhea is gone, I will feed her a bit less. All of my cats have good weights for their sizes, except Abby (she could lose a pound or two). In my next post, I will talk about body shapes and how to know if your cat is over-weight.

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Darn Maine Coon - Part II

I last wrote about how my Maine Coon mix learned to open our pocket door. I was hoping that by leaving the door open, Daisy would get bored of the laundry room. Well, no such luck. The cats take turns lounging on the washer or relaxing on the throw rug. I don't get it. The windows are too high for them to see out of and the rug is not that comfortable.

She has also learned how to get up in the rafters of my kitchen. I will write about that soon and include pictures.

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Darn Maine Coon

Daisy is my Maine Coon mix. She loves to open my cabinets, steal the other cats' food, and trill at me when I enter the room. Last night, she learned something new...how to open a heavy pocket door. Behind the door is my laundry room that leads to the garage and the basement. When she opened the door, the other cats took the opportunity to go down into the basement (where they are not allowed). They also helped themselves to old corn-based kibble that I was going to toss. There was a stinky mess this morning that my daughter found the hard way (she stepped in it in her bare feet). EEwww.


She slips her large paws under the door and works it until she creates a space between the wall and the door. Then she reaches in the crack and pushes the door to the side like a human. We don't know how to keep the door closed, so we are going to leave it open in the hopes that the cats become bored with the laundry room. Time to train the kids to keep the basement door closed. Defeated by the cats again.

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