Cat Care Tips: Weight Maintenance

Video Transcript

"Something that may be very helpful to those of you who aren't really familiar with cats is to learn the bodies condition scoring system that veterinarians use to help to determine whether a cat is overweight or underweight. This chart provided to us, shows at the top, a very thin emaciated cat, which is definitely way to under weight for normal, and progresses down through a normal cat and then all the way to a cat who's obese. I would like to just spend a minute giving you some tips to look at for a cat who's healthy. For a normal weight cat has a little bit of a waist that you can see as it's walking sideways past you. If you're looking down from the cat you will notice a little bit of depression, like a little waist line, just in front of the hind legs. You'll also, as you're petting the cat, you'll want to feel nice muscle, you won't be able to feel the bones of the cats spine. If you press firmly you may be able to feel the cats ribs slightly. If you can feel the cats ribs without trying or if you feel like there's a pillow between your cats ribs and your hand, that means that your cat is overweight."