Overweight?

[Angiew]

C4 animal madhouse next wed guys! If you see a fat woman and a fat cat then its me! (Oh the irony)

[jezebel]

"Spay sway" 

Thanks for the links Susanne.

It's difficult to make sure Bass gets lots of exercise because she still spends most of her time in the bedroom (at least she's on the bed now and not hiding in a corner). Unlike her sister Drum, who will have mad half hours twice an evening and tear around the place at 100mph, Bass doesn't move much and is not interested in games. Actually the only exercise she gets is when Drum chases her!

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

Lots of cats have what is sometimes called a "spay sway" - a little flap of abdominal fat (or sometimes just skin).  Not just females.  Not sure why and whether it actually  has any relationship to neutering!  I don't think it means they are necessarily overweight.  Some also have a little pouch of extra skin between the back legs - I think that is something to do with the fact that they need that to be able to extend their back legs fully when running?  Jaffa has a little bit of excess skin hanging down towards his back legs but he's a skinny minnie and doesn't have an ounce of flab on him.

ETA - found this

http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_5606283_rid-cat-fat-pads.html

http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_4853096_rid-fat-pouch-cat.html

Not sure whether that helps.

[jezebel]

When she sits down on her haunches she looks like a little ball as the little flap sort of envelopes her legs

Drum has something similar, it doesn't envelope her legs but if she sits back on her haunches when she's washing, it looks like she has a beer belly - and it doesn't have any fur on it, which makes it even weirder!

BTW, I don't know where my head was yesterday but my girls are ten, not eight as I said in my first post!

[Alex S]

i often wonder this with sadie... she's only three but has a little flap there too, it's just skin and fur though, if you feel her there's nothing to it. I can feel her ribs and the vertebrae of her spine which is a good sign of a normal weight cat. When she sits down on her haunches she looks like a little ball as the little flap sort of envelopes her legs as they crouch haha but when she's stood up she looks tiny, she's indoor and has one pouch of wet food and two little bowls of dry food a day so definitely not over eating as she often leaves some wet food. I think a lot of cats with this skirt have nothing to blame it on but their breed.

[Den]

According to the link Memphis is between thin and lean but is also over weight  what he actually is though is the right weight for his size and build ... He is naturally slim and petite.

[jezebel]

Thanks both, that's very reassuring.

And thanks for the link Helen, I'll be doing those tests later!

[Tiggy's Mum]

Lucas has always had a pouch of skin hanging from his belly, even as a 6 month old. In some cases it can be due to being overweight but in others I think it's just part of their make up.

I don't think Lu is overweight and neither does my vet, I actually tried to pre-empt getting told off for him being overweight compared to Riley so when they had their last booster I said something like 'I know he's a bit on the porky side' but the vet said he was fine 

If you don't have any scales there's a chart here to follow, it does mention a saggy belly but as above I'm not convinced saggy belly automatically = fat.

http://www.whiskas.ca/ecms.ashx/PDFs/WalthamShapeGuideTool.pdf

[Den]

My boy has a bit of flappy belly, and I can tell you he is no where near being overweight. He has a nice little waist and you can feel his ribs. He has a flat tum, but at the same time has two flappy droopy bits either side of his flat tum.

[jezebel]

Both my eight-year old girls have developed that little flap of fat that hangs down from the belly (I'm sure there's a name for it, just can't think what it is!). Anyway, I read recently that cats who have these are technically overweight. Is this true?

Bass has an especially bad one but the rest of her body is quite slim (when we got her she was actually a bit ribby, I don't think she'd eaten properly for a few days) so I don't really want to put her on a diet.

They're not big eaters. They each have two pouches of Felix, Tesco Senior or Hi Life every day, and a bowl of dried food to nibble on but that's all. They rarely clean their plates, and the dried food lasts for ages.

Is it just their age or are they really overweight? (Unfortunately I don't have any scales so I've no idea what they actually weigh.)