# How dangerous would a lion-sized household cat be? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 21, 2016, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-would-a-lion-sized-household-cat-be/769223 "2016-10-21T04:07:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2016, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-would-a-lion-sized-household-cat-be/769223/41 "2016-10-24T03:52:12Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I think the muscles probably pretty much come with the size - that is to say, in order to scale up a cat to the size of a lion, it would be necessary to change the skeleton and musculature a bit, or the thing simply wouldn’t work - the old square-cube law. Yes, a lion-sized housecat would need thicker and more sturdily built legs in order to walk. But lions are muscled well beyond what they need to walk. They are built to be able to take down a zebra. Domestic cats can tackle animals up to around rabbit size but that doesn’t take as much relative power as a lion’s prey. Anyway, compare a [lion’s skull](http://cdn.jaysonhome.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/1500x926/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/h/g/hg143810_alt4.jpg) to a [house cat skull](http://www.skullsite.co.uk/cat/cat_lat_800.jpg) to see the difference. That’s more than the square-cube law can account for. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2016, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-would-a-lion-sized-household-cat-be/769223/42 "2016-10-24T08:38:08Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Yes, a lion-sized housecat would need thicker and more sturdily built legs in order to walk. But lions are muscled well beyond what they need to walk. They are built to be able to take down a zebra. Domestic cats can tackle animals up to around rabbit size but that doesn’t take as much relative power as a lion’s prey. > > Anyway, compare a [lion’s skull](http://cdn.jaysonhome.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/1500x926/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/h/g/hg143810_alt4.jpg) to a [house cat skull](http://www.skullsite.co.uk/cat/cat_lat_800.jpg) to see the difference. That’s more than the square-cube law can account for. Perhaps so, but it’s probably also worth considering that a lion-sized housecat would probably need to hunt bigger prey than mice and rabbits, but I expect that’s really beyond the reasonable scope of this thread’s question. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2016, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-would-a-lion-sized-household-cat-be/769223/43 "2016-10-24T08:56:22Z")
A cat-sized lion wouldn’t be particularly dangerous, but it would be [adorable](https://cdn.thisiswhyimbroke.com/images/lion-cat-hat1-640x533.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Uniqueorn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uniqueorn/32/2807_2.png) [@Uniqueorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uniqueorn)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2016, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-would-a-lion-sized-household-cat-be/769223/44 "2016-10-24T13:38:21Z")
Probably quite dangerous for the neighbourhood dogs which would be brought to me as presents. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2016, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-would-a-lion-sized-household-cat-be/769223/45 "2016-10-24T15:28:43Z")
Can we choose which breed we are starting with? Ragdolls are apparently one of the most docile cat breeds and you gotta admit a lion sized rag doll would be pretty damn irresistible. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2016, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-would-a-lion-sized-household-cat-be/769223/46 "2016-10-24T15:50:04Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > I’d be interested in reading that book if you can remember the name. 🙂 The novels of sf writer [Cordwainer Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordwainer_Smith), especially the Instrumentality of Man series, depict a world in which evolved felines and other animals, the Underpeople, coexist with mankind. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2016, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-would-a-lion-sized-household-cat-be/769223/47 "2016-10-24T15:53:48Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Perhaps so, but it’s probably also worth considering that a lion-sized housecat would probably need to hunt bigger prey than mice and rabbits, but I expect that’s really beyond the reasonable scope of this thread’s question. We’re talking about a hypothetical animal scaled up from a housecat, not a totally redesigned one. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2016, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-would-a-lion-sized-household-cat-be/769223/48 "2016-10-24T16:05:18Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > We’re talking about a hypothetical animal scaled up from a housecat, not a totally redesigned one. Agreed - got to draw the line somewhere. Going to the other extreme then (just for fun) - if we just geometrically scale up the housecat without redesigning it at all, we actually get something that is probably rather feeble and fragile - and probably can’t do us a lot of damage. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2016, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-would-a-lion-sized-household-cat-be/769223/49 "2016-10-24T19:22:39Z")
What about a lion-sized [munchkin cat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munchkin_cat)? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-would-a-lion-sized-household-cat-be/769223.md?page=2)