If an obese cat lies on its back, the fatness spreads out quite wide, making that cat look even bigger. (Think of carrying a bag of water – when you carry it, it’s teardrop shaped, when you set it on the ground, it spreads out trying to be flat.)
The 20 lb cat I caught trying to escaped from its owner’s apartment looked like a beer can with short legs. It wasn’t until I caught it and carried it back to the lil’ old lady’s apartment that I realized how heavy it was. When it rolled over for a belly rub, I saw how immense it appeared at could only think “Mother of God! How much does that cat weigh???”
FAT CAT STORY:
My friend rescued (okay, kidnapped) a grossly obese cat that was dying from weight related conditions (kidney problems, urinay tract probelms etc.). He tipped the scales at 21 pounds. The original owners related to the cat by offering “affection” in the form of “treats.” They didn’t know how to “be nice to the cat” in any other way. So since kittenhood, the cat equated affection with cheese, chips, chicken McNuggets etc. Everyone thought it was cute that the cat was always"asking for food." (It wasn’t it was just trying to be sociable and say “hello”.)
My friend got the cat on a healthy, regimented diet, and his weight went down to about 15 lbs. His overall health improved and he was more social because he really loves non-food affection. He’s been living a very happy and healthy life. He is still just as chatty – he’s not asking for food.
FAT CAT TRIVIA:
Unlike humans, when a fat cat loses weight, its tummy skin doesn’t shrink back to fit. The above mentioned obese cat who shed all that weight looks ridiculous – standing on all fours, his tummy fur drags on the ground like a curtain.
Well, Coldfire, I can’t speak for all fat cats everywhere, but the one at my local pet shop gets all the food he wants. Yep, looks like he swallowed a beach ball, and he waddles side to side to make sure his tiny feet touch the floor.
I think he may be fatter than both these cats, since it is physically impossible to lift him up. When he falls on your feet, it’s like a medicine ball. Think 40 pounds, easy.
My cat Ben weighs in at 26 pounds. He’s got a big ol’ potbelly, but he’s also a huge cat. When he stretches out on the couch, he can take up half of it. I think he’s 23 inches from his nose to the base of his tail, which, IMHO, is pretty big. Then again, he’s got a huge tail, too, so he looks even longer.
My roomie has two ‘normal sized’ cats. They weigh in at about 8 pounds each. They look absolutely tiny compared to Ben. Then I have Gomez, who weighs in at a hefty 12 pounds, but it’s all muscle. He’s an athletic little bugger.
Wow! That’s a big boy! The biggest cat I’ve ever seen (biggest not fattest) was part Maine Coon. It was mostly orange tabby – get two shitzuh dogs, put them end to end and measure a shitzuh-and-a-half. That was about this cat’s length (not including tail! :eek: ). His legs were as thick as cardboard toilet paper rolls. He was pretty scary. He wasn’t particularly pudgy, but muscular so I’d estimate that he would have been around 20-25 lbs.
Yeah, Charmian, we think Ben’s dad was a Maine Coon. There’s one running around my parents’ neighborhood. I got Ben when he was 3 days old. His mother abandoned him, and I bottle-fed him. His problem is that if I put food out, he will eat it, so I have to put out measured amounts and make sure no one else feeds him. (Imagine my suprise at the vet’s office when they plunked him down on the scale, carrier and all. 32 pounds, including the carrier! :eek: ) Oh, and I forgot to mention that he’s about 16 inches tall, measured at the shoulder. So yeah, he’s a big, bad mamma jamma.
Astro you’re quite right. Maine Coons do approach the size of lynx’s. IIRC it is speculated that they were cross bred from lynx (aka bobcats) and domestic cats, although they may have ties to Norwegian Forest Cats which are also monster-big. (There are myths that MCs are the offspring of cats that mated with raccoons – untrue, but they often do have raccoon-like tails).
Prebred Maine Coons look like fluffy, tabby-cat lynxes.
Oops, I should have said that some Maine Coons start to approach lynx size. The males are normally around 7kg (15.5 lbs), but it’s not uncommon for them to get to 10kg (22 lbs). Lynxes are around 14 kg (30 lbs).
Bugger… I have distinct memories of several people saying his stomach looks exactly like what it would if someone had just stretched it with Photoshop… grr.
My Misha was half main coone and he was enormous. 21 lbs the day he was put to sleep after battling feline leukemia and losing probably 1/3 of his body weight.
The rescue where I volunteer has had several big babies.
Rocky, Sampson, Patches, and Bonkers, who were all 20+ pounds and immediately put on low-calorie Science Diet cat food. Patches and Bonkers were both put in the vet’s office at night to encourage them to move around (since the rescues cages aren’t big enough for any real exercise. Most were pretty healthy otherwise and a couple were pretty proportional. I’ve heard that the weight/size issue can relate to late neutering in male (lots of male hormones coursing through their veins). Bonkers was the only one with a weight-related issue that wasn’t in the strictest sense health related–she sometimes couldn’t clean herself well…down there so she was prone to kitty dingle-berries.
Rosie (RIP) was a tub, but she wasn’t that fat. It basically had to do with her being very old for a very long time, so she wasn’t terribly active for the last, oh, seven or eight years of her life.
Sadly, she had lost her appetite over the last few months and lost quite some weight.
Soon to be published: ** " When Good Pussies Go Bad: The Dark Underbelly Of Feline Obesity And The Link To The Ralston/Purina Conglomerate"**.
How, you ask? I’ll tell you how, my sleek little Scandanavian friend. We had Bogart. He was a solid cat, but not huge. Then, we got Bumper. Bumy was a wee spry of a thing, barely 7 weeks. Being the responsible cat-lovers that we are, we did the right thing. We bought him KITTEN FOOD. This stuff is very high in fat- something randy kittens who are on the prowl 26 FREAKIN’ hours a day need, but something that the more adult and sedate ( and fixed…) Bogart surely did not need. Separating dry foods just wasnt practical, we don’t exactly live in Tara over here.
Bumper grew into the sleep manly cat that he is, and Bogart rapidly grew to resemble Sidney Greenstreet.
My brother had a cat that looked near identical to the “Patches” link that Peta Tzunami posted above. She was predisposed to being large in general size, and had a thyroid problem, on top of that. To add more to the mix, she had the lap of luxury house cat, not much exercise, and 3 other cats, so catfood available all the time. She was enormous, she could not clean herself properly and had nasty dingleberries.
She was put on medication for the thyroid problem, as well as low-cal cat food, and it did help some, but even after losing a signifigant amount of pounds, she was still fat, it was just the way she was.
As for this cat being discussed on snopes, I’ve never seen it there. I have seen the others, and agree with the photoshop verdicts, but in this case, I’d say, based on my somewhat knowledgable(although not entirely professional, there was my brother’s cat, and I did work at a Vet hospital some years back and saw some pretty obsese kitties during that time) opinion, that this one is real.
(Warning! The above site, while neat, has popup ads from Hell.)
Also, I think “Joseph” is mis-captioned. I think he topped 40 pounds in the picture, as that is the same picture that is in the Guiness Book…
And here is some fat cat art that I did myself of Tiddles, the Paddington Station cat. It graces the front page of the UnaBoard - feel free to copy it:
I’ve been wondering where that picture came from on your board, there is an artist whose subjects are distinctly UK Northern in character, ie very robust and in the rudest of health.
I had thought it waws one of hers.
