What is a good way to tell if a cat is too skinny?

Question

My neighbors cat often comes over to visit us when we are outside. Sweetest, most loving cat I have ever met. She had a litter of kittens about a month ago. She just looks so skinny though. I have never seen a cat THAT skinny. Her stomach actually looks sunk in, or thinner than her back bone. While I have a cat of my own, I am not anywhere close to being an expert on them. Does a cat get thinner after having kittens? She is a small cat anyway, I wonder if she was almost too young to have kittens, but I do not know how old she is. To me, my pets are my children, but not everyone is the same. To some people pets are just pets, and I don't want to offend my neighbor by suggesting the cat is too thin if I don't know what I am talking about. I don't want the cat to suffer though...so I will do what needs to be done to make sure that doesn't happen. So any advice on how to judge if a cat is too thin or not would be greatly welcome.

Answer 1

I have a calico and she has had 3 litters of kittens. She isnt a big cat to begin with, so after having the kittens she was skin and bones. They wore her out. Now that she is fixed and its been over a year since her last litter, she has gotten FAT. So, I think its normal as long as the cats eating and drinkin, she should be fine.

Answer 2

If you can see the cats bones clearly it is much too skinny

Answer 3

If the stomach is as sunken in as you say then she is definitely too thin and you should contact the ASPCA.  A sunken in stomach is too skinny.  The stomach should be narrower than either the hips or the ribcage but still visibly wider than the spine.  A loose flap of skin on the belly is fine.  You should be able to easily feel the ribs but not sharply-there should be more than skin there.

Don't worry about the neighbor being offended as he/she is sorely neglecting the cat.  Pregnancy is very tough on a cat's body but if she is being properly taken care of she shouldn't look any skinnier than any other cat.  I am definitely someone who advocates saying and neutering cats/dogs especially since it will double a female cat's lifespan and give her a far better quality of life.

Call the ASPCA-charges of animal abuse/neglect need to be filed as her condition is inexcuseable.

Answer 4

Hi,

You can check to see if the cat is extremely thin/emancipated by looking at this cat body condition chart here:-

http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/nrenfa.nsf...