Cat Chat Feline Forum

I was looking through one of my old cat books. The pictures of cats are from the fifties. I noticed the cats looked bigger boned and larger than the cats I seen recently.
Do you think cats bodies have changed over the years?
Jill

Hi Jill

I think you have something there! The same thing has certainly happened to dogs over the years. I still have a set of Arthur Mee's 'Children's Encyclopedias' from the early 50's (my dad bought them for me when I was born ) Some breeds of dog in there are very different to today's 'standard' - shorter, more manageable coats, longer noses and legs (not stumpy-legged fuzzballs) (don't get me started!)

I think traditionally cats were tolerated as vermin control and nothing else. Only big, butch cats would do (they never met my skinny, little Purdy -champion mouser). More recently they have become pets, companions and friends. So size is no longer important.

Sue

I suspect that a lot is to do with the fact that more people neuter their pets fairly early (as they should) whereas in the past neutering and spaying wasn't really the norm. And even now-a-days most unneutered Toms are bigger than cats that have been neutered when young; it's a hormone thing

Oh yeah I forgot about the nueting thing. The coats in our cats today are prettier and shinnier. I was conserned about the bone structure. My last cat didn't get neutered until he was a full year old plus a few months.
Maybe that is why he is big and bulky in stature. I thought it was the vitamins. He isn't a tall cat though.
Humm, just thinking.....

Henry is clearly the exception to the rule! He was castrated at 5 months, and even then weighed about 5.5 kg.

He's now over 6.5. Vet says he's ideal weight for his natural size us 6.

He's a big lad and always was

Good grief - I wonder how big Henry would be if he'd been neutered much later!

Daz is another chunky boy, neutered when he was about 4. He was 6.5kg at his heaviest (he WAS overweight) and is now about 5.5kg.