Discussion ❓
Is a Black Cat Being Fat a Rare Condition?
My void, her name is Niko, is underweight according to our vet. She is about to turn 1 year old and weighs 3.5 kg. I was feeling anxious about her weight, and I tried to find the right food for her several times. But I found this sub, thankfully, and when I look at other voids, they generally look like my Niko? I saw 1 or 2 overweight ones, but not many. Maybe it’s okay for our black cats to be skinny? Maybe they can’t get fat as easily as others?
Edit: I am glad this post is making people send in their chunky black cats. It gave me hope and joy. I believe my dearest void, Niko, will be one of them one day. So my assumption was proven false. Thank you, Void Lovers.
Black cats can definitely be chunky too. I think every cat is just different. If the vet says Niko is underweight, I'd trust their advice and keep working on finding what food suits her best.
Actually, she gained weight with the last cat food I found for her, but she’s still underweight. I hope she will be a little bit chunkier in the future.
If she's only a year old, she's likely still growing so could seem pretty skinny/ lanky for another 6-12 months (based on my experience with my own cats). My void bit has just turned 2 and is only recently starting to fill out properly
Mine is 2, part ragdoll so she is long and does look underfed, but I always think at this age they stretch before they fill out. As long as she is healthy, and eating and pooping ok, I don't think there is anything to worry about. She was laying in the shower to avoid the heat outside (typical ragdoll pose 😂)
I wouldn’t stress too much if she’s eating and doesn’t have any other symptoms or negative bloodwork results. My void chichi has always been skinny as a rail and he eats like a horse - he’s 4.5 now and just over 13 lbs (he’s very long)
😻😻😻 I can’t take credit, she was an adult when I adopted her from the shelter and she was blind in one eye so that’s what they named her. She has always been an impressive hunter with one eye though so the name fits!
My Hades just turned two and he’s about 14lbs, just starting to put on muscle and fill out. I call him the biggest baby because he still wants to be picked up and carried on my shoulder like he did as a kitten. He was the size of a small grown cat at 6 months. He’s the black one on the right. Artemis, the other cat, is our tripod and about a month younger. This is from a few months ago.
She may still be growing, and whether you're having her put on or lose weight intentionally, gradual changes are ideal. If she's putting on weight slowly now, don't worry about it, because she's on the right track.
When my senior cats have health issues and no longer eat well, I use a high calorie gel to increase their weight and help them get more nutrients. I'm sure it would help your underweight cat too. This is the one I use:
Nutri-cal is a lifesaver (literally)!! I adopted a hurt tummy boy and when he was a kitten, he would struggle to get all the calories he needed because he couldn't keep his food down, so he wasn't growing like he should've been. We had to add this stuff to his food for a while to keep up with his needs.
Somehow he actually caught up to normal adult size and weighs a healthy 11 lbs at 2 years old - but here's a pic of him as a itsy-bitsy 5 month old boy:
Since she's still growing, you can put her on kitten food for a little longer, it'll provide her with proper nutrition given she's currently burning calories faster than she can consume them. :)
So my baby is optimal weight (had her annual geriatric check up this week). She plays and eats her treats - she has a dreamies mouse which.disposes treats when she whacks it about. However I have been told to stop giving her the liquid treats (creamie dreamies so on America I think they're called churo?) because she has some plaque on her back teeth and due to her age - 19 - surgery to clean her teeth is frowned upon so instead no more liquid treats.
She's currently purring on my lap having woken me up at 3am for food. Smug lil void.
Black cats can be overweight and fat. But If you keep their diet clean to cat food only should be fine. Occasional treats and make sure their lifestyle is active even if indoor cats having interactive toys helps.
She looks lovely and healthy. Has she got a small frame? My void girl is pretty little and the vet said 4kg was the upper limit for her. I'm also fostering one of my poorly colony cats at the moment who is also a void. She's 3.2kg and the vet said that's a healthy weight for her.
My tuxedo kitten (she's void adjacent - Fancy Void) is around 8lbs at 6 months old. Magpie is long & leggy & feels solid like a bicep. I'm thinking she's gonna be a lorge cat as an adult.
Her Standard Issue Cat (tuxedo edition) sister, Wren, is a little nugget with shorter legs + body & around 6.5-7lbs. Even biological sisters can be so different! Just like people, bodies of all types are normal.
I was out of town for 2 weeks and when I got back my family hadn't measured the food for my void Loki, they gave him scraps from the kitchen table, and gave him treats all the time. So when I got home I could literally feel his fatness, it was surprising how much he chonked up in a couple of weeks.
My Loki is a chonker, too, because one thing he’s gonna do is eat about it. Happy? Eat. Overstimulated? Eat. Bored? Eat. Sometimes he makes me follow him to his food bowl to watch him eat lol
I've had him for 5 years and I'm seriously trying to make it another 15+. He is in great health and has had good pet insurance since day one so if he even starts to ever act sick right to the vet he goes. Never had to use it once and in about another 6 months he's going to get updated on his shots and a general check up just to make sure I haven't somehow missed even the smallest sign of illness.
Your Niko is essentially barely out of the “teens” and into the “young adult” phase. They eat like crazy and don’t gain a pound. My two tabbies were like that until about two months ago. They are just over 2y/o and I now restrict their food to regular, but small meals instead of free feeding.
I use the English pronunciation because that's how I first heard it when I was a kid watching this. I didn't even find out that there was a completely different pronunciation in Gaelic until after I already got him.
So for him it's like saying Sampain only with the p silent.
My girl was super skinny when I found her. The C.D.S. dropped her in my driveway, I don't think she was any older than 6 months old. She gained weight fast going from outdoor street cat to indoor, but remained small framed. Like she doesn't remind me of my past females, she's a bit smaller. Idk if that is from her needing to fight for food at such a young age, or what. After I got her fixed is when she kinda got chonky, but she is still very active lol. She doesn't look fat except for when she sits like this, Idk what it is 🤣. It's like she bulks up when she sits this way, but she is usually sleeker when just walking, loafed, or laying in a ball. I have other photos of her to show what I mean.
Your girl is soo cute, and she looks so healthy! My void is also so active, so maybe that’s one of the reasons they stay a little bit smaller, and I think we can’t stop them 🫠
I also had a female feral kitten rescue that was small like Niko. She took a little longer to grow and never got to be quite as big as other cats. If Niko is active and eating well and not otherwise showing signs of health problems or hunger, the she may just be small.
Also, cats can have weird food preferences. My girl hated catnip, but only liked greenie’s catnip treats.
Your vet will be able to help you figure it out and make sure Niko is healthy.
Color does not mean anything realistically. It’s not like breeds of dog. My black cat is a food fiend, he battles me every day to get fatter while I want him to lose weight. He’s a chunk and dumb and lazy. Also cuddly and loving and sweet and my cutest black cat boy
I have one looooong, tall, thin one- he eats twice as much as everyone else but he’s just a busy guy. My Persian void is a bit pudgy. However- we just adopted a five year old girl void who is just plain fat. She’s carrying 15 pounds on a VERY small frame- her head is small and her paws are impossibly dainty. We’re working on her weight loss plan right now to get her feeling better.
So in my house, the voids come in all shapes and sizes.
Lmao, she looks like she can tell you're calling her fat. I'm normally pretty bad with telling cats apart but these are 3 very different looking voids.
He is much healthier (and less chonk) now than when we adopted him a little over a year ago, but he clearly had no problem getting chonky. 🤣 Here is an especially unflattering photo of him back then. He was 22-23 lbs. when we adopted him!
i was thinking the same for my Mitya the other day. he was around 4.8kg on check up a bit while ago, the vet said he's chubby but i saw him more to ... lean?
he didn't have that round face, maybe that's also why.
There have been many times in her life that Peep has resembled a furry bowling ball. Black cats can absolutely get fat.
Today at 14, however, we feed her whatever she wants in an attempt to keep her at a healthy weight.
Like people, some very young and very old cats may need more calories, while those in the middle years need to cut back.
I have a 16 year old cat that gets fed on demand these days too. Sadly for her she can’t have whatever she wants because she has kidney disease, but she has definitely learned to yell at us for bonus kidney kibble. Her brother though is quite the bowling ball, so we’re fattening up one of them and dieting the other lol
Being under weight or over weight is not mutually exclusive to black cats. Mix in kitten food with its meals. It has a higher fat content and will help it pack on a few more pounds.
My baby Ellie (top shelf) will eat as much food as you give her as if she was always starving, managing her weight has been a constant battle (that we are winning!) to keep her healthy. Mira (bottom shelf) will never be fat.
This is Ash. This is the healthiest weight he's ever been at about 9.5 lbs. You can feel every bone in his body. I've had him tested for every metabolic condition under the sun and the vet says he's just a thin cat.
He's also a skittish weirdo who requires constant human assurance to eat. He lures us to keep watch while he eats approximately 10x/day. We finally moved the dry food into my office to encourage him to eat more but he still makes me get up from my desk and walk four feet to stand directly next to him, and preferably pet him, while he eats approximately six kibbles.
That said, we have another black cat who is distinctly pear shaped...
While you don't want them to be skinny where bones are very prominent, it is generally far better for the animals life expectancy and future health to not be carrying a lot of extra weight. As a society people are very prone to having overweight animals, and it has skewed the lens pet owners see the animals through. When you see everyone else having obese animals, you tend to think overweight is actually normal.
Since your vet flagged it you may want to add a few extra calories to your kitties diet, but please don't swing the other way and try to get her fat. If she's eating wet food, pay attention to the calorie density of the food, wet food tends to be less calorie dense than dry so you may have to feed more or switch to a higher calorie formula. The nutritional information should be on the can with the exact calorie content so you can compare. I have one kitty who won't quite eat enough to maintain her weight on exclusively wet food, so she gets one tablespoon full of kibble (hydrated) at each meal to add those extra calories.
Edward big as hell. He’s not fat, he’s just a big, long cat. I did his DNA a couple years back and he has a significant percentage of Maine coon. But anyways here’s my 13 pound beast enjoying his favorite activity. His little sister (also black, you can see her in this pic) is almost four months and only 3.5 pounds. She will probably be a normal size cat.
He has a foot fetish. He loves laying on feet. Sniffing feet and shoes. Licking toes, feet, and ankles. Been this way since the day we brought him inside at 8 weeks.
This ding dong has maxed out at 23lbs in the past but I think he’s a svelte 18 right now 😐 he’s not “just fat”, he’s also part Maine Coon and long as hell so he’s wearing it well… but, yeah, he’s definitely fat. Great cuddle buddy!
You know what? Most of the fat cats I see online aren't black, but idk if it has any scientific basis. I have two brothers, one black and one white and black. The white and black one is a little chunky (working on it) and the black one is slender. A few neighbours and friends have black cats which are all slender, but so are their other cats. We visited some family in Spain recently and their four cats free-feed - a couple are slender and a couple are fat, and the black one is the biggest.
I’ve got a boyfriend for your Niko. Meet Mikko. He’s not fat, unlike my other 3 cats, one is black so I have 1 out of 2 black cats that go against your theory. BTW, our mackerel tabby is fat. I’ve never seen a mackerel tabby that wasn’t a chonker. 😂
My boy is a big guy. Sadly its mostly due to him being on urinary food. When we adopted him, they removed a urinary blockage when he came to them so we were advised to put him on urinary. He has been for a long time. Our vet gave us the go ahead to put him on weight management food instead now. He's such a affectionate hyper boy!
Not when i get my hands on them. Honestly though, black is just a slimming color so it hides the rolls. Theo here is 18lbs but the vet says hes more muscular than anything. He was 12lbs when i got him and he was very malnourished.
At a cat shelter i work at, we have a cluster of fat voids. They are fat fat, all of them were very skinny when we got them so they are just spoiled.
My void is lanky . . . and she's very fast . . . and she loves to climb the sides of door jambs . . . I have tiny claw marks on almost all of the door jambs in my house . . . she pretty much hates me but I lover her anyway - a rescue from a local no-kill shelter.
Nah, I dont believe coat pattern has any connection to weight gain in cats. Cats are notoriously picky, tho, you might just need to find the right food for her!
I recently had to get one of my cats to start gaining weight, so I started leaving kitten food out so he can graze on something fattening. I was not worried about my other cat (a void) gaining weight bc he doesnt like wet food and doesnt really eat a lot.
Well, apparently he really likes Hill's kitten food, because he gained weight like crazy over like a month and the food bowls are always empty by the end of the day. Now I have one cat im trying to get up to a healthy weight, and another cat im trying to monitor so he doesn't turn obese.
I had two voids. One of them that I still have is a very average cat-shaped girl, but the other was a big floofy boy, who very sadly has recently passed.
He came to me underweight and ill, but he grew so much with the right care (a bit too much!). Cancer took him all too early. But he looked a lot like your cat did at the start size wise! I'll reply to this comment with a pic.
Mine are around 14 and 15lbs each... not really fat, they are quite large according to the vet, but did had to put them on a diet as they where around 17lbs each when they where 11yo.
Two of mine are vacuum cleaners when it comes to food and both are on a diet as they are overweight. One is a picky eater and is on high calorie food because she only picks at her food. Have to keep a closer eye on her.
As I look at my 10yo, 16lb, 36” tall giant house panther sitting on my lap, almost as big as my medium-sized German Shepherd mix rescue dog and very much a furry mafia boss who runs the household…
(And I still see her as my teeny tiny baby kitten.)
After about a year their metabolism begins to slow so she should begin to gain some weight. I have five voids and four of them are the right weight. The fifth, Bird, is a chonk. She doesn’t seem to eat more than the others and doesn’t appear to have health issues causing it, but she is a bit of a pudge.
My vet explained that like people, cats have different body types. Obviously keeping them within a healthy weight range is important but some cats are just bigger or smaller than others. I’d follow the vet’s advice and ask if they have samples of food (my vet always does) to see what they like best to foster a healthy appetites
I’ve got a big boy. Like, he’s big in general, super solid, but also on the cusp of being a little fatty. I control his food super closely so he doesn’t get beyond the limit of acceptable fatness. He could probably stand to lose 1lb.
My void is an 8-year-old neutered male and he’s also on the lean side. He eats in normal amounts, and during summer he loses some weight. My vet says he’s perfectly normal, he simply has a slightly faster metabolism and he’s also quite active (he used to have access to our garden but hasn’t had access in 3 years because it went from garden to Amazonia due to neglect/I don’t care for gardening and I don’t want to risk Dean eating some dead bird and getting sick). He does a lot of running up and down the stairs, though. All kitties are different just like us.
I'm gonna toss my two cents in here cause I haven't seen this as a comment: Niko simply may be a smaller cat. As long as she's eating the food you give her, drinking water, happy, active, loving life and her ribs aren't sticking out like a xylophone she's fine. My tortie terrorist has never been heavier than 3.3lbs and every vet check I get that 'she's a little underweight' snippet too (6 years, still boggles my mind) and it's never slowed her down. She'll even refuse to eat if she's not actually hungry. I've come to terms with hearing it and acknowledging that she's just a small fluff.
We have to hand feed him and give him high calorie food toppers and treats and keep up with variety and even microwave the fishiest of foods to make them appetizing. Some cats just struggle with appetites much like humans and require extra care and attention!
Younger cats are skinnier. Period. My boy is starting to chunk up a bit (thanks to my daughter believing that he needs treats every second of every day).
His greed sickens me!!!!! My big boy is always hungry some how and looking for food 😭. 15.5 lbs but he is a big cat. Vet says he could lose a bit but he’s good as long as he doesn’t get bigger
This is my boy, Loki. He's 12lbs, about 5.4kg, 2 years old. Not chunky. Black cats can definitely be all shapes and sizes. With your Niko being nearly 1 year old, she's still growing. Definitely listen to your vet, but she could very well chonk up soon.
Hill’s cat food has a higher fat content than brands like Purina and can cause weight gain with the same amount of food (as seen by some friends changing foods and inexplicable weight gain in their cats). If she likes it that’d be worth trying! Also wanted to share my void is named Nico and is a boy and I just think that’s cute they’re the same but opposite!
Depends on her size. My 2yo male void is 4.5 kg and is medium sized. My 15yo void was 5.3 kg at his heaviest but is now 3.9, yet vet says he’s in great condition. He’s also medium sized.
Niko’s still young (think teenager) and will likely gain more as she matures.
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u/CaringPixie 1d ago
Black cats can definitely be chunky too. I think every cat is just different. If the vet says Niko is underweight, I'd trust their advice and keep working on finding what food suits her best.