Only Tristan got there a whole month sooner.
Does this mean Tristan will grow into a giant cat, even bigger than Reverend Jim?
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Probably not. Reverend Jim’s appearance is dominated by a recognizable breed, the Maine Coon. They are known for growing to a large size, and taking their time about doing it.
While Tristan shares an elongated appearance common to many breeds known as “Oriental types.” They mature early, and while they have long legs and bodies, they do not achieve the size of more stocky, large-boned types of cats.
But I always say “probably.” Because with mixed breeds, no one knows.
Vets, especially, don’t know. I’ve lost track of the number of cats I’ve been told about who were rescued from the shelter, pronounced as being “around a year old” and “they won’t grow any more” by varied veterinarians. These cats then proceed to double in size.
These misconceptions come about because medical professionals, and we ourselves, tend to think of maturity as coinciding with sexual maturity; even though that is ridiculous.
Is a thirteen or fourteen year-old human, mature? Of course not. Any more than a year-old cat is.
The consequences of this false thinking is far more than our cat outgrowing a too-small cat bed. While it’s not a great concern how big our cat will wind up being, our thinking our cat is grown, when they are not, can create problems for both of us.
We can expect too much from a cat who is still, in their mind, an adolescent, despite how large or how developed their body might appear. Our year-old, or even older, cat can still have the “kitten zooms,” still have spells of exhibiting no sense at all, still get absorbed or excited over something and forget what they are supposed to remember.
This is perfectly normal. Cats can survive incredible challenges. Stressed cats can even mature early. This is all in the service of Mother Nature wanting their species to survive. Cats have the incredible ability to suspend their development when their environment is challenging. This is the part veterinarians are taught in school; this is the part their misplaced confidence comes from.
But cats can also exhibit the amazing ability to resume their growth once the challenge is over. Sadly, many cats don’t get that chance. But for the cats who do, it can take their people by surprise, since they are not expecting their cat to reach back into a kind of kittenhood; and pick it up where they left off.
That solemn little creature who seems so adult; can hit the rewind button and become what they were meant to be, all along.
We need to keep that in mind when our rescued cat seems to be going backwards. They are.
And it’s a good thing.
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The vet told me that Kill Kill was “going to be petite,” Byron was “going to grow into those feet, and he might be part Maine Coon,” and DJ was “going to be a moose, if he keeps adding weight like this!”
And Killsy’s the biggest. (Although they all weigh 15 pounds–she’s got some fat, while the boys are solid muscle)
I think the part about development is critical, mine, Duhban is a rescue and I believe he’s about 3 but that’s all guess work and he still races around like a nut at least once a day
Does anyone have any kind of a standard “growth chart” for kittens like there are for children?
I feel like my little guy McCloud is growing much faster than previous kittens I’ve had – but my other kittens were either slow-growing Maine Coons or ended up being small (ten pounds) adults. When we got McCloud at age 9 weeks he weighed 2.5 lbs and now, 8 weeks later, he weighs 6.5 lbs, averaging half a pound increase per week. Maybe he just seems huge to me now because he was so tiny to start with?
Lemaloon, there is no standard growth chart, each breed grows at different rate (though you can often group them into general similiar speeds) and with mixed breeds it’s a crap shoot in terms of what genetics get expressed.
You can look for specific traits and make guesses from that but all it is is guess work.
Take my cat for example, nothing about him suggested ‘big cat’ when I got him. In fact his prominent look is bombay which is not a really big breed and yet I think he’s just not reaching adulthood some roughly 3 years since I’ve had him and he’s rather big (15+ pounds almost completely muscle).
I am so glad you brought up size and growth. All of our full grown cats are big, but one is very fat, and another is enormously huge but not at all fat.
We struggle to keep the weight off the “fat cat”, even as one of her sibs – certainly fathered by our neighbors Siamese, looks like he hasn’t eaten in weeks. Our giant, a third sibling in our “gang of 4″ looked like the proverbial crow left in the nest of sparrows as he was a super huge kitten who always seemed a month older at least than his three littermates. Now, he’s just enormous, with triple-thick fur and massively muscled. He was over 21 pounds at our last vet visit. When we recently had to shave off most of his fur, it was clear that he is all muscle and bone, not a fat cat at all.
It’s hard to know how best to feed such a variety of body types, particularly when one is overweight but the others seem fine.
What’s really interesting in this household is seeing how body types/size can vary even between littermates. Of course since my littermate-kittens (three of them: two boys and a girl) were born into a feral colony they all could have had different fathers, so that could account for some of it. But still. Cora, the girl, is (at just over a year old) a medium-sized cat: around eight pounds and with rounded ears and face. Brodie is shaped kind of like Tristan is (from the sounds of it): long and leggy with big triangular ears. Shadow is big, solid, and evenly-proportioned. But Brodie grew the fastest as a kitten and only recently has Shadow come to outweigh him. I am pretty sure the boys aren’t done growing quite yet, but I am fairly sure now that Shadow is going to be the biggest when they all reach full grownup size.
Humphrey is 2.5 years old but only weighs 4 kilos (8.8 lbs). He has an oriental body type, and a small appetite, and we doubt he will ever be very large.
You never know – and bigger cats seem to keep growing for longer (a la Maine Coons). We rescued a 4mo old after Hurricane Ike who only weighed 1 lb and couldn’t eat solid food. After some careful attention, he not only caught up – but is approaching 20 lbs. now and is built like a rugby player! Another year old feral we finally coaxed indoors was really tiny (less than 5 lbs.) but suddenly grew in to a quite strong & sturdily built little girl with a good diet. We’d resigned ourselves that she would always be very shy and afraid of “too much contact” after 2 years, even though we did get her to play with TOYS (had never seen them). Suddenly, a month ago – some switch flipped & she jumped on a lap (1st time!), walked up my friend’s chest and started licking his chin! Since then, she’s become very cuddly, loves to sleep with people and delights in trying to chase her stubby tail (only way she can “catch” it is fold over and sit on it – then comically skoot backwards as it moves backwards WITH her – very funny). Total kitten regression/ reset – really fun to see that and know it’s accessible after 3 years.
That is so inspiring! Cats are incredible beings.