These statistics are from a poll that PoC has run for about 5 years. The figures mainly relate to American cats because for most of the five years Americans predominately visited the site. That has changed recently and now British visitors outnumber Americans.
The figures are interesting because the weights are considerably higher than I would have imaged.
The comments are quite interesting.
The average weight of a domestic cat “should” be around the 10 pound mark. However, the statistics indicate that the most common weight range by far is 12-18 pounds. The next most common weight range is 18-25 pounds which, frankly, is shocking or at least surprising.
The poll may not be accurate. That is something that has to be recognised. Perhaps people are guessing weights and overestimating.
Or, the cats are overweight. We are told that around 40% of cats in the US are overweight and a slightly smaller percentage are overweight in the UK. Obesity in cats is at epidemic levels.
***The comments indicate that a lot of people who have used the poll are owners of large cats such as Maine Coons and Maine Coon mixes (not all Maine Coons are large though). That may be the reason for the high figures. The webpage may have attracted visitors who are interested in large cats as it is entitled: Largest Domestic Cat Breed****.
There is one last possibility. Modern domestic cats are getting bigger. Humans in industrialized nations are about 4 inches taller than they were about 150 years ago. Perhaps cats are substantially larger than they were 50 years ago due to improved nutrition and health care.
As for the tiny cats at under 3.5 pounds this is equally surprising. However, “runts” are born and from my reading of visitor comments they can be very small cats.
My Charlie is a large cat who is slightly overweight. He weighs 16.5 pounds. He is noticeably larger is stature than the average cat.
Jozef is about the right weight, Walter is a bit overweight, but Jo is more active than Walt who sleeps a lot more.
Both cats love their food but I can’t say that Walt eats more than Jo. He’s a bigger made cat altogether, he was a big kitten and matured early.
I think as long as their health isn’t affected it doesn’t matter being a little bit overweight.
It’s like people really, I once lost 3 stone on a diet and everyone was saying ‘Oh Ruth are you ill, you do look awful’
lol
Both Jo and Walt seem to be normal sized cats around 10 pounds. I just wonder if American cats are bigger than British cats! It sort of seems that way if it was Americans who used the poll.
Monty has been gaining weight. He’s been begging for food a lot lately and I must be giving in too much, because he’s getting big. I told my husband that Monty is fattening up for winter. My husband responded that unless Monty plans to hibernate and not eat any food all winter he has no business fattening up for winter and the extra feeding has to stop.
We cats get hungrier in the cold weather, so there 😉
LOL. Charlie agrees. Actually when it comes to eating more he’ll agree anything.