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Is Your Cat Overweight, Underweight or Just Right?

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This article is part of a series on how to spot signs of a healthy cat. You can learn more about the key signs here.


Assessing your cat’s body condition is an important step in evaluating their overall nutritional well-being. Particularly in cases where your cat appears to be obese or thin, it is important to evaluate their total health before consulting a vet for a proper nutritional management program. Look for the following signs that your cat is overweight, underweight or just the right size.

 

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Thin Cat

  • Ribs, lumbar vertebrae and pelvic bones are easily visible
  • Thick neck and narrow waist
  • Obvious abdominal tuck
  • No fat in flank folds; folds are often absent

 Underweight Cat

  • Backbone and ribs can be easily seen or felt
  • Minimal fat covering
  • Minimal waist when viewed from above
  • Slightly tucked abdomen

Ideal-weight Cat

  • Ribs are easily felt, but not visible
  • A slight waist can be seen behind the ribs when viewed from above
  • Abdomen is tucked up and flank folds are present

 Overweight Cat

  • Slight increase in fat over ribs, but still easily felt
  • Abdomen is slightly rounded and flanks are concave
  • Flank folds hang down with moderate amount of fat — you might notice a jiggle when your cat is walking

 Obese Cat

  • Ribs and backbone aren’t easily felt under a heavy fat covering
  • Abdomen is rounded; waist is barely visible or absent
  • Prominent flank folds sway from side to side when your cat is walking

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    Chicken: The Complete Protein Source for Your Cat
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    Chicken: The Complete Protein Source for Your Cat

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    Chicken is a key ingredient in IAMS™ cat food. Its protein can help maintain healthy muscle structure, and it naturally provides each of the amino acids essential to carnivorous animals. And chicken adds great taste.

     

     What Chicken Ingredients are Used in Cat Foods?

    • Common chicken ingredients include chicken, chicken meal, chicken by-product meal, and chicken fat.
    • Chicken is flesh and skin without internal organs or feathers.
    • Chicken meal includes flesh, skin, and bone that have been cleaned, dried, cooked, and ground.
    • Chicken by-product meal is flesh, skin, and internal organs, including intestines and bone, that has been cleaned, dried, cooked, and ground.
    • Chicken fat, a high-quality energy source, provides essential fatty acids that help support skin and coat health.

     

    What Is Natural Chicken Flavor?

    Another common chicken-based ingredient is natural chicken flavor, also called chicken digest. Natural chicken flavor adds palatability and nutrients. It is high-quality protein and fat material that has been reduced to amino and fatty acids to improve taste through an enzymatic process.

     

    Why Are Internal Organs and Bone Included in Chicken By-product Meal?

    Internal organs are a rich source of protein, fats, and minerals, such as iron, that are essential to cat health and they add a taste that cats enjoy. Including some ground bone provides a good source of minerals, such as calcium. Some pet food manufacturers formulate their products without such ingredients to appeal to cat owners, rather than for the health of the cats themselves. However, the nutritional needs of cats are not the same as those of humans.

     

    The IAMS Difference

    Dried (meal) chicken protein sources contained in our chicken-based cat foods, such as IAMS ProActive Health™ Healthy Adult - Chicken, undergo an extra refining process and contain each of the amino acids that are essential to cats.

     

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