Home › Is my cat overweight?
Is my cat overweight?
The three checks
- The rib check. Run both hands, palms down, across your cat's ribcage. In a cat at ideal weight you can feel the ribs easily under a slight fat covering - like the back of your hand. If you have to press to find them, there's extra padding. If the ribs are visually obvious on a short-haired cat, the cat may be underweight.
- The overhead check. Look down at your cat from above. A cat in good condition has a visible waist - a narrowing behind the ribs. No waist at all, or an outline that's widest in the middle, points the other way.
- The profile check. Look at your cat from the side. You should see an abdominal tuck - the belly rises behind the ribs rather than hanging level or swinging. A small fat pad on the lower belly is common and, by itself, isn't the whole story; read it together with ribs and waist.
What the nine-point score means
The scoring system runs from 1 to 9. Cornell describes 4.5 to 5 as ideal, anything above roughly 6.5 to 7 as overweight, and 8 or above as severely overweight or obese. WSAVA publishes the standard chart vets work from (you'll find a condensed version on our meal log page), and its 2020 update notes that a score of 6 out of 9 can still be acceptable for some cats, especially older ones. The point of the chart isn't to grade your cat - it's to give you and your vet a shared, repeatable description.
Before you change anything
Weight gain can have medical contributors, and a diet started on a guess can miss them. If your checks suggest your cat is carrying extra weight, the right first step is a vet visit: your vet confirms the body condition score, weighs the cat properly, rules out underlying problems, and - if a weight-loss plan makes sense - sets the target and the pace. What that safe pace looks like, and why it's stricter for cats than for people or dogs, is in our safe weight loss guide.
