Is my baby too tiny?

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  • #837221
    Taylor516
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    We adopted our little man Gus at just 5 weeks from our local shelter, he and his litter mates were orphaned right after birth and had been hand reared by shelter staff, obviously he was adopted out early but they were overrun with kitties. I was matched up to my sweet boy and when I first saw him, his looks immediately struck me as almost comical, he was a tiny kitten with massive ears and paws and an oddly long tail, I adored his odd appearance and assumed he’d grow into his features. This may come into play, but the shelter we adopted him from required the kitten be neutered when he reached 16 oz, so as soon as he did, which was around 7 weeks, we had him neutered to meet our end of the deal, I was very uncomfortable with this and my fears were confirmed when they called to tell me his testes had not yet descended and he’d had to have a more invasive abdominal surgery to remove them. My teeny, tiny adventurous kitten had to try to stay still with some pretty large stitches for his body vsize. Now, my Gus has always had a problem with biting, nursing, overly aggressive play and his size, I’ve contributed this to a less than ideal first few weeks of life. He’s now 6 months old though and still small, he hasn’t come into an adolescent appearance, he has retained a very kitten esque look. He weighs 3-4 pounds tops. However he eats (high quality wet and dry food, so I really doubt poor nutrition) like a horse, is energetic, active, playful and sociable. His vet isn’t concerned and just assures me he’s on the petite side, but his odd proportions still throw me off, his ears, paws and tail are still quite large in comparison to his body. I’m wondering if his being neutered so young may have caused this, maybe a low-quality formula when he was bottle fed, if he’s a late bloomer, or just small. I grew up with my massive cat who was in no sense overweight, yet topped my scales at 25 pounds, this is my first cat since him and maybe I’m just used to bigger cats and I’m over thinking this, any advice would be great!

    #837223
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Hi Taylor,
    Welcome to TDK. We are all things furry.

    If possible, send us a picture. Most of us use photoshop to post pics. It’s free and so is posting the pic. If the vet isn’t worried and your guy (name?) is eating, drinking playing than I’m sure he’s fine. Purrhaps we can identify if he’s a specific breed that’s small.

    PG

    #837227
    Buttons
    Moderator

    Welcome Taylor ๐Ÿ™‚

    I think PG had hit on something there. You describe large features in your kitten and this could in fact be down to a specific breed. There are some breed of cats that have unusual features such and oversized ears and extra long tail. And there are a lot of mix breed cats in shelters these days.

    I’m all for early neutering but would never neuter unless the kitten was 2 lbs in weight so it’s unfortunate that this poor little fella had a bad experience but the main thing is that he is neutered now which will seriously reduce risk to his health in the long run and No I don’t think the early neutering would have a dramatic effect on growth pattern.

    I have some dealing with extra small cats ๐Ÿ™‚ one of my special needs girls is incredibly small. Or at least she was up until recently. When we first got her (4 weeks old and extremely traumatized) she seemed the average size for a 4 week old but after a few weeks we realized she wasn’t growing at a normal rate. Like your little Gus by the time she reached 6-7 months she only weighed in at about 4-5 pounds . She too didn’t seem to be loosing her kitten features and to be honest I still think she looks very kittenish . But I can assure you we never had any Health concerns with her. She eats well and plays ( sometimes she struggles a lot as she was left with PTSD because of the stress she suffered before we had her) we even called her “Miss Teeny Tiny Nutini” when she was a year old her body was only 2 1/2 inches wide. She is nearly 4 now and in the last year he has bulked up a lot I think some cats do that around the 3 year mark.

    So don’t be concerned just keep up with the good nutrition and most importantly regular worming ! Even if he’s a strict indoor only cat still worm once every 3 months at least… Indoor cats get worms too !

    Oh one thing you might like to try I have used it for years to help my rescues with weight gain is an amino acid you can get in your local health food shop called
    L-lysine.. Give 500mg daily and it will help improve the immune system, help maintain a healthy coat and it’s amazing for weight gain I’ve found. Buy the capsules with powder in and just sprinkle on his food. Or alternatively get Gus some Goats Milk or better again Goats milk plain yogurt ๐Ÿ™‚ store bought is fine as long as it’s pasteurized . goats milk contains high levels of L-lysine naturally and contains good gut flora which a lot of rescue kittens are sadly lacking and if he doesn’t have enough good gut flora he won’t absorb all the nutrients his body needs . Highly recommend give Goats milk Yogurt to any cat or kitten after a dose of antibiotics also as the antibiotic kills both good and bad bacteria and you need to replace the good gut flora .

    Do up load a pic if you can ๐Ÿ™‚

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