Is my British Shorthair overweight?

The short answer is that the average weight of British Shorthair cats is between 9 pounds (or 4.1 kg) and 17 pounds (or 7.7 kg) for males and between 7 pounds (or 3.2 kg) and 12 pounds (or 5.4 kg) for females. Everything over this mark is considered overweight.

Do you happen to own a British Shorthair and you wonder if it is overweight? Looking at my kitty, I know I’ve asked myself this question a couple of times.

But how do you know if your British shorthair cat has the right length and weight? I’m going to answer all questions about these topics in this article and even link to you a useful program.

Average weight

Many people are fooled by their British shorthair cat’s weight, thinking that it is abnormal or under the average. The truth is, this type of cat takes a lot of time to reach maturity compared to other breeds.

Usually, they will reach full physical development at around 3 years of age. They are famous for being a heavy breed for their size and it is said they can easily gain excess weight.

If your feline is 3 years old or more, you can compare its weight to the average weight.

That is: between 9 pounds (or 4.1 kg) and 17 pounds (or 7.7 kg) for males and between 7 pounds (or 3.2 kg) and 12 pounds (or 5.4 kg) for females.

If you are going to ask an expert, it will tell you that the ideal weight you should aim for is 13 pounds (or 6 kg) for a male and about 11 pounds (or 5 kg) for a female.

Remember, this is only the average among all the cats from this breed. That doesn’t mean it is the ideal weight for your British Shorthair.

Average British Shorthair weight by age:

• 3 Months or 12 weeks – between 3.1 lbs and 4 lbs
• 4 Months – 4.2 – 4.4 lbs
• 5 Months – between 5 lbs and 6 lbs
• 6 Months – around 5.5 lbs
• Seven Months – between 6.3 and 7 lbs
• Nine Months – Male: 6.6 – 11.5 lbs
• 10 Months – Male: around 8.8 lbs – Female: 6.6 lbs
• 1 Year – Male: over 8.8 lbs – Female:  6.6 lbs
• 3 Years – Male: 9-17 lbs – Female: 7-12 pounds

If your cat weighs way less than that, they may need some special food. Take it to the vet and the doctor should tell you everything you need to do. It may be scary for them there, but health should always be the number 1 priority, even for humans.

On the other hand, if the kitty is overweight, you need to change their lifestyle into a healthy one. “But how do I know if it is, and how do I change its lifestyle?”, you may wonder. I will answer both of your questions.

It is pretty easy to figure the first one out, but if you still can’t do that by yourself I’m going to link a website that hopefully will clarify any doubts: royal canin. Those are approximate results as well because the website is for all cats in general, not just for British shorthairs. It is useful if you want to check if the kitty is too skinny as well.

If you already know that your cat weighs a little too much, you should start to take action. Your cat should start a diet and begin exercising.

It may be hard at first because they don’t want to cooperate too much, but they will get used to it at some time. Don’t be fooled by their cute ears and their crying, they need to lose weight in order to be healthy. What kind of exercises? We will get to that later.

Average height

As for height, they are considered medium to large cats from this point of view as well. Even though they have small legs. The male’s height will usually be somewhere between 1.3ft to 1.65 ft (or 40 and 50 cm). A British shorthair female will be between 1.15 ft to 1.47 ft (or 35 and 45 cm) tall.

That’s it pretty much for height. Unfortunately, you can’t influence your cat’s height like the weight. I don’t think it is too relevant anyway, no matter the height this breed will remain cute and fluffy.

How to control your cat’s weight

The concept is pretty simple. A cat has to do exactly the same things as a human in order to lose weight. Those 2 things are: following a diet and exercising. The diet should reduce the calories which a cat consumes in a day and exercising should lose the fat on the kitty.

If you need some ideas of cool toys to play with your British Shorthair cat check out my favorite toys in this article.

First off, the best thing to do before modifying your cat’s meals is a vet check. He will make sure the feline is 100 percent healthy and ready to start the diet. Maybe even recommend all the products it needs in order to lose weight.

After that, you need to set your target. My suggestion is to aim for the ideal weight of this breed. I’ve already told you those, so you can check them again in the previous lines in case you forgot.

Coming up, you also need to do the mathematical part. You have to calculate how many calories you will need to feed to your cat. Also, a very useful thing to do is to calculate how many calories it usually eats.

If you find that the difference is too big, you need to calculate your energy requirements based on a target weight, have your cat weighed again in 30 days and reassess weight loss goals at that time.

The worst and hardest part of changing your cat’s meals is the transition itself. You can’t just cut every food that you’ve already been feeding your cat with and change it to special food.  This could be dangerous for your feline, resulting even in vomiting, diarrhea, and lack of appetite.

The lack of appetite could lead to a life-threatening form of liver disease if they don’t eat for 2 or 3 days.

Do it slowly, over the course of a week or two. You just need to decrease the amount of old food daily and adding some of the new food instead. This way, your animal won’t even notice too much. If they still have the symptoms which we’ve covered earlier, you may want to take it to the vet.

Remember, they are the pros here, so most of the time they will give you the best bits of advice.

Always weight your cat’s food in order to feed them the perfect amount.

Overfeeding is probably the reason why your cat is a little overweight, so don’t play with that again. Put the food in their bowl only when it is meal time and respect those intervals. You must stop free-feeding as this promotes obesity.

Diet & exercise

The goal of this transition is to make your cat move from normal food to a high-protein, low carbohydrate canned diet. This paired with the exercises will be the key to losing weight.

“But how do I get my lazy cat which sleeps all day long to exercise?”, this may be another one of your questions. Yes, this will be difficult, but the results will impress you. You can’t really take her on a walk, because you know, it is a cat. However, if this is your style and it is not considered too weird in your country, go for it.

One of the most creative and funny to watch ways to make it exercise is by moving the bowl of food. Move it as far as you can from the usual spot. Don’t imagine this will make your cat starve to death, eating is one of the actions they are really good at, a little game will not stop them from doing it.

Another thing you should do is playing with it about 10 to 15 minutes 2 or 3 times per day.

Grab a toy which the cat really likes and you’re good to go. If you don’t have those, grab a string with something like a candy wrapper at the tip and boom. The kitty will most likely love to steal it, so you can both have fun. Make sure you are moving a bit to also reach your goal.

How do I know that the diet works?

It is very important to check once in a while if your cat made any progress. Don’t think that this will show up in the next days. If you are lucky and everything works well, you should expect it to lose about 1 pound (or about half a kg) every month.

If you can’t notice any progress, your vet should tell you what you are doing wrong, as every cat is different. You may need to make some adjustments. You don’t need to be too drastic just because something doesn’t work, as it may affect your cat’s health.

Maintaining the optimal weight is very important for your feline because it doesn’t result in an only better aspect. It will provide a longer, healthier, and more active life.

Conclusion

Overall, the proportions of your cat can influence it’s life in both good and bad ways if you are not careful enough. You don’t need to panic if your cat’s length and height are not ideal, because you can’t influence those too much.

However, you need to watch out for your kitty’s weight, as it can make the difference between a healthy life and dangerous diseases. Has your cat ever been overweight? What did you do about it and how did you convince it to change its diet and lifestyle?