Caring for a Large Cat: Weight, Joints, Heart and Grooming

Caring for a large cat differs mainly in four places: judging weight by body condition rather than pounds, keeping heavy joints moving, asking about breed heart screening, and keeping up with a long coat. A healthy Maine Coon male can reach or exceed 20 pounds by the registry’s account, so the usual “ideal weight” numbers do not apply.

None of this needs special products. It needs the right yardstick. The pages in this section answer the questions owners of big breeds ask most, using veterinary schools, the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) and International Cat Care. Nothing here replaces a visit to your veterinarian.

Is a big cat overweight, or just big?

Weight alone cannot tell you. A 20-pound Maine Coon may be lean and a 13-pound domestic shorthair may be heavy. Vets use a body condition score instead. On the WSAVA nine-point chart, a score of 5 is ideal: “Well-proportioned. Observe waist behind ribs,” with ribs you can feel under a slight fat covering. Scores of 6 to 9 are over ideal.

The 2021 AAHA guidelines add a useful conversion: each point above 5 of 9 “is equivalent to being 10% overweight.” The Ontario Veterinary College’s pet nutrition service puts it a little higher, at an additional 10 to 15 percent body fat per point, so read the score as a rough guide to how far a cat is from ideal. The AAHA guidelines also ask vets to score muscle separately at every exam, because a cat can be overweight and losing muscle at the same time. The same guidelines name Norwegian Forest Cats among breeds predisposed to weight gain.

Cornell calls obesity “the most frequently observed nutritional disorder” in cats and lists osteoarthritis, hip dysplasia, diabetes and heart strain among the risks. For a big breed, the extra pounds land on joints that already carry a lot.

How fast should an overweight cat lose weight?

Slowly, and with a vet’s plan. Cornell suggests aiming for “perhaps one or two percent loss of body weight per week” and warns that sudden starvation diets can cause hepatic lipidosis, a serious liver disease in cats. Cornell also advises feeding measured meals rather than leaving food out all day.

As a worked example: for a 20-pound cat, 1 percent of body weight is 0.2 pounds, about 3 ounces a week (our arithmetic from Cornell’s figure), which is easy to miss on a bathroom scale. A pet scale or a vet visit every few weeks gives a clearer picture. The AAHA guidelines add that treats and other extras should stay at or under 10 percent of daily calories.

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Joints and stairs

Joint disease is common in all cats as they age. Cornell reports a study in which X-rays showed degenerative joint disease in 90 percent of cats over 12; the study, of 100 cats, was published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association in 2002. Cornell also notes it is “seen more frequently in obese cats.”

Heart screening in large breeds

Several big breeds appear on Cornell’s list of breeds in which hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is more common: the Maine Coon, Ragdoll, Norwegian Forest Cat, Siberian and British Shorthair among them. Many cats with HCM do not look ill, and Cornell names echocardiography as the gold standard for diagnosis. Gene tests exist for two breed mutations, but a positive result is not a diagnosis. Read heart and hip problems in large breeds for what the tests can and cannot tell you.

Feeding and grooming

Feeding a big cat comes down to the same questions as any cat: the life stage on the label, calories for the cat’s ideal body condition, and a plan set with your vet. There is no breed-specific nutrient profile from the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). See feeding a Maine Coon.

Grooming is where size shows most. International Cat Care says long-haired cats need grooming at least daily, and a large cat has a lot of coat. See grooming a Maine Coon for brushing, mats and nail trims.

Play counts as care

The AAFP and ISFM environmental needs guidelines treat play as a need, not an extra: failing to provide predatory-type play “can result in obesity or boredom and frustration.” For a big cat, that means toys that survive a heavy pounce and perches deep enough to stretch out on. See toys for large cats and cat trees for large cats.