When Are Cats Full Grown? – KingdomOfCats

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When Are Cats Full Grown?

KingdomOfCat Admin

 

 

Having a small kitty to hold in your hand and pet her is quite a pleasant experience. It is so joyful that you may want her to stay the same size forever and more. However, the truth is your feline friend has to grow up. Sooner or later it will come to a time when you wonder yourself how long it will take for your cat growth, how we will know if our cats are fully grown or not. If you are a starter in this minefield, we do hope below sharing can help you somehow. Let’s plan thoroughly, prepare well and cherish the moment our cat turns into an adult mentally and physically.

How big will your cat be?

No cat tends to resemble one another as they come from different breeds along with different sizes and live in not the same condition as well. It is not exact to conclude the maturation of a cat by using her weight and height measurement. How much do cats weigh?Yes, it is just a common answer that averages normally raised adult cat will weigh at around 8-10 pounds (while larger breeds may weigh up to 25 pounds) but it is considered as an independent response which we should not refer to estimate one cat’s growth.  

Ideal Weight For Cat

When do cats stop growing and reach full size?

Cats are well known to reach their adulthood at around 1 year old. This means it is the time to form their maturity and personalities which they may act and behave throughout the adult lives. But it doesn’t mean they will stop growing up. Growth still exists, but slowly, until they reach 18 months old and stop at this time. Of course, we mean to mention generally for vast majority domestic cat breeds. In fact, some other big breeds may take up to 4-5 years to be fully grown which we will have a closer look at this article later.

In order to understand when your kitty develops into a fully-grown adult, it is important to have a general idea of certain life milestones when a kitten becomes a cat. While every single cat is different, we could break it down into 03 basic developmental phases with specific milestones listed as below:

Birth – 3 months age: this is the most important stage in a cat life and should be well spent with MAMA cat, she will feed their “children” her own milk and keep them warm. In the first 2 weeks, they usually double their size (from birth size) and could open their eyes. After 3 weeks, this is the time to wake up their senses with full sight and sound, but don’t overdo it. Spending time playing with your kitty-cats will encourage their mobile and social skills. They are ready to leave their Moms after 6 weeks of age when first baby teeth appear, it is also the time to start the weaning process and transform to canned/dry kitten food to eat independently. From 6 till 12 weeks of age, kittens sleep less, become more active and start to explore their new surroundings. 

From 3 – 6 months age: this is the time when their baby teeth begin to fall out and replace by new ones, their eyes color shapes, and their bodies return to form with more muscular. During this period, your furry friend will develop necessary social and predatory skills by approaching stuff and other animals around. Kittens grow rapidly until 6 months old and there is common sense to estimate well that the average final size of cat would weigh about twice as his/her weight at the 16-week time. Formulated kitten food is fed to ensure nutritional development and training could be applied. As a result of hormonal changes in the bodies, at the end of this phase, they may go through sexual maturation actively. Keep an eye on them whenever there is any cat with the opposite sex around unless you have your cats spayed or neutered. Many vets recommend spaying or neuter the kittens by this time.

From 6 – 12 months age: all important milestones have been passed, kittens quickly become cats during the last half first year. Losing their babyish appearance and becoming more confident, by this time, they will have almost reached their full physical and mental maturity. At the age of 10th month, your cats are ready to have adult cat food as their nutritional needs change. This is the time you should question again how much I should feed my cats since they require less food. And don’t forget to celebrate their 1st birthday well, as it the time they are considered as adults. However, probably adults still grow up quietly until 18 months.

From 18 months onwards, cats will completely live their adult life, it sounds interesting like your teenage daughters and your sons finally reach their 18th birthday. And as human beings, the adult journey of growing and learning of a cat will never end. With good living conditions, domestic cats will live up to 16 years, or even 21 years.

We also have a small chart Cat Years Calculator: Convert Cat’s Age to Human Years

What if I didn’t follow the kittens from birth?

Unless you know exactly your kitten since birth, you may have no idea which stages a cat is in if you take a stray cat home or adopt from somewhere. In fact, most adoption center will not let you take a kitty home until a certain time. Spend time to observe carefully above appearance and behavior changes, talk to your vet when it is hard to define, then somehow you will have an own answer for yourself.

Several popular cat breeds

In such a way, we may look at age with a particular turning-point as a powerful indicator to have an idea when our cats reach close to their maximum size. As previously mentioned, on average, most cats will continue to grow after a 01-year point, but it will be fairly slow until they reach their full potential at the age of 18 months. And yes, it is not all about cats, as it is much more different when we will look into details of the most popular big cat breeds as below table.

Maine Coon

Note

Largest domestic cat breed, 4 to 5 years to full adult size

 

Length

up to 48 inches

 

Height

8-16 inches

 

Weight

up to 25 pounds, even 35 pounds

Bengal

Note

Look like a “small leopard”, 1 to 2 years to full adult size

 

Length

13-16 inches

 

Height

up to 11 inches

 

Weight

10-22 pounds

Savannah

Note

Look like a “small leopard”, 2 to 3 years to full adult size

 

Length

20 to 25 inches

 

Height

10 to 19 inches

 

Weight

12 to 20 pounds

Ragdoll

Note

Slowly growing cat, up to 4 years to full adult size

 

Length

15 to 26 inches

 

Height

9 to 11 inches

 

Weight

8 to 20 pounds

British Shorthair

Note

3 to 5 years to finish

 

Length

16-22 inches

 

Height

14-20 inches

 

Weight

7-18 pounds

 

Of course, on the other hand, you have tiny cats like Siamese, Sphynx, which may stop growing much earlier! Very interesting, isn’t it?

Bottom Lines

Again, while knowing exactly cat origin will help their owners determine the time the cats will stop growing in general, there are other several factors involved in the growth rate of them.

-       Nutrition and breeding environment is the main point. Cats that are not taken care of properly with an essential healthy diet may suffer from malnutrition and will not develop fully.

-       It can be strange but the time of spaying or neutering affects as well. Most vets indicate that spayed or neutered cats grow bigger than intact ones, only if it is conducted at the correct time. So when is the correct time? Most vets recommend spaying and neutering your kitties at 4 to 6 months. But let it be decided by your vet for your own cat!

-       Male – Female Cats perform distinctly. With the same breed, male cats tend to grow larger than females, the difference is somewhere between 1-2 pounds.

As a pet owner, you should mind measuring the length, height, and weight of your cats frequently to keep track of their growth process. Do the right things at the right time. Visit your vets to ensure your cats get necessary vaccinations and hear their experienced advice.

To wrap it up, we can say that most cats reach their full adulthood after about 12-18 months. Don’t rush and wait, you and your cats will grow up and grow old together, value each moment and just enjoy every little change when time flies. We do hope our sharing helpful and we are very excited to hear your stories as well, just comment and share if you have any questions.

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