Is he underweight or too skinny for a british shorthair?

[jwtkfs]

hello, i have a 2 year old male british shorthair who I have thought for a while is underweight.. He always looks very skinny, never puts weight on (not losing weight either) and doesn't look like I would imagine a british shorthair to look (chunky) vet told me today that British shorthairs are NOT supposed to be chunky and any that are are overweight.

Vet said he is NOT underweight and is fine and I need to stop worrying.

I have uploaded a few pictures to show what I'm talking about.

Last picture is of his brother, same age and I was just told he is very overweight and needs to go on a diet.. I'm feeling a bit lost.. first time cat owner and would rather know if I'm doing something wrong.. the one that is supposed to be overweight looks normal to me!

For reference they get three puches of wet food each per day, one weighs 5kg the other 4.5..

He is adorable and looks perfect to me 😍

I have a very slinky bengal cross. She is nearly one and super small

Here she is:

Girlcat (ex-feral) looked that shape at that age. She thickened up a bit over time, but that was mainly due to Boycat being on CKD food for a few months & she absolutely bloated on it. I've got het back down to almost where she was....

If you can just feel their ribs & spine, but they aren't prominent at all, that should be fine. If you can't feel the ribs with a very gentle stroke, they are likely overweight (talking about you here Tobias you fatty!).

He’s slim for a shorthair but looks healthy.

So you're going to disregard your vet, who a) is the expert and b) has actually seen and weighed both cats, if people on here say so?

Yeah! Go with what your vet is telling you. It's incredibly hard to tell from a photo.

not at all.. just wanted to compare with other people what their shorthairs are like.. Also It's the same vet that told me there was nothing wrong with one of my cats eyes, told me I was worrying for nothing, turned out there actually was something wrong, so if she's got this wrong too I would rather move to a different vet rather than have my cat suffer when they don't need to suffer.

He’s a beauty!

I think this is just an excuse to post pictures of a gorgeous cat.

He still is young - the photo from the side shows chunk-up potential to me.

I love him.

He does look slim in that photo.

We have two bsh sisters. One was a tiny skinny thing until we had her spayed (at about 18 months due to Covid delaying it). She then absolutely packed it on and I think now weighs more than her sister. They are both undeniably chonky.

Cat tax - here they are. The one in the cardboard box was the previously skinny one. The one showing off her ample fluffy belly was always chunky.

Here's my BSH girl. If you look very hard at the photo from above, you can see she goes in slightly at the waist.

He has the wide cheeks you would expect and looks to be in proportion with his paws. Chunky but not fat cats tend to have massive paws.

He looks incredibly healthy to me.

Chunky cats are unhealthy cats, no matter what breed they are.