Orange Tabbies

[NoahsMommy]

Noah is an orange tabby and is 4 1/2 months old. He is already very long and weighed in at 7 lbs. 6 oz. last weekend...

Do you think he will be a really big kitty? How big is "really big"?

[Pam]

This post has made my Trevor smile. He is a member in good standing of the Orange Cat Club and currently weighs in at 20 lbs., down from almost 22 lbs. He doesn't like to be referred to as "fat" but just "large." I don't know how true this is, but at the vet's office once one of the techs said to another tech "oh look, another big orange tabby." While it doesn't make sense to me that color would be connected to size, maybe there is a link. Anyone know? My other cat, Andy, is much smaller boned and his face/head is even quite a bit smaller (he is white ). It sounds as if Noah is gonna be a big guy. I look at it as having more kitty to love.

Here's my Trev:

[yorkster]

Originally posted by NoahsMommy:
<STRONG>Noah is an orange tabby and is 4 1/2 months old. He is already very long and weighed in at 7 lbs. 6 oz. last weekend...

Do you think he will be a really big kitty? How big is "really big"?</STRONG>

My M. Coon kitten weighed 8 lbs. at 5 months, and now at 8 months old he weighs 12 lbs. already! I was talking to a woman at a cat show last weekend who had a 19 lb. M. Coon, and she said that he weighed those same weights when he was a kitten, so YES I think you are going to have a large cat!

[thelmalu99]

Elvis is an orange and white tabby and he is lean and mean. He does eat a lot, though. I guess maybe he just has good genes.

Danny, however, is a different story (he's a ginger tabby). He's still a kitten, but he's a little bruiser. A very solid kitty. When I adopted him, they said he was six months old, which would make him almost eight months old now. I think he's a little younger than that, though. Danny just seems younger than 7 1/2 months. I get the feeling that he's going to be really big, especially since his paws are really big. His paws are a lot bigger than Elvis'(Elvis is an adult cat).
Does anyone know how accurate these people are when they estimate a cat's age? Danny just looks like he's going to be a big guy, but he's not big now, just really solid and some parts of his body, like his paws, are still not in proportion to the rest of him. That's why I think that he may be younger.

[thelmalu99]

So it's not out of the question for them to be off by a month or two, even with a kitten?

[TheAntiPam]

I wish there was a more accurate way of determining age. When I adopted my orange cat, I was told he was about 2 1/2 yrs old. However, 10 years later, he was estimated at 14 to 15 yrs old. Must be new math.

As for size, my 2-yr old grey tabby (he'd have to use Miss Clairol for red highlights) was born with a heart problem, which has kept his adult size quite small - only 6 lbs. He is often mistaken for still being a kitten. He doesnt really mind!

[4 feline house]

Noah's mom - Big's growth chart also matches Noah's. He was 8 lbs at four months, and now is 20 lbs. I think Noah is going to be more like Goliath!

[Sia1]

My orange girl, Callie, is half the size of her "brother and sister" but she's still a hefty 11 lbs. She gained a lot of weight after we spayed her..is that pretty common?

[nsweezie]

My orange boy Scooter is a BIG cat. Very solid. He went to the vet in Aug to have his microchip implanted and he weighed 15 pounds. One month later he went back for his shots, and had gained .5 pounds. But the vet did say that he was not obese, and that he was just a very solid, healthy cat.
My parents have a light orange male that is large too, although because he is 12 he is not the size that he was when he was in his prime.

[NoahsMommy]

Wow, it looks like he is going to be a big kitty!! That is just fine with me, more for me to hold and hug...

While we are on the subject of vets (kind of), when I take Noah to the vet for his shots (and soon to be fixed) he WONT go into his carrier. Well, he goes in, but once in the car he throws himself against the metal at the top and I am so afraid he will hurt himself. Now, I carry him while my hubby drives. Now that I know he will be around 20 lbs. I don't think I will be able to hold him for very long...does anyone have any tips or advice on getting him to tolerate his carrier?

Thank you for all your advice and input!

[ September 20, 2001: Message edited by: NoahsMommy ]

[TheAntiPam]

The fight to get my big cat into his carrier eventually left me bleeding and defeated. So, I got a different kind of carrier.

My vet's office had a plastic version of the old style cardboard box carrier for under $10. This seems to work great. He still doesn't like the box, but I can get him into it without harm, and there is nothing to hurt him once he is inside. It has more room inside, and seems more like the cardboard boxes he loves to hide in at home. Good luck and don't give up!

[libracats]

[img]null[/img] [IMG]C:/My Documents/My Pictures/Chat[/IMG]
I tryed to put on a picture of my Orange Tabby,"Chat".I'm pretty sure it wont work,as I've never tryed before. He is 2 years old and only weighs 6lbs. This is very unusual for an Orange, they are almost always large cats. It sounds like your baby will be one of the big ones

[4 feline house]

Most cats won't tolerate this, but when I realized Big was going to be too big to carry in my arms or a carrier, I began taking him to the vet on a leash. Since Noah's still young he may be easy to train. You may have to get a harness for a dog, though, because the cat ones are surely not going to be big enough. I was lucky to find an adjustable one. If Noah is real laid back, also, he should be easy to train. Big was already a year old before I tried him in the harness, but he took to it just fine. When summer is over we will likely be taking him for his "walkies" again! He trots along just like a dog!

[NoahsMommy]

Pam: Trev is so cute, sorry I didn't tell you this the first time!! Cutie!!

Anti-Pam: That is a good idea! I will see if our vet has those too!

4Feline House: We got Noah a harness and leash and are waiting to try it out. Will he really walk like a dog? (How cute!! )

Thanks for all your advice!!!

[AmberLee]

Dear NoahsMom and 4FelineHouse,

Cassy will walk on a leash, but not exactly like a dog... We go 'walkies' when he feels like it and it varies between long lurking under shrubs or sniffing greenery with quick bursts of scampering between. Interspersed with untieing the leash from bushes and/or other obstacles. Occasionally he ties himself up under the dining room table before we get out the door. "Ah, this is your subtle cat body language that you don't want to go walking today, right?"

A friend and co-worker tells me she and Kit-Kit get tons of attention when she walks him into the vets. I can't picture getting Cassy to voluntarily enter the vets on a leash, but obviously there are better trained furkids out there than mine! Congrats.

P.S. It's worse than I thought. One of my neighbors was surprised to discover Cassy under a bush on one of our recent outings. Apparently he thought I just periodically tethered myself to bushes with a leash for my own peculiar reasons...

[ September 21, 2001: Message edited by: AmberLee ]