Worlds Largest Cat

The worlds largest cat (in terms of species or breed) either wild or domestic is the Tiger Panthera tigris, which has an average weight of 305 kg or 671 lbs. She is of course a wild cat. If you compare that weight with the weight of the biggest genuinely domesticated cat, the Maine Coon, the difference is startling. A large Maine Coon weighs about 20 lbs. However, when you think about it the difference is to be completely expected. The world's largest individual cat at the date of this post is a Liger.


Tiger photograph copyright Uli1001

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If you would like to read about the worlds biggest cat from a different perspective, please see this post: Worlds Biggest Cat. Both these articles refer to breeds and species. The second also refers to the worlds biggest individual cat, probably a liger a tiger/lion hybrid.

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Domestic cats are descended from small to medium sized wildcats. Domestic cats were once domesticated (tamed) wildcats. Small to medium wildcats such as the Scottish Wildcat weigh in the order of 15 - 30 lbs (the Scottish wildcat weights about 15 lbs, which is a bit bigger than the average domestic cat and about the same size as the Maine Cooon).

The kind of wildcat that is manageable and practical for a human being is one that it not too large. Today there are a lot of wildcats that are in the same size and weight bracket as the larger domestic cats. In fact one of the smallest domestic cats (probably the smallest), the Singapura, weighs more at 5.5 lbs (average small Singapura) than the Rusted Spotted cat a wildcat at 3.5 lbs. This is a very small wildcat.

The large Maine Coon (20 lbs) is heavier than a number of wildcats such as the Jungle cat (17 lbs), Scottish Wildcat (15 lbs), European Wildcat (11 lbs), Geoffroy's cat (11 lbs), Sand Cat (7.5 lbs), Black Footed Cat (4.6 lbs), KodKod (4.8 lbs), Margay (7 lbs), Manul (9.9 lbs). There are more. You can see a comparison between some wildcats and domestic cats by clicking here.

Today we are still domesticating wild cats and making homes for them. Some people in the USA have domesticated the Serval a wildcat that weighs about 40 lbs. That is probably about the maximum in terms of practicalities for a domestic cat that shares to an certain extent day to day living with humans. Servals though require special treatment and compliance with local wild animal legislation. Despite being domesticated they are still considered wild. You'll need lots of space, time and money. And you'll need to think about the ethics of keeping a wildcat captive.


Cougar the largest North American Wild Cat photograph copyright ucumari. This is a really great photograph.


The world's second largest cat is the Lion Panthera Leo at 225 kg or 495 lbs. The third largest is the Jaguar at 220 lbs. The biggest North American wildcat is the Cougar at about 190 lbs or so.

At the beginning of the 20th Century there were about 100,000 Tigers in the wild. Today the figure is 5,000 to 7,500 and we are happy with that figure because it seems the decline in population has stabilized. Population decline is all man made of course through habitat destruction (the voracious appetite of mankind to destroy nature for commerce goes on unabated) and I guess hunting. It seems shocking and extraordinary that probably the finest of all cats and a magnificent animal could be killed for pleasure. And things have to get so bad that three out of eight Tiger subspecies have to become extinct before something happens to save the remaining animals. This is a testament to mankinds approach. Things always have to get bad before something happens. There is little coordinated proactivity on the big issues because it is impossible to get consensus. It is impossible to get consensus because people are driven by self interest and money.

There is also the Chinese medicine market. Parts of the Tiger's anatomy is used in Chinese medicine. This has encouraged poaching. Shame of the Chinese medicine market. You cannot blame the poachers to a large extent as there is a lot of money in Tiger (and for example Rhinoceros) parts. The sooner people realize that Chinese medicine is hurting wild animals the better. And even if it might work sometimes it should never be at the expense of other animals. A number of Chinese people though have a different perspective on animal life to Westerners. It can translate into the worse kind of animal cruelty.

There is one domestic cat that aspires to be a Tiger and she is the Toyger, a toy Tiger. The breeders of this cat wanted to create a domestic cat that looks as near as possible like a the real thing but more manageable. The development of this cat is ongoing but they have produced a great looking cat, see her here. There remains though the question mark as to whether it is genuinely ethical to go down the route of breeding fancy designer cats for the consumer market when there are so many homeless cats in the world that don't look fancy but are just as good if not better inside.

One last thing there is a post on this site of a Bengal Cat (domestic cat) with Tiger eyes, see her here.

Worlds Largest Cat to the Largest Domestic Cat Breed

Cat Breeders

Cat Breeders - lots of cats in a group - the semi-hairless cat top left is a Peterbald cat. The other cats are Oriental Shorthair cats I believe. Photo copyright .m for matthijs. This photo is included because I like it. It has no connection to the posting except that there are lots of little Oriental Shorthair cats all together indicating some breeding has taken place.

Are Cat Breeders in the USA going through a hidden crisis? Is there dissent amongst the ranks of cat breeders? I think there is to a certain degree for at least two reasons. Firstly there are campaigns by organisations such as PETA, HSUS and the various Animal Rights groups against cat breeding. I don't think that these campaigns are against cat breeding totally (i.e. to ban it completely) although I might be wrong. Secondly, some authorities (and I am talking about the USA here) are putting the squeeze on cat breeding by imposing licensing fees etc. In other words a gradual chipping away of the viability of cat breeding may be taking place.

This is placing a strain on the cat breeding community it seems - I could be wrong but I sense this is the case or beginning to be the case. This gradual change in opinion in the US is probably being brought about by the increase in the feral cat population set against the increase in desire to own and create designer type cats. This is a toxic combination. It smacks of consumerism at the expense of animal welfare. There is also the simple fact of economics in dealing with feral cats.

Some cat breeders it seems are keen to take action to fight back. This requires co-ordination and I wonder whether they can achieve this. Cat breeders are individuals who tend to pull in different directions. That is in part why there are too many cat associations making the cat fancy too complicated. That is why there are too many names of cat breeds that differ between the UK, the rest of Europe and USA causing confusion.

Maybe this is a moment in the history of the cat fancy when the people in authority need to pull together and tackle the uncomfortable issues to allow them to move on.

Cat Breeders to Home page

Cat health weight loss

Cat health and weight loss - this picture more or less sums it all up (a great photograph too). It is very unlikely a cat will be overweight if he or she has the space to safely do this in. To naturally run and jump in a safe environment must be the best way to maintain correct weight and get exercise. The cat is called Boris and he lives with Andrew in Sheffield, England. The photo is copyright Andrew (polandeze, Flickr name). Andrew takes fine photographs including fine cat photographs. Boris is running around a graveyard. I am guessing that this is adjacent to Andrew's home and Andrew is supervising.

Obviously Cat health and weight loss go together. Obesity in cats is a growing phenomenon in the Western world. This can only be due to two causes. A large number of cats are not taking enough exercise and are eating more calories than they burn off. That is the bottom line of it. But why is it a growing problem?

I sense that the root of the problem is generally twofold. In the USA (the country with by far the biggest domestic cat population) a large percentage of cats live exclusively indoors. That promotes inactivity particularly if the people living with the cat are away a lot, working. If a cat is kept indoors it is beholden upon the human to counterbalance that enforced restricted lifestyle with a high degree of input to encourage activity. I don't actually think that people should keep cats if they have to keep them indoors all the time unless this is a real necessity.

Yet the idea of keeping cats indoors in the USA seems to be the norm. How can it be the norm (the normal standard) when it must be unnatural for cats. I think a lot of humans force cats into their lifestyles. They want a cat on their terms. They don't like everything about a cat so they remove or eliminate these deficiencies (in human terms), like claws and force the cat to live a life that despite being unnatural for the cat fits into the human's lifestyle. Is this right? Is this good for the cat? Is this treating cats as objects, consumer items? Is this encouraging cat breeding when it should not be encouraged. Cat breeding is not bad per se but there needs to be a realistic review of the wider issues. Cats are kept indoors for safety sake very often. But a lot of the dangers for a cat are man made. So we bring cats into a world that it unsuitable for them unless they lead an artificial life indoor and get fat and ill as a result. Is this wise?


Cat jumping up a wall. This is Boris again jumping up a stone wall. He is athletic (all cats are) and had jumped from the grave stone at the lower left of the picture. Cat often land just short of the top and the momentum plus a bit of climbing carries them to the top. This is preferable to overshotting. Photo copyright polandeze (Andrew). I post this photo to illustrate the need and benefit of exercise which can take place more realistically outside (provided the environment is safe).

If you add to a forced inactivity the rapid increase in convenience dry cat food, which is artificially high in carbohydrates and is less than ideal as cat food due to commercial reasons you have a recipe (excuse the pun) for a fat cat. There is possibly a third hidden reason. Obesity in humans is on the increase too. Does one follow the other? If we as humans accept getting overweight and are unable to do little about it or simply accept it then there is little likelihood of us being able to reduce the weight of our pets. You know the saying that people have pets that look themselves. Pets are sometimes a reflection of the human keeper.

Although there are masses of articles written and published on the internet about techniques and tips to help cats lose weight the bottom line is as outlined above. Obviously there are some medical issues that can lead to a cat being overweight but these are relatively rare compared to the reasons above. You can see the all the posts on this site about cat food and health issues by clicking here.

My cat is overweight because she is defensive and anxious due to a difficult early life (I found her on the streets of London when she as a young abandoned cat). This makes here inactive and she likes prawns. I have fought with her about food for the last 14 years and she has won but her weight is stable albeit high. Cat health and weight loss can be hard to achieve sometimes. As she is a ripe age for a cat at about 15 and still healthy (touch wood) it can't be too bad for her being overweight. One immediately apparent effect of being overweight is the difficulty a cat encounters grooming her back; those parts of her body that requires flexibility of the spine. This means my cat's fur is matted more than it should be. Which in turn means more grooming from me. She also has flaky skin for the same reason.

Of course, fatness results in more fatness due to increased levels of forced immobility. This makes it harder to achieve cat health by weight loss. For me one help was to take her off (not totally) a dry food diet. The totally dry food diet was recommended by the vet incidentally - he recommended Hills RD or LD but this didn't help her weight and encouraged Urinary tract disease. I am going to be cynical again but I think my then vet recommended Hills RD as it as prescription only and I would have had to buy it from him.

Urinary tract cat food is manufactured to alleviate this urinary tract disease. Really, food plays a big part and although wet cat food is often not that good it is better than dry cat food as it more accurately replicates a wild cat's diet in terms of protein intake, while dry food contains too much carbohydrate. The high levels of carbohydrate in dry cat food is mainly due to the requirements of the manufacturing process.

Obesity can cause diabetes too, a rising disorder for the domestic cat and linked to the above problems. The only way (subject to a vet's checkup) is less food and more exercise and this should be introduced slowly to fix a change in the cat's lifestyle. Although if you have an inherently inactive cat it takes a lot if input to exercise a cat. In fact one of the issues is that cats in the wild are very efficient hunters, the ultimate hunting/killing machine. This allows wild cats to spend a lot of the time resting between kills. They have though expended a lot of energy in hunitng and killing. They are programmed like this. If there is no hunting and plenty of resting weight gain I would have thought is a natural consequence.

Cat health and weight loss is probably the most important issue facing cat lovers and keepers today.

Cat health and weight loss to Low Magnesium Cat Food.

Puppy Kitten Mills

Photo copyright glowie NYC - this is for illustrative purposes only. I don't know the situation surrounding these dogs.

Puppy Kitten Mills - how do you define them? The first defining behavioral characterictic of such a cat breeder (and I'll write about cats for obvious reasons in this post) is that they focus on making money as opposed to the welfare of the cat. When you do that your main concern is the "production" of the maximum number of cats as each cat carries a profit. If cats are treated as objects then there will be little concern about a very important aspect of cat breeding, the socialization of the kittens.

Socializing kittens involves ensuring that they are fully accepting of the presence of humans and other animals such as dogs. This allows the kitten to integrate quickly when adopted and to lead a more happy life in their new home. This takes time and effort and it is easier to socialize cats in a small breeding operation. Most cat breeders are it seems hobby breeders, small operations working from home. They are not making a living from the breeding. In all but rare situations, I don't actually think that it is possible to make a profit, sufficient to live on, from cat breeding unless you are operating Puppy and Kitten Mills.

I don't think that profit (or commerce) and breeding animals go together satisfactorily. Proper cat breeders are also concerned with the breed standard. They are, after all, breeding purebred cats and there is an appearance to aim for (but always in moderation in my opinion). I don't think that the people who operate Puppy Kitten Mills care one jot about breed standards. So, you'll find a large number of cats from these breeders that are not inline with the standard. In fact I can see cats from this sort of breeder when I search for photographs for the Pictures of Cats website. Bengal cats for example that are not at all on the standard.

Sometimes people confuse Back Yard Breeders with Kitten Mill breeders. The two could be the same but as a lot of excellent cat breeders work from home and use their back yard in that process it would be unfair to call such a breeder a back yard breeder. I would have thought anyway that a kitten mill operation would more likely operate in a factory like setting on say a farm where there is sufficient space and away from a residential area.

Another very important area of concern is the health of the kitten. It is vital to provide the proper health checks and ensure that the cat bred is healthy when adopted. This doesn't happen with factory production as vets are a cost that erodes profit margins.

I am drawn to the thoughts of Helmi Flick who makes it clear that a person who wants to adopt a kitten really must visit the place where they are bred and make a first hand judgement and ask the right questions. Puppy Kitten Mills only exist because of a lack of concern by the "buying" public.

Here are some more issues in bullet form on this subject:

• People often do not know what a good cat breeder is or where they are. How can they differentiate between the Mill and the ethical breeder? This problem is in the hands of the associations and breeders themselves to educated the public and get the message across. There is not enough direction from the associations in my opinion.
• It is the puppy and kitten mills who are in part to blame for the high population of cats in rescue centers. Often kitten mill cats are poorly socialized and, as mentioned, unhealthy. This leads to an inability of the human keeper to cope and then abandoning the cat at a rescue where apparently (in the US) 70% or so are killed.
• Pet shop kittens from Kitten Mills are well presented but this doesn't mean they are mentally and physically healthy.
  
• Pet shops are convenient. To find a good breeder takes time and effort. Who do you think the public are more likely to go to if they are not well informed?
• Puppy and Kitten Mills are likely to cage their breeding cats in a cruel manner for the sake of efficiency. When cats are in pain and upset they tend to go quiet and hide. They don't and can't shout out and complain. Only we, the humans, can do that. That is why I have written this post.
  

Puppy Kitten Mills to Home Page

Persian Cat Facts

Ultra Persian Cat CFA champion apparently photo copyright alasam

Persian Cat Facts can be found in abundance of the Pictures of Cats.org website. One of the most interesting facts about Persian cats concerns the development of the Persian cat to the extent that we know have two separate breeds of cat. It has been a transformation.

Persian cat breeders in their desire to breed extremely saleable and outstanding Persian cats pushed the boundaries of the breed standard (the measure, in words, against which a purebred cat is to be judged as to whether the cat has a correct conformation for the breed i.e. has the correct type or is "typey" to use cat breeder language).

The more typey the better as far as some breeders are concerned. In striving for this goal set against a breed standard that could be interpreted with wide discretion the face of the sweet Doll Face Persian changed into a squashed face as if someone had simply pushed the face in.

Creating a face that unnatural was unfortunate. It was also unfortunate that the breed standard was then changed to accomodate the flat face. The crazy thing is that the Persian now suffers health problems associated with the flat face as is to be expected. What is even more astonishing is that visitors to my website prefer the old fashioned Doll Face Persian. Here is the result of an ongoing survey that will be updated regularly:-



You will find that a good percentage of the cats being bred are inbetween the extreme and the traditional. OK I've got that off my chest one more time. There are a lot more Persian Cat facts on this page which has links to other pages. Despite the drawback of health issues such as tear duct overflow requiring the area below the eyes regularly and heart disease problems and further the need to regularly groom the very long and thick coat this cat remains in the top 5 most popular domestic cats.

This may reflect the popularity of the doll face. Although, this is probably because Persian cats are seriously attractive cats and they have sweet characters which are well suited to indoor living. Indoor living in the US is a growing concept with a very high percentage of cat keepers keeping cats indoors permanently.


Pushka a Persian cat (she looks like a Traditional Persian from this angle) photograph copyright slight clutter under Creative Commons as is the header photograph.

There is a Persian cat rescue center in the UK, the owner of which says that the Persian cat is more prone to litter training problems than most other cats. This is probably due to stress as the Persian is a gentle cat. This sort of problem can lead to the human keeper having difficulty coping with the result that the cat (sometimes a purebred cat) being put into a shelter. This is despite the fact that a lot of cat breeders will take back cats if the new keepers are having problems. Cat breeders do this for the cat primarily as there is often no contractural obligation to accept the return of the cat.

The most important Persian cat facts concern health and the link above will take you to those. As there are a considerable number of Persians in rescue centers it would make sense to adopt from one of them. On this page is a short list of UK centers and on this page Californian centers.