Monitoring your cat’s weight throughout their life is a really useful habit to get into and can be, quite literally, a life-saver in some circumstances. Cats are notorious for not being fans of travel or trips to the vet, so if you can weigh them at home, you can keep your and your cat’s stress levels down! In this article, we’ll look at why monitoring weight is so important and how you can go about weighing your cat at home.

How to weigh your cat at home

If you get your cat as a kitten, that’s a great time to get them used to being put on the bathroom scales. Make sure you have digital scales, especially for kittens because they are so light. Very small kittens might even be best weighed on your kitchen scales to start with.

Weighing your kitten every two weeks is ideal to start. This will let you and your vet make sure that they are growing at a healthy rate. Most cats are almost at their adult size at around six months of age, from which point you can weigh them monthly. So how to go about it?

• Most digital scales will give a reading after a few seconds, so if you can get your cat to sit still enough, you can simply place them on the scales and wait. You could hold a nice treat to encourage them to stay still. Most cats are trainable with food rewards, and getting them to sit on the scales is the easiest way to do things if you can manage it.

• Using their cat basket is a good option if they are a bit flighty or fidgety. Making the cat basket a positive thing is another good habit to get into for any cat owner. Too often, our cats only see the basket when it’s time to go to the vet or the cattery, so the basket can have really negative associations. Leave the basket to be used as a bed for your cat in a nice, quiet place with a favourite cushion. You can also give treats in the basket to encourage your cat to go inside.