My husband and I have recently lost our 20+ pound SPCA Adopted Tabby Male. We loved him for his size and color much like the Brown Tabby w/white. Since "Big Head" was very large, we've been attracted to the MCs. When looking for a kitten we intend to have neutered, we saw the Sire of the litter who was about 16 pounds and Dame was about 14 pounds, we thought Sire looked small. They brought out the Sire's brother who had been neutered at 10 months and at 2.5 years old he was a whopping 23.5 pounds, he looked "Great". In all of the literature containing weight parameters for MCs it indicates 17-20 pounds for a male. Questions: Are the weight parameters for an un-neutered male as well? How should the Sire/Dame size be viewed as ultimately affecting the size of a kitten. In the case of the Father vs Brother we couldn't conclude anything, what should we key on. Lastly, how does neutering & timing play into the equation.

-- Anonymous, February 21, 1999

Answers

One of the breeders we went to confirmed your suspicions that neutering does make for a much larger cat. We saw the same thing at that cattery as you did: a big sire but an absolutely huge neutered brother! I've never seen anything in writing about it though. Here's to the big bruisers! :)

-- Anonymous, April 14, 1999

The timing of neutering works thusly: a cat neutered (or spayed) before puberty misses out on the hormonal signal "stop growing; time to reproduce". Research in various mammalian species shows that you get slightly longer bones in this case. It's not a huge difference, but it does exist, and is an argument for early neutering in breeds where size is wanted.

Neutering also keeps the cat from expending physical resources on reproduction-related behavior: a neutered male is not spraying, protecting his territory, fretting over nearby females in heat, etc, as an unneutered one would be, and therefore can devote all his energy intake to growing a big muscular body, a fine shaggy coat, and (if fed /too/ much) a generous pot-belly too. :-)

It's a by-word among breeders that the neutered sibling will look better than the unneutered one, especially after a year or so, when everything you thought was gawky and flawed about the cat you neutered and sold as a pet has ironed itself out, while the one you kept, intending him for the breeding program, grew some new and... less-wanted features. :-)

Ambar
Ambar Maine Coons

-- Anonymous, May 21, 1999