Kittens are small cats, and not all cats grow at the same speed. However, their required nutrition, lifestyle, care, and treatment vary based on their age, making it crucial to check their growth condition. So understanding how big should a 5 month of kitten be, checking and matching current conditions with expectations can help you give them healthy growth and life.
In general, kittens weigh 4.5–6 pounds at 5 months of age, which differs based on their breed and health condition. Even at this age, the kitty also starts showing some unusual behavior, which should be handled safely.
Read on to understand the growth range, proper food, and behavior of kittens and learn some tricks to serve their necessities properly.
How Big Should a 5 Month Old Kitten Be?
Kittens are small yet adorable-looking cats that love to live playfully and curiously. You can’t expect them to be very large. The growth of a cat largely depends on its genetics, health condition, and diet. In general, a 4 to 5 month old kitten should weigh around 4.5 to 6 pounds.
If your kitten’s weight is less than that, take her to the vet to find out and eliminate the health concern. Kittens can be underweight due to plenty of diseases like worms, and might not get enough high-quality protein food. They may also cause parasites by not getting diet food.
Kitten Growth Chart
Wondering how fast kittens grow? The growth of a kitten depends on its breed type. For example, a Bengal kitten doesn’t grow as fast as a Maine Coon kitten or an American Shorthair kitten.
However, as a kitten parent, you should monitor its overall growth for two reasons, including healthy growth and breed-based adult growth expectations. Monitoring the growth of your kitten from a health perspective is a good idea, but you should be surprised if they keep growing beyond your expectations.
In this case, the kitten growth chart can help you fix your expectations and decide the next steps based on the results. However, a chart can be completely accurate. Instead, it’ll only give you some handy references.
In general, a 5 month old kitten’s weight becomes around 2.5 to 3.5 kg, and anything more than that is huge. However, some breeds like the Maine Coon and Norwegian Forest can grow large, and at 5 months old, they reach their final size. If you have a large, healthy kitten that is highly active, don’t worry about the extra weight.
Below is a chart of different size kittens’ expected growth:
| Size of the kitten | Expected growth |
| 3 months or 12 weeks | 2 to 4 pounds |
| 4 months or 16 weeks | 4 to 5 pounds |
| 5 months or 20 weeks | 5 to 6 pounds |
| 6 months or 24 weeks | 6 to 8 pounds |
5 Month Old Kitten Food Requirement
Since food and diet have a great role in the growth of your kitties, you should be careful about them. Feed your kitten canned food three times a day, and don’t give her dry food even if it is high quality. Dry foods are junk for cats and can cause her plenty of health diseases like kidney disease, obesity, and other ailments in the future.
If your kitten is growing rapidly, and eating around 8 ounces of canned food a day, split the food into 3 to 4 meals a day. You can also feed your kitten Friskies pate in poultry flavor. Though these don’t have much protein content, your cat will enjoy them. Once your kitchen becomes younger, add KMR to their food and make sure he is eating frequently. This is due to the fact that his stomach will remain small and his developmental requirements will remain high.
But if your kitchen starts throwing up the meal, you can reduce the food intake. Reducing the volume of the food and feeding them twice a day won’t make them sick. They’ll be calm until one hour before a meal and after 12 hours of eating.
You should only do this when you realize they have passed their major growth period. Remember, though cats are fairly similar in size, they may have variations in mature size based on the breeds. For example, full-grown Bombay cats are smaller than Maine coons. So don’t worry about their size as long as they are healthy.
What if Your Kitten is losing weight?
The growth of a kitten is affected by plenty of factors, including nutrition, parasites, genetics, illnesses, and surgeries. After becoming 4 to 6 months old, the kitten begins to settle into a dietary routine. Hence, it’s crucial to help them establish good habits for adulthood and feed them varied diets to make them finicky and mentally stimulated. Otherwise, your cat can become underweight, which is a symptom of illness.
More importantly, kittens are more susceptible to viruses, parasites, and other infections at this age than adults. So, if you see your kitten losing weight or having other diseases, take her to the vet as soon as possible.
Following are some healthy kitten weight-gaining tips that you can try:
- Kittens and adults have variations in nutritional needs. So feed your kitten canned food.
- Follow the kitten food packaging guidelines to maintain a proper feeding routine. Slow down your consumption in tandem with your kitten’s growth.
Generally, a 4 to 6 month old kitten requires around 60 to 65 calories per pound of body weight every day. So determine the requirements of your kitten and split them into several meals per day.
Unless your bet is specifically instructed, don’t add vitamins or supplements to the meal to avoid health problems. Monitor your kitten’s body condition and weight and discuss it with vet periodically.
5 Month Kitten Behavior
A 5-month-old kitten may begin to exhibit distressing signs that indicate the cat has progressed to the aggressive stage. Many kitten parents believe it is due to defiance or dislike, but this is not the case.
At this age, a kitten goes through some unfamiliar changes and can’t understand what’s going on with them.
Your kitty may also show aggressive behaviors for these reasons:
- Trying to establishing territory as their own.
- Don’t get enough attention
- Burning off the stored energy
To prevent them from misbehaving, spend time with your kitty and offer her lots of toys so she can play with them. You can also give her some scratching posts to help burn off the pent-up energy.
It is also worth understanding that a 5-month-old kitten becomes a teenager who can bring some problems if they don’t get spayed or neutered. Once their hormones begin rushing in, your male kitten will become aggressive toward other males while both male and female spray urine to mark territory.
It can be frustrating for kitty parents to live in an apartment, hence, it is wiser to neuter and spay. However, you can avoid their suddenly changing behavior by disciplining them or taking them to a vet.
How to Discipline a 5 Month Old Kitten
Tired of your pet scratching furniture, urinating on the floor or outside, or engaging in other undesirable behaviors? Disciplining your kitten can be a safe and effective solution. However, you must discipline your kitty in a way that will stop his bad behavior while maintaining his bond with you. In this case, your first step is to let your kitten know that it is misbehaving.
Learn the Reasons for Misbehaving
Your kitty can start acting out at the age of 5 months due to some medical reasons like kidney diseases or urinary tract infections, which cause the urinary problem. In addition, chewing or eating unusual objects is a symptom of dental diseases, while crying at night means dementia. In this case, let a veterinarian diagnose the problem and treat it accordingly.
Apart from the medical issue, your kitten can also spray urine or scratch furniture due to stress caused by environmental change. If a kitten doesn’t get enough toys and attention, he may start tearing up toilet paper or other undesirable things to get relief from boredom.
Though cats are typically smart, they can misbehave due to a lack of training. A cat can also become aggressive due to the anxiety caused by moving.
However, you should also be careful while classifying your cat’s behavior. It means you should differentiate between their misbehavior and their natural instincts. For example, kittens scratch furniture to sharpen their claws, which is normal for them. Instead of punishing your cat, give her some scratching posts.
Bond with Your Kitten
Though bonding may not stop your kitten from misbehaving, it can divert their energy from the unwanted act. Giving them extra attention and playing with them can alleviate their boredom or stress while also increasing their trust in you.
Make the Misbehavior Impossible
You can discourage your kitten from bad behavior by making it difficult for them or doing something that’ll deliver negative results. It means if your kitty scratches the sofa; discipline her by making it difficult to scratch. In this case, aluminum foil or double-sided tape is on the sofa.
Likewise, if your cat often jumps on the table, place a baking sheet on the surface. Once your kitty falls, the sheet will make a loud noise, which discourages your pet from jumping again.
Spray bitter orange on the plant or cover it with aluminum foil to prevent your kitten from urinating in it. You can also use deterrent devices such as upside-down mousetraps to restrict access to specific areas of your cat.
If your cat becomes aggressive, put her in a room and leave her alone for a while so he can calm down.
Reward the Good Behavior
Along with discouraging bad behavior, give positive reinforcement to your cat so he can repeat it again and again. If you notice your cat scratching on furniture, for example, reward her with plenty of playtime, edible treats, and verbal praise. More importantly, reward your pet for good behavior instead of afterward to avoid confusing her.
FAQs
1. Is a 5 month old kitten fully grown?
At the age of 5 months, the kitten’s teeth replacement process completes fully. However, kittens take 9 to 1 month to fully mature.
2. Why does some kitten remain so small at 5 months of age?
Your kitten can still be small at 5 months of age due to poor nutrition. Cats generally stop drinking mother’s milk at 8 months of age. You should start delivering proper nutrition to help them grow healthy and get healthy in adulthood.
3. How to determine if a kitten is growing properly?
There are a few indicators that your kitten is growing properly. The easiest way is to measure their weight every two weeks. A kitten grows rapidly during the first 6 to 8 months of its life. So monitor their appetite changes, increased activity levels, and growth spurts, particularly during this period.
Final Words
After understanding how big should a 5 month old kitten be, do some quick tests. Start by measuring their weight and matching it with the table mentioned above. Check their tooth loss and adult teeth-growing process to get a better idea of their growth rate. In addition, examine their skin to see if adult coats emerge. If you find any concerning issues, talk to a vet so you can treat them promptly and prevent the diseases from becoming critical.
Hello, this is Frank Swanson, the owner, and operator of Pet Info Hut. I created this website as a way to share my love of pets with the world. I have over 7 years of experience working with animals, and I have a passion for helping people care for their pets. I hope that you find my website useful and informative. Thanks for visiting!
