Does your kitty have a little drooping tummy that hangs down between their rear legs, cutely swaying side to side as they strut around their kingdom? Are they getting stout before your eyes?
We might have thought so, but our cat’s belly flaps have nothing to do with fat. It is actually loose skin which is called the “primordial pouch”, and it’s there as heritage from the felines ancestors.
Cats are the only animals that have a primordial pouch (including wild ones like lions and tigers!), but some cats have a more pronounced primordial pouch than others.
The primordial pouch serves three interesting purposes:
1. Protection: This extra skin acts as a shield of protection for vital organs located in this region. And it can be very useful during a fight, especially since cats tend to turn belly-up at some moments in the fight, using their hind legs to kick their opponent.
2. Flexibility: Excess skin in this area allows the belly to stretch more and facilitate the necessary movements during jumps and runs.
3. Abdominal Expansion: The primordial pouch also helps expand the abdomen, allowing cats to store large quantities of food. Of course, this function is more useful in nature for wild cats, where they can stay several days without finding a potential hunt. When they do finally find food, it’s better if they are able to ingest large volumes of it.
So, if this feature becomes prominent in your pet feline, you don’t need to worry that they’re getting too big. If your cat is overweight, however, distinguish the pouch from fat this way:
*fat is distributed around the body, and is firm or squishy, leaving your cat looking round and without a waistline.
*the pouch, in comparison, is loose and floppy, but doesn’t affect the shape of the rest of the body
As always, if you still have questions or concerns about whether this is affecting your cat in some negative way, ask your veterinarian.