Siberian Cat Care Calendar: Coat, Kidneys and Weight

Siberians are sold as hardy, and they mostly are - which is why the two conditions that matter, polycystic kidney disease (PKD) and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), get found at the annual exam or not at all. The care year is a coat schedule plus four dated tests.

Baselines: a 6-8.5 kg target for males and 4.5-6 kg for females, 250-300 kcal a day at 6 kg, a kidney ultrasound at 12 months, a first echo by 2 years, and two weeks of daily combing at each moult.

The year in four blocks

March to May is the spring moult and the season to book the annual exam; the coat is shedding anyway, so a body condition check by hand costs nothing extra. June to August is heat season, and this triple-coated cat handles 30°C worse than -5°C. September to November is the autumn moult plus the pre-winter weigh-in. December to February is the quiet stretch, when indoor cats gain 200-400 g without anyone noticing.

Put the two hard dates on a calendar now: the annual exam in the birthday month, and the moult start, which is predictable to within about 10 days once you have watched one year.

Coat work: three sessions a week, daily in the moult

Three passes a week of 10-15 minutes, steel comb then slicker, and the routine has to reach four places: the neck ruff, the hollows behind the front legs, the trousers along the back legs, and the root of the tail. The ruff tangles first because no cat can reach its own throat; the tail root felts because the down there is thickest.

When the spring moult starts, go daily for two weeks and repeat the pattern in autumn. Skip a week in April and you buy 40 minutes of dematting in May, which few cats will sit through. Two or three baths a year is the ceiling, since the coat's oils do real work and shampoo takes them away. Shaving is out: down grows back unevenly and the skin loses its shade. Ears weekly, nails every 2-3 weeks.

Weight: the post-neuter drift

Mature males run 6-8.5 kg and females 4.5-6 kg; a neutered male holding 6-7.5 kg is usually right, and a female at 4.5-5.5 kg. Weigh monthly, and every 2 weeks for the first 6 months after neutering, when needs drop by roughly 25% while appetite does not.

At 6 kg the daily ration is 250-300 kcal, split into two meals, with at least a third from wet food. A 5% rise in 8 weeks, about 300 g at this size, means a 10% cut and a re-weigh in 4 weeks. Long coats hide condition, so run both hands along the ribs every 2 weeks: if you cannot feel them without pressing, the cat is over. Ribs that feel sharp with a soft belly mean muscle loss, which in this breed warrants a vet visit and a kidney check rather than a diet.

Age	Weight check	Screening	Coat
0-6 months	Weekly, kitten curve	Vaccines, faecal check	2 minutes daily, handling practice
6-15 months	Every 2 weeks	Neuter timing, PKD DNA test	3 sessions weekly from 4 months
12-24 months	Monthly	Kidney ultrasound at 12 months, hip X-ray at 24	Daily in both moults
2-6 years	Monthly	Echo every 12-24 months, dental from 2 years	3 sessions weekly
7 years +	Monthly plus hand check	Annual blood panel, blood pressure, echo yearly	4 sessions weekly

Screening: PKD first, then the heart

PKD is inherited and testable twice over: a DNA test at any age, and an ultrasound at 10-12 months, when cysts are large enough to see reliably. Most nephrologists repeat the ultrasound yearly to age 7 in an untested cat; a cat with a clear DNA test and a normal scan at 12 months needs no further imaging.

HCM gets a baseline echocardiogram by 2 years, then every 12-24 months, and yearly for breeding cats. A murmur moves that up to the week it is heard. Hips are X-rayed at 24 months. From age 7, add blood pressure and a urine protein:creatinine ratio to the annual panel, because kidney disease in this breed is often found on a ratio, not on creatinine.

Food and water

Protein at 35-45% of dry matter. Kitten food continues to 12-15 months: this is a large, slow-growing breed, and early calorie restriction produces a tall cat with poor bone density. Adults do well on measured meals rather than a full bowl; free-feeding a 7 kg cat adds 1-1.5 kg a year on 60-80 extra kcal a day.

Water: 200-300 ml a day at 6 kg, more if the diet is dry. Two wide bowls in different rooms, one of them on the route the cat already walks. A daily wet meal matters here because diluted urine is the cheapest protection a kidney has.

Exercise and heat

Two chase games of 10-15 minutes before feeding, plus a puzzle feeder, and a tall tree with stable platforms - a 7 kg cat landing on a 50 cm shelf will knock it over. Vertical space and a window do more than floor toys.

Above 26°C, the cat stops playing and lies flat; above 30°C it is at risk. Offer tile, a cooling mat, and air movement, and shift play to before 9 a.m. Harness walks work well in cool weather and are the easiest way to add 20 minutes of real movement.

Five mistakes worth naming

• Treating the spring moult as optional, then paying for a demat in May.
• Shaving in summer, which removes the insulation that makes heat tolerable.
• Skipping the 12-month kidney scan because the bloodwork looks normal.
• Feeding a 7 kg cat as if it were a 5 kg cat, then calling it "big-boned".
• Bathing monthly to reduce shedding, which dries the coat and increases it.

Call the clinic today for open-mouth breathing, a sleeping rate above 30 a minute, sudden hind-leg paralysis, or an empty litter box after 6-8 hours of straining. Within 48 hours for increased drinking (more than 300 ml a day at 6 kg), a 300 g loss in a month, vomiting more than twice in a day, or a new cough. Book within a week for bad breath with red gums or a coat that stops grooming itself.

Your first 30 days

1. Weigh and record a baseline, plus a photo from above.
2. Confirm the PKD DNA status of both parents in writing.
3. Get a steel comb and a slicker, then do one full pass to the skin.
4. Set two meal times and measure the ration for 14 days.

Frequently asked