LOok on ebay. YOu can get a good digital scale there fairly inexpensively
(around 20 o 30 dollars).

Kiran <kiran@no.email> wrote:

If you have a friend or can make a friend who has a strong arm (or
two strong arms), by a fish scale.

I recently bought a Berkley fish scale (FS2) at a sporting goods
store. The weight range, 20 pounds, is perfect for cats. It is a
small handheld device with a hook on it (the link is below in my
signature area). The price said $16 but they charged me only $8 on
sale. That model might be discontinued.

You put the cat butt first into a bag. Always remove or place a
cat butt first.

Then you just put the plastic bag loops on the hook and hold up
the fish scale with the cat underneath.  

Scales for humans (IKEA is cheap). Take the cat into your arms,
weigh yourself with and without the cat and do the sums.

carola

It is alleged that Kiran claimed:

If you only care down to the pound or half-pound, just hold the cat and
step onto your bathroom scale and measure.  Then put the cat down on
the floor and weigh just yourself.  The difference is the cat's weight.

If you want down to ounces, I don't have an answer.

If you look on eBay, you can find postal scales that weigh to 5 grams
or 0.1 ounces for around $20 including shipping. They have a HOLD
button. So if you get the cat on the scale, using treats, hit the HOLD
button and you can see the weight later. Most likely the cat's butt
will be in the way while she is on the scale. You can also place a
large tray, hit the TARE button, then the HOLD button for the same
effect. These scales do 36 to 50 pounds so your 4.5 pound cat is not a
problem. I have a scientific scale that does 5 pounds but is not much
better than 0.1 ounces or 2 grams.

Or if you look in office supply stores, they have postal scales for
around $30. This might be a better option so you can see what you are
getting. Some are the spring type. I think the digital will be better
because of the TARE and HOLD buttons and digital is pretty accurate.

Also since it's postal, they really should at least get down to the 1
ounce level which should suffice for your immediate needs. A postal
scale that does not do 1 ounce bins accurately is going to be a major
problem with the post office returning packages.

I think this is an excellent alternative to the $130 scales as I may
have mentioned before.

In fact, I think I will get one too.

I think I discussed this all with Phil P. in another thread. Pay
attention :)

Here is a link to a good-quality inexpensive digital scale:
http://www.toplinedigitalscales.com/catalog.php?action=124&item_id=166

You would need to place a box on this scale, then place the cat in the box.
The scale has a tare function, so you can easily set it to zero after
putting the box on the scale and before placing the cat on the scale.

MaryL

My cats --
Duffy: http://tinyurl.com/cslwf
Holly: http://tinyurl.com/9t68o
Duffy and Holly together: http://tinyurl.com/8b47e