I was happy to see a cheetah live on one of my high school excursions 20 years ago.
Cheetahs are medium size when compared to other big cats in the family.
This fastest cat and land mammal also has great eyesight and exceptional techniques for catching its prey.
Based on personal findings from zoo workers, here are facts about cheetah feeding, size, and weight.
Cheetah Growth
Cheetah babies (cubs) weigh around 350 to 450 grams (that’s less than 1 pound) at birth.
They have a thick coat of fur at birth, similar to a mane tuft of hair running down their backs.
Cheetah cubs can’t see at birth and thus rely on their mother for feeding and protection for a couple of weeks.
As the cubs grow, usually in 4 weeks, the mother cheetah introduces solid food, starting with small portions of meat.
At 12 weeks of life, the mother cheetah starts teaching hunting skills while the cubs usually learn by observation and eventually start participating in hunts of small animals.
Cheetahs usually have rapid growth in the first 2 months of life, and it slows down till 1 year.
After 1 year, they tend to develop their muscular structure, size, and weight till they reach their full adult size at 2 to 3 years of age.
Cheetah Feeding
Cheetahs are carnivores that primarily feed on ungulates, such as gazelles, impalas, and other small to medium-sized herbivorous animals.
Cheetahs can run speedily to catch their prey which allows them to chase down and capture their prey in short bursts of sprints and high speed. They also have maneuverability and agility.
They can spot their prey from afar, then use cover and stealth techniques to get as close as possible to the prey before attacking it at high speed.
Once a cheetah catches its prey, it typically suffocates it by clamping down on the prey’s throat with its powerful jaws. This is usually the behavior of animals in the cat family.
Once their prey is dead, cheetahs often eat quickly to avoid losing the meat to bigger cats or hyenas, which often take over meat hunted by cheetahs.
Cheetah Average Size and Weight
Cheetahs are not so large, hence, people wonder how much weight an average cheetah carries.
A full-grown male cheetah can weigh between 40 to 65 kg, equivalent to between 88 and 143 pounds.
Full-grown adult female cheetahs are slightly smaller and lighter than their males, typically weighing between 35 to 55 kilograms (77 to 121 pounds).
However, an average male cheetah’s weight is usually around 50 kg or 110 pounds while a female cheetah weighs around 45 kilograms or 99 pounds.
How many cheetahs weigh varies depending on factors such as genetics, habitat, food availability, and overall health.
For example, the weight of cheetahs in their natural habitat, which is forest, is usually higher than cheetahs in the zoo and in captives.
