looks like the right one may be loafing, but also might be the runt. when my aunt's dog had puppies one was noticeably bigger than the rest and one was noticeably smaller than the rest. i don't think it's super unusual to have some size difference in a litter (assuming these are the same litter).
Babies grow off of nutrients drawn from the mother. Humans don't usually have runts because we don't usually have more than one baby at a time. One is abnormal for cats and dogs, which usually give birth to whole litters. Runts are fetuses that suffer deprivation of nutrients in utero, and so are born smaller and weaker than their siblings. In the wild, they usually just die, as they're unable to compete with their siblings for limited access to tit space. Sometimes, their mothers tip the scales on purpose so that the healthy babies don't have to worry about competition from a sibling that's already unlikely to survive.
Incidentally, that also makes them the easiest animals to tame: since their mothers typically just abandon or ignore them, humans don't have much trouble collecting and rearing runts, who grow up thinking of their human wetnurse as their real mother.
It's so funny, we adopted two boys from the same litter. The one was active and curious and brave and the other was very timid and shy and the runt. A year later, the runt is the top hunter of the household, future NBA star, and massive causer of chaos. The other now goes skittering under the rugs/dresser whenever there's a noise at the front door and is pretty lazy. He's not fat by any means but I still have to pick him up and put him at the food for meals because "I showed up, what else do you want" energy
Funny how that works out, huh? Runts are often just underdeveloped. When you give them a chance, they can grow up to be just as vigorous as their siblings, if not more so.
Had similar from the same litter. Always assumed one was a more aggressive eater than the others. The small one became the same size as the middle one once the big left for their furever home.
We got the runt of the litter for our second cat. He is now a 15lb behemoth that is literally head and shoulders above our other cat. The crazy part is he's not fat, he's just a very, very big boy. He even outgrew all of his siblings by like 10-15%.
I don't have a good example of his size, but here's payment of the obligatory cat tax.
The runt of our litter of kittens became huge because she became more aggressive about her food. Funny seeing kittens cower from their little sister as she'd growl like a maniac while monching
The middle sister would start fights with the big brother and then start complaining the big brother was being rough. Play would stop and then the cycle would start again till big brother walks off.
Big brother also had the ability to purr like a Harley Davidson and munch at the same time. Did not know how that was possible.
The runt of the last litter my parents fostered went the same way. They tried having bowls of food everywhere, but she'd still freak out if her larger siblings so much as looked at a dish.
I ended up keeping her and she is a very happy 8yo solo cat. (Still gets mad about other cats existing in general and is willing to fight anyone for their food, but she is my perfect little furry angel)
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u/roobot 1d ago
Why such different SMOL?