Digital bath scale for people as well as cats?

"Hactar" wrote in message
...
In article ,
William Graham wrote:

"Hactar" wrote in message
...

But I think a scale that's accurate to 1% across more than two orders
of magnitude) is a tall order.

1% scales are for things like drugs and diamonds.....Nobody needs that
kind
of accuracy for cats......Just drinking or eating before weighing will
cause
more than a 1% change......

0.1 lb out of a 10lb cat is 1%. 1% of 170lb is about 2lb. IIRC those
specs were in the OP. 1% _precision_ is not hard at all, even
commonplace;
witness all the bathroom scales that tell your weight to 0.2 lb; out
of a 150lb person, that represents 0.13% precision. But are they
_accurate_ to anywhere near that level (i.e., when they say X lb, what
is the true weight)? I think not. I bet your drugs and diamonds scales
are _accurate_ to 1%; IOW when they say the weight is X, it's really
between 0.995X and 1.005X.

The poster wants a single unit that can weigh a 5-10lb cat to within 0.1
lb, as well as a 170lb human to within a few pounds. I contend that if
such a beast exists, it'd be quite expensive. IME he'd be better off
with two scales, each optimized for one task.

Yes....There's a difference between absolute accuracy and relative
accuracy.....When I weigh myself on our cheapie bathroom scale, I really
don't care if it's absolutely accurate. All I care about is that it doesn't
change calibration from one weighing to another, so I can tell if I've lost
a couple of pounds from week to week.

On Fri, 19 Oct 2007 05:55:30 GMT, RPSinha wrote:

Both I and my cat need a weighing scale and I was wondering if we could
get by with one.

For myself, I don't require analysis of water, fat, bone, etc.;
accurate and consistent weight readings would do. Good readable display
etc.

For the kitty, I was thinking it should be accurate to 0.1 lbs. That
should be ok to get by at home. For greater accuracy there's always
Vet's office.

Some sort of memory function, so I can go back and check what her
weight was in case she is covering up the display.

Does any model come to the mind? Thanks.


step 1. weigh yourself.
step 2. pick up cat and weigh yourself and the cat together.
step 3 subtract your weight from the combined weight.
now you have the weight of the cat.

RPSinha wrote:

Both I and my cat need a weighing scale and I was wondering if we
could get by with one.

For myself, I don't require analysis of water, fat, bone, etc.;
accurate and consistent weight readings would do. Good readable
display etc.

For the kitty, I was thinking it should be accurate to 0.1 lbs.
That should be ok to get by at home. For greater accuracy there's
always Vet's office.

Some sort of memory function, so I can go back and check what her
weight was in case she is covering up the display.

Does any model come to the mind? Thanks.

Sorry, not for the combination human/cat, but I use a 20 pound
digital fish scale for cats. The weight range is just right for cats
and mine is accurate to 0.1 lbs. If they trust you and/or are well
behaved, you can back them into a plastic grocery bag (I have found
that cats cooperate better when they go tail first,
up/down/sideways). Of course, they could escape from an ultralight
plastic grocery bag with a flick of their claws, but my cats tend to
stay put for weighing without any problem.

Good luck and have fun.

I found a baby scale on craigslist for $20. It is very accurate and
easy to use. I have weighed my cat before a vet visit and then at the
vet's office, and the difference was only 1 oz. So, fairly close. And
of course, for weighing at home, the only really important part is the
difference over any given period of time. If my scale is 1 oz higher
than the vet scale, it will still be 1 oz higher when I weigh him
again in few days, a week, or a month. So, it is still accurate for
any weight gains or losses.

In my case, I was checking an elderly cat who wasn't eating well. So,
it helped me to see if he was keeping steady, gaining any, or losing
again.

If you are trying to detect small changes, a human scale is useless.
And doing the weigh yourself routine with the cat is worse than
useless. You could end up with a weight that is a pound too high or a
pound too low. A huge range that won't help when weighing a cat.