We've weighed up all the options and these are the best scales for pets. While it might seem like something only a vet would need to own, there are some strong reasons to pick up a set of pet scales for your home.
Whether you’re monitoring your pets weight for health reasons or you’ve got a pregnant mother, we've built this in-depth guide to make choosing the best pet scales for you a breeze. And if you need some tips for weighing your pets, we’ve got that covered, too.
The Quick List
Best pet scales overall
An excellent set of pet scales that straddles the line between home and professional use. It’s easy to use, has a non-slip mat to keep your pet from sliding off, and it can handle pets weighing up to 225 lbs.
Best budget pet scales
A fantastic budget option, this Mindpet-med digital scale can handle pets up to 220 lbs, with a precision of 0.02 lbs. It’s ease to use, has an LCD display, and the curved tray is detachable for easy cleaning.
Best pet scale for cats
Total up your tabby’s weight with this digital scale that’s ideal for cats. It can handle weights up to 44 lbs and it can even accurately weigh pets when they’re wiggling around — ideal for independent felines.
Best pet scale for dogs
With a capacity of up to 220 lbs, the Unipaws scale can handle all but the largest breeds of dogs. It’s also super modern, with USB-C charging and a companion app to help you track your doggo’s weight.
Best pet scale for medium-sized pets
Drop all the unnecessary bells and whistles with this simple and easy-to-use set of veterinary scales. No need for an app or WiFi connection here, just a solid set of scales with a 220 lb capacity and 0.02 lb sensitivity.
Best pet scale for very large pets
If you’ve got a very large dog (or a small bear) then this industrial-looking set of scales from Brecknell is the way to go. It can accurately weigh pets up to 500 lbs, comes with anti-slip feet, and a clear, bright LCD screen.
Best pet scale for puppies and kittens
Puppies and kittens grow rapidly, so it can be important to monitor their weight to ensure they’re developing properly. Enter the Beurer BY90, which has a concave weighing platform to keep your critters safe while they’re being weighed. It’s also got a dedicated app to help you track weight over time.
Best pet scale for birds
Birds are incredibly light (they need to be to fly), so you need a very accurate scale to measure their weight. This clever pet scale is accurate up to a single ounce and comes with a wooden perch for your bird to sit on while you weigh them.
PetsRadar’s pick of the best scales for pets 2024
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Best pet scales overall
The Redmon Precision Digital Pet Scales are aimed at groomers and vets, but they're popular with regular pet owners, too – particularly dogs of all shapes and sizes.
These scales have a slim design, with a non-slip rubberized mat to keep your pet firmly in place while they get weighed.
They have several features that help to make the weigh-in easier, including delta weight calculation, previous weight memory, and a low-battery indicator to remind you when the batteries need changing (these particular scales require two AAA alkaline batteries).
The maximum weight capacity of this large scale is a whopping 225 lbs, with a minimum weight capacity of 1 to 1.5lbs; it also measures in kgs, so whether you’re imperial or metric, these scales will make sense. They measure 28in(L), 16in(W), and 1.75in(H), so you’ll need somewhere to store them.
These scales are among the most popular and well-rated online, and have a reputation for being precise.
However, despite the non-slip mat, other scales will better accommodate more wriggly and nervous pooches. One online reviewer warns that, while the scales are fine for calmer dogs, if your dog is particularly energetic, it might not be the best product for you, as it might be difficult to keep them on the scales long enough to get a precise and accurate measure.
Best budget pet scales
These sleek weighing scales are smaller than the Redmon scales, but claim to be able to hold up to 220lbs. They’re suitable for young and small pets, including kittens and puppies, as well as fully-grown dogs and cats.
For their reasonable price, these scales offer high accuracy, with four precise sensors. They are designed with a 60cm-long tray that’s easy to take off to wipe and clean, with a swivel lock on the tray to hold it in place. This also makes it easier to store away.
The LCD display features a helpful blue backlight, offering high contrast for clear reading, even in the dark. You can get the readings in pounds, kilograms, or ounces, depending on your preference. They also have a tare feature, which allows you to subtract weight from the measurement to make room for additional weight, such as a collar or cone.
Another helpful feature is the hold function, which keeps the accurate reading on the display for pets that like to move around – especially important for curious pups and kittens. Just make sure to place the scales on an even, hard surface, such as a lino or wood floor or a table, rather than a carpet.
The design is undoubtedly sleek, but it probably isn’t the best for pets who don’t like weigh-in days, which is something to be mindful of.
The Mindpet Med scales require two AAA alkaline batteries and come with a one-year warranty.
Best pet scale for cats
This slick and modern-looking digital pet scale from Greater Goods is an ideal choice for feline pet owners who need to keep an eye on their tabby’s weight. It has a detachable tray that can be easily attached when you’re using the scales, providing ample room for your pet to sit or lie comfortably as you weigh them. It’s highly accurate, able to detect weights as small as 5g, and capable of weighing pets up to 44lbs, which should be big enough to cover even the biggest of household cats, alongside small to medium-sized dogs (no promises if you have a pet tiger, though).
Now, we love a good pun, but we might be drawing the line on this next selling point – the Puprietary Wiggle-Detector – which uses clever tech to weigh your pets accurately even if they’re moving around on the scales.
Greater Goods are a small business based out of St Louis and their experts are just a phone call away if you have any issues. This scale is popular among pet owners, with an average 4.6/5 stars on Amazon from more than 1,000 ratings. Positive reviews praise the design, build quality, accuracy, and value for money. Some reviewers did note that it can only display weights to the nearest five grams, which might not be accurate enough for very small pets and newborn kittens.
Best pet scale for dogs
Got a good boy (or girl) that needs weighing? Then the unipaws Digital Pet Scale is our top recommendation when it comes to medium and large dogs. It has a weight capacity of up to 220lbs and can display results in kilograms, pounds, and stones.
Unlike a lot of pet scales that are powered by copious amounts of disposable batteries, this pet scale has an in-built battery and can be recharged via USB-C. There’s more smart tech too, because it has a dedicated app that links to the scales, allowing you to track your pet's weight over time.
Unipaws is also claiming to have ‘Puprietary Wiggle-Detector technology’, just like the Greater Goods, which means you can weigh your dog accurately even if they won’t sit still. As a final neat touch, there are measuring marks along the surface of the scales, letting you (roughly) measure the length of your pet in either inches or cm.
The unipaws Digital Pet Scale has an average of 4.1/5 stars on Amazon, with positive reviews praising the scale's accuracy, though some users noted the surface is slippery (they recommend putting a towel down on top to give your dog some grip).
Best pet scale for medium-sized pets
Modern pet scales are in danger of getting overly complicated, so if you’re just looking for a simple set of scales that can handle most medium-sized pets, then this veterinary scale from SIKE has you covered. It measures in kilograms, pounds, and ounces with a minimum weight of 0.44lbs, a maximum capacity of 220lbs, and a measurement accuracy of ±0.02lbs. That should suit the needs of most pet owners nicely, unless you own an absolute unit of a dog (in which case, check the Brecknell PS500 in this guide).
It has a tempered glass top surface, anti-slip pads on the underside, and an LCD display where it shows the weight of your pets. That’s where we run out of things to say here… Sometimes simple is better, and the people seem to agree here. The SIKE has an average 4.6/5 star rating on Amazon, with pet owners praising the affordable price and how easy it is to use. Negative reviews noted that the scale isn’t as large as it appears in the photos, so it might not be suitable for very large dogs.
SIKE also sells a smaller pet scale if you only have a pint-sized pet, with a maximum capacity of 44lbs. It’s otherwise very similar though – a barebones, easy-to-use set of scales.
Best pet scale for very large pets
The Brecknell PS500 is probably going to be overkill for most home pet owners – this is the kind of device you’d expect to find at your vet’s office. With that said, if you do have a very large pet, then this is the best option out there.
With a maximum weighing capacity of 500 lbs, and a claim from the manufacturer that the scale can “withstand 150% capacity of weight without causing damage to the scale”, this should be able to handle any dog breed you can name… heck, even an adult pig wouldn’t make this thing break a sweat.
Because it’s such a heavy-duty, niche option, there aren’t many customer reviews out there for this scale. It has a wonderful 5/5 on Amazon. There are some reviews of a smaller 22x22-inch version on Chewy, but they’re mainly people saying they were trying to buy the bigger version.
Best pet scale for puppies and kittens
If you’ve got a furry little bundle of joy and want to monitor their weight as they develop, then this Beurer BY90 scale is the way to go. It’s marketed as being for both young pets and regular human babies. We’ve not branched out into ‘BabyRadar’ yet, so we can’t speak to its effectiveness on that front, but it makes a wonderful pet scale for puppies and kittens.
The main selling point is the concave top surface, which should comfortably hold your little furball in place and keep them from rolling off while you weigh them. The Beurer BY90 has a maximum weight capacity of 44lbs, and it can display weights in pounds, kilograms, or ounces.
The scale connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth, and there is a dedicated app to help you track your pet’s weight over time. There is also a traditional LCD screen if you just want to weigh them without tracking.
It has a 4.3/5 rating on Amazon from more than 6,500 ratings, with many people praising the ease of use and value for money. The main criticism we saw was that the weight readout fluctuates a lot if your pet is moving around.
Best pet scale for birds
Unusual pets require unusual tools, and this Redmon digital scale comes with a wooden perch to give your birds somewhere comfortable to sit while you weigh them. It has a digital readout that gives measurements in a variety of scales, but the important ones for your needs will be grams or ounces (unless you want to know how many milliliters your bird is).
The scale is very sensitive, measuring down to one ounce, which makes it great for small animals like birds, which don’t weigh very much to begin with. The perch isn’t attached, so you can also use this scale for other small pets, with the listing noting that it’s great for chinchillas, rabbits, and guinea pigs.
It’s very popular with bird owners, with an average of 4.5/5 stars on Amazon from 549 reviews. Positive reviews noted that it’s accurate and reliable, and one reviewer even noted that it allowed them to train their birds to behave at the vets by getting them used to the scales. One user did note that they needed to put a small towel underneath the perch to stop it sliding around on top of the scales though.
How to choose the best scales for pets
When it comes to weighing your pets, you want to make the process as quick and easy as possible for even the most relaxed and easy pet. After all, the scales are no match for their warm and comfortable spot on the sofa.
There are several factors to consider before choosing a set of weighing scales. They’re quite an investment, so it will be worth it to take your time and consider what you need.
It’s wise to not only consider the size and temperament of your pet when choosing which weighing scales to purchase, but it’s also worth considering how often you’ll be using the scale and for what purposes. This will help determine the size of the scales you’ll need – larger scales may come with more options and flexibility, but you’ll need to have somewhere you can store them.
Smaller and portable scales will be better suited to those who only need to weigh their pets every now and again, and want the option to store them away in between weighs. You should also consider if you want extra features, such as dedicated smartphone apps that can help you track the weight of your pet over time.
There are many options on the market, and different models vary hugely in price. It’s best to go for a trusted and established brand, preferably one that has links with veterinary practices, especially if you’re looking for precise measuring.
Why have pet scales at home?
The most obvious reason to pick up a set of pet scales is the same reason you've got a pair in the bathroom – to monitor your pet’s weight. It can help you balance their mealtimes, decreasing or increasing the amount of food you're giving them to keep them at a healthy weight (If they are pilling on the pounds, check out our guide to healthy weight loss for cats or what to do if your dog is overweight).
Kittens and puppies change in weight rapidly as they develop, so regular weigh-ins can also be an important part of their upbringing. Likewise for the mother, as pregnancy is a challenging time that has a profound effect on her weight. You may also need to monitor your pet’s weight as you introduce new medication, where the dosage and strength are prescribed based on their exact weight.
If your dog is losing weight or your cat is losing weight without a clear cause there could be underlying issues that you want to catch as soon as possible. Animals can’t talk to tell you that they're ill, and in nature, they often make efforts to hide injuries and sickness to avoid looking like an easy target, so monitoring their weight can be one way to keep tabs on their overall health.
