4 year old boy pooping regularly, but has hard stools. Tips?

Kayseymac

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My Rufus poops generally every day or at least every other day. He doesn’t strain when using the litter box, which I’m happy about, but I’ve noticed over the last few weeks he’s had some hard stool. He will normally do a normal poop, but there will sometimes be one or two tiny piceces along with it that are hard as rocks.

One nIght a few nights ago he pooped and it was terrible. It was like 4 little rocks. I started giving him pumpkin purée the next day and he did a good poop almost immediately after eating that. Since then his poop overalls looks normal but when I pick it up I notice there’s a couple pieces that litter isn’t really stuck to and that are hard.

I’ve been giving him 1/2-1 tablespoon of pumpkin purée at night. I think it’s working but sometimes it’s kind of hard to tell. I was wondering if I should keep that up? I read if you give too much it can have the adverse effect so I didn’t know if I should do it for a long period of time. Anything else I can do? He gets mostly dry food but I give him wet food with quite a bit of water added at night.
 

Furballsmom

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Hi, maybe increase the wet food? Another thought could be to switch from the pumpkin to a little vegetable oil? However, keep in mind that I'm not a vet - speaking of, has he had a wellness checkup lately?
 

BoaztheAdventureCat

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Please consider ditching the dry food. Cats on a dry diet will not drink enough water to compensate for the lack of moisture in the food and your cat is showing this. Cats are one of the least domesticated species and are not much different from their wild ancestors who receive most of the moisture they need from consuming raw meat.

I have a cat who's had lifelong digestive issues. I feed him only canned food and the occasional raw treat and he STILL has hard stools. Can you imagine how much worse it would be if he was eating kibble every day?!

I'm working towards being able to eventually transition my cat to a raw diet. I've heard that many people have eliminated or drastically reduced digestive issues in their pets by transitioning them to a raw diet, because the raw diet is most like what they'd be eating in their natural state.
 
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Kayseymac

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Hi, maybe increase the wet food? Another thought could be to switch from the pumpkin to a little vegetable oil? However, keep in mind that I'm not a vet - speaking of, has he had a wellness checkup lately?
Thanks for the reply! I did read somewhere about vegetable oil. I’ll try that today. He went to the vet I think around 5 or 6 months ago because he was not eating and vomiting for days. They gave him A nausea shot and an appetite stimulant and then he was fine. They also did full bloodwork and x-rays. It was pretty much good. The vet said the kidney levels were slightly low but she wasn’t concerned about it
 
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