Can I Ask A Poop Question?

[Aslan’s Mama]

Hi! Brand new to this site and a new cat owner too! We have an almost 6 month old ragdoll kitten named Aslan. We brought him home when he was around 14-15 weeks old.

And overall he is awesome! Amazing temperament with my two children and our golden retriever.

But there is one big issue with regards to poop. As background he was started on a raw diet and when we brought him home the raw diet totally intimidated me so we did canned food. And he would have poop explosions twice a day after eating...runny, smelly, poorly formed. I put on my big girl pants and we started using the raw food he had been started on and it was a night and day difference. From loose poop twice a day to pooping once every day or every other day. Now he is pooping more like every third day...is that enough?

But the biggest issue is that he often has a cling on when he goes potty. The poop is formed and looks like tootsie rolls which from what I’ve read is a good thing. but it does seem sticky. So like this morning he had poop in his litter box and poop stuck to his bottom. He tolerates being bathed just fine but I’m getting tired of standing out the litter box to see if he poops and having to catch him before he tracks poop everywhere.

Is the issue possibly related to food? Should we explore another raw option? We are using Blue Ridge Beef Kitten Mix now. As this is an issue for us once a week I would say it is starting to feel never ending...

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!!

 

[lisahe]

Welcome to The Cat Site, Aslan's Mama!

I'm glad to hear your cat (is he Aslan?) is doing better since you started feeding him raw food. Yes, it's pretty normal for raw-fed cats not to poop very often. I'm not quite sure what to say about the clinging, though. Is he having something closer to hard dingleberries (that stick to his butt) or is it something softer that gets, hmm, pressed into his fur? I ask because some cats get constipated if their raw food has a lot of bone in it. Blue Ridge's kitten mix does include chicken bone. Our cats eat a lot of freeze-dried raw foods that contain bone (albeit in moderate amounts) and they occasionally have very dry dingleberries that we find on the rug; they don't appear to be constipated, though.

As for other options, you might want to try Rad Cat, which uses eggshell instead of bone. Rad Cat has several proteins: chicken, turkey, beef, venison, pork, and lamb. It's expensive but it's very good food and works well for cats whose bodies don't handle bone well. If nothing else, it might be a good starting point, to see if bone is what's causing the problem. I also want to add that I'd be very wary of using the Blue Ridge food without supplements: their site doesn't say it's a complete food. Their FAQ dodges the "complete" issue about their foods, with the answer just being that the answerer adds supplements. I'm not quite sure what to make of that since it's so vague and it's not clear if the answer comes from someone with a dog, cat, or both!

We feed our cats lots of different brands of raw food as well as a daily meal of homecooked and a meal of canned. Not all cats like that (or do well on it physically) but ours do and I like feeding them a variety of foods with differing bone content: they use their box so rarely that the last thing I'd want is for them to get constipated! Whatever you choose, be sure to introduce changes very slowly: if you switched him from raw to canned food right away, without a transition, that could be what caused the diarrhea.

Good luck! And be sure to check out the Raw and Home-Cooked forum within the Nutrition forum. There's lots more about raw feeding there. (This post may also be moved there since it's about raw food!)

 

[Aslan’s Mama]

Welcome to The Cat Site, Aslan's Mama!

I'm glad to hear your cat (is he Aslan?) is doing better since you started feeding him raw food. Yes, it's pretty normal for raw-fed cats not to poop very often. I'm not quite sure what to say about the clinging, though. Is he having something closer to hard dingleberries (that stick to his butt) or is it something softer that gets, hmm, pressed into his fur? I ask because some cats get constipated if their raw food has a lot of bone in it. Blue Ridge's kitten mix does include chicken bone. Our cats eat a lot of freeze-dried raw foods that contain bone (albeit in moderate amounts) and they occasionally have very dry dingleberries that we find on the rug; they don't appear to be constipated, though.

As for other options, you might want to try Rad Cat, which uses eggshell instead of bone. Rad Cat has several proteins: chicken, turkey, beef, venison, pork, and lamb. It's expensive but it's very good food and works well for cats whose bodies don't handle bone well. If nothing else, it might be a good starting point, to see if bone is what's causing the problem. I also want to add that I'd be very wary of using the Blue Ridge food without supplements: their site doesn't say it's a complete food. Their FAQ dodges the "complete" issue about their foods, with the answer just being that the answerer adds supplements. I'm not quite sure what to make of that since it's so vague and it's not clear if the answer comes from someone with a dog, cat, or both!

We feed our cats lots of different brands of raw food as well as a daily meal of homecooked and a meal of canned. Not all cats like that (or do well on it physically) but ours do and I like feeding them a variety of foods with differing bone content: they use their box so rarely that the last thing I'd want is for them to get constipated! Whatever you choose, be sure to introduce changes very slowly: if you switched him from raw to canned food right away, without a transition, that could be what caused the diarrhea.

Good luck! And be sure to check out the Raw and Home-Cooked forum within the Nutrition forum. There's lots more about raw feeding there. (This post may also be moved there since it's about raw food!)

Thanks so much for the response! Yes, Aslan is his name!

I had noticed that it was not a complete food as well and that bothered me despite the assurances of the store where I buy it and the breeder that recommended it. It does have eggshell in addition to the bone so perhaps we should try something without bone to see if it makes a difference. We are towards the end of this pack of the blue ridge so I can try gradually introducing another food like Raw Cat to see if it makes a difference. I was hoping to find something with more variety in terms of the protein source anyway. It can be overwhelming even considering the choices within the raw food realm so I really appreciate the recommendation!

What sticks to him is definitely not hard. Like when I go to clean him up or he sits down before I've had a chance to clean him up it is definitely soft/squishy.

 

[catman513]

On a Ragdoll you have to trim a little of the fur around the anus.

 

[Furballsmom]

Heh, yeah, my big guy needs bum trims regularly as well, oh and he just LOVES that as you might imagine (alternatively he goes kind of crazy when something's stuck to his back end). I mean, this is an important area to be fiddling around with scissors LOL So, I have to sneak as best I can and catch him when he's asleep to trim that hair to a degree, and also the backs of his legs and some of the hair from the underside of his tail, otherwise I have a rodeo on my hands trying to deal with the smelly hanging dingleberry as well as messed up carpet.

 

[Furballsmom]

I wanted to mention, I haven't had as much digestive issues (I should say the Big Guy hasn't) since I finally got settled on a rotation/combination of canned, store bought frozen raw and kibble. It's somewhat dependent on what you want to deal with, your household, budget et al, and of course what his tummy wants. Something else to consider might be tracking his weight as he grows/reaches maturity with a bathroom scale, - the main thing is you want to be able to lightly feel his ribs but not see them, and growing felines need quite a lot of food. Best of luck! Oh, and he's gorgeous by the way

 

[Aslan’s Mama]

Thanks y’all! So the sanitary trim is something we can handle ourselves? He’s a really laid back fellow so in theory we could likely catch him sleeping and my husband and I could trim him up. I’ve definitely seen “residue” on his hair near his bottom on occasion but the issue I’m referencing is more like actual poop that sticks to him instead of dropping in the litter box with the rest! Switching to the raw food made a world of difference overall so maybe I just need to fine tune which raw brand we use? Our current food does have ground bone and whole egg so maybe the bone and eggshell sounds too much?

I know so much more about cat poop than I would have ever imagined! Ha!

 

[Furballsmom]

He’s a really laid back fellow so in theory we could likely catch him sleeping and my husband and I could trim him up.

I think so, I'm always concerned that when the Big Guy licks himself, or the dingleberry even (major ewww), cuz he gets REALLY frustrated and is trying to get it off of himself, that he's ingesting "stuff" he doesn't need to, if you know what I mean. Regarding the residue there are pet wipes available although I don't know what's in those regarding any chemicals even though they're supposed to be safe, so you could just use a paper towel to clean him. Fine tuning to maybe even a combo of a couple kinds/formulas of raw, as that could be considered a lot of calcium perhaps... LOL yeah, I know - these guys introduce us to all sorts of things we'd never have thought of

 

[Aslan’s Mama]

That all makes sense to me! Ideally I wanted to introduce more protein sources beyond the beef anyway but had in my mind to wait until he was about a year. But maybe I'll try doing that sooner rather than later so see if it makes a difference with his bowel movements. He is growing and doing well so hopefully it is just a matter of fine tuning his diet! Would just love to not have to stand guard outside the room with the litter box on dingleberry alert!

 

[Furballsmom]

 

[basscat]

I've been told that my cat can't eat normal cat food (typical kibble or wet). Leaving me with a specialty food, or a thousand different recipes/combinations of raw. And it needs to have calcium unless the raw contains bone.
He likes Mazuri kibble, but, the smell of his poops will melt glass.
Aside from Mazuri, we have tried all sorts of raw. And he will eat anything once. Then he gets the runs, and he flat out will not touch whatever it was ever again.
SO, his sole diet now is raw ground chicken parts (bones ground up with the meat).
With that, he poops every day. The more he eats, the more he poops.
It doesn't stink, seems to be right texture, doesn't hang on, and turns dry, rock hard and white in less than a day. (which is good because he doesn't bury).
Everything else we have tried or experimented with, has caused problems.

We buy chicken parts in bulk, 150lbs at a time, spend a couple hours grinding it up and putting into containers, then containers in freezer.
150lbs will last 150 days and usually cost about $150

 

[Furballsmom]

 

[Dilutetortislave]

Diarrhea is common in kittens. Check a fecal, yes even in purebreds, for parasites because if that's what is causing the diarrhea then changing the food will not help. Coccidia is hard to find sometimes, but the drug is safe so can be given just in case.

Metronidazole is amazing. It is a stool-former and will make the poop more solid (regardless of diet) and can be given just as needed, start and stop (unlike other antibiotics). Many kittens benefit from this temporarily while going through a food change or adjusting to a new home.