Does Raw Grain-free Diet Cause Constipation?

[taomom]

I have adopted 2 cats two months ago, names are Pen and Drax. They are both 1 1/2 years old. At the shelter, they were eating Science Diet dry food. After a week, I slowly transitioned them to Darwin's raw food. I have added psyllium husk and sometimes olive oil to stimulate bowel movement. For about a month and a half, they were doing fine, but then slowly, their poop became firmer and then hard. One of them (Drax) started vomiting so I took him to the vet and did xray, he had so much poop in his body which was causing him to vomit. He was still pooping almost everyday, poop was just firm and there was no stench, and according to catnutrition . org, cats who eat raw food supposed to have less poop. So I thought I didn't need to worry about anything. Good thing I took him to the vet to get him checked out, vet did an enema on him and prescribed lactulose and Royal Canin Fiber Response dry food. His constipation problems went away and he was no longer vomiting with the fiber response food diet, but I'm going to feed him other dry food that has fiber in it too because I'm pretty sure he will get tired of eating Royal canin everyday. So now, both my cats diet consists of gently cooked Drawin's meat mixed with dry kibbles with wheat gluten and corn, and peas and other fiber in there, plus I add lots of extra water(each day, each cat get about 1/2 a cup water in their food). It's like the only way I can get them to poop is actually adding plant based ingredients like those found in kibbles. I just don't want them to develop megacolon due to consumption of only straight raw meat diet. Anybody run across constipation with cats eating strictly meat and no grains?

 

[lisahe]

It may be the bone in the Darwin's food that's causing the constipation. Which of their foods are you feeding? And are your cats only eating Darwin's? The chicken and turkey foods both contain poultry necks, which are pretty bony. (Necks are the first ingredient for the turkey.) Their lamb doesn't have bone.

There's a past thread (here) where another Cat Site member mentions that she'd been told at one point that the poultry foods are 10% bone. That may still be accurate but since recipes can change, I'd highly recommend contacting the company to find out what the bone content is now.

For what it's worth, one of our cats was getting mildly constipated when she was only fed one meal a day with 10% bone, plus another with around 6%, with the other three meals having negligible/no bone content. She's doing fine now that we've cut out the 10% bone food and she gets a small bit of pumpkin in two meals a day. (I think she'd do okay without the pumpkin but I'm hesitant to phase it out!)

Good luck!

 

[Azazel]

Most commercial raw food has too much bone in it that can cause digestive upset and constipation unfortunately.

Kibble companies fill their foods with grains and veggies to save costs and raw companies use bone. Same idea, all are not so good for kitty’s health.

 

[white shadow]

.
Hi taomom.

There's a superb website that, I believe, will tell you what you need to know. It's a plain-language Feline Constipation 101.

Three short chapters should do it, starting here: Gut Bacteria and Fiber. (follow with 'Poop' and 'What Goes Wrong')

Pay special attention so you find out how/why not all fiber is created equal.

Hoping that will help.
.

 

[taomom]

Lisahe, I’m feeding them turkey, chicken, and lamb. Yea I just contacted Darwin and they did say they are 10% bone, except for the lamb one. After I adopted my cats, they were eating Science Diet only, (it was the type of food they were eating at the humane society shelter). With that food, they were not constipated. But I slowly transitioned them to Darwin’s and boy, their poop started to get firm, how naïve of me to believe what I saw in the internet saying it’s normal for cats who are on raw diet to have less and firm poop. Because I let it go for several weeks until it became a problem. The vet told me that usually cases like this, the pet owners waited too long up to the point when the cat develop megacolon. So she said it was good for me that I caught it in time before that happened. When their poop started getting too firm with Darwin’s, I tried cooking my own meat for a week and added Alnutrin. With Alnutrin, I put a little bit less of the supplement because I was concerned of the bone content, but that didn’t seem to work because cats poop were still too firm(not really hard rock). So I went back to Darwin’s. Maybe cats get constipated will an all meat diet because some of the animal parts that actually allow them to poop were removed. In the wild, don’t cats eat not just the meat of their prey, but also spleen, fatty tissue, intestines, hair, blood, lungs, other by products that facilitate bowel movement? Don’t know how I can have access to those in fresh state, but the kibbles might have these by-products along with the grains, maybe that’s why it helps cat poop. You said you give you cat pumpkin, do you mix it with the raw food?

Azazel, I don’t understand why raw companies would fill their food with bone, how will that get pets satiated?

Whiteshadow, very interesting link. I have saved it as my favorite in my browser so I can refer to it often.

 

[lisahe]

With Alnutrin, I put a little bit less of the supplement because I was concerned of the bone content, but that didn’t seem to work because cats poop were still too firm(not really hard rock).

Did you use Alnutrin with bone or Alnutrin with egg shell? We use the one with egg shell to keep away from the bone. It would definitely be worth trying the egg shell version. EZ Complete, another very good supplement, is also made with egg shell instead of bone.

I can only think of one commercial raw frozen food that doesn't have any bone: Stella & Chewy's Selects. That food only comes in two recipes, chicken and turkey, and it's little medallions. The downside is that it's expensive. I feed one each to the cats every day as a snack and they like it.

I feed Ireland very small amounts of pumpkin -- maybe a total of 1/4 teaspoon a day added to her two homemade meals, though I miss occasional meals -- and that keeps her under control. I suspect she can probably do without it now so am going to try to phase it out soon. But she's only getting one consistent meal with bone in it and that's only about 6%, not 10%. (Some of the cats' canned foods have byproducts but it's hard to say what the bone content might be in those.)

What worked with Ireland was to take the 10% foods out of her diet (keep in mind that only one meal a day was 10%, it was a Primal freeze-dried food that we fed rehydrated) and bring in more food with egg shell calcium (the Stella & Chewy's, plus increased portions of EZ and Alnutrin homemade cooked) instead of bone. Your cats are getting considerably more 10% food than Ireland was -- I can't imagine what she'd be like if she had that much! (Of course her sister can eat 10% no problem!) Personally, I'd focus on taking out the 10% foods and subbing in boneless foods, while gradually taking out all the fibrous plant material.

Raw-fed cats' poop is firm and small (ideally, it's basically excreted fur covered with poop and the fur is part of what makes it so firm) and I also find it difficult to know what's normal and what's not. That's why it took me so long to realize why Ireland wasn't eating as happily as she might -- she didn't seem constipated at the litter box and her poop looked firm and smallish but normal. But she often appeared to be slightly uncomfortable and not very hungry. Switching the food made her a much happier cat!

Good luck!

 

[Azazel]

Lisahe, I’m feeding them turkey, chicken, and lamb. Yea I just contacted Darwin and they did say they are 10% bone, except for the lamb one. After I adopted my cats, they were eating Science Diet only, (it was the type of food they were eating at the humane society shelter). With that food, they were not constipated. But I slowly transitioned them to Darwin’s and boy, their poop started to get firm, how naïve of me to believe what I saw in the internet saying it’s normal for cats who are on raw diet to have less and firm poop. Because I let it go for several weeks until it became a problem. The vet told me that usually cases like this, the pet owners waited too long up to the point when the cat develop megacolon. So she said it was good for me that I caught it in time before that happened. When their poop started getting too firm with Darwin’s, I tried cooking my own meat for a week and added Alnutrin. With Alnutrin, I put a little bit less of the supplement because I was concerned of the bone content, but that didn’t seem to work because cats poop were still too firm(not really hard rock). So I went back to Darwin’s. Maybe cats get constipated will an all meat diet because some of the animal parts that actually allow them to poop were removed. In the wild, don’t cats eat not just the meat of their prey, but also spleen, fatty tissue, intestines, hair, blood, lungs, other by products that facilitate bowel movement? Don’t know how I can have access to those in fresh state, but the kibbles might have these by-products along with the grains, maybe that’s why it helps cat poop. You said you give you cat pumpkin, do you mix it with the raw food?

Azazel, I don’t understand why raw companies would fill their food with bone, how will that get pets satiated?

Whiteshadow, very interesting link. I have saved it as my favorite in my browser so I can refer to it often.

There basically is no "hard" percentage rule of how much bone cats should be eating from their prey. The 80-10-10 model which implies 10% bone is based on the fact that roughly 10% of what a cat would eat from rodent prey in the 'wild' would be bone. But, we don't have a very precise way of knowing how much nutrients are in bones and so it's really just a guesstimate. Many people think that it should be much less than that, and some cats don't do well with lots of bone (i.e., constipation). Bone is a cheap filler for raw pet foods, so many companies put 10-15% bone in their recipes. It's a better "filler" than, say, grains or veggies because it's much more nutritious, but too much of it can also cause an unbalanced diet and/or constipation. What's probably worse though is that many raw pet food companies aren't even transparent about how much bone they put in their foods. I would definitely stay away from those.

Oh, and you don't want to be feeding lesser amounts of Alnutrition than what is stated on the label because you could be under-supplementing your cats. I agree with lisahe that you should use the eggshell version instead if you think the bone is bothering your cats.