Help Kitten Pooping when being picked up.

[lucindasboyd]

Hello,

I have a 6 month old kitten named Stevie. She is usually playful. She has a toy mouse she is almost always throwing and chasing around the house. I've only had her for about a month. When she first came she ate the food from the vet she ate the food from there. After that she switch over to whatever my other cat Oliver was eating. I believe it was Purina. Anyway I got a different food this time and this is when the problem began. She isnt being playful and pooping. I want to chock it up to the food but I figured I would post and see what advice y'all have for me.

I'm going to get a small bag of the previous food to see if that resolve the problem... any help is much appreciated.

 

[Mr. Meow]

To me (and I'm not a vet), it sounds like her tummy doesn't feel good. If a cat it switched over from one food to another quickly, it can cause an upset stomach, diarrhea, and just a general feeling of blah.
Purée pumpkin is my go-to for making kitties "regular". It can be in canned form, pouches or even a dry powder that you mix with water. Give her a little bit of purée pumpkin, twice a day until she's a bit more regular in her pooping.
At this point, I wouldn't go back to the old food. It might just cause more problems.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. I think you should go back to what she was eating before she started having problems and see if it stops. Then, gradually transition her from that food to whatever you want her to eat. By, gradual, I mean, mixing 20% of the new food with 80% of the food she was used to eating - for a week, and then 70-30, etc. See what happens over the transition.

Give the change over to her 'old' food as much time to correct the problem, as the 'new' food took to start the problem.

 

[stephanietx]

Two thoughts come to mind. One is if you're switching dry foods, the adjustment was too fast. Dry food has to be a very gradual process. I usually do a 1 month transition. The first week is 75% old/25% new, the next week is 50/50, the next week is 75new/25 old and then finally completely new. If you're switching wet food, there's not usually a need for a gradual change. My second thought is the new food that you're feeding is too rich for her system and she can't tolerate it.

To help stop the leaking, you can add plain canned pumpkin puree to wet food (about 1/2 teaspoon each serving) or try adding about 1/4 -1/8 of a capsule of saccharomyces boullardii to wet food. Since she's only 6 months old she should be eating wet and dry food. Wet food is much better for kitties overall as well.