High Protein Makes Pee Smell Worse?

Annieca2016

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Knowing I can't afford to feed them all wet and they like a good crunch, I've been on the hunt for the best dry food within reason. After a few trial and errors, I settled on a mix of Instinct Protein and Wysong Epigen. My girls (5 and 7), love the food and while they're going through seasonal shedding right now, everything else seems good. Except....

Their pee. It smells super strongly of ammonia when I scoop the box. I read somewhere that all that protein can make their pee extra potent. Is this something y'all have experienced? Epigen is 60% protein and the Instinct is 47% (I think), so is that too much protein for their kidneys to handle and so that's why it smells? Or is this just 100% normal and something I should get used to?
 

FeebysOwner

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Hi. High protein foods can cause the urine to smell more. And, with dry food it can make it even worse since the cats are taking in less water than with canned foods, which are generally at least 75% water. You can try to see if they will eat the dry food with water added to it, since they do like wet food. This will provide them with more moisture and may help to reduce the ammonia smell.
 
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