Let's Talk About Poop!

Kal_shadowsmom

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Ok, so I recently switched Shadow to Natures Variety Rabbit LID. She's doing great on it, no flare ups of itchiness, but... her poo really REALLY stinks.
It smells up the whole laundry and mud rooms, which are attached to one another.

Is this normal for this food? She's doing so well on it that I may end up getting an aerosol spray and follow her to the bathroom in preparation.

Also the food is really dark brown or black in color, her poo also seems to be very dark as well, is that normal?

Thanks in advance! :poop:
 

Kieka

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My guys are on the dry version and same. Super stinky, they've woken me up stinky (litter box is 15 feet from my bed) and very dark. The food itself is the darkest colored food I've come across. But my cats coats look great and they are healthy. I tried switching them to something else and my girl lost weight (which she can't afford to loose) so we went back.
 

Azazel

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Can you switch her to the wet version? (Slowly).
 

2BSH

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In my experience rabbitt of any brand produces very stinky darker poops. I feed natures variety rockstar rabbitt in their pride line, I and love and you rabbitt and merrick rabbitt in rotation and I know when it’s rabbitt day their poops will stink up the bathroom.
 

Azazel

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Rabbit is actually one of the easiest digested proteins and shouldn’t cause stinky poop. It’s most likely the carb source in those foods (probably peas) causing the stinky poo. That’s why I’m saying feeding the canned version should be better because usually canned versions have less carbs.
 

Daisy6

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If it was peas, every flavor would give cats stinky poop. Are any weird ingredients in there besides rabbit?

I never bought a rabbit flavored cat food, but if it is the darkest in all brands I am sure the reason is the rabbit itself.
 

KarenKat

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Trin has always had fairly stinky poop, and when he went on the Instinct LID rabbit I would say it was smellier.

Definitely changed from the color of caramel to the color of 70 % dark chocolate. I called the vet and she said that it was normal for rabbit food to produce darker poop. Sounds like that’s in line with most rabbit-feeders here.

Anyone feed raw rabbit? Are there similar results with that?
 

Azazel

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If it was peas, every flavor would give cats stinky poop. Are any weird ingredients in there besides rabbit?

I never bought a rabbit flavored cat food, but if it is the darkest in all brands I am sure the reason is the rabbit itself.
This is simply not true because different foods have different amounts of peas. The Natures Variety LID has peas as the 2nd or 3rd ingredient. It’s full of peas. I feed raw and cooked rabbit and it doesn’t cause smelly poo. It’s the most recommended protein for cats with IBD. Most canned foods that are rabbit flavor actually have little rabbit in them because rabbit is expensive to source. They are likely to be full of unnecessary fillers. If I feed canned food with peas two of my cats get soft poo.
 
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Kal_shadowsmom

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Can you switch her to the wet version? (Slowly).
She is very anti wet food. She ate it when she was a kitten but wants nothing to do with it now. I'm not opposed to buying a can of this new food and giving it a go. Maybe she just didn't like certain kinds....or the kinds I bought for her.

If it was peas, every flavor would give cats stinky poop. Are any weird ingredients in there besides rabbit?

I never bought a rabbit flavored cat food, but if it is the darkest in all brands I am sure the reason is the rabbit itself.
I've had her on several foods that had peas in it, never had out this stinky before. This is her first time on rabbit.
Definitely changed from the color of caramel to the color of 70 % dark chocolate.
Read this and it made me chuckle. That's actually the most accurate way to describe it.haha
 
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LTS3

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I feed the NV raw rabbit to my cats. My IBD cat has stinky poop no matter he eats:rolleyes: My other cat has nearly odorless poop. Both have normal dark brown colored poop. Poop color can vary in color depending on what is eaten.
 

lisahe

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Just to say that if it's the peas that are causing the problem, the canned version of the NV LID rabbit food might not be much help:

Rabbit, Water, Rabbit Liver, Pea Protein, Peas, Montmorillonite Clay, Dicalcium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, etc...

I would certainly hope the overall amount of peas is lower in the canned food, as A Azazel suggests (that's generally the case with carby ingredients in dry v. canned foods), but two pea sources in one food at the price NV charges is a bit much.

I avoid peas for a lot of reasons -- carbs, our cats' sensitive stomachs, the fact that legumes aren't really a natural part of cats' diets -- but they're becoming more and more ubiquitous in cat food.

Here's an article about constipation on the Feline Nutrition site that mentions the (dubious) use of peas to treat constipation, also known as softening stool.
 

ailish

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When I fed NV LID Rabbit wet it was darker than some other foods, but I didn't notice stinkier poo. Ailish only has stinky poo with a solid diet of dry food. Since I switched to 3 wet meals and 1 dry meal, no stinky. Although, I would think it depends a lot on the cat and how it digests the food.
 

duckpond

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I have one cat that if a food, wet or dry, has peas he has a stink problem. Same with potato. i think different ingredients bother different cats, so you have to figure out the one your cat has an issue with.
 

Daisy6

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I have one cat that if a food, wet or dry, has peas he has a stink problem. Same with potato. i think different ingredients bother different cats, so you have to figure out the one your cat has an issue with.
Of course those two ingredients should not be in cat food anyway.
 

himawari

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My cat tends to have a stinky poop if he's only eating foods that have peas / potato. Basically anything that is too carby. But I've learned to balanced it out by giving Feline Natural canned food and a little bit of raw.
 
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