Pooping less on prescription urinary diet?

[meeshfoster]

Hi all! My boy Tako was put on an all wet food diet, prescription Royal Canin Urinary SO for crystals. I noticed since moving to a wet diet he has been pooping less (which I read was normal), but just generally even less than my other kitty who we also switched to wet food. I found a few people here and there say they've experienced the same with the urinary SO, and found one article that said the makeup of urinary food (less magnesium?) can cause not as much poop to form. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I asked my vet and she said to just keep adding more water to his food, which we do, but he's resistant to eat it if it's too soupy. I also read adding something like pumpkin can mess up the urinary tract - I don't know what to believe!
Thank you for your help!
Michelle & Tako

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi! Feeby was on both Hill's C/D and RC SO foods, at first dry and then later canned. I never noticed any change in the quantity of poop. I note both dry and canned because if there were reason to think something to do with the magnesium - or other additives - were the cause of less poop production it would have happened with both, not just the canned version. I think it is more likely due to the wet food, as that does change the quantity of poop because there are less fillers/carbs in canned so there is less junk for the digestive system to process.

Do you know for a fact that both cats produced the same amount of poop before being put on wet food? If you can't say that for sure, it is possible that Tako just doesn't produce as much in general. It could even be that he processes wet food differently from your other cat. If Tako's poop is of normal consistency, I am not sure you have much to worry about. You can always try buying a water fountain to see if that would increase Tako's water intake, in order to avoid making his food too soupy.

Also, never heard of pumpkin having any negative impact on the urinary tract. In fact, plain pumpkin is made up of 90% water, so, it would seem that it would help overall in terms of moisture for Tako. And, from what all I have read, pumpkin naturally contains Omega 3 fatty acids that are known to have anti-inflammatory properties, which can help to reduce the chance of kidney stones, as well as supporting overall healthy bladder function. Just be careful about how much you use; you could induce either too hard or too soft of stools, as plain pumpkin is often used for constipation and diarrhea, depending on what the cause is behind either.