Which Causes The Most Poo Quantity And Odor, Can Food Or Dry Kibble?

[10009891]

People tell me that can food, regardless of the quality, causes more poo odor than kibble. Is this true?

 

[Ardina]

Having fed my cats everything from dry to wet to raw, I've found that feces smell the worst on dry food, moderately bad on wet food (less on higher quality, grain-free canned), and have zero smell on raw food. Which makes a lot of sense - the more undigestible filler there is, the more it adds bulk and smell to feces.

 

[Kat0121]

Having fed my cats everything from dry to wet to raw, I've found that feces smell the worst on dry food, moderately bad on wet food (less on higher quality, grain-free canned), and have zero smell on raw food. Which makes a lot of sense - the more undigestible filler there is, the more it adds bulk and smell to feces.

I could not agree more. When I got my cats, all of them were on dry food from the shelter. Not only did they poop a lot, the smell could knock a buzzard out of the sky.

After I found this site, I put them on a diet of all canned food. They only get dry now and again as an occasional snack or topper to wet food. The amount of poop reduced a lot and the smell all but disappeared. The reason for this is that their bodies utilize the food better which reduces the amount of waste produced. The same goes for raw. Dry food has things in it that an obligate carnivore simply does not need therefore, it comes out the other end.

 

[Ardina]

I really don't know how I dealt with the awful smell for so long. I'd have to immediately clean the litterbox after a poop bomb, no matter what time of night or day. The smell would actually wake me up. Thank goodness for zero odor poops on raw! I can't even tell when they poop these days.

 

[10009891]

Ardina, how do you prepare your own raw food? The problem is that I am VERY squeamish when it comes to handling cutting raw meat. What's the easiest, cheapest, fastest way to prepare these type of raw food? Which is your simplest raw food recipe for your cat? Thanks you guys!!! The poo odor from my cats are driving me crazy regardless of the expensive and quality grain free Fromms/Petcurean kibble I feed them.

 

[cheesycats]

If you don’t wanna deal with making your own raw, There a quite a few brands of commercial premade, rad cat, primal, and nature’s variety all come to mind. They are in pellets or patty form and good for people who don’t want to mess with making their own raw foods. They also take away the hassle of making sure you balance the cats meals right, premade raw is already formulated to have everything the cat needs.

 

[lalagimp]

I have to make a batch of raw cat food tomorrow. I hardly ever notice when the boys drop a deuce in my bathroom off the master. It's their favorite box.
I make enough cat food for 2 - 13 lb adult cats to last the month, and it takes me about 3 hours. Cut out the bones from the thigh meat. 1/2 hour of the 3 is having the thigh meat do a very light bake in the oven for surface bacteria, then a 1/2 hour to cool enough to handle.

We did a quick walk through with a new salmon oil this fall: Making cat food with Premium Wild Alaskan Salmon Oil from #TerraMaxPro

 

[10009891]

So definitely the feces will smell much less on raw food? Okay. I guess I am going to have to slowly transition. I believe if I change the type of food too fast, they'll get diarrhea?

 

[lisahe]

So definitely the feces will smell much less on raw food? Okay. I guess I am going to have to slowly transition. I believe if I change the type of food too fast, they'll get diarrhea?

Our cats' boxes also barely smell and the volume of solid waste is very low, too. They eat a combination of commercial raw food, homecooked food, and a little canned food. I think the key is to keep carbs low since cats don't process carby foods well. Every cat is different but quality raw food without anything carby should improve things for you.

Yes, it's best to go slowly when introducing a new food. Beyond concerns about digestive concerns, not all cats take to raw food immediately, though ours did: I started them on Rad Cat, which they loved then and still love now, almost four years later. It's very good frozen food but also (very unfortunately) increasingly expensive. We only feed a small Rad Cat snack every afternoon. That's worth considering as a starting point, though I have to admit that the mushiness of Rad Cat chicken is a little gross for me, though I don't generally consider myself squeamish about meat! The turkey is less mushy. (I do eat meat.) Freeze-dried is, hmm, almost like an abstract form of meat: there's nothing icky about it for me plus it's easy to prepare and doesn't need to be defrosted so I love the convenience. Our cats prefer freeze-dried to frozen food other than, of course, Rad Cat. On the minus side, though, it sounds like cats don't seem to take to freeze-dried as quickly and easily as, say, Rad Cat.

FWIW, we feed our cats a combination of Northwest Naturals, Feline Natural, Primal, and a bit of Stella & Chewy's. Their homemade food is made with the EZ Complete supplement. And their canned foods brands include Rawz (which of course isn't raw!), Feline Natural, Nutro Natural Choice, Wellness Core, and Weruva Cats in the Kitchen. All those canned foods are super-low carb, with no grains, potato, peas, or other veg-based fillers or thickeners. I think the first two are the highest quality but keep a few other brands in the rotation, too, so there's variety when I travel and they get canned meals every day rather than every other or every third day.

Good luck!

 

[Neo_23]

Canned smells less than dry and raw smells less than canned.

 

[Ardina]

I was also pretty squeamish about meat, so I started with commercial raw - the sampler pack of Darwin's. It was really easy to just defrost and serve, but doing the math, it was going to be too expensive. It was also a little bone heavy. So then, I moved to pre-ground meat from Hare Today + Alnutrin (supplement premix). This was cheaper, but still out of my budget. The alnutrin alone added $0.75-1.00 cost per pound of meat. So I switched to making my own supplement mix, added to preground meat from Hare Today. As I got more comfortable handling meat and figured out what kinds of meats my cats liked, I continued getting preground whole meats from Hare Today (with ground bone and organ) to get the bone content, and then I would dilute with boneless chunks and chicken hearts for dental health. Even if you're squeamish, you can ease yourself into it and get used to it over time. Now I don't mind it at all (well, except for cleanup which is annoying).

Edited to add: I was lucky that Saipha, the pickiest cat when it comes to canned food, dove into the raw as if she'd been waiting for me to figure out that raw meat was proper cat food! Mishka was initially my roommate's foster kitten, and she started stealing Saipha's raw food at 2 months old, so she transitioned very easily. Other cats might be more resistant to raw than Saipha and Mishka.

 

[lalagimp]

The boys have been on commercial raw since Thanksgiving, and I know they are going to be so happy when it's gone in the next day or so and they're back on their home made. I got it all made today and in the freezer downstairs. Tommy smelled the final mix from the dining room, and started acting like a fool, doing zoomies and chasing other cats and playing around in all the bathrooms, and then up on the cat tree perch, talking to himself and spinning around. Yeeeaah.

 

[10009891]

Thanks for all this information! I will solely start feeding my kittens, yes, one is 4 months and the other 5 months, dehydrated "Primal." They just LOVE it!!! I've been mixing the Fromms kibble, which I think is causing the problem with Petcurean can food. This might also be causing the strong smell too. I will test Primal "only" for a few days to see if their stool starts smelling less offensive and poop less. Maybe it's because I usually mix all the food together. Don't know.

 

[10009891]

I read in another thread on this website that there are some cats who eat their kittens. I guess that's the ultimate ideal food for them. Never knew mother cats eat their young. That's horrible!

 

[lisahe]

Thanks for all this information! I will solely start feeding my kittens, yes, one is 4 months and the other 5 months, dehydrated "Primal." They just LOVE it!!! I've been mixing the Fromms kibble, which I think is causing the problem with Petcurean can food. This might also be causing the strong smell too. I will test Primal "only" for a few days to see if their stool starts smelling less offensive and poop less. Maybe it's because I usually mix all the food together. Don't know.

That's great that they already like the freeze-dried Primal! I'm not sure if you're feeding it dry or with water added right now but it's designed to be rehydrated rather than fed dry unless you're only feeding it as occasional treats. If they don't like it rehydrated from the start, you could start with just a tiny bit of water and then increase.

Most dry food has lots of plant-based fillers so my bet would be that's what's causing the bad smells. I hope you see some positive changes soon!

 

[10009891]

Primal is just too expensive. 14 "oz" bag is $30.00!!! and it only last 1 week or so with my 2 kittens. I've check multiple websites for sales or coupons. Nothing!

 

[Willowy]

I read in another thread on this website that there are some cats who eat their kittens. I guess that's the ultimate ideal food for them. Never knew mother cats eat their young. That's horrible!

It usually only happens when the mother is under extreme stress or something is wrong with the kitten. It's instinctual for them to clean up the nest to prevent attracting predators. But that's not their "ultimate ideal diet"; cannibalism carries risks for all species. The ultimate ideal diet for cats would be whole small rodents and birds. But that's extremely expensive and a bit messy .

 

[lisahe]

Primal is just too expensive. 14 "oz" bag is $30.00!!! and it only last 1 week or so with my 2 kittens. I've check multiple websites for sales or coupons. Nothing!

Yes, freeze-dried foods aren't cheap! Do you have any independent stores in your area that you could check for prices? I get cheaper prices from independent stores than online. Primal is $26.99 where I shop. Not exactly cheap but less than what you're being quoted.

 

[bonepicker]

I Feed grain free canned, they poop minimally every other day. I use unscented litter and have no odor issues!

 

[ailish]

Count me as agreeing with the comments here. I feed three meals of grain free canned a day plus one small meal of good kibble at night. Virtually no poo smell when she does it and zero litter box smell any other time. When a got her she was on Friskies kibble and the smell could have woken the dead.