Why does my indoor cat's p**p smell soooo bad???!

Question

I have an indoor cat i adopted from the shelter about 3 wks ago, and everytime he goes p**p...it is HORRIBLE! He is on indoor only formula which i thought was supposed to help with that, but does it take time to get regulated into their system??? Hes healthy, nuetered, declawed....he just stinks. haha Any sparks of hope here??? thanks

Answer 1

First, I'll address your question as to why your cat has offensive smelling stool. You mentioned that you feed your cat indoor only formula - actually there is no such thing as indoor only food or outdoor food, it's just a marketing ploy and unfortunately, many people fell for it. The most important thing is the quality of the food you are feeding. What is the meat source and whether the food has cheap fillers that help reduce the cost of manufacturing. Food that has questionable ingredients will cause smelly tool because of the lower rate of nutrition absorption and thus more wastage. What you need to do is to learn how to read pet food ingredients.

They tell you a lot about what kind of meat is being used and whether the food has any cheap fillers which does not benefit your cat/kitten.

You want to feed a food which is high protein - meaning the meat source must come from wholesome muscle meat. Make sure to select only food that list chicken, lamb, rabbit, beef, turkey, venison, salmon, whitefish, herring or a combination or those and not one that says by-products (chicken by product, meat by product, fish by product)

Stay away from too much fillers like corn, corn gluten meal, wheat, wheat gluten, soy, oatbrans, etc. These are all cheap filler which help reduce the cost of manufacturing but brings little to no benefit to your cat.

You would also want to stay away from preservatives like BHA/BHT and Ethoxyquin which are proven to be harmful to your kitten. Also you do not want other artifical preservatives such as propylene glycol and propolyneglycol .You need natural preservatives such as Vitamin C, Vitamin A or Rosemary.

Your cat need an essential amino acid called Taurine. Cats can only receive this from eating wholesome meat. Choose a food that contains ample amount of Omega 3 sources - Salmon Oil, Flaxseed Oil or Canola Oil.

Next, you need to know that feeding dry food is convenient only to you but is detrimental to your cat and offers little to no benefit. Dry food depletes your cat of essential moisture needed for normal body functions. When ingested, dry food absorbs moisture like a sponge and cause a host of health problems.

I only feed 100% wet. I came to this conclusion after doing my own research and getting to know pets that suffer dire consequences as a result of being fed exclusively dry. These websites has great information if you are interested in learning more about feline nutrition and the proper diet for a cat.

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?ac...

http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canne...

http://cats.about.com/od/catfoo1/tp/tpca...

http://www.catinfo.org/

http://www.naturalmatters.net/article.as...

http://www.traciehotchner.com/cb/QandA.h...

That said, what your cat eat truly reflects his health. So hopefully, you will consider feeding him a better brand of food as well as eliminating the dry and start feeding an all wet exclusive diet.

The second thing that I want to know is why was your cat declawed? I hope that you didn't choose to have the surgery done but instead was declawed when you adopted him. It saddened me when I hear that he is declawed because it is a very traumatic surgery.

Hope that I've answered your question and help provide insight as to why your cat's diet will reflect his overall health and wellbeing.