Our cat smells...

Bluebell1000

A couple of months ago we adopted a 7 year old cat. She has remarkably smelly poo, which she doesn't cover in the litter tray, and tends to fart quite a bit too!

We hoped that the smells might improve a bit after she had an infected tooth removed, but that hasn't helped. Medically all is fine apart from a flea allergy, which is fully controlled at the moment.

We're thinking that it could be the diet. She's having a mix of Felix wet food (1 pouch per day) and Iams Light biscuits, with a few Whiskas biscuits thrown in, as we got a free pack and are using them up (almost finished). We're almost out of Felix too, although the Iams will probably do until next year! I'm looking for suggestions for an alternative wet food that won't break the bank, to see if that reduces the bad smells...

She's still living entirely indoors if that makes any difference. We had been thinking about letting her out, but at the moment she's not interested so we're not going to force it - if she wants to stay in she can

gettingready

Of course it is the diet....what comes in goues out

You need to feed good quality food, have a look at cat food at:

www.zooplus.co.uk

Generally, if something is available in a supermarket - it is poor quality.

Still, my lot eat Butchers Classic which is being sold in all supermarket and they are fine - and with 6 indoor cats I could not put up with very smelly poos

Grimbal

Agree completely with GR - Felix, or most food available in a supermarket are not the greatest quality. Get rid of the Whiskas biscuits too !

Try kitty on a grain/cereal free food from zooplus - that may help her digestive issues. Remember Top Cash Back if you do order from there,I think they offer 4% cashback currently

ETA: we feed ours:

wet - Cosma (not a complete food though), Animonda Carny, Bozita cans (not
tetra pack) & Yarrah

dry - Applaws

"treat" biscuits of Happy Cat

Angelicdevil

I've found mine LOVE the Pets at Home Purely pouches.

They're pretty much just chicken (on it's own, or with liver or beef) with a tiny bit of tapioca mixed in. So very close to their "natural" diet. Their poops are quite bearable

They work out at roughly £4 for 12 pouches, so won't break the bank and I supplement these with Eden dry cat food.

gettingready

I would ditch Iams too, purely due to their cruelty issues - just google iams and decide for yourself..

teddysmum

gettingready wrote: »

I would ditch Iams too, purely due to their cruelty issues - just google iams and decide for yourself..

I was just going to say the same.

Mrs_Z

Hi! It's also worth looking into raw food diet. There was a thread here a while back where someone was on the brink of having to give up her cats because they smelled so much. In the end she switched to a raw food diet (gradually) and that solved the problem.

Unfortunately I could not locate the thread but maybe someone else can?

Lil_Dee_2

Hi Bluebell,

I think most of what has been said here is correct. Cats are actually obligate carnivores - they eat meat, and only meat, when left to their own devices. Most of the available supermarket food includes "fillers", in the same way there is a high percentage of rusk in cheap sausages.....stuff that does nothing for the cat, but bulks out the food, and allows the manufacturers produce their food at a lower cost.

Take a look around a few websites, and decide for yourself what you would like to do, and what you would like to try, but please remember : INTRODUCE NEW FOOD SLOWLY

Feeding cats Whiskers/Felix etc. is kinda like feeding kids on McDonalds and pizza. Put a decent meal in front of them, and they ask where the fries are !! It will be the same sort of reaction from your kitty, so tread carefully. Take your time, and she will come around for you. Patience is your best friend !

If you want to look on-line, then you will see that there are a lot of European food options (Grau, Bozita, Animonda Carny) that have a really high meat content that will do wonders for your particular problem !!!

This is a great place to start :
http://www.petforums.co.uk/cat-health-nutrition/

gettingready

Lil_Dee wrote: »

Feeding cats Whiskers

Always makes me chuckle

Bluebell1000

I'm going to take a walk to Pets at Home today and see what I can find - the Purely food could be a good one to try. I'm reluctant to do a big internet order of something and find Gracie won't eat it! Though I have a feeling that she may well eat pretty much anything - she was a stray for 2 years before we took her on.

As for the Whiskas biscuits, we're almost at the end of it anyway and I don't have the patience to remove them from the Iams / Whiskas mixture in our biscuit tub Our last cat did some research for them into preference testing and they paid in cat biscuits.

We'll probably look into biscuits when the Iams is finished as there's loads left.

I was quite shocked at the meat figures in Felix. I always thought they were good, but then that was 20 years ago when my family were Cats Protection fosterers. I guess cat food has moved on since then.

Thank you so much for your help, I will let you know how it goes!

Lilith1980

gettingready wrote: »

Still, my lot eat Butchers Classic which is being sold in all supermarket and they are fine - and with 6 indoor cats I could not put up with very smelly poos

I would second this about Butchers Classic - a higher meat content than brands such as Whiskers and Felix. In fact, a few years ago I ran out of Butchers and had some spare pouches in my cupboard. My cat would constantly harass me for more food as they obviously didn't fill him up - or maybe he's just greedy :rotfl:

Unfortunately, my cat won't touch dry food, which my vet told me would be good for his teeth. But you can't force them to eat food they don't want to!