# my cat's poop smells...



## iwantakitty (Apr 1, 2011)

hi all,

just adopted my first cat a few days ago and she is soo great! however... her poop really smells!! i can always tell if she poops or pees because it STINKS when she poops! the litter is deodorizing so it does help and the smell dies down... but is the poop supposed to be that stinky? i read that the diet can affect the smell of the poop. if this is true, what kind of diet leads to less stinky poop? haha

i know poop is poop and it'll always smell, but it's really pungent! 

thanks!


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## iwantakitty (Apr 1, 2011)

oh and btw, as of now she eats all dry food - science diet. this is what the shelter gave me and i'm not sure yet if i'm going to stick with it or change it up. maybe to a diet that results in less smelly poop


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## Digikid (Feb 27, 2011)

Good lord....CHANGE THAT CAT FOOD. That stuff is garbage.

If you can afford Science Diet then you can afford a organic food called Wellness. Try that.

How old is the cat?


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## saitenyo (Nov 28, 2010)

Diet can definitely affect that! My kitten Athena had horribly stinky stools (and gas) when we first got her. It turned out that the grains/high carb content in the kibble she was eating were the problem.

Once I switched her to a grain-free, low-carb canned food, the problem improved. In her case it took raw feeding to solve it completely though. Either route is a good way to go with your cat.

Some canned brands I like are Wellness, Merrick, Blue Wilderness, and EVO. The raw brand I feed my cats is Primal, but homemade raw is another option as long as you make sure you have a thorough understanding of how to balance it first.


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## MowMow (Nov 6, 2010)

I agree, I would suggest a good quality grain free wet food like Wellness, Evo(my favorite), Merricks Before Grain etc.


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## Lieke (Jan 12, 2011)

all cat poo stinks a bit, like your own 
when one of my cats had really (REALLY) stinky poo, it turned out to be a parasite called giardia. after some medications, the parasite and the stink was gone.


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## Maggie the Cat (Mar 13, 2011)

Cat poop IS really pungent. If you've never had a cat before, then it's probably just jarring to find out how much stinkier cat poop/pee is than a dog's or human's. That's why good litterbox care is so important for an inside cat. A stinky litterbox is unbearable! Some cat foods can also help, but in general their poop is just usually going to be smellier than other animals. Experiment w/other foods and see what works best for your kitty's odor.


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## Huge2 (Jan 28, 2008)

Crap smells like crap funnily enough...


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## Gloworm (Nov 19, 2010)

Lucky luke said:


> Well good luck with thatatback, My Cadie stink since the first day I've gotten her. I have tried different food, the only thing that worked a bit is food with less protein


Less protein? Thats a bit odd as meat should be the highest percentage ingredient which tends to be lots of protein. What were they one and what are they on now?


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## furryfriends251 (Jan 1, 2009)

Mine who are on a raw diet have little to no stool smell.


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## Susan (Mar 29, 2010)

I never have trouble with litterbox smells. My girls are both on a grain-free diet...about 80% wet (Weruva mostly, with Wellness now and again) and 20% dry (Blue Wilderness).


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## BryanOwnee (Feb 21, 2011)

Blue Wilderness, Innova or Evo.
Do people feed horses with meat? So why would we give grain to cats?


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## MowMow (Nov 6, 2010)

BryanOwnee said:


> Do people feed horses with meat? So why would we give grain to cats?


Actually, my horse had a serious thing for cheeseburgers, fries and soda pop. At horse shows his favorite spot was the concession stand. He was the exception though.


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## saitenyo (Nov 28, 2010)

Maggie the Cat said:


> Cat poop IS really pungent. If you've never had a cat before, then it's probably just jarring to find out how much stinkier cat poop/pee is than a dog's or human's. That's why good litterbox care is so important for an inside cat. A stinky litterbox is unbearable! Some cat foods can also help, but in general their poop is just usually going to be smellier than other animals. Experiment w/other foods and see what works best for your kitty's odor.


I have to disagree. I too thought cat poo was horrendously smelly...until I started feeding my cats a more natural diet. All poo smells to some degree obviously, but just like with people, if their poo is room-clearing awful, that means there's something wrong in the digestion department., be it a subpar diet, a food sensitivity, or a parasite.

When my cats eat a raw diet with a little grain-free canned, their poo doesn't smell at all to me unless I am right next to the litterbox when they poo. And even then, it's fairly mild. However when I fed them kibble or food containing grain, their poo was much smellier. Athena's poo on kibble is so bad that you can't bear to be in the same room as her for an hour after she's used the litterbox.

I'm willing to bet that this popular belief that cat poop smells worse than dog or human poop has more to do with the fact that commercial diets for cats are less tolerable to their systems than commercial human or canine diets. We're omnivores and can handle a _lot_ of different foods, and most dogs seem to have a much easier time handling carbs/grain/vegetables than cats.



Lucky luke said:


> When she was young and on kitty food, she stink like crazy. at around 9 month old I 've switch to adult food, then she stop smelling. the she got pregnent and got her back to kitty food, then the smell came back.
> kitty food = highier protein.


I personally doubt it's the protein. Kitten food also contains more fat, which could be the culprit. The higher fat content makes kitten food too rich for some cats. I wouldn't just assume that it's the protein without taking a careful look at both foods (were they the same brand? both canned? both dry? how else did the ingredients differ?) since everything I have learned and experienced regarding cat nutrition suggests that foods with a higher meat protein content generally produce _better_ results in cats with sensitive stomachs - not make the problem worse.

It's also worth noting that some brands of adult cat food actually contain _more _protein than the kitten varieites (Wellness Adult Chicken vs. Wellness Kitten being one example).


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## littlebee (Mar 1, 2011)

iwantakitty said:


> hi all,
> 
> just adopted my first cat a few days ago and she is soo great! however... her poop really smells!! i can always tell if she poops or pees because it STINKS when she poops! the litter is deodorizing so it does help and the smell dies down... but is the poop supposed to be that stinky? i read that the diet can affect the smell of the poop. if this is true, what kind of diet leads to less stinky poop? haha
> 
> ...


I'll add my two cents: Like Saitenyo's Athena, my Little Bee first came here with the most amazingly stinky gas (she was on Purina One). It was difficult to stay in the same room with her most of the time. I switched her to grain-free (Blue Wilderness dry and Wellness wet) and the gas went away entirely. BUT, her poos were still a lot stinkier than our other cat's (I could tell she'd done her business from the other side of the house)...and there was lots of it. She also had soft(ish) stools at least once a day. So I've had her, for a couple of weeks or so, on a limited ingredient grain-free food (Natural Balance green pea/duck dry and NB venison/pea wet). The smell went away immediately (before the transition to the new food was even complete)...her "contributions" barely smell at all, from scooping distance.  Softness issue is better, too, though not 100%...and she's producing less...but we're still experimenting with different wet-to-dry ratios, to see if that will help. Next step will be raw, if this doesn't get her to "perfect poos". You'll be amazed at just how much of your time can be devoted to your cat's "output". 

So diet can definitely help, depending on the cause! Good luck!


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## cushman350 (Mar 16, 2011)

Hey, that's some swell smelling crap!.....................NOT!


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