I do feel a little silly for asking about this, but here we go…
So, about one month ago we adopted a little kitten, she is now 3months and a bit old. Been having her inside for the most part with some occasional walks outside to get her used to being outside, as she is an outdoor breed and will eventually be allowed to walk freely in or out. For as long as she is for now indoors, we’ve gotten her used to using the litter box, one of them with a small hatch to get inside, which she is good at using. BUT, whenever she decides to to curl one down, it f*cking reeks, it smells quite bad. I’ve had other cats before and none of them have smelt like this… Obviously we get rid of the shit asap, but then also clean her with a wet cloth so that she run around smelling equally bad and to teach her to was herself.
We’re not feeding her anything unusual, she mainly eats this dry food(which was quite expensive) https://www.specific-diets.co.uk/cat/everyday-diets/kitten-fpd-gb. Furthermore, we’re using some silicon cat sand, as that was what we got recommended.
Edit: Forgot to add an essential part to this!
This is the litterbox in use;
She tries to dig her shit down, but instead of digging it down into the sand or put sand over it, shes just scratching the sides of the cat litter box. Also after going out of the litter box, shes wiping her paws on the floor. But yeah, the scratching of the box inside is very loud and doesnt seem normal either. Is the box too small for her? Or could this be related to the sand of choice?
So, anyone got any tips or tricks here? Is this normal-ish? Obviously shit smells… but this seems almost out of the ordinary… Does the type of cat sand matter a lot?
I have lived with many cats. Most were normal but one, when he was a kitten, could drop a deuce that would clear out a football stadium. Eye-watering bad. Etch the window glass bad. On top of that, he didn’t know how to cover his stuff. Raked the sides of the box, the wall next to the box, the floor outside the box, you name it, but never got near the actual poop. So it just sat there steaming until someone else went over to cover it for him or scoop.
Our vet told us it was related to diet and gut biome, and that he would probably grow out of it. We despaired for a while but he was right and eventually it got better. He’s about twelve years old now (the cat, not the vet) and still stinky but not nearly as bad as he used to be. Still hasn’t figured out how to cover his stuff though.
This sounds very similar to our girl, thanks for sharing!
the cat, not the vet
Why would someone think that XD
Sometimes my attempts at humor are, uh, odd
I thought it was funny-cute.
Oh, thank you!
I have a 1 year old Tonkinese cat. When she was younger she was known for her toxic flatulence (I swear that she knocked out a golden retriever with her farts).
But after changing her food to Fussy Cat grainfree dry biscuits along with Fussy Cat raw beef mince the farts have disappeared.
The smelly poops may be from her gut not liking the food, I would suggest getting small bags in a few different reputable brands and see what she goes for and try giving a quality pet raw meat as a soft food replacement.
As for the litter it may be too fine for it to cover up everything to her liking, I have used clay litter for years with several cats without issue.
And lastly the tray may not allow enough digging room to cover things. I have used trays with removable raised lips like this one with good results. If you are wanting it enclosed you can get furniture that holds the tray and accessories out of sight but easily accessible for cleaning.
Thanks for this!
We had a cat a while back with horrible flatulence among other stomach problems for a couple years. He was kind of a dumbass and at one point he ate some bristles off of the broom, caught him chewing on it and didn’t realize he had actually swallowed anything. A tiny bit after I had taken it away from him he coughs up the bristles with a tapeworm tangled in there.
I swear we did like a million stool samples the first couple years we had him that showed no parasites. We had just brought in two of them a couple weeks apart in the past month when that happened. My wife took a photo of the worm, we went straight to the vet and he got medication that solved all his issues essentially overnight. For the record, if this ever happens to you, the vet we saw suggests putting the worm in water to preserve it and bring it in, rather than just snapping a photo and trying to get the thing as far away from your household as possible immediately afterwards.
I think “Thank god our cat ate that broom” is a phrase not used very often outside of our household.
Using the broom as a grass substitute I am guessing.
Wow that was interesting. Thank you for sharing.
I had a similar issue with a cat except 70% or his poops were also liquid.
After maybe 2 years of trying stuff and vet appointments, We got a non chicken based dry food (pretty sure he has a sensitivity to it) occasional scoop of pumpkin and goats milk to keep his gut in balance. All available at the pet store, or Amazon.
Been good for like 3 years now on the schedule.
Yeah vet said something about cats often being allergic to chicken actually! Glad to hear its better now <3
Oh that’s nice. We never had a vet tell us that. We ran into a random article on the internet and figured we outta at least give it a shot.
In the exact same situation here, but a few months ahead. I was told by a vet that a farting kitten is an indication something is wrong with the diet. Our little girl does both, being really smelly on the box and walking around passing gas. The farting got less over time.
Problem is we also have two older cats so we can’t really get specialised food for one. We’d need special food for all three which can get really expensive.
We hope the problem will pass with time, maybe she needs to get used to the diet or something. Maybe at some point she’ll prefer doing her business outside and we’ll notice it less.
Thanks for the reply, yeah we’re going back to the vet in a week or so to get the second vaccine for her and to get her chipped. So will ask the vet about this too, but wanted to hear about peoples experience too.
Fortiflora helped our cat. That and in time he learned how to cover his poops better. Sometimes kittens are derps
It could be the food. I had my cats on Friskies. We changed to Meow Mix and their poo suddenly stinks so badly. They also have been barfing kind of frequently now. We just got them a bag of Friskies again today, and we should be back to normal poo shortly 😂💩 which also smells when they poop and run (not covering) but definitely a lot lighter smelling.
If you try different foods (wet too) and it’s still not working out, especially poo sticking to the bottom, a little vet visit might be good.
Yeah will have to try some different varieties of food, thanks for your input 🌻
One of my cats does the same. My assumption is he was taken from the mother cat too young so never learned how to do things properly.
For the smell maybe try grain free food.
