Any idea why my cats smell?

Hi, all!

My kitties eat only wet foods, mostly grain free brands. Two of them have medium length fur and one has short. Two of them smell, almost stink, in fact. It's not a constant thing, nor even a both at the same time thing, but it sure can be nasty. It's almost like chips, only much stronger.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

A.C.

Do they bathe themselves adequately? That would be my first though....

do the foods have probiotics in them>>??

they could have a reaction to the meats they are eating ... Zoey had a smell when she ate a food with rice in it

Hi, White cat lover! They groom themselves and each other all the time.

Thanks for the reply, Sharky! Hmmm, that might be why they only smell periodically. How long do you guess it would it take from eating to stinking?

... anything they could be getting into? Hennessy smelled like mint/menthol for a while until I released he'd knocked over a bottle and it was slowly leaking... he'd only smell when he would play with it.

It would be odd that 2 had it at the same time, but it could be their anal glad-either probs or 'leaking.'

Another think, I know mine smell like litter when they come out of the litter box, but it goes away after a minute.

Cody loves to shove his head in shoes and play with them, could yours be doing that? Think about their fav places to sleep, smell them, and clean them if necessary, maybe something got poured out. If they stink then their fav places prob stink... if you clean their fav places alot it may at least cut back on the smell.

Never heard of a stinky cat besides litter box, anal glands, sick and not grooming, breath when their sick, ect. OH! Pry open their mouths and see if they have stinky breath! If they do, they will stink because they wash themselves... and if that's the case check teeth, and call the vet-could be something internal if not teeth.

My long hair kitty alwasy smells for a while after he poos. It's like the smell gets trapped in his long fur for a bit even if he leaves all the poo in the box. Is it just your medium hair having this problem?

Could they be litter box "rollers"? One of my kitties (Forrest) occasionally likes to roll around in his litter box.

Sometimes I'll pick him up and hold him to my face and his fur is awful smelling. Then I notice his usually shiny black fur is rather gray and dull. To my horror I realize he's been rolling around in his box again.

It's pretty disgusting and I've never found a way to stop him from doing this. I guess some cats just like the smell.

Thank you, Forensic, KatKisses, twstychik, and AudioCat, for all your suggestions. It's just me and the cats here now and I'm not much of a collector, so checking over the house has been pretty easy - and there's nothing they could get into with that odor, nor do they roll or linger in the litterboxes (thank goodness!! ).

I know about potential anal gland issues, but I've never had any before, so I had forgotten about it as being a potential odor source. I'll definitely keep an eye on that the next time they smell. They're perfectly fine right now. Go figure!

Thanks again, everyone!

Zoeys smell left for good about a week after the food was eliminated ( she ate it everyday