New Cat HELP

Congratulations on your new cat and welcome to TCS!

It could be that the stress of a new home has his system off a bit. Also, start feeding him wet food twice a day to help not only his diet, but also to get things moving along. Feeding a strictly dry diet sucks moisture from the body and makes stools hard and difficult to pass.

You can also try adding a second box and/or scooping the box twice a day. Some kitties are weird and like to pee in one box and poop in another or they like their boxes very, very clean.

He sounds constipated to me and if he hasn't pooped by tomorrow even with wet food or increased liquids he needs to be taken to the vet. If he fails to go for too long, dangerous toxins will build up in his system causing dire consequences. An impacted cat might develop megacolon and it's very dangerous. Your vet will most likely give him an enema which will get him back on track.

I only ever have had 1 litter box for Kody, so really I think usually, if you clean it like you say, 1 should be enough.

There have been several times that Kody has skipped a day (pooping). I have read lots of people on the Bengal forums concerned when their new bengal doesn't use the bathroom for a couple of days after coming home--I don't think I would be overly concerned yet. If he hasn't gone by tomorrow morning, to be on the safe side I would call the vet and see if he recommends giving him something.

Kody eats raw food and kibble (he weighs 13 lbs.) and he eats 4 oz. of raw and 1/4 cup of kibble a day.

My other kitty that was a foster and recently was returned to me eats about one 3 oz. can and 1/4 cup of the Blue Buffalo Indoor kibble.

Congratulations on your new baby!! And Welcome..... Don't worry, all will be well. Your new cat is just a bit stressed and adjusting to it's new home. This takes many days. One litter pan is fine, as long as you scoop a few times a day. You should feed wet food too, an all dry diet is not good for cats regardless of what the rescue or vets say. It is important for the moisture content in the wet food for healthy urinary health. Typically, I give my cats 1/2 cup of dry a day, with 5 oz. can of wet per day. This can change depending on weight, activity, or stool changes. I know if I am over-feeding my kittens when they get loose poops. They are all in good perfect weight, and maybe a tad over. I divide this into three meals per day. I feed a high quality grain free food, Wellness Core and Wellness canned, EVO canned, Solid Gold canned, and sometimes Fancy Feast canned!!! If you like to leave food out (I can't do that, my cats are piggies) you can offer the wet food twice a day and just leave out the portion of dry for free choice feeding. It is up to you how you want to offer food to your new cat. I feed all of mine on a schedule and they eat everything up all at once.

I hope this helps a little, and you sound like a very deligent, caring cat owner

My girl didn't poop for a few days when I first adopted her - sometimes they just don't want to go until they're comfortable. What I did as a new cat parent was keep a little diary of pooing, peeing, and eating - I also had the vet and emergency vet on speed call! Eventually I figured out what their routine was, and when I should panic...BTW, it's recommended to scoop at least twice a day, and some cats actually do like have two separate boxes. In my experience, the boxes don't have to be huge, but I do use several boxes.

FWIW, my two get a little wet food morning and evening, and a measured amount of dry kibble - both are nibblers and I like them to have something to eat while I am work, and if I'm running a little late from the office.

BTW, thank you for adopting, and for adopting an adult cat - I think you'll find your boy will be very grateful for his forever home.

Welcome to TCS! And congrats on the new member of your family!

Glad your boy pooped! I always find it so amusing that we all relate to being happy about a proper poop.

TCS is GREAT for help with just about any questions you may have!

I will say, we learned the hard way that wet food is really important to a cat's diet. Dry food - even if they drink - makes for much more concentrated urine. Particularly in male cats, this can be (isn't always, but can be) actually dangerous. With concentrated urine, a combo of diet and genetics can result in the creation of "crystals" in their urine. You don't need all the details - there are two different types. But these are painful, irritating to the bladder, and because male cats are constructed with a VERY thin urethra, this can become blocked unfortunately rather easily. A blockage of the urethra can be quickly life-threatening, and the blockage really needs to be treated within 24 hours.

While we now have 8 cats, when this was happening to us, we had five cats - three males and 2 females. Each of the males blocked several times over a multi-month period! (You can tell because they hop in the litter box like every few minutes - or they strain to pee - or they try to pee outside of the litter box - or all of the above). Our cats HATED wet food, and so we put them on a prescription dry food diet. But over the years, the standard thinking leans towards the idea that even the worst wet food is better than the best dry food. Now - I think that's extreme - but it makes the point. Yes, you pay for the moisture with the wet food - but it does affect their urine. We FINALLY got our cats eating wet food. We bumped them up to two meals of wet food a day, and we let them free feed on dry food. It has taken us a year, but as of last November, we have moved to a diet of only wet food (our oldest kitties will be nine in April). Many people do a mix - but we have two overweight cats, and we simply cannot allow free feeding anymore.

So anyway, the amount they pee went up exponentially when we got them eating two wet meals a day. So your kitty may drink a lot of water... but to really keep his urine dilute, and keep things floweing through his system, it really is best to include one or two meals of wet food a day.

One last parting thought is one I wish I'd known when we were new to cats LOL. If your kitty ever pees or poops outside of the box, the very first thing that should occur to you is "medical problem." Cats are great at hiding pain and problems - but not using the box is a cry for help, and is almost always for some type of medical reason - and not necessarily one that has to do with the bladder or colon. Our Spooky pees outside the box whenever anything's wrong. Someone posting in the health forum recently - turns out the kitty had a tumor on one of her kidneys.

So if your little boy is "naughty," please remember it is far more likely that there's something wrong with him, because the concept of peeing outside of his bathroom because he's angry is not a concept he understands, that's something we as people project.