High Quality Foods and Stool Volume

I'm starting Poppy on higher quality foods. Namely, Hound and Gatos and Wild Calling. Both are mainly protein meats with organs and supplementation.

I'm wondering what I can expect as far as stool volume? Has anyone else switched and noticed what happened? Does the stool volume go down? Does frequency go down?

Mine have smaller deposits in the litterbox on higher quality food. I assume less waste in = less waste out !

I like Wild Calling too. Hound and Gatos is definately one I want to try.

smitten4kittens said:

Mine have smaller deposits in the litterbox on higher quality food. I assume less waste in = less waste out !

I like Wild Calling too. Hound and Gatos is definately one I want to try.

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What about frequency? Poppy has chronic constipation, so I want to know what to expect. Less stool won't freak me out--I've fed raw before and know that since there's no veggies going in, of course you're not going to see as much coming out. But less frequency can be scary!

And is the stool harder and dryer? Like on raw?

Do you know the signs she exhibits when she's constipated? Does she go off her food? Does she strain in the litter box? That's how I know the difference in the two cats of mine that sometimes have issues with constipation.

She either loses appetite or just doesn't go! But the appetite thing...the vet said she has mild IBD, so now she's on prednisolone which masks the appetite problem. So I'm left with just not going.

Well, then if she doesn't go for more than 2 days, I guess use whatever treatment you normally provide? :dk:

I don't remember stool frequency on canned. On raw, mine go every 2-3 days.

Can't comment on going to higher quality, high protein foods but as for the opposite direction -  volume definitely goes up and I was warned about it by my vet before the transition. My cat went from reasonable quality wet and kibble diet to all kibble TD which is high is fibre (sadly not high in protein). The result was a significant increase in both stool size and regularity. We're talking once a day habits of good size here. 

*sigh* I just got my answer. The high-quality food does indeed produce harder and less volume. Poppy's stool was very hard. I hope she does not get constipated as in not be able to go.

I'm sorry, Raintyger; I don't know much about your cat's history. Does she get only wet food?

I'm not sure if you'll see much of a difference jumping from brands like Wild Calling and Hound & Gatos vs. Wellness Core and Nature's Variety, for example. I believe it's really a raw diet where you'll see a significant difference.

Raintyger said:

*sigh* I just got my answer. The high-quality food does indeed produce harder and less volume. Poppy's stool was very hard. I hope she does not get constipated as in not be able to go.

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Oops...sorry. Just saw your post. Is she on Miralax or something to help with the constipation? My Boo has chronic constipation. He has to go everyday, or else he gets backed up, so he gets Miralax and Benefiber (off topic).

GoHolistic said:

Oops...sorry. Just saw your post. Is she on Miralax or something to help with the constipation? My Boo has chronic constipation. He has to go everyday, or else he gets backed up, so he gets Miralax and Benefiber (off topic).

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She's on Miralax. The strange thing is that she went yesterday and the poop was large volume (11.5") and soft (#4 on Bristol scale). Now it's only 4.75" and hard. I thought since the food has guar gum in it it wasn't totally like feeding raw. I gave her a snack with extra Miralax to cover tonight's meal. But since Miralax only works on stool that is forming, I guess I'll have to pray for good luck.

I do have two cats that - while they don't have chronic constipation - they do get easily constipated. The hard poop from feeding highly bioavailable food in and of itself (for us) has not been an indication of constipation.
Oddly, ever since Ming Loy had pancreatitis back in June, and I put everyone on digestive enzymes, neither Ming Loy nor Spooky has developed constipation. I have no idea if this is why. But thought I'd put it out there.

LDG said:

I do have two cats that - while they don't have chronic constipation - they do get easily constipated. The hard poop from feeding highly bioavailable food in and of itself (for us) has not been an indication of constipation.
Oddly, ever since Ming Loy had pancreatitis back in June, and I put everyone on digestive enzymes, neither Ming Loy nor Spooky has developed constipation. I have no idea if this is why. But thought I'd put it out there.

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Thanks for good kitty vibes, she needs them right now! Let's hope the high-protein food has other advantages that make them poop easier!

I know that digestive enzymes help to get the most out of food, so there is less stool to handle. Other than that, I have heard digestive enzymes can help, and Poppy is on them. And probiotics, too. Probiotics apparently cause the correct GI environment to trigger peristalsis.

Thanks, LDG, the good kitty vibes worked!!!

9" of soft poop this morning. Whew.

9"? But glad she had a bowel movement!

LDG said:

9"?

But glad she had a bowel movement!

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You think that's a lot? You should measure your kitty's stool. It's probably more than you think. 9" is a little on the large size, but it's not super big; normally it's 6"-8", and I've seen postings on the Yahoo! megacolon/chronic constipation board that their kitty does about the same. If the stool is curvy measure it by comparing it against a piece of string, then measure the string against a ruler.

Poppy's on prednisolone right now. At high doses her metabolism slows down. One time she didn't go for 3 days, plus was skipping a day or two and then going before that. When she finally went-- 18.75"!!! While I didn't like that she held onto that much, it was a relief to see all that finally come out.

So that's a normal daily stool size, not 2 days worth? I really don't remember how large their bowel movements were when they ate canned. I guess that could be normal. :dk: I never measured them back then.

I do know their stool volume dropped a lot on raw, and it's normal for them to be hard, small, and of 8 cats, I only have one that still poops daily (and his bowel movements are smaller) Now they're mostly just hair inside a poop crust, and if they ate white meat, very light colored, and if red meat, then dark - and are usually marbled, actually, when I feed white and red together or at consecutive meals. :lol3: But I haven't measured them. They're now usually just several small pieces, I'm guessing an inch or so each. But I'll have to get out the tape measure! :lol3:

LDG said:

So that's a normal daily stool size, not 2 days worth? I really don't remember how large their bowel movements were when they ate canned. I guess that could be normal.

I never measured them back then.

I do know their stool volume dropped a lot on raw, and it's normal for them to be hard, small, and of 8 cats, I only have one that still poops daily (and his bowel movements are smaller) Now they're mostly just hair inside a poop crust, and if they ate white meat, very light colored, and if red meat, then dark - and are usually marbled, actually, when I feed white and red together or at consecutive meals.

But I haven't measured them. They're now usually just several small pieces, I'm guessing an inch or so each. But I'll have to get out the tape measure!

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9" is 36 hours worth of stool. I was feeding her food with a small amount of grain in it for a while to see if that sped up transit time (grain=insoluble fiber). When I did that it was 10"-11"/day! The grain did nothing for transit time, so I went back to grain free, and now we're at 6"-8"/day.

Kitties on Miralax (like Poppy is) tend to have longer stools because all of it comes out in one piece. Probably not natural, I remember her stool before was harder and came out in 3"-4" straight pieces, like a log. And I did raw feed her once. We got to around 75% raw. Her stool volume was way down, but she was still going everyday.

Really, you might want to make a few notes about your kitties' bowel movements and stool volume, just so you know what is "normal" later, if problems arise. There's stuff I can't remember about Poppy's litter box habits and now that she's come down with a disease I wish I could remember.

I can see the value in keeping track, but with 8 cats sharing 3 litter boxes (we live in an RV), I'm lucky to even see anyone go, let alone have a clue which is whose. :lol3:

That said, I do know which cats use which boxes most frequently, so I can make an educated guess, given where in the box it is. And Chumley usually goes when I clean them, because he feels most comfortable getting to them when I'm there.

But yeah, for the rare occasions when someone has diarrhea, I usually don't know who it was. But as it's most frequently a one time thing, I guess it doesn't matter, and if it kept up, I'd be able to figure out who it is. :cross:

I didn't want to post pictures here, but I started a thread in the sub-forum with pictures of stool of one of my cats (I feed a raw diet). http://www.thecatsite.com/t/263398/the-raw-stool-thread-warning-graphic