TotW causing gas? Alt suggestions?

Hi all. I'm very new to the world of cats as I've only ever had dogs my whole life. My kitten, Yuri, is around six months old and has been on Taste of the Wild wet and dry almost exclusively since we got him at 5 weeks old. He was very sick the first week. He wouldn't eat or drink anything we offered. He was rehydrated twice and needed to be force fed a gruel of milk replacer and mashed (junky) wet patte style high cal kitten food his vet gave us. After that rough first week I offered him wet TotW and he started eating on his own! He's been a very healthy little guy ever since! No issues health or tummy issues and his coat has been silky.

He gets three meals a day, usually 2 small cans of wet and then a scoop of dry in the evenings. A few weeks ago I bought some Nature's Balance wet food to try him on because it was on sale. He seemed happy enough to eat it but wasn't as enthusiastic about it as he had been with the other brand. Once that was gone I switched him back to TotW and he has been LOVING it.

Since switching him back, his BMs and gas have been ridiculously potent. I don't know it I just didn't notice as much before and then once we switched back, it just hit me stronger or if I've upset his tummy by switching brands but I'm almost 30 weeks pregnant and as soon as he has a BM it nearly knocks me out. And the farting...oh man, the farting is something other worldly... Words simply cannot express the horror that escapes his back end when he is curled up in my lap for snuggles.

He is almost out of the both the wet and dry TotW now and I was considering switching both to another grain free brand if it is the TotW causing this but if I brought about the funk by switching his food up I'd hate to make the issues worse by doing it again! (Another factor in my questioning whether I should switch is to get him off of the large fish due to the risks of ocean toxins...this is in part why I went ahead and got the NB when I saw it was on sale).

Any advice or experiences with this brand causing extreme gas and BM odor issues? Is it just my super powered pregnancy sense of smell and the food is fine? Is it most likely my switching him around that caused the issues?

The foods I was considering were
Dry: Blue Buffalo or Merrick Before Grain
Wet: Blue Buffalo or Nature's Variety Instinct

Any insight in those brands or alternative suggestions I should look into? I'm holding to stay somewhat near the same price range and am not interested in switching to raw at this time.

Thanks in advance for any input!

If the gas and stinky bm's are sudden, have you considered that he may have worms? Some kittens need to be wormed 3 times or more to rid them of parasites. Just curious...

Also changes is diet can bring about gas(and loose stools) if feeding dry food. But generally switching between wets doesn't cause gastric distress. I'm thinking either parasites and a trip to the vet, or maybe he's just stinky by nature. As kittens become cats their poop can get more stinky. Idk why... It could be the latter in combination with your heightened pregnancy sense of smell.

I don't mean to change the subject, but you know that while you're pregnant you should have someone else scoop the litterbox, right? If not you really need to look up Toxoplasmosis on the internet. What you read will scare you, but just be careful around cat feces and you'll be fine.

Thanks for the reply. Yes we've read pretty extensively about toxoplasmosis and my husband predominately changes and scoops the litter. When I do clean it I take precautions to handle everything very carefully and wash well after.

He was dewormed with a few different medications during that first rough week we had him just to rule out that as a cause for him being so ill. With him being an indoor cat I don't think he has picked up anything since then. It could be worth a trip to the vet just to rule it out I suppose but I'd feel pretty derpy taking him in for having smelly farts and poop, hehe. Health wise he seems to be thriving.

I don't think you should feel derpy about taking in a kitten with smelly farts...I did - although I also felt a bit melodramatic!  But it turned out that my vet takes the view that farts are a sign of things not being right (healthy cats shouldn't have stinky farts), so don't let that feeling stop you...

With regard to worming, it's usually best to worm a kitten at least 2 times with each application being a few weeks apart. Worms get passed from mom to kitten via her milk. Sometimes it takes a few applications. The vet will sell worming meds to you so you can apply them. This way you don't have to pay for a visit and stool examination. It's worth a shot, especially if he was only wormed once.


With regard to gas being a sure sign of trouble, I disagree. My kitty Oksana has been gassy since she was a little kitten. It's mostly when she gets nervous though. She hates being picked up and she'll usually "cut one" accordingly. I joke with friends and tell them she was raised by a family of skunks...

I would NOT recommend trying Blue Buffalo!  They have been having problems for the past year and a half at least.  I don't know how to connect you to the other thread where we just discussed this, but the perso who was having the problem switched her cat OFF Blue Buffalo at our recommendation and the problem has gone away in 4 days.  When considering any food, do a Google search (or any online search that's good) for the name of the food plus the word "complaints" and see what comes up.  That' s better than using "recall" because recalls don't happen until there are lots of complaints and animals have been sickened and even died.  You don't want to wait that long.  So try searching for "blue buffalo complaints" and see what you come up with.   Also, you said you switched him to Nature's Balance -- do you mean Natural Balance?  Because they have been having some problems recently also and its possible that he picked up whatever is causing the problem (could be bacterial, could be fungal).  Check out post by D.C. of Bronxville NY who got some definitely bad cans of Natural Balance,  Its hard to read because man of the posts here are lightened and crossed out and marked "Factual Basis Uncertain" but you can still read what's written.  It sounds more like he got something from the Natural Balance food and it's not the TotW at all.  If he were mine, I'd tell the vet and try him on one of a number of medications that will kill bacteria and/or fungal infections in the gut.  This persons cans smelled bad and she didn't feed them to her cat, but low grade problems don't smell bad, at least to us -- but your cat was not as enthusiastic about the food, so it could be.  Here's the link to the Natural Balance search.  http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/natural_balance.html

Just call the food manufacturer if your uncertain about issues, recalls, etc. The internet can be a scary place sometimes. Better yet, just have the vet check him out.

When my Mia was little I had her on TOTW and she had horrible stinky gas within a couple days after starting her on it. I finished the bag and then started her on Purina One Synsitive  Systems (she got sick on everything else) and no more gas or being sick!

ilovemia said:

 
When my Mia was little I had her on TOTW and she had horrible stinky gas within a couple days after starting her on it. I finished the bag and then started her on Purina One Synsitive  Systems (she got sick on everything else) and no more gas or being sick!

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The OP is feeding TOTW canned food though. I feed TOTW dry myself. The canned food is totally different. 

I fed dry also. My Mia does not like canned.

ilovemia said:

I fed dry also. My Mia does not like canned.

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I understand that you feed Mia dry. My point is that Le Tiger feeds her cat canned food.

LeTigre said:

Since switching him back, his BMs and gas have been ridiculously potent. I don't know it I just didn't notice as much before and then once we switched back, it just hit me stronger or if I've upset his tummy by switching brands but I'm almost 30 weeks pregnant and as soon as he has a BM it nearly knocks me out. And the farting...oh man, the farting is something other worldly... Words simply cannot express the horror that escapes his back end when he is curled up in my lap for snuggles.

<snip!>

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LeTigre, I wonder if it's the potato in ToTW? I've never fed ToTW to our cats but one of our cats gets stomach upsets (gurgling, sometimes vomiting) and/or gas (also very strong-smelling!) from certain foods, many/most of which have potato. They're Siamese mixes so I've been feeding them grain-free foods since we got them (at 10 months) and gradually eliminated carrageenan, too.

Blue Buffalo Wilderness, the only BB foods we've tried, has potato, too. (Not that it mattered: our cats hated it, plus it has carrageenan.) Our cats eat and generally like NVI canned duck and turkey foods, either limited ingredient or regular. I often pick out the peas! 

Good luck!