7 month old kitten is super gassy - please help!

My 7 month old little fella is the gassiest guy on the planet. Seriously, the boy can clear a room with his gas -- which is quite frequent. He has been de-wormed and checked for all sorts of internal parasites. His stools are fine, but the farts are out of control (especially when he gets excited). He gets high-quality grain-free food (wet and dry). Is this something he'll grow out of? Is there anything that I can do to help him? I've even been using probiotics in his food for 1-2 weeks, but that doesn't seem to be doing anything. Thanks in advance! 

I am fairly certain this is diet related SO I will have your thread moved to our Nutrition Forum. Believe me, you are not alone in the "Kitty Gas Department" My first thought was parasites but it sounds as if he is all clear there. SO, It may be something as simple as you overfeeding your kitten? Do you free-feed or schedule feed? He may be grazing all day long if food is left out. Is he getting extra treats? Are you mixing the canned and the dry together and then leaving it out? Make sure he eats his canned food portion separately from the dry and fairly quickly and then take it away because it can turn bad after a few hours of sitting out.

I also think some kittens may just have a bit more trouble with digestion than other kittens. Certainly fairly common and not to worry if the poops are normal and kitten is otherwise acting totally normal. Diet would be the most logical cause then. The probiotic is a good choice also. What are you using? I use a people probiotic I give 1/2 capsule Am/Pm in food. Some give the whole capsule once a day. I have since switched to another one called Nexabiotic only because I have a cat with IBD issues and loose stools.

You could also look into Slippery Elm Bark . You can start with one teaspoon in canned food and add a bit of water to make it quite mushy. It does have an odor to it but I have not yet had a problem with my cat turning away from finishing his meal with the SEB added.

I will also add that I would recommend you checking with your vet first before you try adding in supplements to your kitten's diet. Very important to keep your vet in the loop always.

Thank you for moving! I feed him on a schedule. He gets 1/4 cup of dry food in the morning, 3 oz. of canned food mid-day, and another 1/4 cup of dry food in the evening. The canned is never left out, although the dry is left out until I can get home to feed the canned at lunch. (And of course, the dry I give him again at night is left out.) Does this sound like too much to you?

He might just have trouble digesting one of the ingredients in his current food. I would try a different brand and see if that helps.

I've tried him on four different foods already.

Have you tried a Limited Ingredient Diet? Natural Balance makes a wide variety of recipes that are made for cats and kittens with allergies and sensitivities. A lot of them do well on the duck and pea (we jokingly call it "Peas'n'Quackers" in our house). Nature's Variety does a couple of recipes as well (dry, their cans are not limited ingredient diets). Natural Balance seems more palatable.

My cat Montgomery takes Homeopet Digestive Upset drops three times daily. We use the one for cats and dogs because it specifically addresses gas. He has a lot of digestive issues, but the worst one was the gas that would get trapped in his gut. It was painful and he would cry. Since he has been on the Homeopet, he has been much, much better and a lot happier!

Did your cat have a heavy parasite load when you adopted it? Sometimes the damage done by the parasites (and, unfortunately, the cure) can cause them to be gassy.

momto3cats said:

 
He might just have trouble digesting one of the ingredients in his current food. I would try a different brand and see if that helps.

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That's what seemed to have been the case with one of our cats we adopted as ten-month-old kittens... she's been fine since we took all the foods with potato out of her diet. Both the gas (very smelly!) and occasional vomiting stopped soon she wasn't getting potato.

A kitten should be getting at least 25 calories or more per pound per day, if that helps. And, of course, 1/4 of dry food twice daily sounds about right with the added 3 oz. can at lunch BUT it depends on the quality of the dry food and the calories per cup. If the gas keeps up, then I would try a limited ingredient diet but would want to make sure it is made for kittens needs - not adult cats. It is possible that there is one or two ingredients that are not being digested easily causing the problem. I am not sure if there are any limited ingredient diets out there based on the nutritional needs of kittens.