Food causing mineral debris?

Has anybody heard of mineral debris in a cat's stomach? My 4-month old kitty had x-rays taken recently because I was concerned about her coughing while purring. Her x-rays and physical exam turned out normal on the respiratory end, but my kitty's x-ray happened to show a lot of mineral debris in her stomach. The vet said that it's either due to her eating non-food stuff like dirt, or from eating low-quality food. My kitten is indoors-only, I don't keep plants, and the kitty litter is now corn- and wheat- based (I initially had clay litter but transitioned out of it over a month ago), so I don't feel that she could have gotten into anything that would show up in large amounts in her stomach. I'm told that it'll pass from my kitty's system, but I'm curious/perplexed by what caused this. (And what is mineral debris? How long does it take to pass through her system?) I guess, by the process of elimination, it's the quality of her food? I suppose I'll never really know because I don't want to take another pricey x-ray if I can help it, for something like mineral debris. But I do I want to make sure I'm feeding her right.. though I believe I'm feeding her fairly good wet food.

I've never had a cat before and I found this little one as a stray when she was 5 weeks old. So, for the first week or two, I was scrambling with a lot of research on how to feed her; I initially fed her Purina kibble and wet food, but then, found Natural Balance, and returned all the Purina food back to the store. But now she's on an almost fully wet food diet, with dry food (a mix of Natural Balance, Blue Buffalo Wilderness, Wellness Core) as a treat/training tool (mainly, for her to come when I call her name, lol).

Currently, in her wet food rotation are:

- Natural Balance

- Trader Joe's

- Blue Buffalo Healthy Gourmet

- Wellness

- Wellness Core

A handful of times, I've given:

- Newman's Own

- Simply Nourish

- Party Animal

- Deckhand

I recently bought the following to incorporate into the rotation:

- Blue Buffalo Wilderness

- Soulistic

- Merrick

- Weruva

She didn't have a good reaction to:

- Natural Balance Wild Pursuit (doesn't like)

- Whole Earth Farms - duck recipe (threw up)

- Tender & True (doesn't like)

Daily supplements:

- l-Lysine supplements - add 1000mg per 6 oz can

- plain unsweetened yogurt - 2 to 3 tablespoons

- I plan to give some egg yolk licithin, or just a small amount of egg yolk once a week.

- I also plan to give Vet's Best Hairball Remedy, or just some psyllium husk powder everyday.

I am eyeing the yogurt as the possible culprit, since it seems like the only thing that could be out of the ordinary. (my kitty loves yogurt, and it helped her when she had coccidia.) So I've cut the yogurt out of her diet just in case, but I do see her reaching for her little yogurt bowl after her feedings, she misses it!

Has anybody heard of mineral debris caused by certain wet foods? Or could the mineral debris have been caused by a not-so-great diet earlier on (just wondering, since I don't know how long it stays in a kitty's system)? Or could it have been the yogurt (I'd really like to keep feeding her yogurt, even if it's once a week or in small quantities, since she likes it so much...)? Are there other brands I could be feeding her?

Also, a slightly related question, I've noticed that my kitties seem a bit hungrier on Soulistic and Weruva? And the food looks like they have a lot of water, are they really good quality?

I've heard of raw-fed cats having some bone bits in their stomachs when x-rayed, but I don't think any of the foods you listed have bone. So I really have no idea where that could have come from :dk:. I don't think the yogurt would be the culprit either, unless she had yogurt in her stomach at the time of the x-ray and the calcium was showing up. I would talk with the vet more to try to determine what could cause that. Show the vet the list of foods and litters to see what he/she thinks.

Soulistic and Weruva are very low-calorie. Of course this is a good thing for older fat cats, but not so great for kittens. They're high-quality foods, but just due to the low calorie count, you might want to skip them until she's older, or feed extra.