Cat doesn't go number two as much after switch to wet food.

I have switched my cat to wet food. As of Thursday.  I did this one before and felt like his bowel movements slowed down. Instead of one about every 18 hours it went to about 30. Has anyone else noticed this? His last movement was Saturday morning.

Mommytobuck said:

 
I have switched my cat to wet food. As of Thursday.  I did this one before and felt like his bowel movements slowed down. Instead of one about every 18 hours it went to about 30. Has anyone else noticed this? His last movement was Saturday morning.

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A change in diet can lead to a change to bowel movements.  How much are you feeding and how often?  About how much does he weigh?

I feed my 3 cats a raw diet. There are no fillers, additives, or indigestable carbs in their diet. That shows in the output

My cats poop less often, and with smaller poops than cats fed a commercial diet.  (And!! It has no odor...)

If you switched from a food full of indigestable fillers to a better quality food, you will see smaller poops, and less frequent.

But... it is always a good idea to be vigilant, as you are, until you a certain it is just a new norm.

I now give him 5oz of wet food in the morning and 3 oz of wet food at night. Earthborn. Zero dry.

Before it was 1 handful of dry with each 3oz of Earthborn.

He weights 30 lbs.

Last year I put him on a diet of 2 3oz cans per day. He lost 3 lbs over 5 months.  But I was afraid I was feeding him too little.

He ended up going after about 30 hours and then again in 24 so maybe that is out the window.

When I switched to all wet, I noticed the same: smaller poops, once a day (every 24 hours).

Wet food isn't processed as harshly as dry, so their bodies absorb the nutrients more efficiently with wet food.

Mommytobuck said:

 
I now give him 5oz of wet food in the morning and 3 oz of wet food at night. Earthborn. Zero dry.

Before it was 1 handful of dry with each 3oz of Earthborn.

He weights 30 lbs.

Last year I put him on a diet of 2 3oz cans per day. He lost 3 lbs over 5 months.  But I was afraid I was feeding him too little.

He ended up going after about 30 hours and then again in 24 so maybe that is out the window.

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Hi

30 lbs is a big cat.If he's not screaming at you for more food and he's loosing weight then that's a good situation.  He should lose weight, at a controlled weight and in consultation with a vet to make sure he's losing safely.

StephenQ said:

 
Hi

30 lbs is a big cat.If he's not screaming at you for more food and he's loosing weight then that's a good situation.  He should lose weight, at a controlled weight and in consultation with a vet to make sure he's losing safely.

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God I was really messing up the day I posted this. He is 20 lbs. Twenty.

Our cat went a lot less when we switched him to wet food and our vet said that is fine. We also use a vitamin called kittislim which helped give him more energy and lose a bit more weight. They have a helpful web site too. It is kittislim.com and it has a weight loss food chart as well. Good luck!

Mommytobuck said:

 
God I was really messing up the day I posted this. He is 20 lbs. Twenty.

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I'm glad....!  You poor thing when you saw you had posted 30......*feels for you* :-)

So after a week and 1/2 of wet food, my cat is getting the runs.  I think I can cut back on the water as I have been adding extra to the food. Though I enjoyed the idea of giving him extra water as his kidneys seem to be working great and so does his Piddling.

My cat doesn't drink any water outside his food. Would "the can" water be enough?  Is there a supplement that I can give him to allow me to give him water and keep his stools hard?

You could add some canned pumpkin to his food to firm up the stool.

Mommytobuck said:

 
My cat doesn't drink any water outside his food. Would "the can" water be enough?  Is there a supplement that I can give him to allow me to give him water and keep his stools hard?

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I add water to canned food also and it's helping them a lot. I also mix probiotics (Natural Factors Acidophilus & Bifidus) and their poops are really good. I mostly feed my cats raw, and canned foods from Nature's Variety Instinct and Nature's Logic. I think Montmorillonite Clay in these canned foods is helping them too. You may want to look at the ingredients in the food you feed. One of my cats often has problem with beef, and thickeners. I've heard that some cats have problems with fish, potatoes, etc. 

ankitty said:

 
I add water to canned food also and it's helping them a lot. I also mix probiotics (Natural Factors Acidophilus & Bifidus) and their poops are really good. I mostly feed my cats raw, and canned foods from Nature's Variety Instinct and Nature's Logic. I think Montmorillonite Clay in these canned foods is helping them too. You may want to look at the ingredients in the food you feed. One of my cats often has problem with beef, and thickeners. I've heard that some cats have problems with fish, potatoes, etc. 

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Well I think I was giving quite a lot. 3x per day added water. With abandon. I feel like the dry food sucked up a lot of that and perhaps I was giving too much. I found an article that said cats should be fine with only the water in their food if it is wet. I can give some extra water 1x per day but not three times.  I also gave him an probiotic that worked last year but I have concerned about that mixture because it contains calcium.   If this doesn't work I will look at the food. I had a similar issue last year with just food.

I might try pumpkin but sometimes it has the opposite effect on my cat

Mommytobuck said:

 
Well I think I was giving quite a lot. 3x per day added water. With abandon. I feel like the dry food sucked up a lot of that and perhaps I was giving too much. I found an article that said cats should be fine with only the water in their food if it is wet.

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Are you soaking dry food in water? It's fine if your cat will eat all of the food up at once but it shoudln't be left out for very long becuse bacteria from cat saliva will happily grow in the wet dry food. That may cause an upset tummy. Dry foods aren't meant to be moistened.

Freeze dried raw foods are supposed to be rehdyrated in water before serving but it also shouldn't be left out for very long.

A spoonful of water in canned food is enough unless your cat likes soup

Mommytobuck said:

 
Well I think I was giving quite a lot. 3x per day added water. With abandon. I feel like the dry food sucked up a lot of that and perhaps I was giving too much. I found an article that said cats should be fine with only the water in their food if it is wet. I can give some extra water 1x per day but not three times.  I also gave him an probiotic that worked last year but I have concerned about that mixture because it contains calcium.   If this doesn't work I will look at the food. I had a similar issue last year with just food.

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I think the food I feed to my cats are denser than Earthborn, and it was our vet's recommendation to add water. If you are concerned about ingredients of probiotic, sometimes health food stores have very simple ones in refrigerated sections.  

LTS3 said:

 
Are you soaking dry food in water? It's fine if your cat will eat all of the food up at once but it shoudln't be left out for very long because bacteria from cat saliva will happily grow in the wet dry food. That may cause an upset tummy. Dry foods aren't meant to be moistened.

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No not soaking the dry food. 

I remembered that last week when he wasn't going very much I gave him some mallox... that could have caused wet stools. But to be safe I cut back on the water. Yes I was giving him Cat Soup. He seemed to like that better. I will slowly start adding back water to be sure.

So frustrated. Sunday night he has diahreha. Now, he hasn't gone since then. Going on 72 hours. That seems like a lot.  I have even caved and gave him dry food to try to get him to poop. Nothing. 

Mommytobuck said:

 
So frustrated. Sunday night he has diahreha. Now, he hasn't gone since then. Going on 72 hours. That seems like a lot.  I have even caved and gave him dry food to try to get him to poop. Nothing. 

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72 hours!...

Anything yet since your last post??

May need a vet visit if not. Did you end up giving him pumpkin?

I was having a lot of issues with our kitty, loss stools, then firm, up and down.

I switched her to only feeding Nature's Variety Instinct and that has done wonders! No more runny poop - yippee! Maybe try it and see if that can firm things up

Nora1 said:

 
72 hours!...

Anything yet since your last post??

May need a vet visit if not. Did you end up giving him pumpkin?

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Yes he went around 74 hours.. but it was rather hard. He typically doesn't go normally any earlier than about 36 hours.  I have started logging his actions so I can keep a better eye on it.