Occasional soft stools

Hi guys! This is my first time posting to a forum, so if I posted in the wrong thread please forgive me. I'm looking for some insight on a soft stool problem my cats been having. Heres some info:

Spartacus a.k.a Spotapus, is an 11 month old neutered male SBT Bengal. He will be 1 year old on Nov. 11. He eats canned food only. I rotate between Ziwipeak and Natures Variety Instinct, and he gets a different "flavor" at each meal. He eats rabbit, venison, duck, turkey, beef, pork and lamb. Never fish, but I give him half a pump of Grizzly salmon oil in the a.m. He is 15 lbs and eats 2 cans a day. He gets 1-2 Orijen freeze dried treats just about everyday.

He's been fed like this since I brought him home at 10 weeks old (he was slowly weaned off what the breeder fed of course), and he never had any problems like vomiting or loose stools. He came to me fully UTD on all shots and worming, and he is still UTD on shots now, I have not wormed him since I've owned him though. I check his poop daily and never saw any signs of worms, nor does he look wormy (bloated stomach, weight loss, egg sacs around anus ect). He's very alert and energetic, never pukes and never had an accident outside of his box.

Today I scooped his box to find a pancake of poop, and its not the first time. I cant quite remember when this started, but I feel like its been at least 3 months. Its not everyday, or even every week, and usually never lasts longer than one bowel movement. Most of the time he has nice, dark, firm stools. He doesn't get heartworm medication monthly like my dogs, although I plan to change that next vet visit, and I dont use any flea preventative as I have never needed it for my pets unless we travel. He does sometimes kill bugs, and he will eat them occasionally before I can take it away but mostly just leaves them on the floor. I don't know how many he might eat while I'm not home though.

Sorry for the long post, I just want to be thorough! I plan on taking him to the vet for his 1 yr checkup, but I'm wondering if he should go sooner now? Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks to anyone who reads and responds

I would start off with only one type of food flavor, probably duck only.  No treats, no salmon oil.  See if his poops firm up.  If they do, then leave him on that for a few weeks to let his gut and gastro system calm down.  Then start adding in one food and see how that affects his system.  Something is definitely upsetting his system and it could be one of those foods.

Thank you Stephanie! I was thinking of trying something like that, but wasn't sure yet because he has eaten like this since I've had him and never had a problem before. His poop doesn't smell terrible, even the loose ones, so I'm assuming thats a good sign at least. I'll probably take a stool sample in to be checked just to be on the safe side. I've heard of dogs becoming intolerant to proteins they were never allergic to before, but not cats. Maybe its something like that, or the formula of one of those brands has changed and they haven't made an announcement yet.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I added the Ziwipeak a little later into his rotation because I had trouble getting it at the time. I was going to just feed the ZP originally, but when I couldnt get it in time to have it on hand when he came home, I bought the Instinct. Eventually I finally was able to get ZP and decided to feed 50/50 of each brand. It very well could be the ZP now that I think about it, I just didnt think it was because he was still eating the same proteins he always had, just one was ZP now. I will order him a few cases of Instinct duck and see how he does on just that for awhile.

Spotapus said:

Oh, I forgot to mention that I added the Ziwipeak a little later into his rotation because I had trouble getting it at the time. I was going to just feed the ZP originally, but when I couldnt get it in time to have it on hand when he came home, I bought the Instinct. Eventually I finally was able to get ZP and decided to feed 50/50 of each brand. It very well could be the ZP now that I think about it, I just didnt think it was because he was still eating the same proteins he always had, just one was ZP now. I will order him a few cases of Instinct duck and see how he does on just that for awhile.

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You may see want to see what info you can find about agar agar, which is in ZP's food. They replaced the carrageenan that used to be in their canned foods with agar agar.

I've read conflicting things about it, some cats it doesn't bother, others it has the same effect as carrageenan, can cause loose stools.

I'm glad you are taking kitty to the vet nonetheless, good luck.

Yes I'm starting to suspect the ZP. I don't feed foods with carageenan or guar gum because of the bad things I've read about them, but didn't think to check out agar agar. Its been driving me nuts because his loose stools are so random and few, and he has no other symptoms. I think I'll be sticking to Instinct since he did so well on that alone before, and following up with my vet. He's my first cat, so this is all totally new to me! Dogs are so much easier :lol3:

Spotapus said:

Yes I'm starting to suspect the ZP. I don't feed foods with carageenan or guar gum because of the bad things I've read about them, but didn't think to check out agar agar. Its been driving me nuts because his loose stools are so random and few, and he has no other symptoms. I think I'll be sticking to Instinct since he did so well on that alone before, and following up with my vet. He's my first cat, so this is all totally new to me! Dogs are so much easier

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Congratulations on this being your first kitty.

I fed ZP a couple years ago when ZP used carrageenan and I didn't know anything about carrageenan.  I couldn't figure out at that time why their stools were not great.

I'm skeptical about guar gum as well - some cats, of course, it doesn't bother but I've read that guar gum is derived from the guar bean - hard for humans to digest beans, imagine a cat.

Also, Dr. Pierson (catinfo.org), says that she will actually add a bit of guar gum to her cats homemade semi-raw food if any of them get constipated which does suggest guar gum has a laxative effect, she recommends a small dose so imagine when some of these pet food companies have guar gum listed up high on the ingredient list (scroll down to "constipation"):

I recently added a bit of guar gum (soluble fiber) to my cats' food.  Note that the first part of the stool (the dark part) is fiber-free and is firm and dry - just like what would be found coming out of a wild cat eating a natural diet. 

The firm stool is followed by the guar gum stool which is ~3/4" - 7/8" in diameter and is very soft.  This is not what we want for the average cat.  

http://catinfo.org/makingcatfood.php

The Instinct line (not NV's Pride), is gum free, one of the few gum free foods on the market. The problem I have, however, is that my cats don't always want to eat Instinct although we seem to be okay lately with the rabbit/pork.  One of my cats eats mostly raw so he's okay but our Molly is very fussy.

I work in pet food retail and trust me, there are quite a few dogs out there that can be very fussy with their food and can have similar problems to what you're experiencing with your kitty, you just lucked out with your first dog.

Thanks LisaMarie! Spartacus doesn't eat the Pride, just the regular Instinct and LID Instinct cans. He isnt a fussy eater, always licks his bowl clean, although he'd prefer to eat my Yorkie's Orijen kibble if he had a choice. I have a mini poodle who has GERD and pukes if he eats any dry food too high in protein thats always fun! They would all benefit from a raw diet and I really wish it were possible for me to put them on one, but I have a heck of a time finding organs with no butcher for miles around. I tried to feed Spartacus raw meat with this Wysong Call of the Wild supplement, but he wasnt crazy about the Wysong stuff on top. He'll happily eat raw meat without it, the muscle meat alone is just not balanced enough to feed every meal.