Constipation And Transition From Indoor Dry To Canned

Hi all,

I adopted my mom's cat about a month ago.  After losing a cat to renal failure a few years ago, I immediately switched my other three cats to a primarily wet food diet (with just a few grain-free kibbles as treats).  The first thing I did with my mom's cat was start the transition to wet food.  He is being stubborn, but I am so excited that he is eating mostly wet with some his kibble on top at this point.  However, unlike my cats who love pate-style canned (Nutro, Nature's Variety, Weruva), he is only accepting of the minced or sliced with gravy.  At present, he is eating Nutro minced chicken and Nutro sliced gravy and is up to eating about a can a day total with his dry.  He was also being free fed, and he is now on a scheduled feed with my cats (though we have not face-to-face introduced my cats, so he eats in his safe room).  The more wet food he is eating, the less poop I scoop in his litter box, which I initially chalked up to him having less waste and his body using the much-needed protein.  His dry is SD Indoor Adult, and it has corn also cellulose in it.  The stool from today was the round balls with one small cylinder (sorry for the graphic description), and I know he went 24 hours one day with no stool in the box, so I am now worried about constipation.  He also drank a lot more water at my mom's, but I attributed that to all of the dry food and the temperature in my mom's house, which was at nearly 80 all the time.

The questions is this:  Has anyone seen constipation when transitioning from indoor dry (with the cellulose, which I know is the fiber added to indoor food) to wet?  If so, what is the remedy to helping them get used to not having the fiber.  Will the body eventually adjust?  I don't want him to be uncomfortable or strain.  I have not witnessed him going or trying, so I do not know if he is straining.  I thought of maybe adding a few drops of water to the wet food, but I know the gravy is likely enticing him, so I don't want to dilute it too much.  I do have the hair ball gel from the vets, though my cats never have to take it, since they have few hairballs on their current diet.  He is so picky, though, so he might not eat it.

Is the constipation just a reaction to the change of diet, or is it maybe some stress due to the change of him moving here and him knowing there are other cats in the house?  I have been locking my cats up and letting him roam the house, which he seems to love, since he lived in my mom's room for about 7 years and never was allowed out.

I appreciate all insight!

Please don't apologize for being graphic- this is the place where you can describe poop and we cheer if  kity has normal poop!! If he was mine, I would get him checked out by the vet- a kitty passing hard round stool is definitely constipated and your vet cshould determine what treatment might be. Some kitties are helped by adding a bit of pumpkin with a tablespoon of water to wet food, some need something stronger like Miralax, but this should only be given on the advice of your vet because something serious could be causing the constipation.

I would agree to try adding canned pumpkin and more water to his wet food.  Some cats like pumpkin, some do not.  It doesn't hurt to try.  1 teaspoon up to 3 times a day is the usual "dose". 

I have a cat who takes Miralax daily to try to keep her from having those little hard balls.  She's a kidney cat, so is prone to dehydration.  I also add lots of extra water to her already all wet diet.  Nothing works by the Miralax, and I have to give it to her twice a day or she plugs up.  As long as I'm consistent, she's usually ok.  I give her between 1/8 and 1/4 teaspoon each time, dissolved in a little water before mixing into her food. It's completely odorless and tasteless and does NOT gel up, so she doesn't even notice it.

Thank you so much for the insight.   He seems to be passing more consistent, better-shaped stool now, so maybe it was just a diet change that was causing some issues.  Also, I think he may be using my cats' litter boxes in the other room, so I am paying more attention when I clean those.  If I do see any more signs of constipation, I will see if he would eat pumpkin or even cat food, like some of the Weruva brands that have pumpkin in them (though he is really stuck on Nutro minced and sliced cans only at this point--at least he likes some that are not fish).

Oh, and I agree that celebrating good cat poop is a big deal.  One of my cats had issues with diarrhea last year, and I was so excited when changing him to a higher quality canned food helped--that and being mindful that he is very sensitive to my stress level or to household tension.

I am so glad I found this site!