New Kitten: Health Question!!!

So I got Oliver about a week and a half ago. He is male and about 12 weeks old. He's eating dry food and uses the litter box pretty regularly. I have his litter box and food/ water downstairs in separate rooms. I've recently put a bowl of water in my room too because he likes to sleep with me. I've noticed in the last few days that he drinks a lot of water from the bowl in my room. I'm not sure if I think it's a lot because I don't notice how much he drinks downstairs or what. We have been playing more because he's gotten more comfortable with me. But just a second ago I heard him drinking like crazy. He sounded like a dog! I've never heard a cat drink water like that. He has been very playful today though and has been running/jumping on things for about 3 hours. He also pooped today and it was quite soft and had some fresh blood at the end. I've looked that up and sometimes it's common for cats to have some blood in their stool. I clean his litter box daily and I went and looked and the poop in there and it was all hard and I did not see any blood! I'm not sure if these two incidences are just a coincidence or if I should be worried! Any help would be appreciated.

When on an exclusively or primarily dry food diet, in my experience it's pretty common for the cat to drink lots of water to accommodate for the lack of moisture in their food. My male and females drink quite a bit after eating dry food or playing hard themselves, so Oliver sounds normal to me. As for the tiny bits of blood in the stool, that is normal in my experience too. I've noticed the same with my own cats, and was told by my vet that it's nothing to be alarmed by unless it's enough blood to discolor the stool (like the entire stool takes on a pinkish color) or if it appears that your cat is having difficulty making a bowel movement.

I would like to mention that you may want to consider providing him with a wet food meal at least once a day. Although he seems inclined to drink water from his bowl (which is a good thing!), male cats on all dry diets run the risk of developing struvite crystals and/or urolithiasis, which is essentially bladder stones for cats. Like with people, passing these stones/crystals is extremely painful at best and extremely dangerous at worst, particularly if the issue isn't caught in time. I don't say this to scare you, but it's something I always like to make people aware of just in case.

Also, if you aren't already, use stainless steel or glass bowls for food and water, cleaning them out between uses. NEVER use plastic; is it a porous material and can come to hold bacteria which can then be transferred to your cat's food and water, which you of course don't want to expose kitty to unnecessarily.

I hope you and Oliver have a wonderful time getting to know each other, and many loving years ahead of you.

kmye222 said:

So I got Oliver about a week and a half ago. He is male and about 12 weeks old. He's eating dry food and uses the litter box pretty regularly. I have his litter box and food/ water downstairs in separate rooms. I've recently put a bowl of water in my room too because he likes to sleep with me. I've noticed in the last few days that he drinks a lot of water from the bowl in my room. I'm not sure if I think it's a lot because I don't notice how much he drinks downstairs or what. We have been playing more because he's gotten more comfortable with me. But just a second ago I heard him drinking like crazy. He sounded like a dog! I've never heard a cat drink water like that. He has been very playful today though and has been running/jumping on things for about 3 hours. He also pooped today and it was quite soft and had some fresh blood at the end. I've looked that up and sometimes it's common for cats to have some blood in their stool. I clean his litter box daily and I went and looked and the poop in there and it was all hard and I did not see any blood! I'm not sure if these two incidences are just a coincidence or if I should be worried! Any help would be appreciated.

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I agree with @mmt3363  and also think you should slowly introduce a quality wet food that youre kitten likes.