New cat mum and new to site

Hello, my names Bec and am new fur parent to our male cat, he is 2 and 1/2 years old and have had him for a week. I live in Australia so hoping to meet some new people and talk about cats. Have a few questions to ask as well. Am looking for some safe cat cleaning tips, have heard vinegar and baking soda is safe so have been using that. Would love to hear from others about how they clean the house and be able to get rid of the cat smell as much as possible. I rent and have a inspection in a few weeks, they know about the cat, but have a feeling they will pick at everything even tiny things like smells or bits of fur. They know we have a cat and it's all ok, but worried they will complain about stupid things, Including litter smells and paw prints etc. and how we clean. I know they are picky as the last tenant left the place in a certain way and said it was grimey and it really wasn't. I am using catsan clay litter as ws told it's great to get rid of smells. Also feed him hills science diet which is good cat food and expensive and told to helps with smells. I have been brushing his fur everyday as much as possible as he has long fur, but need to get a better one, as he does shed. Anyway I think that about it for know and will check out the forums and ask some questions.

Welcome! 

Diet is going to be the best way to control litter box smell, and despite their claims, Science Diet is not the best option for that. Plant-based carbohydrates create bulk and smell in stool, and they are completely unnecessary in a cat's diet. Corn, wheat, rice, potato, and lots of other vegetables are used really commonly in cat food because they're cheap calories and hold kibble together well, but they cause so many problems, one of them being smelly waste. 

Wet foods are going to be less likely to have these fillers, plus the moisture is good for cats which naturally rely on their food for much of their water intake. But you still have to read the ingredients carefully. There's are a lot of options that are more meat-based brands, the lower end of the price range being Fancy Feast and Sheba, and then there are a lot of options for a higher price that tend to use higher quality products. It usually takes a bit of experimenting to find foods that you and your cat approve of. I'm currently feeding Nature's Variety, Holistic Select, and Hounds and Gatos, but there are dozens of other good brands out there. Big pet stores have a few, but smaller independent pet stores might have more variety, and of course there's Amazon.

One step further than wet food is raw and homemade feeding. There are brands that sell premade raw food for your cat with all the right supplements, etc, or you can make it yourself following a recipe. Cats that are fed raw have very low odor waste, and the stool is often smaller and less frequent. Their digestive system works most efficiently when they are fed a diet that matches their obligate carnivore needs. 

It is not very common to find a vet who knows much about cat nutrition, which is why foods like Science Diet get promoted so much. If you want to get a really good understanding of cat nutrition, catinfo.org is a great resource.

It also helps a lot to scoop litter boxes frequently, and rinse them out weekly with warm soapy water. Dish washing liquid is fine. If you're combating a parasite or disease, you can use bleach or ammonia (but not both!) to kill infectious agents, but that's not necessary on a routine basis.

Making sure your cat prefers the litter box is so important, because once a cat goes outside the litter box, it can be a difficult habit to break and those are the smells that linger. You want to do all that you can to keep that from happening in the first place. Keeping your cat healthy is key, because a lot of health problems result in inappropriate urination. Kidney and urinary problems are prevented in part by feeding wet or raw food and a diet low in fish. Yearly vet checkups are an important barometer of your cat's health. It's also good to have multiple litter boxes. The rule of thumb is one for each cat in the house plus one extra, but I have 3 for my one cat. I put them in places that she likes them, which are not necessarily the same places I would prefer, but there's no noticeable odor so it doesn't really matter. Most cats also prefer having an open litter box rather than a hooded one, because smells can get trapped in there making it unpleasant for the cat, and also it's easier to forget to clean the litter box when you can't see it so they tend to have to deal with a dirty litter box more often and cats prefer a clean litter box to do their business. And then cats have all sorts of individual preferences and needs like the size of the litter box, the texture of the litter, the smell of the litter, etc, so you can experiment if your cat ever seems uncomfortable with his accommodations. 

For any accidents that do happen, a good enzymatic cleaner formulated for pet stains is essential. This will break down the odor-causing chemicals and make them inert, and cats have a very good sense of smell so they will be able to smell the spot if you use any other cleaner or do not soak it well enough. Nature's Miracle is great for this.

Brushing is great to cut back on the amount of fur shed around the house and also potential hairballs. Furminator brushes probably get out the most fur, but not every cat is a fan and it usually just depends on what your cat likes best. The rubber brushes are pretty good and well tolerated because they create static attraction after a few strokes and excess fur jumps to the brush, and they're not very hard and prickly. Having a house entirely fur-free is going to be a difficult feat, though!

For just general house cleaning, I use standard household cleaners. My cat doesn't lick the floor or counters, so there's not much worry that she's going to ingest something toxic. Most of those acidic smelling cleaners are not appealing to cats, so it's not a huge concern.

Thanks for info, I have clumping clay and scoop it out not long after he does his business. So no problems there. He hasn't done anything outside his box which is great.

Reason being he is on science diet is costs a little overweight, what I understand is that according to the rspca which is where we got him said he needs to be on a diet as did the vet as looking at him from above etc he is a little overweight. I have no idea what the other owners give him but I get the impression that he was given table scraps as he is food driven very much so and looks at us and stares lol.
I did the first Lot of cleaning last week and first thing he did was drink the water and vingear mixture and was so glad it wasn't anything else. He looks for bits of scraps on the floor and always checking out the bin. I have to watch him like a hawk. He a bit of a gabage guts I think. He not overly overweight just needs to loose a little. He is a large cat, vet reakons bigger than a Maltese so we have to take that in consideration as well and he is long. He has his wormer and been desexed and vaccinations and flea last week and is in good health otherwise. :hi:

I don't have expierence with overweight cats but from what I've read it's enough to just put them on a wet food only diet. A wet food without anything that comes from a plant, (corns, wheats, etc) as those are things that cats can not digest very well. When I got my cat they'd only been feeding her dry food, and her poops smelled horrible. Since I got her on an all wet diet there is very little smell from her poops. I mean, poops smell, but it's much much much less of a smell than from when I first got her. I do very often have visitors at home and, in the beginning, was very concerned about odor control. I have two litter boxes at home for her and at some point got a silica litter, which has been good. It absorbs a lot and there is very little smell, even more so compared to other cat litters. As for shedding hair I found a brush called Lilybrush (review) that has worked for me, but there's also a lot of other hair-removal brushes out there. Just look at some petstores online, they might have a hygiene section. Also I don't know about the baking soda and vinegar. I, in the beginning, used some type of powder that I found at a petstore to sprinkle over the litter so it would make it smell more fresh. It had a pleasant smell, kind of like babypowder. Since I use Silica litter I haven't had to use it though.

Also, congrats on your new addition to the family! He sounds like a big boy  So cute!

Carbohydrate heavy foods like science diet are going to make weight loss more difficult. They also don't keep cats full for nearly as long for the same calories as a high protein food. My cat needs to lose weight as well, and there's a noticeable difference in her hunger levels and her energy and playfulness when she's on a better food (and she's also losing weight). 

Sounds like he's got a bold personality! Maybe a puzzle toy that you fill with healthy treats would be something he'd enjoy. I'm glad he's happy and healthy!

Thanks for the advice, dunno where I would start though, neither of us work so we don't have a lot of money, but we want him to be well fed and happy. High protein what would that involve? What foods? I am on a low fodmap diet cos I have IBS and that took me a few weeks to get the hang of, guessing this will be similar in the sense of watching everything that goes into his mouth etc. I do want to give him safe human foods as treats from time to time though, so guessing I would be looking at wet tinned food? I was told by a friend that science diet was the best and RSPCA said the same but I guess sometimes you have to go with your gut or his gut lol. Interesting how you get conflicting info sometimes and dunno who to believe ?

Yeah, Purina and Hills and other big name pet food companies have done a very good job of making putting their products in the forefront, and the only nutrition education a lot of vets get is sponsored by these companies. So people assume they're healthy, but there is starting to be a growing awareness about what's best for a cat's diet. These resources go into more depth:

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/how-to-choose-the-right-food-for-your-cat

http://www.littlebigcat.com/nutrition/the-ideal-diet-for-cats/

http://www.catinfo.org/

Fancy feast is a pretty popular wet food option with a good amount of meat on a budget, and I think Sheba is similar in content and price.

If he eats some carbs now and then it's not the end of the world. It's kind of like junk food for us. It isn't uncommon for cats to develop sensitivities or allergies to those ingredients because their digestive systems are not suited for them, but that depends on the cat as well.

Most meats are going to be fine as treats, as long as they don't have added salt or herbs, because there are some herbs that are toxic to cats. Fish isn't ideal because of toxin buildup, but as an occasional treat that's not an issue. Boiled eggs can also be a nice treat. If the treats make up more than 10% of his diet, you have to do some research to make sure he's getting the right balance of nutrients, but otherwise you're fine. 

So if changing to wet food can he still have dry and split it ? What ingredients should I stay away from then to help him lose weight and keep it off? Less veggies more Chickhen, rabbit?
Wanting to get some wet food over the weekend. Can I use different brands of tins and mix it up? Need help lol. Sorry for all the questions, but am thinking wet food is the way to go 95 % of diet and have dry maybe as treats. Can I mix it with wet food in the bowl? I understand I have to do the wet food slowly going of th hills dry food ratio of new foods. He always looking for food when we eat. Is there tinned food ingredients I should keep away from besides fish?

Cuddlemum said:

So if changing to wet food can he still have dry and split it ? What ingredients should I stay away from then to help him lose weight and keep it off? Less veggies more Chickhen, rabbit?
Wanting to get some wet food over the weekend. Can I use different brands of tins and mix it up? Need help lol. Sorry for all the questions, but am thinking wet food is the way to go 95 % of diet and have dry maybe as treats. Can I mix it with wet food in the bowl? I understand I have to do the wet food slowly going of th hills dry food ratio of new foods. He always looking for food when we eat. Is there tinned food ingredients I should keep away from besides fish?

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Those are great questions!

You can feed a mix of dry and wet, no problem. Some cats don't like it when their food changes so dramatically so mixing in wet and dry is one way to get them used to eating it, but the good thing about having such food-driven cats like yours is they'll often eat whatever you put in front of them, which saves you a lot of hassle! If he doesn't like it at first, though, don't give up. There are a lot of tricks you can use to entice kibble addicts to eat their wet food, and sometimes cats have specific preferences for textures. My cat's not very picky, but she does like pate style foods a lot better than kinds with chunks of meat, and some cats are the opposite. Lots of cats can switch from one food to another with no gastrointestinal upset, but some are a little more sensitive so making a slow transition is a good idea just to be on the safe side, especially when foods are so different.

Ingredients to avoid are anything from a plant, essentially. It's hard to find a food without ANY plant material at all, so focusing on the first 5 ingredients is a good guideline. Common fillers to avoid are corn, wheat, rice, potato, bran, oats, soy ingredients, starches, etc. Fish is usually okay in moderation, but it's not recommended to be fed everyday. (If you do through in a fish-based flavor every now and then, be careful because some cats love the taste of fish so much that they'll refuse everything else once they've tried it.) Other proteins are all pretty great. Chicken, turkey, duck, rabbit, pork, beef, and even rarer proteins like bison and venison if you can find them are all fine. Some people don't like meat by-products as an ingredient, others don't have a problem with it, but more budget-friendly brands with good meat ratios do tend to use more by-products than pricier brands.

Mixing up brands and flavors is great! It's a good way to keep a cat from developing an allergy to a specific protein, it gives them some variety and makes mealtime more interesting, and it kind of ensures that your cat is getting a well rounded diet.

Because you're trying to get his weight down, remember to check the calorie counts for each kind of food, because that can vary depending on the brand and protein, and an extra 30-50 calories a day is a big amount for a cat.

Sounds like you've got a good plan! Good luck with your food shopping!

I might add, since I'm pretty new to being solely responsible for a cat and therefore also pretty new to the whole food thing, that this is probably a lot to take in all at once. Don't just 'take it from us' though. Do your research, look it up online, Google it, watch some videos maybe. That's the best way to form your own opinion and to become confident in what you're feeding your cat.

In my opinion though, yeah, wet food is a better choice, especially for an overweight cat. If you can't afford all wet or your cat won't have it try feeding both wet and dry. To say it kind of bluntly: in the wild/on the streets there is no prey for cats labeled 'diet prey' -- and as stated in another post here: vets are being funded by these pet food companies and get little schooling about nutrition. Even with human doctors its like, doctors learn about medicine and nutritionists learn about nutrition. That's the same case with vets. Anyway yeah, good luck! You're already being a great, responsible pet owner by coming here.

Thanks for the info, had a look at some today and really hard to find serving sizes and calories on them. Even looked on the website and charts you give me. I bought some fancy feast ones and know have seen on the website it says how to feed and that would work out to be like 5 little cans a day, too expensive. So will have another look and find something in a bigger tin perhaps. What are some good brands? Whiskas? Felix? Dine? Apple paw? Was a grain free one, called natures gift. Feeling a little overwhelmed on how much to feed him. How would I split dry food on the hills doesn't have on the pack calories on per feeding, which is rather annoying . help

Calories are usually listed in really tiny print somewhere around the Ingredients and Guaranteed Analysis. It will say something like "1,310 kcal/kg or 482 kcal/can ME (metabolizable energy) on an as fed basis." Ignore the first number. The "482 kcal/can" is the number of calories in the can. (I'm looking at a 13 oz can, so most cans have a lot fewer calories.)

You kind of have to play around with amounts a little bit to figure out how much your cat needs, but in my experience it's much lower than what they recommend. It depends on your cat's size, activity level, and metabolism, and the only good way to find out if you're feeding the right amount is to weigh him every couple of days. If he's gaining weight or staying the same, you need to cut back how much you give him. It might take a LOT of cutting back before you get to where he's losing weight. I had to go down to about 170 calories a day for my 13 pound (6 kg) girl to start losing weight, which is around a little less than one 5.5 oz can of most brands a day. You don't want them to lose weight too quickly because that can get dangerous, but it's usually pretty difficult to do that.

The Hill's website isn't working for me right now, otherwise I'd check on the calories for you. I'd forgotten that Amazon Australia only sells books, otherwise that would have been a good place to get discounted food. At least here in the US, Fancy Feast Classic Pates are a good choice. I don't think your average adult cat on a diet needs more than 2 of those 3 oz cans a day, but if he is really big then maybe. Certainly not 5. Whiskas looks pretty good. I'm not familiar with those other brands, but they could be good? Just from googling a bit, it looks like something labeled "with jelly" is going to be fewer carbs than "with gravy," so that's one thing to look for. Nature's gift I'm not so sure about, because the protein levels seem really low for a wet food. Usually you want something around 10% protein, but that's with around 80% moisture and they don't list that. Wow, if Australian brands label things as inconsistently as their websites, this is going to be difficult! Maybe you can start a thread/search this site for what inexpensive, good brands that some of our Australian members use?

So yeah, your best option is probably going to be just keeping a really good eye on his weight and adjusting his food accordingly if you can't get good information about calories contents.

Thank you all for the help, I feel like it starting to make more sense

Welcome to the site, if you are interested in cat food recommendation check out the act nutrition section   http://www.thecatsite.com/f/64/cat-nutrition 

The directions on the cans or package always suggest feeding more than is needed. My cat gets about 1/3 cup of dry food in the morning and 1 small can of Fancy Feast in the evening. The vet said his ideal weight is 10 pounds, but he slipped up to 11, so I cut back just a little on the dry food in the morning. A few weeks later, he looks good, although I haven't weighed him. This should give you an idea of how much to feed without counting calories. Of course, this depends on the size of your cat. Mingo is a small to medium size cat; if yours is larger, say 15 pounds ideal weight, you need to feed him more.

Thanks all the info helps