White poop/dark poop - which is normal for raw?

Another poop question!

My 5 month kitty has been on a raw diet since he was 10 weeks. I started with commercial raw (PetsGoRaw, full chicken meal for cats) but it has large-ish bone chips that he doesn't seem to like. At one point he coughed up several undigested bone bits along with a furball, and I decided to switch to making my own. I followed the Dr. Pierson recipe, but with the added egg yolks and with a kelp supplement instead of lite salt (couldn't find lite salt anywhere and the local pet store said kelp was a good substitute?).

When I first switched to the homemade, I noticed his poop got much much darker, a black/green, turdy (??) consistency, sometimes with a bit of mucus. This past week I had to temporarily switch back to commercial (turkey this time). After switching, his poop is now almost completely white and very dry. Also it looks less like little round turds pushed together and more like the normal cat poo logs. He isn't straining really, but there can be a bit of a pause between the squat and the poop (after some landscaping of the litter box, haha). He goes every day or day and a half.

What I'm wondering is, which poop type is "normal"?? I'm finding differing opinions, some saying the light poop means too much bone, and others saying it means a great digestive system. If his poop really should be lighter, then I'm worried that the homemade raw diet isn't properly balanced for him. Alternatively, if really light/white poop is a serious problem then I need to bring him to the vet. (His vet isn't pro-raw so I don't think they would be much help with my diet questions).

Hopefully someone more experienced can help me??

White poop could be caused by a bile duct obstruction. You should go to a vet.

Hi Abyeb. He just pooped and I realized it's not actually white, it's just really light colour. It must turn white after the litter dehydrates it.
It also smelled really bad this time (he stopped having stinky poops when I first switched him to raw). Maybe that's because it's turkey not chicken...?

My meat grinder came (yay) so I can switch back to the homemade tomorrow and see if it stays light (which might then mean a bile problem?) or gets dark again - but is it actually supposed to be so dark on a raw diet?

I'm just worried because I've never fed raw before and I want the best for him.

Albercheck, if the poop is white or clay colored that would indicate a bike duct obstruction. It wouldn't have to be super white to indicate this, a light tan or clay color would also be a problem. As for the dark poop, if it really is very dark, that could indicate internal bleeding. This could result from the bits of bone in the food puncturing something as they move through his digestive system. I would still talk to a vet.

You may want to also post in the Raw Forum since some of the raw feeders hang out there more than on Health. http://www.thecatsite.com/f/65/raw-amp-home-cooked-cat-food I'm not sure if kelp can be substituted for lite salt.

Pale poop can indicate too much bone but Dr. Pierson's recipe is just 10% bone and is a very good recipe to use. I'm not familiar with the brand of commercial raw food you are also feeding but it's possible that it may have too much bone.

Oh Thanks. I'll post over in that forum About the kelp and poop colour [emoji]128578[/emoji]

Abyeb- I didn't think it was something internally serious just because there was such an obvious change in poop coinciding with the change in food, and I wasn't sure which was the "better target". I'll see what today's poop brings now that he's back on the home made stuff. (I never thought I'd spend this much time thinking about cat poop! But it's totally worth it. : )

Red meats will produce darker colored stools while white meats will produce lighter colored stools. Raw fed cats typically have small compact stool. If the stool is very white in color and crumbly, the bone content you're feeding is probably too high. 

Sounds like the first switch may have been a bit hard on your kitty, or maybe some other change apart from diet is the culprit.  Like, change in routine or litter box?  Did you rearrange furniture?   Dark, mucusy stool can be a stress response, or a sign of a touchy digestion that doesn't take well to sudden food switches

Raw poop does tend to be lighter colored than canned or kibble poop.  It ranges from off-white to light brown usually for my cats.  The surface should be dry.  If you break one open, you'll find a core of fur.  I do occasionally see dark poop, sometimes even attached to a light colored one, but it is unrelated to diet composition.  Wait for a few more poops to see what's going on?

You can try switching back, but do it gradually and make sure there are no other changes at the same time.  Also, with a 5 month old you have a limited window of opportunity to vary the diet so they won't be so picky later on in life.

Thanks everyone, that's exactly what I wanted to know: what was normal. I thought the dark color was odd because he is eating chicken, so now I know to keep an eye out to see if it stays dark or turns a more normal lighter colour. I didn't think it was something major internally because he is acting normally and the colour change coincided with the diet change, but with cats it can be hard to tell. 

One thing I noticed is that the feline-nutrition recipe (which is actually what I used last time) has a higher liver content, and calls for chicken hearts (which have lots of blood in them). I also used a kelp supplement because I couldn't find lite salt. So it might be possible that either of those things (or the combo) caused the darker poop. He's also teething, which might have caused some stress...? No major changes to the apartment/litter/etc.

 I made a new batch of food last night and while I still included chicken hearts as in the feline-nutrition recipe (Percy loves them), I used the meat:bonergan:supplement ratios from Dr. Piersons recipe and used regular salt (I guess the kelp is too unreliable of a source of iodine), and plain stock made from the chicken carcasses for the liquid. Thankfully, he likes it. haha. All that work and then I never know.  It's tricky to rotate the protein, because anything but chicken gets pretty expensive. He isn't too picky so far, but since he is teething sometimes it can be hard to get him to eat consistently.  I did feed him steak once, and he ate the darn stuff so fast that he threw up the meal wholly unchewed a few hours later. Lesson learned :|  He goes nuts over any red meat I give him (moose, beef, lamb) so I give it as a treat or mixed into his food; I added a bit of lamb that I had into the chicken mix this time. He also gets frozen feeder mice from the pet store once in a while.

Ps-He finally pooped last night. 1/2 light and 1/2 dark... and stinky again Not a whole lot considering it was 2.5 days, but I guess that's a result of the raw diet.

Anyway, thanks for the input