Kittens stinking up the house will ...

My 2 new kittens have really bad gas all the time and their stool is soft & stinky almost diarrhea. I feed them exactly what the breeder was feeding them and I don't leave out any human food for them to get at so I don't know what could be causing it. Is this something they will grow out of?

Kittens are often born with worms so my first question would be, have they been dewormed? How old are they? Have they had their first vet visit yet?

Did you ask the breeder if their stool was stinky when they were there?

One of the kittens is 4 months and he's got all his shots(so she says) the other is 11 weeks and is due for more shots in about a week to 2 weeks so I can ask the vet then what he thinks. I haven't asked her(the breeder) anything since the cats have been home w me because she started having an attitude about things during the process of me getting the kittens so I'd rather not deal with her anymore. I started to feel that she was definitely all about the money, not the cats.

What food are they on exactly?
And you did not mention if they'd been wormed yet, if not perhaps they need it.

Often the food is what causes the stink and you can change to a good quality food but you should do it gradually, i.e., adding larger and larger amounts of the new food to the old food over a period of at least one week or even two. Change of food can sometimes cause diarrhea and since they already have diarrhea, then the gradual change should be best.

The food is a mix of Evolve & Iams. I'm not sure if they were wormed. Isn't that usually a standard part of their baby vet appts.?

Depends on the vet, I'd ask them.

Evolve is actually a good quality food, but Iams is not.
I'd slowly phase out the Iams, my bet is that all that corn is what is causing the problem.
I know mine get stinky and gassy on corn filled feeds.

I don't how long you have had these kittens. When I got my second kitten she had this problem for three or four days and she got over it. I had gotten a routine check at the vets the day after I got her though. I think it was a stress related problem with her.

I've had them for a little over a week. When I was young we had cats that used to eat grocery store brand cat food and they never smelt like this so do you really think the Iams could be causing this much of a problem? Besides this is exactly what the breeder was feeding them, I didn't change anything.

A reputable breeder would have supplied copies of all inoculations and treatments given to the kittens. Or at least would if you request them.
Therefore, Im suspicious of the kitten having worms too.

But stress and new food and environment may be contributing to their diarrhea.

I would save yourself tons of money and forget iams ever existed. Friskies cat food is safer and healthier than iams. Fiskies is just an example, if you are willing to shell out $27 for 12 lb bag of Iams, you should try Royal Canin or similar fine cat food.


Iams is heavy on corn meals as well as “chicken by product meals.” Cats cannot process grains. And is where most of that ripe offensive smell comes from.
Additionally “by-product meals” are basically every part of the chicken, cow or pig that is not meat remaining (beaks, fat, skin, tendons, feet, bone-bits, etc) ground up into a paste.
While traditionally a standard in pet food, “by-product” meals are to be avoided if possible. Especially it is one of the first ingredients on the bag of food.

It may be the same food, but i would imagine the kittens had the same problem before you got them.

My kittens had seriously foul gas when they were on a cheap food, but it went away once I started with the Eukanoba dry food.

FYI Iams and Eukanuba are the same company and both are fairly low in quality.

I'm not impressed with adult Eukanoba food, but the kitten dry food was the best I could find in my general price range. The adult foods ingredients do look really poor, so I will be switching brands when they go to adult dry food. I'd say exactly which food/what ingredients, but the dear kittens chewed the whole bottom off the bag, so their food is in a tupperware container at the moment.

I would have a Fecal test done on at least one of them, just to be sure it's not some sort of parasite. A Fecal is not that expensive & worth the piece of mind. My Maggie was dewormed (I got her from the shelter I volunteer at so I know it was done) & I still had the fecal done to be sure.

That sounds like kittens!
Nutro is a good feed in about that price range, sometimes cheaper.
Well worth a looking into once you start weaning them to adult food.

So what is a good food I can switch them to that isn't really expensive? I was hoping to switch them off of the Evolve because that is very expensive. It's about $15 for a 7lbs bag. I just continued with the Evolve/Iams mix because that's what the breeder was doing but if I could find something that's good for them but not quite as expensive I'd like to switch.

First make sure they don't have internal parasites.
If they need to get wormed, it can be a little hard on the digestive tract, and switching food plus worming could make them sick.

I feed 6 cats, so I have no clue how much small bags are, but I feed Nutro Natural Indoor Complete and it runs me around $22-$28 for a 20 bag (depending on where I go and who's running specials).
It 's one of the better inexpensive brands, next up from that I believe would be the Royal Canin, and I'm sure someone here can give you an idea on that cost.

PetSmart's Authority food has no by-products and is very reasonable price wise. Royal Canin, Natural Choice, Nutro Max, and Natural Balance are also really good foods that aren't too pricey. If you go to the Natural Choice/Nutro Max website you can send away for coupons that will save you a bundle. They also have a frequent buyer program.

I loooveee Natural Balance and Royal Canin.
Sam gets Royal Canin for sensitive stomachs. At first I was worried about the price, but he eats much less of the high quality food than he did a lower quality food. He's also got a healthier coat and is more active than he was on his other food.

FYI Iams and Eukanuba are the same company and both are fairly low in quality

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Very true. I've fed my cats canned Friskies and have never had any problems, and I've many cats live very long lives on it.