Kitten Flatulence

My two kittens fart a lot and it is smelly enough to clear the room. Any suggestions?

Feed them better quality food.

Milo has been having this problem the past few days too. And him and Marlee both eat a pretty good quality food, Nutro Natural Choice. I'm hoping its because he just got a worming treatment a few days ago, and will clear up soon enough!

Can I piggyback a question to your post???

What is considered good quality food????

Angel has the same problem.. She really has some bad gas, and the gas is pretty regular..

The place I got her from had her on Kitten Chow Purina,, and she loves it.. and she loves the wet meow mixes..

So no clue what is good or bad food!!

Thanks,
Heather

Heather, look for a food that has real meat at the #1 ingredient (not "meal" or worse yet, a filler like corn). There are huge debates about what really is "good" food and what isn't, but basically most of the grocery store brands (Meow Mix, Kitten/Cat Chow) aren't made with real quality ingredients. Some cats still do OK on them, but with a gassy kitty, my guess would be that there are too many fillers (corn, wheat) that are difficult for her to digest, which is resulting in the gas.

There are a ton of threads in the Health & Nutrition forum about what ingredients to look for and which to avoid, as well as brands that are better than others.

Marishka's smelly gas has cleared up since getting her off of the kitten chow. She wouldn't eat wet food during the time she was eating that, so I would pretty much attribute it to the kitten chow/low quality food.

Usually in looking for a good cat food, I'm looking at good amounts of *named* protein, protein percentage, no/little by-products, and little grain and fillers as possible. Unfortuneatly most grocery store food isn't the best, but cats are sooooo picky, so reading and testing is a lot of the process. At least with Marishka it is : )

This forum has so many good threads on nutrition (I started about half of them...heh), so doing a search on cat food or nutrition will yield a whole lotta stuff to read...that's what I did.
Also, this link helped me sort out what by products were, what to look for, etc. http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/tipsforchoosing.htm

I am a newbie at it myself, so hopefully I've helped a little. It's overwheling at first since it seems to foreign...but it comes : )

And anyone else, please feel free to add/elaborate/ or correct anything I've said...I'm still learning!

I am feeding them Innova Evo which is supposed to be extremely high quality - has no carbs etc. Any other reasons besides food?

Originally Posted by Ellyiar

I am feeding them Innova Evo which is supposed to be extremely high quality - has no carbs etc. Any other reasons besides food?

Click to expand...

Since you are feeding a good food, it could be something in the food that just doesn't agree with them. Unfortunately since they can't talk to us, it's a matter of trial and error and finding the right combination that works for them. What works well for some won't work for others.

could also be the kitten food is too rich. do you give your kitten treats, people food? that can also cause gas. another thing to think about is sensitive stomach. maybe irritable bowel syndrome. in that case you need to get a sensitive diet from Royal Canin, Hills, Eukanuba etc.. prescription diet. maybe even look into feeding a raw diet.

Originally Posted by Ellyiar

I am feeding them Innova Evo which is supposed to be extremely high quality - has no carbs etc. Any other reasons besides food?

Click to expand...

maybe not enough carbs in the diet and too much fiber?

Have they been tested for worms? Abby had that problem when we first adopted her, and it was a combination of the poor quality food she was being given at the shelter, and worms.

Yes, I second that, have them checked for worms and/or get a dewormer from your vet. Cookie was the only kitten I ever had that farted and it was probably because of worms.. He also happened to arrive eating kitten chow, but he was switched over to something better.. Either way it didn't happen again.. Also regarding food- yes get something better than kitten chow, if you can only get to a grocery store or walmart try purina one, iams, or the maxximum cat brand at walmart. Meow mix wet is actually okay, though maybe your kitties are reacting to something in it, but I would suspect that your problem is worms and/or kitten chow.

My cat has food allergies. One of the allergies was to chicken. One of the side effects, it turned out, was gas.

Since she's eaten rabbit-only, she doesn't perfume the bathroom when she 'goes'.

Try an unfamiliar source of protein. Nature's Logic and Nature's Variety both make a canned-rabbit cat food. I feed Nature's Logic and it's great value for the price.
Gizmo eats about 1/3 a cup a day since this is highly concentrated protein. she only nibbles at the canned food.

And her coat is like mink. I couldn't believe how soft her fur is.

Anyway, You might get your cat off the chicken because it does really sound as if this is a food allergy.