Can we talk about poop? (Raw food related)

[beth0612]

Yes, I have become *that* pet owner. My kittens had diarrhea the first three months they were with me, so poop has taken on a new importance in my life. I finally beat the diarrhea with raw and good probiotics, but there have been a couple of flare-ups of ultra soft poop that keep me from thinking we have it all beat.

I'm still tweaking my raw formulas (Hare Today plus Alnutrin) as I find what meats they will accept, which at the moment seems to be chicken, rabbit, and mutton (big no to beef). We just finished off a big batch of mutton, which had a higher bone content than I intended because I calculated incorrectly. The kittens had really light colored poop that was super crumbly with the mutton, which is how Dr. Pierson described it should be on catinfo.org. This latest batch of chicken is also higher in bone content than it should be (it's around 13%), but suddenly the kittens' poop is dark and moist (but not runny). I'm a little mystified what would cause such a big change if it's still high in bone content.

For that matter, should I aim for consistency in poop as an indicator of good health, or should I be satisfied as long as it's not soft or as long as they're not constipated?

My 21 year old cat who died this past year was free fed dry most of his life (I added lots of wet at the end when I realized how bad dry was) but I never had to worry about diarrhea with him. I had such of a rough go of it with the kittens that I may be overthinking it but I want to make sure that I'm keeping them healthy.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Are you absolutely certain the kittens don't have any parasites that might have been causing the diarrhea?  If so, then I would slowly start adding in more muscle meat and see what happens.  You certainly don't want to give them too much calcium, because you can cause problems with that on the other end of the spectrum (I'm guessing too much calcium can cause hypercalcemia, since too little can cause hyPOcalcemia).