New kitten & Very smelly room.

[leafwhisper]

We brought home our new 6 month old kitten, Amber, on Wednesday. She has been spending most of her time in the bedroom, which is also where I am keeping her food, water and litter box. I haven't noticed her spraying, and I am cleaning the litter box after every mess, but the room is smelling increasingly "catty". Not really urine, but kind of like how a shelter with tons of cats smells. She doesn't seem to smell when I sniff her. She does have a mild upper respiratory infection that we are treating with antibiotics. Any advice for why this room is smelling so much? Would it help if I bathed her? We have another cat and none of the rooms ever smelled with her.

 

[kittehtime]

is it possible the room isn't well ventilated? in shelters sometimes it'll have a certain smell because cat food has an odor, cats themselves have a certain smell (just like humans lol) and i heard sometimes some cats' chemistry doesn't mix well w/ the litter being used? (now that may be a myth but i'm just throwing that out there since no one else has come in here yet to help)!

is it a bad smell? or just a "smell"? if it's just a smell i wouldn't worry too much...

 

[leafwhisper]

It's not a bad smell as in something is sick or rotten, but just very strong cat. Even though it was very cold I opened the window a crack last night and that really helped. I've also noticed that she has a lot of gas and that she hasn't pooped in the litter box yet (though she did poop on the floor once), so that might have something to do with it, too. Our other cat was adopted as an adult and adjusted immediately to the change in food, new environment, etc. so I am feeling very confused with all of these kitten challenges.

 

[thembcat]

you should never just switch foods with any cat. If you need to change food you should start with 90% or the old for to 10% of the new food and gradually give more new food and less old. If you just change it out of the blue, the cat can get really sick. That's probably why the room is stinky and why the kitty has only gone poo once. I would switch back to the old food right away and once he starts having regular bowl movement the gradually change the food. If things don't start improving in the next day or two take him to the vet right away. Constipation can make your cat really sick.

 

[leafwhisper]

Thanks for the input. I was slowly mixing in our food (Taste of the Wild) with the kitten food that the shelter gave us, but she would pick out our food and leave the other kitten food (which was a blend of Science Diet, Kitten Chow and some other cheap kitten food). I've left the other kitten food there for the rest of the day, but she refuses to eat it. She's really settled in remarkably fast, and does not seem stressed except with the regard of where to poop (she pees in the box just fine and I keep cleaning it whenever I see something in it).

 

[kittehtime]

maybe she's scared to poo because it hurts...since she's constipated?

 

[leafwhisper]

She had a really huge poo the first night she was here, so I'm not sure if she is constipated. She had escaped her room and did it on the laundry room floor, then put a towel over it (which I thought was very creative on her part). I'm starting to wonder if she is one of those cats that need separate litter boxes for poo and pee. I'm going to try adding another box and see if that helps.

 

[kittehtime]

how's your kitty doing? how's the smell?

 

[leafwhisper]

The smell seems much better since I switched her entirely to our food. I also gave her a small amount of hairball remedy and she did have a poo, although it was a bit on the hard side. I thought the gassiness was going away, but then she got out of her room today and made a beeline for the bathroom and jumped in the tub, not knowing that it had water in it as I just got out from a bath. For a little while afterward she was extremely gassy, so I wonder if it is a stress related thing. Otherwise she seems very healthy and is extremely active.

 

[catsallaround]

For future ref-antibiotics can mess with a cat and make them gassy/stomach troubles.

 

[yosemite]

As others have already said, a change in food can cause gastric problems for a kitty.

Some cats also do not like to pee and poo in the same litter box so you may have to add another litter box. The general rule is one box per cat plus one extra. With 2 cats I had only 2 boxes and that worked for me but it may not work for others. Maybe add another box until she gets used to the food and the new place then wean her off the other box if you wish.

 

[sibohan2005]

try a little bit of plain yogurt for the gassiness. about a teaspoon it might help. Jasper used to have terrible gas and with a little yogurt it seems to keep him from fluffering too much. Half the time I just let him lick the lid when I open the yogurt cup. It is alright because Yogurt has very little lactose in it.