Kittens with Runny Poop

[DavidC]

We have 2 Nowegian Forest Cats/Kittens, we've had tham about 5-6 weeks. One is 6 months old and the other is 4 months ish. Both are gorgous, but we are having a hard time of it with the litter trays as they both have soft/runny poop.

Neither seem to have very solid stools, in fact at times they have been downrtight runny, but now they just seem quite soft, soft enough that they stick to the side of the litter trays. After we'd had them a week or so we noticed a bit of blood in there too, so took them to the vets and they were wormed. The blood stopped, but still they have never done good solid poops.

We feed them what the breeder told us to, which is what they were eating at the breeders. So the following is usually left down for them, along with lots of water:
They came to us with some Royal Canin Babycat.
And we've been leaving the following down.

• Royal Canin Kitten
• Royal Canin Maine Coon Kitten - I also have tried them on this, which apparently has better ingredients and kibble size for larger cats.
• Royal Canin Hair and Skin
• Royal Canin Outdoor
• Royal Canin Digestive, we've tried this being there and not available to see if it madeany difference, but it didn't.

The breeder told us to make sure there was a high protein % in the food we fed them.

Recently we have been restricting their access to the foods a little, trying to make sure they eat more of the kitten kibble rather than the others. None of it seems to make much difference though.

Can anyone offer any useful advice? Is there anything we can feed them to help firm their poop up?

David

[angieh]

Hi David - sorry to hear about your cats' problem poos.

I know nothing of the specific requirements of Norwegian Forest cats and of course, having both a 6 month old and a kitten and therefore having to leave such a range of foods down makes it difficult to even suggest anything. Does the kitten eat the adult food and vice versa? If I were you, I would take up one food at a time - as you say you've done with the RC Digestive, to eliminate it as a contributory factor.

My little Kizzy (who is a moggy) had trouble when she first came to us and I found that actually RC Digestive Comfort was perfect for her and sorted out her digestive difficulties, but she was an adult cat when she came.

Good luck.

[Hevvur]

I only have moggies, but one of them had terrible runny poo's....I changed him to adult food, and they stopped almost straight away!
I think perhaps the kitten food was too rich!

[Elaine]

I'm pretty sure NFC's can often have poor digestion, feeding them different varieties often will only serve to make this worse, they may have an intolerance to one particular protein source eg. chicken.
These things can sometimes be a long haul but you must introduce foods slowly and gradually and only one thing at a time. An intolerance unsually shows itself by way of runny or soft stools within a 48 hour period. If this occurs, stop feeding that particular food imediately. Allow tummies time to settle for a day or two by feeding something light and easy to digest, such as poached fish and rice.

[Elaine]

All of the foods you are feeding have poultry as the protein source, apart from the digestive comfort which is fish.
Perhaps try feeding ONLY the digestive comfort for a bit and see if their tummies settle down, it can take up to a month for our pets to get the benefit of a new food and or protein source, unless ofcourse their tummies are very upset within the 48 hour period.
Often with food intolerances, it is better to try a protein source that they have never had before. For now I would try to stick to fish varieties, once you know they are ok with one protein source, you can try to introduce another eg. lamb or rabbit but always do it slowly.

[DavidC]

I've never read before that about Norwegian Forest Cats often having poor digestion.

Restricting which cats each which food has helped I think.

Previously the adult tabby had got a taste for their kitten food, and that meant the kittens were mostly eating the adult foods.

We've taken to feeding the kitties in a separate room for 10 minutes where they are given only their kitten food and kept in there for about 10 minutes, whilst the other cats are given opportunity to eat the adult food before the kitties are let back out. Usually most of the kitten kibbles are gone, so they are filling themselves up more on the right kibbles, and vice versa with the adults not wasting the kitten food by eating that. Then if any is still left after that, they can leave it and graze on it during the day. So in conclusion, the right cats are now getting a majority of the right food, especially the kittens.

And it seems to be getting better, things are firming up, not solid, but definite improvement, so far so good.

[angieh]

Sounds to me as if you have done the right thing and I'm glad things seem to be improving. Kitten kibble is much richer and it's not suitable for adult cats. It will be easier for you when your kittens grow up a bit, although I bet they are as cute as fluffy buttons just now.

I'd love to see some photos!

[JMPARK]

I had trouble with both my now 7month old kittens and to firm their poop up we fed them on boiled chicken or boiled white fish. this was recommended by a few people i know and two vets.
Once it gets a bit harder then we started feeding them on a combination of 3-4 lots of "hard" food which was "More" which i sometimes soften a little in cold water before letting them feed, and a "soft" food "HI-Life" which worked for my two. the boiled chicken and fish really worked for me. and they really enjoyed it.
hope this helps.

[Jonescat]

I use poached white fish to sort out any dodgy tummies my NFC has had - his breeder recommended it. I haven't had many problems, mostly to do with eating insects I think but you might want to try a bit of wet food too. It definitely improves things here