# Cat Litter Smells?



## Eruana (Feb 20, 2014)

I recently adopted my first cat. She's 9 months old and gorgeous but her feces smell terrible. I have her on a good quality food and change her litter box daily (sometimes more). Her litter box is in my bedroom and she only seems to toilet at night which is frustrating because I can't clean it straight away to remove the smell. How can I stop the smell? I've heard baking soda in the litter tray helps. Any other ways?


----------



## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

Smelly litter trays can be due to diet, (e.g. cereals in the food), food intolerances, type of litter being used, parasites or bacterial infection, or even lack of bowel flora (if she has ever had a course of antibiotics).

I would start by feeding her a diet that is free of grains and sugars, as grains are indigestible for a cat and sugars are bad for their health and can cause fermentation in the gut making for smelly gas.

So avoid dry food and all the usual supermarket wet food such as Felix, Whiskas, Sheba etc.

[email protected] sells HiLife Natures Essentials and Tempt Me, Wainwrights, & Natures Menu all of which are grain free, sugar free complete foods.

Or consider changing to a balanced raw diet, where her poos will be small and almost smell free.

Use a litter which is clumping, soft on paws and easy to dig in. She is more likely to bury her business then (tho not all cats do bury anyway). Litters such as Cats Best Oko Plus, Worlds Best or Golden Grey are all good and economical to use as they last longer than cheap litters.

In case the problem is a lack of good bowel flora you could give her a probiotic such as FortiFlora. It is not cheap but does work - one sachet a day in her food.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/FortiFlora-...TF8&qid=1392926620&sr=8-2&keywords=fortiflora

If changing her food, giving her a probiotic and changing the type of litter make no difference then I'd ask the vet if your cat could have a lab test done of stool samples as there are some infections that do cause very smelly poo, even when there is NO diarrhoea present.


----------



## Jesthar (May 16, 2011)

chillminx said:


> So avoid dry food and all the usual supermarket wet food such as Felix, Whiskas, Sheba etc.
> 
> [email protected] sells HiLife Natures Essentials and Tempt Me, Wainwrights, & Natures Menu all of which are grain free, sugar free complete foods.
> 
> Or consider changing to a balanced raw diet, where her poos will be small and almost smell free.


Seconded - please also remember that the list of low quality, grain and sugar packed foods also includes many big 'premium' brand such a Royal Canin, IAMS, Hills and James Welbeloved - they are basically little different from supermarket own brands except for the much higher price 

Brands usually recommended on here are usually bought online, as grain free is difficult to find in the shops. A lot if us use foods from Zooplus (Pet Supplies, Pet Food, Dog Food, Cat Food and Pet Accessories at Zooplus), they carry a wide range of complete grain free food from the lower end Smilla (which has a kitten food) and Bozita, through Animonda Carny (which has tins and some exotic flavours in pouches, plus a kitten food too), to the higher end foods like Grau and CatzFineFood. A lot of these have bulk buy options, too.

We also recommed The Happy Kitty Company, which carries yet more high quality foods like MACs (I get the 800g tins, and mine love it!), Om Nom Nom, Ropocat and GranataPet. As you feed a lot less of the higher end foods, they are not necessarily as expensive to feed as it might look at first, too.

I feed my cats a rotation of a lot of these brands, as I like to ensure there is always something I can get hold of they will eat! I also feed pre-mixed frozen raw food from Nutriment, as this is the closest I (and many others) can personally get to feeding a truly natural diet, and as such has the wonderful side effect of making their poo practically odourless


----------



## GoodBytes (Feb 25, 2014)

We use Purina One indoor cat and an expensive cat litter (can't remember the name, it's around £10 for a bag), we have almost no smell compared to what we used previously.


----------



## Jesthar (May 16, 2011)

GoodBytes said:


> We use Purina One indoor cat and an expensive cat litter (can't remember the name, it's around £10 for a bag), we have almost no smell compared to what we used previously.


That's actually pretty cheap for a litter (unless you are talking a small bag), the Greencat clumping litter I use is over £12 a bag (but it last ages), and things like Cats Best and Worlds Best are over £20 a big bag 

You might want to look at changing your cat food, though, Purina One indoor is laden with grain and a lot of other low quality ingredients cats can't digest (plus dry is bad, bad, bad full stop), which will still result in smellier than necessary poo


----------



## katieloo (Feb 9, 2014)

My friend has a fully covered in tray with a flap door it doesn't cure the pongy problem but it sure helps a bit - try a plug in air freshener too


----------



## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

katieloo said:


> try a plug in air freshener too


Sorry but I would not really recommend these as they contain chemicals which when heated give off nasty fumes which could be very bad for a cat's lungs.

I have asthma and plug-ins have a seriously bad effect on my lungs - to the extent I have to ask for it to be switched off, if one is running in anyone's house when I visit. Either that I or have to leave immediately.


----------



## ForeverHome (Jan 14, 2014)

Jesthar said:


> That's actually pretty cheap for a litter


Really?? I use Tesco value £1.76 per 10 litre bag as used by the breeder I got Bobby from, full change daily for the main tray / less than once a week for the poo only tray, two cats, no smell whatsoever. Two to three bags per week.


----------



## GoodBytes (Feb 25, 2014)

Jesthar said:


> That's actually pretty cheap for a litter (unless you are talking a small bag), the Greencat clumping litter I use is over £12 a bag (but it last ages), and things like Cats Best and Worlds Best are over £20 a big bag
> 
> You might want to look at changing your cat food, though, Purina One indoor is laden with grain and a lot of other low quality ingredients cats can't digest (plus dry is bad, bad, bad full stop), which will still result in smellier than necessary poo


I just checked and it's Catsan Hygiene litter, it has amazing reviews around the web for killing the smell so we tried it and we rarely smell anything now. I'm sure it's round £10 for a 20l bag.


----------



## Lilylass (Sep 13, 2012)

ForeverHome said:


> Really?? I use Tesco value £1.76 per 10 litre bag as used by the breeder I got Bobby from, full change daily for the main tray / less than once a week for the poo only tray, two cats, no smell whatsoever. Two to three bags per week.


Golden Grey - 2 x 14kg bags for £19.99 (less Zoo+ discount of 5% and 4% cashback) = £18.19

Put one bag in tray, use 2nd bag for top ups for over 3 months = £1.51 per week 

It would probably last longer - and I know there are people who do leave it longer between full tray changes but I feel that's long enough!

Absolutely no smells - even having moved Archie's tray into my ensuite!


----------



## Jannor (Oct 26, 2013)

I've just moved my dad over from Catsan to Golden Grey type litters. Catsan was costing him a fortune because you have to change the try so often. The only thing I like about Catsan is it is white so if you've one prone to UTI's its good for showing up pink pee.

Have a look on Zooplus at litters ... I like Golden Grey, others like Oko and Worlds Best. They all last a lot longer than Catsan so the initial cost might seem expensive but really isn't.

Bear in mind you'll need large trays and have to put a lot in for it to clump properly. The pees clump into balls so you just scoop them out.


----------



## jessahh (Dec 24, 2013)

I used to feed freddie whiskas his poo stunk!! Used to make me heave then someone on here recommended feeding his butchers classic for cats i must admit his poo doesnt even smell now and thats grain free and sugur free


----------



## JTaz123 (Nov 25, 2013)

Sorry to revive an old post but I was just having a search on grain free food and came across this. 

My rescue cat has the stinkiest poo (mainly since having wet food, he was only on dry when I got him). I'm sure it's not the litter, but it literally stinks the house out even if I clear it immediately. He also have very smelly wind! 

So I'm considering switching to either grain free or raw but it's a complete minefield! If raw I would probably buy it frozen, or would you suggest grain free first? 

He does have very large poo too, although he is a big boy..it resembles a dogs poop!


----------



## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

Very large smelly poos and definitely smelly wind suggests a dietary problem. I would try him with grain free food first as an interim measure before embarking on raw. 

It is possible he is allergic/intolerant of one of more meat proteins, the most comon ones statistically are beef, fish and chicken in that order. But to be certain you would really need to do food trials using a novel protein (i.e. a meat he has not eaten before) such as kangaroo, goat, horse, reindeer. 

But as I say I would start with grain free food and see how he is with that. If he will eat pate style foods there are lots of grain free cat foods (canned and pouches) sold on Zooplus, or grain freee canned foods sold by The Happy Kitty Company, a UK company that imports good quality German cat foods.


----------



## JTaz123 (Nov 25, 2013)

chillminx said:


> Very large smelly poos and definitely smelly wind suggests a dietary problem. I would try him with grain free food first as an interim measure before embarking on raw.
> 
> It is possible he is allergic/intolerant of one of more meat proteins, the most comon ones statistically are beef, fish and chicken in that order. But to be certain you would really need to do food trials using a novel protein (i.e. a meat he has not eaten before) such as kangaroo, goat, horse, reindeer.
> 
> But as I say I would start with grain free food and see how he is with that. If he will eat pate style foods there are lots of grain free cat foods (canned and pouches) sold on Zooplus, or grain freee canned foods sold by The Happy Kitty Company, a UK company that imports good quality German cat foods.


Thank you so much for your reply, I order litter from zoo plus so I'll have a look at the grain free foods.

He does have loose stools on and off, with no change in diet, they'll be looser one day and fine the next.

I'm assuming i should mix half and half to start with? He is presently on RC sensible (available all the time) and he has one pouch of wet food a day, in 2 halves. The rescue only use dry food and recommend no wet at all (said it rots the teeth).


----------



## Jesthar (May 16, 2011)

JTaz123 said:


> I'm assuming i should mix half and half to start with? He is presently on RC sensible (available all the time) and he has one pouch of wet food a day, in 2 halves. The rescue only use dry food and recommend no wet at all (said it rots the teeth).


Ah, sadly it looks like your rescue are another victim of the marketing power of the big food companies. 

Dry food is not any better for feline teeth than sugary biscuits are for human teeth. Cats don't chew the way we do, so dry food simply is swallowed whole or shatters in the mouth to coat the teeth in crumbs. A raw chicken wing, on the other hand, is a great toothbrush  Of course, this won't stop the big food companies from suggesting upgrading to a (more expensive) 'dental' food to help keep teeth clean... 

Dry food also leaves your cat constantly moderately dehydrated, as cats are designed to get 90%+ of their water from their prey and as a consequence they lack a significant thirst drive. And whereas wet food/live prey would be 70% water, dry food is only 10% water. A cat fed solely on dry food will drink more water, but they are simply not physically capable of drinking anywhere near enough (even if they did have the thirst drive) to compensate for the lack of moisture in dry food.

Royal Canin are a low quality food brand anyway. Supermarket own brand dry food is comparable quality, just without the huge markup. Personally I ditched the dry years ago and feed two wet meals a day. This also better mimics the way a cats digestion is most efficient - they are not grazers designed to nible on kibble, but pure carnivores built eat prey as and when they kill it.


----------

