I do feel a little silly for asking about this, but here we go…

So, about one month ago we adopted a little kitten, she is now 3months and a bit old. Been having her inside for the most part with some occasional walks outside to get her used to being outside, as she is an outdoor breed and will eventually be allowed to walk freely in or out. For as long as she is for now indoors, we’ve gotten her used to using the litter box, one of them with a small hatch to get inside, which she is good at using. BUT, whenever she decides to to curl one down, it f*cking reeks, it smells quite bad. I’ve had other cats before and none of them have smelt like this… Obviously we get rid of the shit asap, but then also clean her with a wet cloth so that she run around smelling equally bad and to teach her to was herself.

We’re not feeding her anything unusual, she mainly eats this dry food(which was quite expensive) https://www.specific-diets.co.uk/cat/everyday-diets/kitten-fpd-gb. Furthermore, we’re using some silicon cat sand, as that was what we got recommended.

Edit: Forgot to add an essential part to this!

This is the litterbox in use; Litterbox

She tries to dig her shit down, but instead of digging it down into the sand or put sand over it, shes just scratching the sides of the cat litter box. Also after going out of the litter box, shes wiping her paws on the floor. But yeah, the scratching of the box inside is very loud and doesnt seem normal either. Is the box too small for her? Or could this be related to the sand of choice?

So, anyone got any tips or tricks here? Is this normal-ish? Obviously shit smells… but this seems almost out of the ordinary… Does the type of cat sand matter a lot?

  • Dr Jekell@lemmy.worldEnglish
    101·
    9 months ago

    I have a 1 year old Tonkinese cat. When she was younger she was known for her toxic flatulence (I swear that she knocked out a golden retriever with her farts).

    But after changing her food to Fussy Cat grainfree dry biscuits along with Fussy Cat raw beef mince the farts have disappeared.

    The smelly poops may be from her gut not liking the food, I would suggest getting small bags in a few different reputable brands and see what she goes for and try giving a quality pet raw meat as a soft food replacement.

    As for the litter it may be too fine for it to cover up everything to her liking, I have used clay litter for years with several cats without issue.

    And lastly the tray may not allow enough digging room to cover things. I have used trays with removable raised lips like this one with good results. If you are wanting it enclosed you can get furniture that holds the tray and accessories out of sight but easily accessible for cleaning.

    • Christian@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      We had a cat a while back with horrible flatulence among other stomach problems for a couple years. He was kind of a dumbass and at one point he ate some bristles off of the broom, caught him chewing on it and didn’t realize he had actually swallowed anything. A tiny bit after I had taken it away from him he coughs up the bristles with a tapeworm tangled in there.

      I swear we did like a million stool samples the first couple years we had him that showed no parasites. We had just brought in two of them a couple weeks apart in the past month when that happened. My wife took a photo of the worm, we went straight to the vet and he got medication that solved all his issues essentially overnight. For the record, if this ever happens to you, the vet we saw suggests putting the worm in water to preserve it and bring it in, rather than just snapping a photo and trying to get the thing as far away from your household as possible immediately afterwards.

      I think “Thank god our cat ate that broom” is a phrase not used very often outside of our household.