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;
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?
In the exact same situation here, but a few months ahead. I was told by a vet that a farting kitten is an indication something is wrong with the diet. Our little girl does both, being really smelly on the box and walking around passing gas. The farting got less over time.
Problem is we also have two older cats so we can’t really get specialised food for one. We’d need special food for all three which can get really expensive.
We hope the problem will pass with time, maybe she needs to get used to the diet or something. Maybe at some point she’ll prefer doing her business outside and we’ll notice it less.
How deep is the litter? You may need a bit more in there for her or try swapping it out for something more absorbant like clumping litter. Our 4 year old still scratches on the side of litter tray every so often, it’s most likely just cleaning bits of their paws.
Unfortunately cat shit really does stink, have you changed diet recently? We were told not to change diet too often as that upsets them ymmv. Once she starts going out properly she’ll most likely end up going outside instead so that’ll be a releaf. Our other 4-ish year rescue is so used to going outside she never uses the litter tray, our other 4 year old only uses it to wee in only (most likely a habit picked up while going through some rough cystitis patches), cats are just weird!
I used silica years ago and noted that it never hid the smell of poop. If you want something that masks it and don’t want to use clay, quality wood pellet litter can be good. Personally we use low tracking clay because it is what has worked best. I would mention it to the vet that the poop smells more potent than past cats. It could be health related as someone mentioned. Litter box choice? I don’t think matters for smell much. I have had several different designs over the years (no mechanical ones) and they all function about the same for smells.
I have the same exact problem too, and if anyone has better explanations for it please tell me too, but, since my cat is 6 now, and this has been going on since she was a kitten, here’s what I’ve noticed:
First things first, cats often (but not always) shit outside of the box as protest.
For mine, it most probably had to do with how clean she thought the sand was.
Mine was always this way when I also had that closed box, as well as when I was using silicone sand when she was still small, but without the box.
It’s only recently, that I’ve gotten normal bentonite sand (clumping pee, easily fully removed), an open box (ventilation), and clean the sand almost always daily, that she has almost stopped. And when The Depression hits and I forget to clean it for 4 days or so, she does all the things mentioned, I’m assuming out of desperation, to make the bad smell go away.
Silicone sand needed to be fully replaced, and the box be thoroughly washed often, because it would at some point stop being able to contain the ammonia smell.
The closed box, I noticed, would both, contain and absorb bad smells itself, as well as incentivize me to not clean as often, since it didn’t bother me when it would start smelling a bit 😐, but the cat had to be in a shut box, faintly smelling the ammonia for many many seconds.
Full disclosure, bentonite sand has a few studies correlating it with cat respiratory problems, probably due to the dust that cheap bentonite has packed in. I’ve decided that it’s still probably for the best to buy bentonite with its dust filtered out(slightly more expensive), since it helps incredibly with cleanliness (if your cat has to groom unclean paws, that’s going to strain her kidneys and liver probably).
Also, the sand is both extra useless weight, and makes cleaning harder, because it clumps worse. The more expensive brand, where they remove the dust, makes everything easier, and probably much healthier.
I have lived with many cats. Most were normal but one, when he was a kitten, could drop a deuce that would clear out a football stadium. Eye-watering bad. Etch the window glass bad. On top of that, he didn’t know how to cover his stuff. Raked the sides of the box, the wall next to the box, the floor outside the box, you name it, but never got near the actual poop. So it just sat there steaming until someone else went over to cover it for him or scoop.
Our vet told us it was related to diet and gut biome, and that he would probably grow out of it. We despaired for a while but he was right and eventually it got better. He’s about twelve years old now (the cat, not the vet) and still stinky but not nearly as bad as he used to be. Still hasn’t figured out how to cover his stuff though.
