How Often Should A Healthy Cat Poop?

An important question to ask is how often should a healthy cat poop, or poo as we say in Australia? And Britain, too.

The focus is on the word ‘healthy’.

Let’s start of with what is normal and why it isn’t healthy.

Common Cats Poop

The majority of cats poop is daily, it’s soft and smells ghastly. If often sticks to the fur especially in long haired cats, so people have to clean the area. This is often resented by the more independent or sensitive cat. So the relationship becomes strained.

This may be common cat poo, but it certainly isn’t healthy cat poop.

Why?

Most cats are fed commercial cat food. This is, for the most part, cheap food. Regardless of what you pay. The companies, as well as the retailers, want to maximise their profit. So they buy the cheapest food they can get away with.

Often this is the meat by-products, which come from the mix from rendering plants, rather than from slaughter houses. It does contain animal products, but it is all the rejects from human food, such as intestines, heads, hooves, etc. As well as road kill, small laboratory dead animals and farm animals rejected for slaughter as they are dead or diseased. And maybe euthanised pet cats and dogs from veterinary clinics.

And it will be stale, so has to be cooked at high temperatures and pressures. Even that doesn’t ensure it is free from harmful pathogens. Check out The Truth About Pet Food for the recalls.

To bulk this out, cheap plant based food is added. It used to be grains, until the public got wise to that. Now it can be corn, soy (including GM), tapioca, etc. Some people still feel comforted by the grain-free label, but it’s no better.

This high plant based food contains a lot of fibre. Which results in a lot of poop.

Who Are Cats

Cats are true, or obligate, carnivores. This means they MUST have meat in their diet. Which is present in most commercial cat foods.

But you need to look beyond that. What does a wild cat eat? They hunt small animals and normally consume the whole animal. Are they consuming any soy or corn? No.

They are consuming muscle meat, bones, organ meat, some fur or feathers (although that is often vomited back up) and the tiny amount of plant based food, which will be fermented, in the stomach of their prey.

So a healthy cats diet does NOT contain any appreciable amount of fibre. They don’t need it. Certainly cats are known to graze on some herbs and grasses, but this is purely for medicinal purposes, as they will normally vomit afterwards.

Before I answer the question of how often should a healthy cat poop, we need to look deeper still into how a wild cat operates.

All of us, whether a human or a mouse, contain a lot of blood. This contributes to the bulk of the liquid a cat consumes. They don’t need to drink much, if at all. This is fortunate as many come from the arid areas of the world where water is scare or seasonal.

With water shortages common, cats have evolved to be extremely good at holding onto water. Poo or poop in herbivores contains a lot of fluid. Cats can’t afford to lose that much liquid. So they hold onto their poop as long as possible. Two or three days is common. And the resulting poop is firm, dry, hard or crumbly. And almost odour-free.

I am saddened that veterinarians, even many holistic ones, don’t know this. Vet schools don’t teach them and they don’t use their common sense or do any research of their own.

Cats are lumped in with dogs, yet they have completely different needs and habits.

Dogs are able to digest plant based food. Cats can’t and the alkaloids, etc can harm them. Which results in foul smelling faeces. And deteriorating health.

When you feed a cat a quality, balanced raw diet, their poop becomes firm, dry and infrequent. This is HEALTHY. There is no straining. There is little odour.

Yet vets recommend all manner of laxatives, including plant based flaxseed or chia seeds. These are wonderful for us, but disaster for cats. Flaxseeds and chia seeds contain a lot of omega 3 fatty acids, which we humans need. But cats thrive on the high omega 6 found in raw meat, with just a little omega 3 that is present in all animals who were raised free grazing.

Keeping your cats food and health care as close as possible to natural inevitably results in a healthier and longer life.

Q How often should a healthy cat poop?
A Every two to three days.
Q Should they strain?
A No
Q Should it smell foul or smell much?
A No.

Learn how to make your own quality, balanced, healthy cat food. It is much easier than you may think.