~About a 15 minute read~

I have a litter box in my bedroom. 

It’s not covered. I don’t use deodorizer. I don’t use liners. It’s just two inches of unscented Sustainably Yours litter in a large box. I scoop once a day and do a full clean about every month. (For those of you who I have recommended scooping twice a day and a full clean once a week…there is a reason for that that is beyond this blog post!)

This is all to say that I have a litter box in my bedroom. My bedroom has been my cat’s, Issy, sanctuary room since we moved into our house a few years ago. When the door is closed, she has her litter box, food, water, toys, and her very favourite heated bed (for which she has abandoned me. No, I’m not bitter). 

Perhaps you’re yelling at your screen: “How can you stand it?” “Gross!” “Doesn’t it smell?” 

It doesn’t. Not. At. All. 

So how can I do it? How can I SLEEP with a litter box two feet away from me? 

The answer is something that I never hear being discussed when cat guardians talk about the litter box…

And that’s good nutrition.

Disclaimer

Before we get into it, I want to emphasize that this post does not replace a veterinarian. It is very important to discuss with your vet any change to your cat’s litter box habits. 

I highly recommend annual visits to the vet, even if there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with your cat. Not only will this establish baseline values, but cats are notoriously good at hiding pain and discomfort. Prevention is always better than reaction (and cheaper too!). 

If your cat is having diarrhea, or hard stools, or yowls when they use the box, or doesn’t use the box, the first step is to go to your veterinarian. It is a requirement for all my clients. I work with stable and healthy cats. 

Okay now on to the good stuff!

What Makes a Good Litter Box?

We, as cat guardians, talk about the litter: how soft it is, do you use clay or corn or wheat, whether it’s unscented, the depth of it in the box, is it dusty, does it track all over the place… 

We talk about the box itself: how high are the sides, is it covered, do you use a liner, how often do you scoop? How often do you do a full clean? How large is the box? Can your cat comfortably step inside? 

We talk about the location of the box: is it near loud appliances like a laundry machine? Is the cat’s path to the box blocked by another cat? Is the dog getting into the box? Are there enough boxes? Is there a box on every floor? 

All of the above is incredibly important to create an inviting space for our cats in which to do their business. 

But we never talk about WHY? Why is the box so gross? Why does the box smell so bad that we can’t bring ourselves to scoop as much as we want to be scooping (and maybe as often as our cats want us to)? When you have to psych yourself up to deal with the box every few days. Or you put it in the basement so you don’t have to look at it. Or spend hundreds of dollars on a new box that promises to keep it from smelling bad. Let’s just bury it (pun intended) so we don’t have to deal with the smell! Out of sight, out of mind… or nose, in this case.

And then we might be surprised when our cat doesn’t use the box anymore. You think the smell is bad? I can guarantee that your little house lion is smelling it 14 times worse. 

The Cat Digestive System

So, we ask but why??? Why does it smell so bad? 

Cats have a unique digestive system. It is well suited for as an obligate carnivore that hunts, eats, and digests animals, rather than plants (herbivores such as horses) or a mixture of both (omnivores such as humans). But when we feed them a diet that is not appropriate for the species, we run into some very stinky poops! 

Below are some of the ways that the cat’s digestive system is designed for eating animal-sources of nutrients:

1. Their 30 teeth are sharp and designed for cutting and tearing.

2. Cats have fewer taste buds than dogs and do not taste sweet things.

3. They do not have salivary amylase which means they do not pre-digest carbohydrates in their mouths.

4. The stomach is designed for many small meals spread throughout the day.

5. Stomach pH is more acidic than humans so they can digest bones and destroy harmful bacteria.

6. Food moves through the digestive system faster than humans: 12-24 hours for cats; 30 hours to 5 days for humans.

7. Cats have a shorter intestine than humans. It is designed to digest proteins and fats from animals, rather than plant material that sticks in the gut for longer in animals like horses or cows. 

Cats are excellent at digesting animal-sources of protein and fat but do not digest plant material very well. Cats lack the biology to support plant material digestion. A few of these reasons include: 

• Their teeth are not designed to break down plant material; 

• Plant material digestion is poor for many reasons, such as the absence of salivary amylase; 

• Their intestines are short and therefore lack the ability to break down plant material that needs more time to sit in the gut.

We all know that cats are (fluffy) lean, mean, killing machines! 

Can Cats Eat Plants?

Cats are predators (and prey, but that’s beyond the scope of this post!) and, without human support, they would hunt mice, birds, rats, and lizards. Plants are not a species-appropriate diet for a cat. 

And yet, what are we feeding our cats? The smelly litter box suggests that we are not, in fact, feeding a species-appropriate diet. All else being equal, an animal that is eating a species-appropriate diet would not have digestion problems. They would be eating a diet that aligns with their instincts on what to hunt - what they are craving - and what is suited for their digestive system.

We must, therefore, look at the diet of our cats if we are to solve our icky litter box situation!

Take any bag of kibble at your local pet store and you will see plant-sourced ingredients. You may recognize these commonly used ingredients:

• Brown rice, Brewers rice, Rice flour,

• Corn, Corn Gluten Meal, Whole Grain Corn

• Wheat, Wheat gluten, Wheat flour

• Whole Peas, Pea protein, Pea flour, Pea fiber

• Potatoes, Potato flour

• Soybean Meal, Soy Protein Isolate, Soy protein concentrate

• Whole green lentils

• Whole chickpeas

I look at the first three to five ingredients to gauge the quality of a particular food. These first few ingredients are represented in higher quantities in the recipe than those further down the list. So if we find a plant-sourced nutrient among the first few ingredients, this indicates that it is well represented in the recipe and is likely making up the majority of the nutrient content. So not only are these plant-sourced ingredients digested poorly by cats, they are also well represented in many recipes. It’s as if you were to eat a piece of wood. It would not go down very well, but imagine if that was the majority of your diet? How absolutely distressing would that be for your gut! Imagine your stinky poops!

The cat body is not able to properly digest plant material so it mostly comes out of the body as stinky, large poops. If you were to feed a cup of food and then the cat poops out a cup of poop… how much are they truly digesting? What is their body using to maintain itself? 

Our goal is for a cat to have better stools, less stool volume, and less frequent poops. We can achieve this through better nutrition.

Transitioning to a New Diet Can Be Challenging 

So all we have to do is feed a better diet to our cats! That’s easy! … Or is it… 

Unfortunately, in order for kibble to be kibble, it must have at least 30-60% plant material, specifically starch. This is a requirement for the kibble-manufacturing process. Without starch, kibble cannot come into existence. A diet consisting of even just the minimum is a lot for an obligate carnivore who cannot digest starches very well. The proof is in the litter box!

It also isn’t as easy as just looking at the list of ingredients. If the first three ingredients are animal-sourced - you may say yay! - but perhaps the fourth and fifth ingredients have the word “meal” listed. Then it just got a lot more complicated. For example, “whole chicken” and “corn gluten meal” are both sources of protein and you may even be excited to see “whole chicken” as the first ingredient. Unfortunately, because corn gluten is a “meal”, it will be the food’s main source of protein (plant-sourced rather than animal-sourced, uh oh!) even if this particular ingredient is listed in fourth or fifth position. Ingredient lists can become quite challenging to navigate!

Additionally, cat foods don’t need to list the minimum or maximum amount of carbohydrates (starches) in the diet. So you as the consumer would have to calculate how much starch is in a particular food.

Pet foods also make comparing foods very difficult. You really cannot compare wet and dry foods, for example, without making a particular calculation. 

Beware of marketing! What does it mean to feed a diet that is labeled as “indoor cat”? Or the diet that’s breed specific for Persians? Did you know that if a label says “Cat food with lamb” there only needs to be 3% of lamb in the diet? Pet foods are regulated but the product name is not useful to inform consumers about what they’re buying. How do we navigate this complicated web!

And then there’s the problem of transitioning our cats onto the food… and many of us cat guardians have had this experience: When we open bag after bag… Trying can after can… Maybe our cat will eat it but then will refuse it after a few days. It can be so frustrating!

Fortunately, we can figure it out together. 

Cats can be neophobic and can develop a mouth fixation, both of which make it difficult to transition cats onto new foods that have different texture and/or taste. Cats are also creatures of habit - if they didn’t experience a type of food as a kitten, they will be less likely to try it as an adult. Furthermore, cats can become addicted to the sugars produced by the plant material in the diet. I know my sugar addiction has been so hard to break! 

On top of this, imagine trying to transition onto a new food when you’ve been fed the EXACT SAME food for your entire life. Cat’s sometimes just don’t recognize the food you’ve put in their bowl as food!

Recognizing these parameters, learning how to read ingredient lists, and working with your cat’s natural instincts makes transitioning to a new food possible. There is a way! We just have to find what works for your individual cat.

How to Prevent a Smelly Litter Box

With all this said, how do we go from an icky litter box to a bedroom litter box?

Firstly, start by choosing a diet with as many animal-sourced ingredients as possible, particularly those first three to five listed.

In North America, the cost of the food generally reflects the quality of the ingredients. It is safe to say that the cheap stuff is full of cheap ingredients. These cheap ingredients are usually ones that are government subsidized such as corn, soy, wheat, and rice in the United States. None of these are suitable for an obligate carnivore but you will find them in cat food ingredient lists (as demonstrated above). You will likely see an improvement in the litter box if you invest in a higher cost food.

As discussed above, cat guardians should avoid kibble in order to avoid plant-sourced nutrients. Remember those starches must be present and represent a third of the nutrient content in order for kibble to exist as kibble.

Canned foods are an excellent choice as they usually contain more protein-sourced nutrients as the first few ingredients. You also get the benefit of increased moisture content. Kibble is approximately 10% moisture, whereas canned food is about 80%. This makes a huge difference to the body that requires water for digestion (via hydrolysis). In order for the body to digest its food, it must draw water from somewhere. If it’s not in the food itself, then the water will come from the body itself, potentially creating a situation where the cat is chronically dehydrated. This has implications for kidney function, gut health, diabetes, and urinary health.

Commercial cooked or raw brands are an even better choice for many cats. Not only is your cat getting animal-sourced nutrients and the increased moisture content, but you are also increasing the nutrient uptake with these lower processed foods, among other things! This subject alone warrants another blog post.

When transitioning, choose a food that has a protein with which your cat has experience. Then, offer small tastes of the new food in a separate dish alongside your current diet. Sprinkle on some nutritional yeast (as if it’s seasoning). Nutritional yeast is super yummy for cats and has helped many of my client’s cats transition onto better diets. You can find nutritional yeast at your local human health food store. Start with a sprinkle and you can increase the dose to 1/4tsp per day. 

Remember, slow and steady wins this race! You may have to try a number of foods to find the one that works well. Track your progress. Use trial-by-error and remember to control your variables as much as you can. You don’t want to be in the position where you’ve changed 10 things only for it to work out (or not work out!) and not know which of those 10 things is the culprit. 

In summary:

• Look for animal-sourced ingredients;

• Invest in higher cost foods;

• Avoid kibble;

• Add in more canned food;

• Try commercial cooked or raw brands;

• Start with a familiar protein;

• Add nutritional yeast to new foods;

• Implement a slow and steady transition!

Conclusion

So what do I feed my cat, Issy? She has been on a commercial raw diet for about four years. She is 12 years old and loves mealtime. She’s quite food motivated, which makes life so much more enjoyable for both of us. It brings me such joy to see her gobble up her food! And as you likely can guess, scooping her litter box is no trouble at all.

So, even if you don’t have your litter box in your bedroom like me, it sure would be nice to have a litter box that you don’t have to put on a hazmat suit to go scoop! Regardless, better poop has more implications than just a better litter box experience for us humans. Better poops means better nutrition, yes, but it also means a better working body. It ultimately boils down to (another pun) a healthier cat, overall. 

If you would like your cat’s litter box to be more like Issy’s, book a free introductory call. I’d love to help transition your cat to better food and get that litter box pristine!

~ Thank you for reading! ~

Sources and further reading:

1. Cat Senses | PAWS Chicago. (n.d.) https://rb.gy/1s14o.

2. Llc, A. (n.d.). Introduction to the Digestive System of Cats. https://rb.gy/8w5x5.

3. Fitzgerald, B. Mike and Dennis Turner. Hunting behaviour of domestic cats and their impact on prey populations. In The Domestic Cat: The Biology of Its Behavior, 2nd Ed., Turner, Dennis C. and Patrick Bateson eds. (Cambridge University Press: New York, 2000) 153-154.

4. The ingredient list was generated by me from the website of a variety of adult cat kibble ingredient lists (Hills Science Diet, Acana, Blue Buffalo, Royal Canin, Orijen, Purina, and Now Fresh).

5. Alvarenga, I. C., & Aldrich, C. G. (2020). Starch characterization of commercial extruded dry pet foods. Translational Animal Science, 4(2), 1017–1022. https://doi.org/10.1093/tas/txaa018.

6. April, J. P. (n.d.). Comprehensive Guide to Reading Pet Food Labels. https://blog.petfoodexperts.com/a-comprehensive-guide-to-reading-pet-food-labels-infographic

7. Myth #11: “Cats Are “Finicky” Eaters" | Uniquely Cats Veterinary Center. (n.d.). Uniquely Cats Veterinary Center. https://www.uniquelycats.com/myth/item.html/n/47.

8. Kim, H. (2022). Why Are Farmers Subsidized and What Are the Pros and Cons of Farm Subsidies? Sentient Media. https://rb.gy/3hp11.

9. Groves, E. (2021). Moisture matters: a focus on feline hydration. The Veterinary Nurse. https://www.theveterinarynurse.com/review/article/moisture-matters-a-focus-on-feline-hydration.