This Has Me Baffled

[Louie'sDad]

IDK dude. mine dont smell but thats due to the raw food. i think its hilarious that yours likes beer.
Id toilet train but then id have no toilet paper. gotta keep em out of the bathroom or else it gets all torn up.

Yeah. He'll drink it out of the bottle if I tip it carefully enough to keep the amber liquid right at the top where he can snag it with his sandpaper tongue.

How can you be so sure about the diet. I need first hand experience here, although we're both happy with his diet. He's filled out quite nicely since a few months ago.

Ha! Had a visitor come over the other day and she forgot to put the lid down on the toilet. Louie was uncharacteristically absent after the visitor left. Sure enough, I want into the bathroom and found water ALL OVER THE PLACE.

As far as everything that used to be accessible in both my bathrooms (soap, TOILET PAPER, towels, toothbrushes, hair brushes, comb...............) all these items are secured in the under sink closets, which are bungee corded shut.

 

[Louie'sDad]

From the diet, it looks like it could be salt content of human food. More salt equates to a great amount of urine. Other times the urine will be more concentrated.

Also, don't kid yourself, cats never drink enough water. A 15lb active SV should be drinking near a pint of water a day. If you are feeding canned or raw about 20% of that comes from their food. If you are feeding kibble, you need to find another way for them to choke down a pint of water a day.

Cats have evolved to gather nearly all their hydration needs from their prey. Even canned food falls short of providing enough water for them and most raw recipes call for adding water to keep your cat properly hydrated. In this light kibble provides a real challenge as you need to make up a cats hydration needs with something that hasn't been ordained by their evolution.

The human food is miniscule, and very infrequent. Besides, I don't use a lot of salt.

I am conscious of the fact that cats can be susceptible to kidney failure, including the one I had to put down a few years ago, which tore my guts out.

So, what do you use to increase water consumption? Hard to gauge his water intake because his water bowl is sometimes used to drown his toys, as well as a splashing pond. He'd rather drink the water in the glasses/cups/dishes in the sink, or the water that remains in the dish drip rack next to it. Anything that can induce more water consumption I agree would be helpful. Do any of those motorized fountains work?

 

[John Popp]

I wouldn't discount the amount of salt added to human foods, things that are cured, packaged or whatever have a ton of salt on them before we even get our hands on them. It's a real mess for anyone that has a busy lifestyle trying to eat healthy foods.

I too have had a cat pass away from kidney failure although it's been awhile now and I swore off kibble. Our pair of cats that we brought home 17 years ago had little to no kibble until one developed a aversion to any kind of wet food. So he went on a partial kibble diet and sure enough he was the first one to show any symptoms of Kidney disease. He is now on a full time raw diet and showed normal kidney numbers with his last set of labs. Not that you can reverse kidney damage, but his body is having an easier time processing the food we give him. Also, he was a big water drinker so we weren't overly concerned about his desire for kibble, bad move.

To increase water intake, it doesn't need to be straight up water that you're introducing. Some yogurt or whey makes for good periodic feeding, water from canned tuna on occasion and 50% dilution. Other than that I really don't have any tricks up my sleeve outside a fountain type water bowl.

 

[Lori Greer]

Our domestic HHP boy Hobbs is the same way! Usually he uses the master bathtub for his box.... (don't judge me and it's easier to wash than scooping) Anyway, yes there are times when his urine noticeably smells more "male" and very pungent, although it isn't this way all the time. He's been neutered since we brought him home from the shelter which was about 3 years ago. He gets the same food every day and has become addicted to "The Good Life" cat treats which we give him just before bed time. Once in a great while he will get some cooked pork fat or a shrimp as a treat but that isn't often and doesn't seems to coincide with the changes in his urine smell. All I can say is BOYS!

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

Anything that can induce more water consumption I agree would be helpful. Do any of those motorized fountains work?

I find the fountains do work, many of mine prefer to drink from the water that is falling in the waterfall rather than a bowl...

I do find that the fountains need to be in trays as occasionally someone will need to splash about a bit...

And I did find that some fountains were dismantled by some of my Savannahs, especially Baz. I experimented to find the ones that work here...the others my friends benefited from (gifts to their cats who are better behaved kitties!).

 

[Louie'sDad]

I am now more freaked out over the fact that I may be slowly killing my Louie. The stink of male cat urine becomes a very small annoyance compared to the thought of me holding him in my arms while the vet administers the injection of pentobarb.

I am now in a quandry.

I will have to do a very thorough investigation, although I'm confident that I will not find any hard and fast evidence to support the fact that kibble feeding will cause premature death by renal failure.

 

[Becki]

Kovu used pine pellets so we bought some when he came home. I hated them, oy the stink. I was happy when he switched over to cat attract. I did use pine pellets for my horses when I had my own barn, worked better for them!

 

[WitchyWoman]

It's not just renal failure that is a concern. Over time, research here and in other countries have shown links between myriad health issues and commercial diets. Studies referenced in this research paper http://www.ukrmb.co.uk/images/Research Paper - Raw Diet v Kibble Diet .pdf show that in controlled experiments, significant damage occurs by the 3rd generation in cats/dogs fed cooked diets. Considering their reproductive capacity, the 3rd generation occurs quite quickly.

The research is out there supporting evidence that raw diets are better for cats/dogs. You just have to dig around a bit to find it. The info is more prolific to dogs since they are more popular pets than cats but the studies done on cats yield the same results.

 

[WitchyWoman]

Journal of Animal Science http://www.journalofanimalscience.org/content/75/8/2154.full.pdf

 

[Dantes]

IDK dude. mine dont smell but thats due to the raw food.

+1 on the non-stinky litterboxes when the boys eat raw. When I give them a can, you can tell the difference immediately. On the rare occasion I give them kibble, watch out.

You asked for firsthand experience...I'm no professional, but in my experience, there is a difference.