Hi all

We are new to the forum and are embarrassed to say that we made a mistake with our login id, it's actually supposed to be kath_n_keith but we can't find a way to change it.

We have had our two kittens for almost 10 weeks now (we got them at 8 weeks old). They are the cutest babies we could have ever wished for and are typical kittens - see who can climb to the top of mum's new curtains the fastest, running round like hurricanes, helping mum change the bedding, you know the sort of thing. We love them so much and they are so loving.

We are having a terrible problem. When we got them, they were being fed on Hills Science Plan Kitten. Of course we have continued to feed them on this. We have tried all the varieties but they will only eat the tuna one. The problem we have is the smell of their poo. It is so bad that our whole flat stinks and it won't go away. We have tried everything - candles, air freshners, air freshner plugins but nothing helps. The smell is out of this world. It is so bad that when one of them goes into the litter tray, even if we don't see them or hear them, we know as soon as it's done that one of them has been. No matter what we do we can't get the smell out of the flat. It is so bad that it makes our eyes swell and takes our breath. The smell has permiated into our sofa etc and we've only had our babies for 10 weeks. We had to get rid of their baby litter tray as the smell had gone right into it and no matter of washing would get rid of it. We buy good cat litter and the tray is scooped out twice a day so it's not that the tray is just left to stink.

We had them at the vets yesterday for a checkup and told the vet of the smell. The vet thinks that it is nothing to do with Hills Science Plan (the vets practice sells nothing but Hills). We don't know if the vet is telling us this because maybe they are sponsored by Hills or are contracted to them in some way.

We don't know what to do and wondered if anyone else has had smelly poo problems with Hills?

Thanks a lot and sorry for the indepthness of our post but if we don't tell you then you won't know how bad it is.

kath & keith

Hi kath n keith ,welcome to the forum,
Do your kittens have any diarrhea? Cat poo does stink, but if you say its that bad i wouldnt think its the food. a wet poo always stinks more than a normal poo.
Are they on wet or dry?

Hi Kath and Keith I fed mine on hills up until a couple of months ago and mine never smelt that bad just the general have they used that tray smell but not over powering. They had chicken flavour but wouldnt have thought it would make 2 much difference really. As jen said if its runny it always smells more.

Hi there and thanks for your replies,

No their poo is not runny, it's quite normal. We have had cats all our lives but never have we smelt a smell like this. It's not the normal 'mum i've used my litter tray' smell.

As we said, we clear the tray more than once a day but as soon as one of them does a poo the whole flat is stunk out. It just seems strange to us that we have 2 kittens and both of their poo smells exactly the same.

They are not ill, they are bright and totally alive as confirmed by the vet as we had actually thought that this may be why the terrible smell.

It really is bad, we are spending a fortune on air freshners etc but they don't even take the smell away.

We were actually thinking on trying to move them away from Hills and perhaps introduce them to wet food. What do you think?

As we have never changed kittens food, we don't know the best way to go about this - the only thing they have ever eaten is dry Hills Kitten Tuna. We suppose it's a bit of a test just to see if the stink stops or at least lessens.

It is so bad we are afraid that a neighbour may report us to environmental health because of the smell.

kath & keith

Ok from my experience... cat's poo just stinks nasty. It's very strong and worse than any other animals poo in my opinion.

My 2 current cats are on hills, and my other cat was on another brand of food and they both smelt bad.

Cats poo does smell very strong unfortunately. The best thing to do (which is what I do) is when they have gone for a poo, get it out of the litter tray straight away. Don't leave it in there, get it out and chuck it down the loo. That's what we do, as soon as they have done a poo it's picked out (with a scooper of course) and straight into the loo. So then the smell is gone within a few minutes. If we were to leave it there it would carry on stinking, and the litter tray would need cleaning out alot more often.

Hi Kath n Keith, i really dont think its down to the food they are getting because no matter what you feed them their poo stinks so bad, it surely has to be one of the worst pongs on the planet, and if you have more than one cat you can bet as soon as you clean up one lot then theres another load deposited in the litter tray for you.
As for using plug in air freshners. please please DON'T use them , they can be fatal to some cats, its been reported where cats have licked one of the plug ins and by the time you rush them to the vet its too late, they really can be so bad for some cats. good luck with finding a remedy for the pong off the cat poo and if you do find a remedy please pass it on to all..............................Chris.

Hello, I do think that the stink can be down to the cat food. When I had mine on Whiskas and Felix it would make my eyes water but now I have changed them onto Orijen and wet food with a higher meat content they smell a lot better!

Agreed, I noticed the same when i changed to Orijen and since we've changed to an all raw diet there's no smell whatsoever. I think it's the cooked/processed foods that make them smell.

just a thought but have you got a covered litter tray we use th one with a fliter and cat flap and this helps alot with the smell ! i also leave half an onion on top of the litter tray which absorbs some of the smell

We will try the covered litter tray and see how it goes.

We are still thinking on trying our babies with wet food as we don't want them eating nothing but dried food.

What's the best way to change them over? They are just over 4 months old and as we said have eaten nothing except hills science dried tuna

kath & keith