Cat Poop Chart: Every Colour and Consistency Explained

Your cat buries the most useful health record you have access to. Dogs go on walks, in daylight, in front of you. Cats go in a box, in a corner, often under a hood, then cover the evidence. By the time most owners look properly, the stool has been sitting in clumping litter for hours and has changed texture, colour and shape.

That gap matters more than it sounds. Cats hide illness, and it is a survival behaviour they never lost. The litter box is frequently the first place a problem becomes visible, sometimes well before your cat acts sick. This guide gives you the full reference: a master colour chart, the veterinary consistency scale, what the contents and coating tell you, and a clear decision guide for when to stop reading and call your vet.

What the litter box hides from you

Before the chart is useful, you need to know what the box does to the evidence.

Clumping litter wicks moisture. Sodium bentonite absorbs liquid, which is the entire point of it. A stool that was soft when it landed can read as firm forty minutes later, which is why mild diarrhoea routinely goes unnoticed in clumping-litter homes.

Litter also coats the surface. Granules stick to the outside of a stool and obscure the coating, which is exactly where mucus and fresh blood show up. Fine-grained litters do this more than pellets.

Covered boxes remove the daily look. A hood is convenient, and it also means you scoop by feel, or you scoop without really looking. The Ohio State University Indoor Pet Initiative notes that cats generally prefer large, uncovered boxes anyway, and that covered boxes concentrate odours and require extra vigilance when cleaning.

The practical answer to all four is the same. Scoop daily, in decent light, before the stool has been sitting. The Indoor Pet Initiative is direct about the cadence: the box "must be scooped daily and washed weekly with mild dish detergent."

The four Cs of cat poop

Veterinary stool assessment breaks into four categories. Read them in this order, because colour and consistency answer most questions before you reach the other two.

The cat poop chart

This is the table to save. Urgency ratings assume an otherwise well cat with no other signs. Any colour combined with lethargy, vomiting, appetite loss or hiding moves up one level.

What every colour means

Deep brown, the target

Stool gets its colour from bile pigment. Bile leaves the liver yellow-green, and as it travels the intestine, bacteria convert it into the brown compounds that give healthy stool its shade. Deep chocolate brown means the liver is producing bile, the bile is reaching the intestine, and transit speed is normal enough for the conversion to finish.

Shade varies with diet. Cats on fish-based food often run slightly darker, and cats on poultry slightly lighter. What matters is that your cat's normal stays your cat's normal. A shift away from a stable baseline is the signal, not the shade itself.

Yellow or orange

Yellow and orange both mean bile is not finishing its journey. Either the liver is not processing it properly, or stool is moving through so quickly that the bacterial conversion to brown never completes. Cornell's Feline Health Center describes abnormal stools appearing "gray or yellow" as part of the diarrhoea picture.

Yellow stool with no other signs, in a cat that has just switched food, may resolve on its own. Yellow stool alongside vomiting, appetite loss, or any yellowing of the gums or the whites of the eyes is a same-day call. Jaundice in cats can progress quickly.

Green

Green usually has a boring explanation. Cats that eat grass or houseplants produce green-tinged stool, and some prescription and fish-based diets do the same. Green can also mean bile is passing through too fast to convert.

Watch for 48 hours. If it clears and your cat is otherwise fine, it was almost certainly dietary. If green persists past two days, or arrives with soft stool, call your vet.

Grey, clay-coloured or white

This is the one that gets missed, because it does not look alarming the way blood does. It should. Stool that lacks colour entirely suggests bile is not reaching the intestine at all, which points at the liver, the gallbladder or a bile duct obstruction.

There is no wait-and-see version of this. Grey or clay-coloured stool is a same-day call.

Black and tarry

Black, sticky, tar-textured stool is called melena, and it is digested blood. Blood that has travelled through the stomach and small intestine gets broken down along the way, and what arrives in the box is black rather than red. Melena means bleeding somewhere upstream, in the oesophagus, the stomach or the small intestine.

The causes range from ulcers and foreign bodies to tumours and clotting disorders, and none of them wait. Black tarry stool is a same-day veterinary visit, not a phone call and not a morning-after appointment.

One qualifier before you panic. Some iron supplements and certain medications darken stool. If your cat has just started one, mention it when you call, and still call.

Red

Bright red blood is hematochezia. It has not been digested, which means it entered the stool low down, in the colon or the rectum. That territory covers colitis, straining from constipation, anal gland problems, polyps and parasites.

A few streaks on the surface of an otherwise formed stool, in a cat that is eating and behaving normally, is a same-day call rather than an emergency. Red blood mixed throughout the stool, blood with jelly-like mucus, or any significant volume is an emergency visit. So is any blood at all in a kitten, a senior cat, or a cat that is also lethargic.

The 7-point fecal scoring scale

Veterinary practices score stool on a seven-point scale, most commonly the Purina fecal scoring chart. If you can tell your vet "score 6 for three days" rather than "kind of soft, I think," you have given them something usable.

Score 1, hard dry pellets

Small dry pellets mean the colon has pulled too much water back out, usually because stool sat there too long. Cornell defines constipation as "infrequent or difficult emission of hard, dry fecal matter" and describes it as a frequent problem in domestic cats that requires aggressive intervention.

The reason cats warrant more concern here than dogs is megacolon. Cornell notes that severe, untreated constipation can progress to a state where "the colon becomes distended and unable to function properly," and from there to obstipation, which involves permanent loss of colon function. Some cases end in surgical removal of the affected colon.

Two or three days without a stool, or repeated score 1, is a veterinary conversation.

Scores 5 to 7, diarrhoea

Cornell describes feline diarrhoea as "the abnormally frequent passage of watery, sometimes oddly colored (gray or yellow), and uncharacteristically foul smelling stools." Causes run from a simple diet change through stress, parasites, inflammatory disease, thyroid and kidney disease, and lymphoma.

Cornell's threshold is clear: "If the diarrhea persists for longer than a day or two and the cat is also showing systemic signs, such as poor appetite, lethargy, or vomiting, you should seek veterinary care as soon as possible."

Two cautions. Cats dehydrate faster than owners expect, and kittens fastest of all. And Cornell warns directly that "some over the counter medications can be harmful to cats," so do not reach for a human anti-diarrhoeal.

What to look for when you scoop

Contents means anything in the stool that is not stool. This is where the litter box earns its keep, because parasites are visible here and almost nowhere else.

The genuinely dangerous one is anything stringy. Linear foreign bodies such as thread, tinsel, hair ties and elastic can anchor at the base of the tongue while the rest travels into the intestine, and the intestine then bunches along it. If you see string protruding from your cat's rectum, do not pull it. Go to an emergency vet.

What the coating reveals

Coating is the surface layer, and healthy stool does not have one. Litter granules stuck to the outside do not count.

Mucus once, in an otherwise well cat, is common and often follows a diet change or a stressful few days. Mucus repeatedly, or mucus with blood, is colitis until a vet says otherwise.

How often should a cat poop?

Most healthy adult cats pass stool once or twice daily. Some go once every other day and are entirely fine, provided the stool is score 2 and passes without effort.

Frequency matters less than change. A cat that reliably goes twice a day and drops to once every third day has told you something, even if the stool itself looks normal.

When to call the vet

Bring a sample. A fresh stool sample in a sealed bag, collected within a few hours, saves a visit. A photograph taken in natural light is the next best thing, and far more useful than a description.

What affects your cat's poop

Diet is the largest single influence. Protein source changes shade, fat content changes consistency, and fibre changes both. Transition food over seven to ten days rather than switching outright.

Hydration comes next. Cats evolved in desert conditions and carry a weak thirst drive, so cats on dry food alone frequently run mildly dehydrated, which is a direct route to score 1 stool.

Stress shows up in the box reliably. A move, a new animal, building work or a changed schedule all register, and Cornell lists stress among the causes of feline diarrhoea.

Age pulls in both directions. Senior cats trend toward constipation as mobility, hydration and colon motility decline. Kittens run the opposite way and dehydrate faster.

Underlying disease is the reason to take any sustained change seriously. Thyroid disease, kidney disease, liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease and lymphoma all present through stool changes, sometimes before anything else.

Make the box easier to read

Everything above assumes you can see what your cat produced.

Scoop in daylight, once a day, every day. The Indoor Pet Initiative's standard is daily scooping and a weekly wash with mild dish detergent. That cadence exists for hygiene, and it doubles as the only routine health monitoring most indoor cats ever get.

Keep the box uncovered if your cat allows it. Cats generally prefer large uncovered boxes, and an uncovered box means you see the contents when you walk past rather than only when you scoop.

Line the box so the full reset is quick. The reason most owners stretch a full litter change from one week to three is that emptying the box is unpleasant. A liner turns the reset into a lift and a tie.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should healthy cat poop look like?

Deep chocolate brown, firm enough to hold a log shape, moist on the surface but not wet, and it lifts off the litter in one piece. On the veterinary 7-point scale that is a score 2. Most cats produce one or two per day.

What does it mean if my cat's poop is black?

Black, tarry stool is melena, which is digested blood from the upper digestive tract. It points to bleeding in the oesophagus, stomach or small intestine and needs a same-day veterinary visit.

Why is my cat's poop yellow?

Yellow stool means bile is either not being processed properly by the liver or is moving through the intestine too fast to convert to brown. A single yellow stool after a food change may resolve. Yellow stool with vomiting, appetite loss or any yellowing of the gums needs a call today.

Is white or grey cat poop serious?

Yes. Stool that lacks colour suggests bile is not reaching the intestine, which points at the liver, gallbladder or a bile duct obstruction. Call your vet the same day.

What are the white specks in my cat's poop?

White specks that look like rice grains are usually tapeworm segments. Thin, spaghetti-like strands are roundworms. Both are treatable, and both need a vet.

How often should a cat poop?

Once or twice a day for most adult cats. Once every other day can be normal if the stool is well formed and passes easily. Going 48 to 72 hours without a stool warrants a call.

Does clumping litter change how the poop looks?

Yes, and this is the most common reason soft stool goes unnoticed. Clumping litter pulls moisture out of anything sitting in it, so a stool that was soft when passed can read as firm within the hour. Scoop daily and look before the litter has worked on it.

Can I tell which cat produced abnormal stool in a multi-cat home?

Not reliably from one shared box. Separate boxes placed apart from each other is the practical fix, and it matches the one-box-per-cat-plus-one guidance from Cornell and the Ohio State Indoor Pet Initiative.

SOURCES & CITATIONS

Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell Feline Health Center "Constipation," retrieved 2026-09-02 https://www.vet.cornell.edu/departments-centers-and-institutes/cornell-feline-health-center/health-information/feline-health-topics/constipation

Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell Feline Health Center "Diarrhea," retrieved 2026-09-02 https://www.vet.cornell.edu/departments-centers-and-institutes/cornell-feline-health-center/health-information/feline-health-topics/diarrhea

Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell Feline Health Center "Feline Behavior Problems: House Soiling," retrieved 2026-09-02 https://vet.cornell.edu/departments-centers-and-institutes/cornell-feline-health-center/health-information/feline-health-topics/feline-behavior-problems-house-soiling

The Ohio State University Indoor Pet Initiative "Litter Boxes," retrieved 2026-09-02 https://indoorpet.osu.edu/cats/basic-indoor-cat-needs/litter-boxes

Purina Fecal Scoring Chart 7-point veterinary scale, retrieved 2026-09-02

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