Dr. Priya Anand, DVM, ABVP (Feline) · Last reviewed October 11, 2026

Cat Poop Chart

Score the consistency, match the color, say how often and how long, and find out how fast your cat needs to be seen. Free, no signup, no ads.

Go now if your cat is straining in the litter box with little or no urine. It looks like constipation but is often a blocked bladder, which can kill within a day or two. Same for black, tar-like stool, stool that is mostly blood, or string hanging from the bottom (never pull it). Poison hotline: ASPCA, (888) 426-4435.

Cat poop checker: pick the consistency and color, add anything in it, how often and how long, and get how urgently your cat needs to be seen.

1 What is the consistency?

Purina 1–7 fecal score. Mixed? Pick the softer one.

2 What color is it?

Check in daylight if you can
3 Anything in it or on it?

Optional. Tick everything you can see.

4 How often are they going?

Compared with what is normal for this cat.

5 How long has the change lasted?

Only counts if something above is off. A normal stool that has stayed normal is not a finding.

6 Anything else going on right now?

Tick everything that is true. A straining cat who is not peeing is the emergency that most often gets mistaken for constipation.

Go-now signs

Call-your-vet signs

7 Does any of this describe your cat?

Optional. These cats run out of reserve faster, so the same stool is worth acting on sooner.

Pick a consistency or a color and your cat's result appears here. How often, how long and anything else you have noticed is what sharpens it.

Cat poop consistency chart (fecal score 1–7)

Tap a row to load it into the tool
Score What it means How fast
1. Hard pellets very hard, dry, separate balls Stool that sat in the colon long enough for most of its water to be pulled out. The usual picture of constipation. Not drinking enough · Dry-only diet · Hairballs packing the stool · Pain or a dirty box making them hold it Watch 24 hours
2. Ideal firm, segmented log The target. Firm but not hard, holds together when scooped, leaves little or nothing behind. A well-hydrated cat · A diet that suits them · Normal gut transit Routine
3. Soft log log-shaped, moist, holds form A little softer than ideal but still formed. Within normal for most cats, especially on wet food. Wet or raw diet · Rich treats · A slightly faster transit Routine
4. Soggy log very moist, falls apart when scooped Still log-shaped in the box, but too wet to lift in one piece. The first step of loose stool. Food change made too fast · New treats or table food · Stress · Early parasite or bacterial upset Watch 24 hours
5. Soft piles very moist, piles rather than logs Soft enough to pile rather than hold a log shape. This is mild diarrhea. Diet change or intolerance · Parasites such as Giardia or coccidia · Stress · Inflammatory bowel disease when it keeps recurring Watch 24 hours
6. Unformed texture but no shape, spots or puddles Diarrhea with some texture left in it. No defined shape at all. Parasites · Bacterial or viral infection · Food intolerance · Hyperthyroidism or other illness in older cats Watch 24 hours
7. Watery liquid, no texture, flat puddles Liquid diarrhea. The cat is losing a lot of water with every trip. Infection, including panleukopenia in unvaccinated cats · Parasites · Toxins or spoiled food · Severe intestinal disease Watch 24 hours

Cat poop color chart

Color What it means How fast
Brown Mid to dark brown Normal. The brown comes from bile pigment broken down in the gut. Healthy digestion · Shade follows the diet · Darker on high-meat food Routine
Yellow or orange Mustard, tan, orange Food moving through too fast for the pigment to darken, or, less often, a liver or bile-duct problem. Yellow or orange food coloring · Fast transit with loose stool · Liver disease · Bile-duct or gallbladder problems Watch 24 hours
Green Olive to bright green Usually grass or green food. Sometimes bile that went through too fast, or a gut infection. Eating grass or houseplants · Green-colored food or treats · Rapid transit · Gallbladder or gut inflammation Watch 24 hours
Gray or pale Clay, putty or chalky; may be greasy Bile is not reaching the gut, or fat is not being digested. Points at the liver, gallbladder or pancreas. Pancreatic insufficiency · Bile-duct blockage · Liver disease · Too much bone in a raw diet (chalky white) Today
Red streaks A few drops or streaks of fresh blood Fresh bleeding from the colon or rectum, usually from inflammation or straining. Colitis · Straining from constipation · Parasites · Polyps or, less often, tumors Today
Mostly blood Red or raspberry-jam diarrhea A large amount of fresh blood, usually mixed into diarrhea. The gut lining is bleeding heavily. Severe infection, including panleukopenia · Rat poison (anticoagulant) · Severe colitis · Clotting disorders Now
Black and tarry Sticky, shiny, tar-like Digested blood. Bleeding high in the gut: stomach or small intestine. Stomach or intestinal ulcers · Human painkillers (ibuprofen, aspirin, naproxen) · Tumours · Clotting problems Now

Consistency scores follow the Purina Fecal Scoring Chart (ideal at 2). How fast each row needs to be seen follows Hill's, VCA Animal Hospitals and the Cornell Feline Health Center.

A screening check, not a diagnosis. What poop looks like tells you how fast your cat needs to be seen, not what is wrong, and a cat can be ill with a normal-looking stool. If your cat is straining in the litter box and producing little or no urine, passing black tar or mostly blood, or has string hanging from the bottom, go to an emergency vet now. Suspected poisoning: ASPCA Animal Poison Control, (888) 426-4435. Reviewed by Dr. Priya Anand, DVM, ABVP (Feline).

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How to use this chart

  1. Look before you scoop. Take a photo with something next to it for scale. Clumping litter coats stool within minutes, and color is hard to describe accurately an hour later.
  2. Score the consistency. Seven drawings, from hard pellets (score 1) to a watery puddle (score 7). The ideal is score 2: a firm, segmented log. If one stool is mixed, pick the softer score.
  3. Match the color, then tick anything in it. Mucus, worms, hair, string, undigested food. The drawings above take on the color you pick.
  4. Say how often and for how long. One soft stool after a food change and two days of it are different events, even if the stool looks identical.
  5. Tick anything else going on, and who your cat is. Then act on the window the verdict gives you, and take the PDF to the appointment.

Why this cat poop chart is different

Search for a cat poop chart and you mostly get a downloadable picture: six or seven colors, a line each, and advice to call your vet if anything looks off. Useful, but a picture cannot weigh one thing against another. Here is what this one does instead.

  • It scores consistency and color separately. Most charts do one or the other. A soft brown stool and a firm black one need very different responses, and you need both answers to know which you have.
  • It asks how often and how long. The published thresholds are about time: Hill's says call after 24 hours of soft or oddly colored stool, VCA after two days of liquid stool or 48 to 72 hours with none. A static chart cannot apply those. This one does.
  • It knows the emergency that looks like constipation. A male cat straining with nothing coming out is often blocked in the bladder, not the bowel. The tool asks about urine directly and treats it as go-now.
  • It cannot talk you down. Every input can only raise the verdict, never lower it. And on an emergency, the page shows no product recommendations at all.
  • It gives you something to hand over, it shows its sources, and any clinic, rescue or foster network can embed it free.

How to read cat poop

Consistency is mostly about water. The colon's job is to pull water back out of stool, so stool that moved through fast arrives soft, and stool that sat too long arrives hard. This chart uses the Purina Fecal Scoring Chart, the 1 to 7 scale many vet clinics use. Score 2 is ideal: firm but not hard, segmented, little or nothing left on the litter. Score 3 is a slightly softer log that still holds its shape, and is normal for plenty of cats, especially on wet food. Score 1 is hard pellets, the usual sign of constipation or too little water. Scores 4 to 7 run from a soggy log to a watery puddle, which is diarrhea of increasing severity.

Color is mostly about bile and blood. Normal stool is mid to dark brown, and the shade follows the diet. Yellow or orange usually means food went through too fast to darken, and less often a liver problem. Green is usually grass. Gray, pale or greasy stool means fat is not being digested, which points at the pancreas, liver or bile ducts. Red streaks are fresh blood from low in the gut, usually colitis or straining. Black, tar-like stool is digested blood from high in the gut, and stool that is mostly blood is losing blood fast. Those last two are the emergencies on the color chart.

How the verdict is reached

Each answer resolves to one of four levels: routine, watch for 24 hours, call your vet today, or go now. The verdict is the highest level any answer reaches. How long the change has lasted only counts once something else is abnormal, because a normal stool that has stayed normal is not a finding. If your cat is a kitten, a senior, chronically ill or not fully vaccinated, the verdict moves up one step, but that lift can never create an emergency on its own. Seven signs, including straining with little or no urine, override everything and send you straight to an emergency vet.

The thresholds come from published guidance. Hill's (written by Dr. Sarah Wooten, DVM) says to call the vet for soft stool or unusually colored stool lasting more than 24 hours, small hard pellets, straining, or visible worms. VCA Animal Hospitals says to call if liquid or semi-liquid stools persist beyond two days, or if a cat has not passed stool within 48 to 72 hours. The Cornell Feline Health Center calls urethral obstruction an absolute emergency that can kill in under 24 to 48 hours.

One judgment is ours, and we would rather say so. Those sources list signs that mean "call" without separating "call today" from "drive now". We split them: anything that could plausibly threaten life within hours goes to go-now, and the rest goes to call-your-vet-today. Nothing on any source's list resolves below that.

Three worked examples

Soft stool the day after a food switch

Three-year-old cat, moved to a new food yesterday without a transition. This morning's stool is soft brown piles (score 5); she is eating and playing normally. The tool returns worth watching. A sudden food change is the commonest cause of a single soft stool, and the fix is to go back to mixing old and new over a week or so. If it is still soft tomorrow, Hill's 24-hour line applies and it becomes a call to the vet.

Hard pellets in a thirteen-year-old

Senior cat on dry food, going every other day as usual, but the stool has turned into small, hard pellets (score 1). He is otherwise himself. On its own that is a watch, but his age moves it up a step to call your vet today. Hard stool in an older cat is often the first visible sign of dehydration, and dehydration in a senior often has a reason, kidney disease being the usual one. Worth knowing early.

The constipated cat who is not constipated

Five-year-old neutered male, in and out of the litter box all evening, squatting and straining, with nothing in the box for two days. It looks like constipation. Tick "straining in the litter box with little or no urine" and the tool returns emergency, go now, whatever else is selected. Urinary blockage is far more common in males and is fatal without treatment. If you cannot tell which one your cat is straining for, the safe assumption is the bladder.

Common questions

What does healthy cat poop look like?

Mid to dark brown, log-shaped, firm enough to pick up whole and soft enough to dent, often with visible segments. That is score 2 on the Purina chart. Healthy stool has a mild smell, contains nothing unusual, and arrives once or twice a day. The most useful thing you can know is what normal looks like for your cat, which is a good reason to scoop daily with an unscented clumping litter that lets you see what you are scooping.

What color cat poop is bad?

Two colors are an emergency on their own: black and tar-like, which is digested blood, and stool that is mostly blood or looks like raspberry jam. Red streaks and gray, pale or greasy stool need a call to your vet the same day. Yellow, orange and green are usually diet or fast transit; they become a call if they last more than 24 hours or come with other signs.

How often should a cat poop?

Most cats go once or twice a day, and some healthy cats go every other day. VCA's line is that a cat who has not passed stool within 48 to 72 hours of the last one needs a vet. More trips than usual is also worth noting: small, frequent amounts usually point to the colon, large frequent amounts to the small intestine.

My cat has diarrhea but is acting normal. Should I worry?

Once, in an adult cat who is eating, drinking and playing: watch the next few stools and make sure they are drinking, since cats lose water fast with loose stool. Past 24 hours, Hill's says call your vet, and VCA says the same of liquid stools lasting more than two days. In a kitten or a cat that is not fully vaccinated, call sooner. Panleukopenia starts with diarrhea and moves quickly. A water fountain can help keep fluids going in while you wait.

What are the white rice-like things in my cat's poop?

Tapeworm segments. Cats usually get tapeworms by swallowing fleas while grooming, so they need two things: a dewormer containing praziquantel, and flea control, or the worms return within weeks. The best cat dewormers roundup explains which drug treats which worm, and the flea treatment guide covers the other half.

Is the Purina 1–7 scale the same as the Royal Canin chart?

They measure the same thing on different scales. Purina runs 1 to 7 with the ideal at 2; Royal Canin runs 1 to 5 with the ideal at 2.5. On both, a higher number means softer stool. If your vet uses one, tell them which scale your number comes from. Royal Canin's instruction for a mixed stool, record the softer score, is a good rule on either chart.

Can I embed this cat poop chart on my website?

Yes. Copy the snippet at the bottom of this page. The embedded version is a clean, ad-free widget for veterinary practices, rescues, foster networks and cat blogs. Attribution is included in the snippet; there is no fee and no signup.

Nothing you buy fixes black stool or a blocked bladder, and this page will not pretend otherwise. What products reach is the common end of the chart: stool that is a little too hard, a little too soft, or full of hair.

For hard stool, start with water. Most cats on dry food drink less than they need, and adding wet food is the simplest way to get more water in. A fountain helps the cats who prefer running water. For a hairy stool, the fiber in the best hairball-control cat foods moves swallowed hair through, once you have ruled out fleas as the reason for all that grooming. For loose stool that keeps recurring once parasites are ruled out, the usual next step is a diet change, made slowly; the best cat food roundup covers sensitive-stomach options alongside everyday picks.

Methodology & sources

The consistency scores, colors, contents and thresholds on this page are stored in a data file and checked by an automated test on every build. The test confirms that the scale is Purina's 1 to 7 with the ideal at 2, that every row carries a valid urgency level, that adding any sign or finding can never lower the verdict, that a worse consistency or color can never produce a calmer answer, that duration never moves a normal stool, that the age-and-health lift moves exactly one step and never creates an emergency, that an emergency never carries product recommendations, and that every count quoted on this page matches the data. If an edit broke any of those, the build would fail instead of publishing.

The honest limits. Stool appearance tells you how fast, not what. Many causes of diarrhea, from Giardia to inflammatory bowel disease to lymphoma, look the same in the box and are told apart by tests. Screens and indoor lighting shift color, so a swatch match is a starting point. And the split between go-now and call-today, described above, is our interpretation.

These thresholds are long-standing veterinary guidance; sources and product picks are re-checked annually. About Dr. Anand · Last reviewed October 11, 2026.

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Free to cite or link in coursework, handouts, and articles — no permission needed.

Anand, P. (2026, October 11). Cat Poop Chart. House of Mittens. https://houseofmittens.com/cat-poop-chart/

Embed this cat poop chart

Free for veterinary practices, rescues, TNR groups, foster networks and cat blogs. Required attribution is included in the snippet. No fee, no account. 

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