Need suggestions for some sensitive stomach cat food.

July 25, 2012 1:37 PM

Need suggestions for some sensitive stomach cat food.

I have two cats. Morgan and Ivee.

I have been feeding them Blue Buffalo Grain Free Adult Cat Food. Unfortunately, it seems Ivee* has a sensitive stomach and we often find little piles of regurgitated food here and there. She has seen a vet for this.

Morgan has no issues what so ever, and is the most easy going cat you are ever going to meet. (Unless of course there is no food in the bowl in which case it's time to wake you up and Let. You. Know. There. Is. No. Food.) I do want to try and stick with brands that are grain low or grain free because of her though. She's getting older and she's fat and lazy. Short of throwing her in a cat-sized hamster wheel, putting her on a diet is the only way I'm going to get her to shed some pounds.

Before I go with prescription solutions, I'm hoping to find a brand that might work. Have you any suggestions for me?

* I'm positive it's Ivee.

posted by royalsong to pets & animals (15 answers total)

What pretty kitties.

We found that our kitties just puked up any red-meat based food. We feed them primarily seafood based wet food (Fancy Crack) and plain ol' Purina for crunchies.

See if you can get a formula that's all poultry or all fish to see if that might solve your problem.

I'm going with the idea that we should feed the cat meat that a cat might actually have a chance at catching in the wild. Fish and birds, sure. A cow. Not so much.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 1:42 PM on July 25, 2012

My elderly and sensitive beastie can only eat Trader Joe's wet canned stuff without having tummy troubles.
posted by mykescipark at 1:46 PM on July 25, 2012

Sometimes cats kind of choke down dry food without really crunching it up... I'm not sure what about this upsets their stomachs, but I have definitely seen wolfers walk away from the bowl and throw their kibble right back up. Do the kibbles look basically whole when you find the vomit later? If so, wet food will probably fix the problem (there are plenty of grain-free varieties). If you don't want to do wet food, maybe you could try somehow crushing the kibbles a little, or something?
posted by slenderloris at 1:54 PM on July 25, 2012

I use the Merrick Before Grain stuff (wet and dry) and that seems to work for Madame Upchuck as well as Miss Urinary Tract Infection.
posted by restless_nomad at 2:09 PM on July 25, 2012

slenderloris, that's exactly what it is. Completely whole as if it weren't chewed at all.

They are fairly small food pellets too.. but they do swell so maybe she's just woofing it all down until she's full.. then the pellets swell in her stomach to the point that she upchucks them? It's a theory at least.

She's a new addition to the family and the previous owner reported no problems. She was also an only cat and now she has a bigger, older, surprisingly-willing-to-bop-her-in-the-face-if-she-gets-too-uppity sister. So maybe she feels she has to rush? I will also try feeding them separately.

Thanks for setting me on a different thought path I hadn't considered.
posted by royalsong at 2:21 PM on July 25, 2012

Our cats have done best on Wellness food. There is some grain free stuff in their regular line, but look also at their Core line, which is all grain free. Our sensitive stomach cat has been fine since we went grain free, and the other two are, anecdotally, less gassy.
posted by hydropsyche at 2:22 PM on July 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Canned is really a better choice, the feline specialist vets say cats should eat 95% canned at least. If you must feed dry, feed high protein, grain free, low carb, but canned is better.
posted by biscotti at 2:23 PM on July 25, 2012

Morgan has issues with wet food. She apparently thinks she's hungry if no food is a available to her. I tried the wet food only option, and endured two months of constant meows and insisting she was hungry, even after she just finished a can. I am not sure if she was starved as a kitten and she has anxiety about it, or if it's just because that's how she lived for years and can't bare to not have food readily available.

Trying out wet food again is on the list, but I was hoping to find a dry food route first. (I will note that the brand I am currently feeding them is all the things you list, biscotti.)

restless_nomad, I love that you also have a black cat that likes to blend in with black things.
posted by royalsong at 2:33 PM on July 25, 2012

:) She's sneaky, except when she's being loud.

I have the "OMG I'M STARVING" problem with the girls, but I want them on wet food, so I just leave dry out and feed them wet food. They mostly eat the wet, but if they get the munchies they can nibble. (Mind you, my cats are *tiny* - 5.5 and 9.5 pounds - and the older one is underweight if anything. So I'm not worried about them overeating. They don't seem to with this regimen, anyway.)
posted by restless_nomad at 2:37 PM on July 25, 2012

My orange kitty, who is now 17 years old, has always had a habit of inhaling her food, walking away, and then yakking it all back up a few minutes later, mostly undigested.

I've tried all kinds of wet canned food, expensive, supermarket, whatever, but the brand she seems to have the least trouble with is Friskies Indoor Select, the chunky kind (NOT the pate). Maybe not the best brand, but in my opinion, whatever she can eat and keep down is the best for her.

I also have them eating Royal Canin Selective 35/50 dry food (the little calico is a picky eater, and I call it "Lucky Charms for cats".
posted by tully_monster at 3:24 PM on July 25, 2012

Sorry--I didn't see your post about dry food being preferable to wet. Royal Canin has a variety called Special 33 for kitties with sensitive stomachs. I would be buying that, except that our local store doesn't carry it regularly--it also reduced the number of vomiting incidents.
posted by tully_monster at 3:28 PM on July 25, 2012

We have a cat that does this no matter what kind of food. We started giving him his meals in smaller portions, with breaks in between. This seems to work well to prevent the gorging which would lead to the boot and rally.
posted by orme at 3:43 PM on July 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

My little beast with a terribly sensitive stomach and a tendency to get really thin (and throw up and pull out all her hair and go next to litterboxes etc) eats Blue Mountain kitten food (canned) twice a day and also free-eats Blue Mountain Multiple Cat dry food with the rest of the critters. I have tried many different foods and this seems about best. She gets it on the counter while the others circle below and I keep chasing them away.
posted by meepmeow at 4:44 PM on July 25, 2012

came here to say just what orme said. we feed ours in portions, but it's wet food too. We use a gram scale and weigh it out. Seems to work at least for our wolfer.
posted by lonefrontranger at 9:24 PM on July 25, 2012

Tiger diner portion control feeder is great! I had the same problem with my two cats. I think it was from bolting the dry food down so fast. This feeder definitely slows them down, no more piles of regurgitated food here and there.

Shop around on the price. They are available at most pet stores. This was the one that had the best image.
posted by JujuB at 10:13 PM on July 25, 2012