Is your cat’s stomach a little too sensitive? Do you feel like your furry little friend can’t enjoy itself after a bowl of its usual delicious meal? It could be a sign your cat is extra sensitive to one or more ingredients in its food, and may need the best cat food for sensitive stomachs, which causes a compromise to the integrity of the gastrointestinal tract.
Adopting a new diet that your four-legged friend’s digestive system can tolerate is undoubtedly one of the best approaches. But the truth is, it’s not usually the best idea to jump at just any special diet based on market hype. You’ll do well to get your veterinarian’s guide to ruling out the possibility of disease before narrowing-down the actual source of your cat’s reaction.
Altogether, knowing the signs to look out for and how to find the best food for cats with sensitive stomachs will go a long way in helping your cat. If you want to know more, then read on.
Top 3 Best Foods For Sensitive Stomach Vomiting
1. Hound & Gatos Grain-Free Canned Cat Food
Hound and Gatos want your cat to go back to the feline roots with its grain-free cat food diet. The Hound & Gatos canned cat food is specially formulated for cats with a frequent, sensitive stomach. Carb fillers, gluten, soy, corn and artificial preventives are left out of this one. However, all the vital vitamins and minerals your cat needs were included in the formula.
Even better, the formulation is ultra-hydrated to deliver a texture that’ll be palate-friendly and, of course, easy to digest. If you’ve got a pet with inflammatory bowel disease, this is your stop right here.
2. Dr Elsey’s Clean Chicken Formula Dry Cat Food
If your kitty is sensitive to fish and beef, try Dr Elsey’s clean protein dry food. The manufacturer put this one together to deliver the clean protein level felines enjoy in the wild. The first ingredient is real, high-quality chicken, followed by additional vitamins and minerals. It’s an excellent option for a cat that doesn’t tolerate wet food.
The formulation is ideal for adult cats and those in the senior stage experiencing a change in metabolism. This one is also grain, pea, and gluten-free. So you can rest knowing your feline friend is free from unnecessary allergens.
3. Instinct Original Grain-Free Real Duck Recipe Wet Canned Cat Food
Here’s another wet formulation for picky kitties that don’t fancy dry crunchy kibbles. The Instinct Original real duck cat food takes kitty back to the way nature initially intended it to be. The raw formulation contains 95% duck and turkey liver. The remaining 5% is a combination of non-GMO vegetables, fruits, and vitamins.
What’s more, this recipe has the omega fatty acid your pet’s need for healthy skin and a shiny coat. If you’ve got a picky eater, grab this raw formulation and reset your feline’s taste bud to its original setting.
Signs Of Sensitive Stomachs In Cats
Vomiting is one of the major signs your cat is sensitive to one or more ingredients in its usual food. It could also be the food is made up hard to digest ingredients altogether. While both the latter and former are a possibility, vomiting can also be linked to myriads of other illnesses.
Remember we mentioned you’ll do well to get in touch with your vet and not just opt for a special diet in the market? The idea is to rule out the possibility of other diseases that could make your cat’s gastrointestinal tract upset. You’ll also need to pay attention to what your cat is vomiting. If it has ingested more than just food, for example, hairballs; then you really need to see your vet.
Furthermore, look out for coughing, which could also be a sign your cat has feline asthma.
Diarrhoea is another sure sign fire to look out for when checking for sensitive stomach, allergies, or the possibility that the ingredient in your cat’s food isn’t all that easy to digest.
You’ll do well to monitor the timing after feeding. Also, make a video of your kitty’s poop and how it reacts after feeding. Doing this will help your vet understand the underlying problem and circumvent a misdiagnosis.
Tips To Find The Best Food For Your Cat’s Sensitive Stomach
Once your vet has ruled out the possibility of other underlying conditions, the following tips will help you choose the best food for your cat’s sensitive gastrointestinal tract.
- Diet trial
Diet trial sounds like troubleshooting, but it’s one sure way to narrow-down your feline’s food option to understand what the stomach can or can’t tolerate. When it comes to picking out what’s best, please permit us to say that there is no one-diet-fits-all.
While you are trying to narrow-down your cat’s option, you may notice individual responses to each trial diet until you find a suitable one.
In the course of adopting a diet trial, you’ll do well to opt for foods that your cat finds highly digestible. These are foods with usually moderate fat content, a quality protein source, and not too many carbs. Your cat might be a domesticated feline, but it’s a feline at the end of the day. So carbs aren’t critical in their diet.
Also, look out for foods containing omega-3 fatty acids, which significantly improves stomach health. Cat food with vitamins, essential minerals, and antioxidants will do your kitty lots of good—not only in the department of healthy digestion but also for a healthy immune system.
- Hypoallergenic cat food
If the ingredients in your cat’s food don’t contain hard to digest products, allergy is probably the next stop. Being allergic to one or more food constituents can, no doubt, cause stomach upset. The usual causes of allergies in domestic felines include corn, wheat, gluten, dairy, grain, and even various protein sources.
Surprisingly, the presence of protein in many cat foods is a major source of feline allergies. The truth is that chicken, beef, and even fish are sources of allergic reactions among domesticated felines. If your cat’s allergic reaction is protein, corn, gluten, or dairy-related, a hypoallergenic cat food diet is excellent in correcting their sensitive stomach problems.
When doing this, there are three main types to look out for: limited ingredients (L.I.D.), veterinary-prescribed food, and hydrolyzed protein diets.
The limited ingredient food typically means the ingredients supplying your cat’s essential nutrients are limited to mostly a single or very few sources. The manufacturer may choose only duck, chicken, or fish as the protein source. The idea here is to prevent cross-contamination, thereby reducing the chances of causing the allergy.
Furthermore, the protein source in L.I.D cat foods is usually also of good quality and are not by-products of the animal claimed to be in the cat food.
It’s also worth noting that veterinary prescription foods are similar to L.I.D cat foods because they contain novel proteins of a single source. However, they are usually for cats with a very high allergic reaction. The difference between L.I.D.s and veterinary prescription diet is that the latter is available under prescription, unlike L.I.Ds which can be purchased without a vet’s prescription.
Hydrolyzed proteins are also doctors-prescribed cat food. They contain broken-down protein. So, it’s highly unlikely they’ll trigger an allergic reaction whenever your cat feeds on them.
- Change your cat’s food form.
One other straightforward approach to correcting your cat’s sensitive stomach and reduce vomiting is to switch from wet to dry formulations. Similarly, you can adopt a new dry formulation if your cat was previously on a wet food diet.
- Adopt a different feeding pattern
Cats shouldn’t consume large meals. That’s because their stomach is less than the size of a baseball. Cat owners with busy schedules are guilty of loading their pet’s bowl for the entire day. No doubt, you can’t control how your kitty eats. Adopt a small but frequent eating style to promote easy digestion, less gastric retention, and circumvent vomiting.