Today, we’re going to talk about the best cat food for diarrhea. When choosing a cat food for diarrhea control, it’s important to realize that the solution for this problem is not universal. When a cat has diarrhea that’s caused by a food sensitivity or allergy, there could be many different triggers. You’ll likely need to spend a little time deciding exactly what is triggering your cat’s digestion issues before finding the perfect food for them.
However, there are some triggers that are more common than others. If you typically feed your cat a supermarket brand pet food, then grains may be the issue. Cats honestly don’t really need anything but meat, but pet food manufacturers use corn based foods, because it’s cheaper for them. Unfortunately, these are not only empty calories that provide no nutrients for your cat, but it’s also likely that they have a hard time digesting them. This is the first thing you should remove from their diet to improve their overall health.
In addition to grains, sometimes proteins can be a cause of issues for household pets. Not all proteins obviously, but in some cases mixing different meat sources can cause intestinal upsets. For this reason, if your cat has shown to be sensitive to foods, such as having diarrhea or vomiting, then you may want to limit their foods to just one protein profile. For example, if you are feeding them a chicken flavor food, then all of the meats should be chicken based, chicken organs are okay and often as beneficial as whole meat.
What foods are good for digestion?
While not really needed, since cats are obligate carnivores, if you’ve found that your cat has issues with diets that feature too much protein then there are a few things to try. For starters, you may want to look for a food that includes pro-biotics. These are good gut bacteria that can help with digestion. Humans eat these too, and they are most common in yogurt! You can also give these to your cat by way of an enzyme supplement instead if you’d prefer. This is often easier when you’re limited as to what foods and what ingredients a sensitive cat can eat. Wysong makes an excellent product for this that is easy to add to your cat’s food.
The second is pumpkin. This is a great food item to help your cat stay regular. If your cat frequently has issues with loose stools, then adding a bit of pumpkin to a high quality cat food diet could do wonders for them. Just purchase a can of pure pumpkin from the grocery store and add a bit to their food. Fortunately, animals seem to like eating it so it shouldn’t be too difficult. Just make sure that you purchase pure pumpkin and not the pie mix. The latter is filled with sugar and other things that aren’t good for your cat. Pure pumpkin will have 100% pumpkin listed as the ingredients and nothing else.
Best cat food for diarrhea List and Guide
Okay, now that we know what we’re looking for, it’s time for our recommendations. When formulating this list we chose only foods made with high quality ingredients, no grains, low in carbohydrates, limited ingredients and easy to digest. While all of these foods would make good choices, keep in mind that your pet is an individual, and you’ll have to figure out which is best for them.
Please note that we have only chosen fresh or wet foods when making our list. This is because these foods are overwhelmingly better for cat’s health. While dry kibble is convenient for people, it’s not great for animals. This is especially true for cats who can often become extremely dehydrated when fed only a dry food diet. This can lead to many health problems such as struvite crystals, excessive weight gain and they are often not so easy to digest. Alright, here’s our list of best cat food for diarrhea options.
#1 – NomNomNow
Feeding your cat a fresh food diet is one of the best ways to make sure they are getting the best nutrition possible, and these diets are often easier to digest. They don’t have artificial ingredients or overly processed food items, and they are more palatable to picky cats. If you’d like to try this approach for your feline friend, then NomNomNow offers an exceptional service for this. They deliver freshly made meals to your house every week.
The recipes are all limited in ingredients as well, making them an excellent choice for sensitive cats. Below you can see the ingredients for the Chicken Chow-Meow recipe. As you can see, it has just five main ingredients. The recipe focuses on a single protein item, chicken and it contains cantaloupe which helps with digestion and regularity. As a bonus, for whatever reason, cats love cantaloupe, and if your kitty is a picky eater, then that will likely not be a problem here. Looks almost good enough for people to eat doesn’t it?
If you need help selecting a diet for your cat, then the company also offers some free consultation help. However, all of the meals will be tailored and perfectly portioned for your cat. This means you can be sure that you’re feeding them a nutritionally rich and balanced diet that will also help them to maintain a healthy weight. If you’re looking for the absolute best food that you can offer your cat, then this is it. If you want to learn more about feeding your cat like a kitty king or queen, then you can learn more about NomNomNow here. It’s simply the best food for cats available, and the ingredients lend themselves to easy digestion for cats who frequently suffer from ailments like diarrhea, vomiting or loose stools.
#2 – Halo Cat Food
This excellent cat food brand is so digestible that they have go so far as to prove it in a lab setting. They’ve actually tested their formulas against other popular pet foods and have come out on top. Halo uses only high quality, whole food ingredients for all of their cat foods, both wet and dry. They also don’t use anything artificial or genetically modified either.
They offer a variety of recipes that are limited in ingredients and easy to digest, making them an excellent choice if you’re looking for a high quality but still affordable food option. While canned will never be as good as fresh, it’s a close second to our number one option.
Not every food is grain free though, so make sure to choose one that notes it on the packaging. Also, many of the recipes use more than one protein source unfortunately. So if your cat is sensitive to certain meats be sure to read the ingredients for your chosen flavor carefully to make sure the food will agree with them. However, this is an excellent and high quality food that will likely help your cat combat loose stools and diarrhea. You can pick this awesome kitty food up here!
#3 – Wysong Archetype
This is actually a raw food diet that is freeze dried. If you were ever curious about feeding your cat a raw diet but were put off by the work involved with doing it yourself, then this may be a great option for you. This product gives you all the benefits of a raw food diet with the convenience of a dry food. When feeding this to your cat, simply add water and it becomes a healthy 95% meat food for your feline friend.
These diets are extremely limited in ingredients, making them great for sensitive cats. Wysong cuts out almost everything that will trigger your cat’s allergies or sensitivities, and they focus on one singular protein item. You can choose from chicken, rabbit, or pollock, making this a great way to diagnose and treat food allergies.
There is only one issue with this diet. Due to the nature of raw foods there is always some risk of a food-borne illness. For a healthy cat, this is no problem at all. However, if the cat you are trying to feed is sick, then you may need to consider another food. The reason being that a weakened immune system could make them more susceptible to illness. This is common with cats who have cancer for example, and if this is the case for you cat then you may want to feed them a cooked food like NomNomNow instead. If your cat is healthy other than his loose stools, then this could be worth a try. You can learn more about this food here.
#4 – Dave’s Restricted Diet for Cats
Some animals who are very sensitive to many ingredients could benefit from a bland diet. A bland diet is simply one that includes very plain ingredients that are meant to be easily digestible to not mess with an animal’s stomach. This is normally given to animals which are ill or can’t keep food down. However, it can be a good choice for cats with diarrhea too as it can help to quiet their digestive system.
Dave’s pet food is a little known pet company that offers many different high-quality foods for pet parents facing various health issues with their cats. Their bland diets are composed of mostly meat, and they are grain free, low in phosphorous and feature some helpful ingredients for your cat. These include nutritious items such as salmon oil and liver, but they also feature pumpkin. The inclusion of pumpkin is a great item for cat’s with upsets stomachs or loose stools. It actually does a great job at helping your cat to maintain regularity. If you’ve tried everything else, then this could be a great option for you to pursue for cats who have particularly bad problems with diarrhea. If you’re interested in learning more about this great food, then you can read the reviews and see the full ingredients list here. The food currently comes in two flavors, pork or chicken.
#5 – Stella and Chewy
Interested in giving your pet the benefits of a raw diet but put off by the inconvenience? Stella and Chewy offer pet parents some easy to use options. Stella and Chew’s dinner morsels come in a variety of flavors, and they are comprise of 98% meat. They are freeze dried, and they can be fed as is or re-hydrated with water to give your cat much needed liquids.
In case you’re wonder what makes this product any different from Archetype which we included above, there is something different here. This food also includes pumpkin seeds. That might make this product slightly better for cats with serious digestive issues. The pumpkin can help settle their stomachs and keep their diarrhea from flaring up as much. Though honestly, both are quality products and either one would be a good choice for your cat. You can see the full ingredients and read some reviews for this food here.
Raw diets can be excellent for your pets, but if your cat has a lowered immune system or is ill, then they may not be the best choice. This is due to the potential, however small, for food-borne illness to be passed on to your cat. Sick animals can’t fight off these bugs as efficiently, so for them, a canned or fresh food would be a better option since it’s cooked. We would recommend NomNomNow, Halo or Dave’s for these animals as the best choices.
When choosing a food for your cat, try not to get frustrated if you don’t see results immediately. It may take a while to find a food which agrees with your cat’s digestive system. You’ll also need to be patient when swapping foods. It can take two weeks for an animal to fully adjust to a new diet, and swapping back and forth between foods or too quickly can actually cause them more stomach upset! Try to swap out their food gently by mixing a small portion of the new food in with their old food. You can then introduce it to them slowly to help them adjust and prevent stomach upsets. This is important for any animal, but it can be even more important for those who are already known to have digestion troubles. Even the best cat food for diarrhea can be a poor choice for your cat if you rush into things.
