Best Cat Food For Sensitive Stomach And Diarrhea: Reviews And Complete Buying Guide

As your cat’s owner it’s hard to watch when your cat is having stomach problems. Your cat sure isn’t enjoying the process either. To fix that problem, we’re going to take a look at the best cat food for sensitive stomachs and diarrhea. We want to help your cat get better (and help you stop cleaning up messes).

We’re going to take a look at the best for several different scenarios. Let’s get started with our favorite overall.

In A Hurry? Here Are Our Top Picks…

• Purina ONE Sensitive Systems
• Royal Canin Response
• Royal Canin Digestive Care
• Nulo Grain Free
• Pet Ultimates Probiotic
• Purina Pro Plan Focus

Overall Best Cat Food For Sensitive Stomach And Diarrhea

Purina ONE Sensitive Systems

Purina One is our favorite product for sensitive stomachs. It makes for a vomit-free household by helping your kitty digest his or her food. At the price per pound, Purina One is very reasonable.

Purina’s Sensitive Systems food works by being easy to digest for your cat – more so than almost any other product on the market. That makes this food a great pick for cats who are throwing up for non-hairball-related reasons. This food doesn’t do a lot if your cat is struggling with hairballs though. You can check out our article about best cat food for hairballs if that’s where your struggles lie.

This formula focuses on providing your cat with the nutrients he or she needs while staying easy to digest. This sensitive-stomach-helping food has a ton of protein. Since a cat’s number one caloric need is from protein, this is a fit that your cat will appreciate.

High levels of protein will also help your cat maintain strong muscles. Since only a small part of this food has a lot of carbs, this is a great pick for active cats and lazier cats alike. It helps active cats stay active and helps cats on the sleepier side of the spectrum stay trim.

Purina also makes their food great for your kitty’s immune system. This cat food is loaded with antioxidants and omega fatty acids. Omegas aren’t as bad as they sound, so no worries here. Just to ice the cake, Purina made their food so that it eliminates plaque build-up and whitens your kitty’s teeth.

Purina sells their product at a great price per pound, so it is a good pick for budget shoppers.

What We Like

• Prevents vomiting by being easy to digest
• Helps immune system and long life with antioxidants and omega fatty acids
• Great for active cats and less active cats alike due to lots of protein
• Helps clean and white your cat’s teeth
• Great budget buy

What We Don’t Like

• Won’t help with hairballs (for that, read on)

Purina has a great solution for your cat if he or she is struggling with non-hairball vomit. This food helps with digestion, provides a balanced diet, improves immune systems, cleans teeth, and is at a very reasonable price per pound.

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Best Cat Food For Extreme Diarrhea Or Constipation

Royal Canin Response

Royal Canin’s cat food is our overall favorite pick if your cat is going through extreme diarrhea. This cat food also works on constipation and provides your cat with the nutrients that he or she will need.

Royal Canin’s cat food helps your cat handle his or her sensitive stomach and diarrhea by using probiotics and special dietary fibers, so it hits stomach problems from both ends. Probiotics make sure that food moves along the digestive track and dietary fibers make sure that the waste is eliminated with ease. Royal Canin also includes proteins that make digestion easier for your kitty.

This cat food will also go a long way towards helping your cat have a health immune system, organ health, skin, and fur. It is loaded with antioxidants, omegas, vitamins, and minerals. This cat food is high in protein so it’s a good fit for overweight and active cats. It packs a lot, but this cat food is pretty pricey per pound.

Since this food includes probiotics, dietary fibers, and lots of proteins, it’s a good pick for cats who have constipation as well. This food helps your cat get to pooping normal and having a health gut, whatever his or her extreme may be.

What We Like

• Prevents constipation by helping digestion
• Also stops constipation by use of powerful probiotics
• Improve your cats digestive health with unique proteins
• Lots of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and omega fatty acids (they are better than they sound)
• Good for overweight or active cats

What We Don’t Like

• Not the most budget loving option

Royal Canin’s food goes a long way towards stopping constipation and diarrhea to get your cat’s gut health back to normal. It’s our favorite pick if nothing else has worked or if your cat has some serious problems.

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Best Cat Food For Vomiting

Royal Canin Digestive Care

Royal Canin’s digestive care food is our favorite if your cat is suffering a lot from vomiting. This food attacks the problem from 2 directions and helps your cat get over his or her hardship.

Royal Canin makes the list again because their digestive care line attacks more than just diarrhea in your kitty. This food also takes care of vomiting by way of probiotics and a special blend of dietary fibers. This potent mix of probiotics and fiber helps your kitty to digest his or her food easier and pass it through the digestive track.

This food is has lots of proteins – the calorie source that your cat digests best. It has about 50% carbs though. That’s not a huge number and lower than most cat foods, but it’s pretty high for the foods on this list. High carbs can make your cat prone to weight gain. It’s not a deal breaker since in the overall scheme of cat food, 50% isn’t bad. But it’s worth being aware of.

Your cat will also get a balanced diet through lots of vitamins and minerals. This food helps your cat have and maintain a good coat, a strong immune system, and overall organ health.

Royal Canin takes special measures to prevent regurgitation with cats who tend to eat a little food fast. This cat food has a ring shape designed to slow your speedy kitty down while he or she is eating. His or her extra time spent eating helps the digestive system get through all the food that’s being shoved at it. It’s a great feature to prevent regurgitation vomiting.

What We Like

• Prevents constipation by probiotics
• Improves overall digestive health through fibers
• Easy to digest food makes this a great option for cats who are also vomiting
• High in protein
• Ring shaped kibble helps your cat to avoid regurgitation

What We Don’t Like

• Not super budget conscious, but not too bad
• More carbs than some options on our list

Royal Canin’s digestive care mix is our favorite option if your cat is struggling with constipation and vomiting. This food helps your cat expel his or her food easier and prevents regurtitation.

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Best Cat Food For Active Or Overweight Cats With Sensitive Stomachs

Nulo Grain Free

Nulo’s grain free cat food is our favorite option to help with sensitive stomachs if you have a cat who is active or on the heavier side.

Nulo works by helping your cat digest his or her food better. This is done by use of a special patented probiotic. This BC30 probiotic gets in your kitty’s gut and helps him or her to process all of the food in there. Nulo’s formula helps a lot with diarrhea and vomiting vomiting and a little bit with hairballs too, but it’s best for sensitive stomachs.

This is a great pick (and our favorite) if your cat is very active or is a little bit chunkier. Nulo tossed a ton of animal based proteins in their food, which is just what your cat needs. The proteins help your active cats to recover and keep going strong. The lack of carbs in this cat food helps your heavier cats to lose a few pounds since they aren’t getting too many calories.

Nulo is great at giving your cat healthy nutrients and it shows in their formula. Organ health and a shiny coat are included. Health problems such as osteoarthritis are prevented. The same ingredients that help your cat eat a lot of protein provide tons of vitamins, minerals, and omegas that your cat needs.

What We Like

• Prevents vomiting by being very easy to digest
• Helps active cats stay strong and helps overweight cats shed a few pounds
• Balanced diet loaded with proteins, vitamins, minerals, and omegas
• Promotes a clear coat, organ health, and strong muscles
• Prevents negative health issues

What We Don’t Like

• Helps a little with hairballs, but there are better options if hairballs are your main concern

Nulo is our favorite pick if you have an active or overweight cat who struggles with vomiting.

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Best Probiotic For Constipation

Pet Ultimates Probiotic

Strictly speaking, this isn’t a food that your cat could eat as a whole diet plan. This is more of a supplement, but it’s so powerful that we couldn’t leave it out.

The Pet Ultimates probiotics helps with your cat’s sensitive stomach and diarrhea by equipping your cat with what he or she needs to have a healthy digestive system. The colonies in this probiotic make bowel movements easier and more frequent for your kitty. This helps your cat get his or her food out of the digestive track so that it doesn’t get all backed up.

This probiotic isn’t a food and doesn’t include proteins, carbs, or fats. But that doesn’t mean that it won’t help your cat live happier and healthier. In addition to stopping diarrhea and sensitive stomachs, this formula helps cats with vomiting and smelly poop. Your kitty’s overall digestive health will take a big climb after eating this.

The probiotic also assists your cat with healthy skin, a shinier coat, and reduction of allergies. Pet Ultimates protects your cat from inflammations, infections, and helps your kitty’s organs stay healthy.

Pet Ultimates offers a dual guarantee on their product: if you haven’t noticed a positive change in your cat within 14 days, they will give you a full refund and you don’t have to send the product back. They also include a 90 guarantee where you will send back the unused portion. This is a company that’s confident in their product.

What We Like

• Stops constipation by complete digestive system health
• Also works with diarrhea, vomiting, and smelly poop
• Helps your cat have healthy skin and a shinier coat
• Protects against allergies, inflammations, infections, and organ disease
• Double guarantee on their product – if you don’t see a big change in your cat within 14 days, they refund you and you keep the product

What We Don’t Like

• Not an actual cat food – will need to be used in conjunction with another food

Pet Ultimates has created a probiotic that ranks high on our list of favorite products. It will have to be used with another food, but can help with almost any digestive problem your cat will ever face (and a lot of other things as well).

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Best Budget Cat Food For Sensitive Stomachs And Diarrhea

Purina Pro Plan Focus

Purina’s Focus brand is our favorite budget pick because it sells at a great price without losing much on the value side. It’s a great pick for budget shoppers.

Purina Focus helps your kitty’s sensitive stomach by giving your cat an extra boost of probiotics. These probiotics help with overall gut health and make sure that your kitty is able to pass his or her poop on a regular basis without any trouble. Purina also includes foods such as rice and oat meal that are easy on your kitty’s digestive system.

A downside here is that due to the rice and oat meal, your kitty will be taking in a lot of carbs. Carbs aren’t great for your kitty’s digestion in general and too many can promote weight gain. That said, there are tons of happy and healthy cats who eat lots of carbs, so it’s not a make or break thing.

In addition to probiotics to help with digestive health, this cat food has a lot of antioxidants to help your kitty’s immune system stay strong. Your kitty will get lots of minerals, vitamins, and omega fatty acids to help with his or her skin, coat, and overall organ health.

One disadvantage to the budget buy is that even though this cat food costs less in absolute terms, the cost per pound is a bit higher than with other foods. If you can afford it, it’s best to go with more pounds in one bag unless you’re trying a new food or just can’t make the ends meet.

This is a good pick if you need to feed your kitty and to save money too.

What We Like

• Great buy for budget shoppers
• Prevents diarrhea by giving probiotics to your kitty
• Easy to digest food makes this a great option for cats who are also vomiting
• Helps your kitties immune system
• Aids in skin, coat, and overall organ health with vitamins and minerals

What We Don’t Like

• High in carbs
• Higher cost per pound than other food

Purina Focus is our favorite option if you have to save the maximum amount of dollars with your cat food for constipation. This cat food doesn’t miss out on too much while coming in at a lower price than competitors.

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Things To Know Before You Buy

Your Guide To Your Kitty’s Nutrition

When buying cat food, one of the great hold ups is when we know our cat needs something, we just don’t know what. It seems like all companies are hailing their brand new, record breaking, earth shattering formula. “This is what your cat needs to be healthy!” they say.

But how do we really know?

Cat nutrition isn’t too difficult to understand once we take a look at it. You don’t need to be a certified vet to get a good grasp on what’s best for your cat. You just need to remember a single fact:

Cats are carnivores.

Being a carnivore means that cats can get all of their nutrition from meat. They don’t need peas and carrots, won’t appreciate collards on New Years, and can even go without avocado-laced superfoods.

Here’s why that’s important. All calories come from 3 sources: proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Humans need all 3 to have a balanced diet. Cats get by on just fats and proteins. Fats and proteins are all that some cats eat since meats often do not contain carbs.

A lot of modern cat food doesn’t follow a cat’s natural diet and preferences though. Many cat foods include carbohydrates since carbs are an easier and less expensive way to give your cat some extra nutrients. This isn’t a problem since carbs aren’t usually bad for cats.

The only time that carbs are bad for cats is when carbs don’t allow your cat to eat enough proteins. Not enough proteins and too many carbs can lead to overweight cats, lazy cats, and even diabetes. Being overweight for a cat is much like being overweight for a human: mortality and chronic problems rise across the board.

This isn’t to say to make sure your cat doesn’t get carbs. This is to say that you’ll want to make sure your cats get a high amount of protein. All the items we’ve reviewed above cover this requirement, but some do it better than others. High amounts of protein help your cat to stay trim and energetic. Protein has a higher chance of giving your cat all the nutrients he or she needs.

When it comes down to it, just remember: cats are carnivores. You don’t have to feed him or her like a carnivore. But you can’t go wrong if you do.

Cat Food Or A Probiotic?

Solving your kitty’s stomach issues is a big deal and it’s easy to look at all the possible solutions and get overwhelmed. In particular, should your cat get a probiotic or an actual cat food? What’s the difference?

First off, probiotics are a supplement. They aren’t a food and have few if any calories that your pet needs to survive. Probiotic supplements work by adding nutrients to your kitty’s meal. These probiotics can add extra vitamins, minerals, omega fatty acids, and add good bacteria to your cat’s stomach. Good bacteria helps keep everything in balance and helps your kitty digest his or her meals.

Cat food can be used without probiotics, but probiotics can’t be used without cat food. Probiotics are a good choice if you think that your cat isn’t getting all that he or she needs from regular cat food. Maybe you think your cat’s coat could be more shiny or see that your cat is still having some minor stomach problems. Think of probiotics like a multivitamin: a probiotic can be a good addition to your cat’s diet, but often isn’t necessary.

We recommend that any owner’s first step be to change the cat food before going on a probiotic. Many owners may find that a cat food for sensitive stomachs is enough on its own and you won’t have to go to the extra expense of getting a probiotic.

If you’ve tried a food change and no luck yet, then we suggest going with special cat food like we’ve recommended above and a probiotic supplement. Either way, it’s best to get probiotics when other solutions haven’t worked or if you think your cat still needs a little help. Many cat foods already have a small amount of probiotics in them, so only go with a supplement if nothing else has worked.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if my cat doesn’t like his or her new food?

Cats can be picky eaters and it’s not guaranteed that yours will fall in love with his or her new meal.

Have no fear. The same skill that made the steam engine can help your cat change his or her diet: we just need a little creativity.

If your cat isn’t loving the new meals you’re putting on the bowl, you can try to change your kitty’s diet a bite at a time. First, start with something like 90% of the original food and 10% of the new. Over the course of a few weeks, change that percentage at a rate your cat will eat. Go to 75% original and 25% new, then 50% and 50%, then 25% original and 75% new, all the way until you’ve made the full change.

Cats, like people, enjoy the feeling that they are having a bit of input in a decision. As long as you’re making the change gradual for your special guy or gal, he or she won’t mind it too much over the long run. Just give a little extra affection and be patient. Good things come to those who wait (and our cats are worth waiting for).

Can I feed this to my kitten?

You can, but it’s best to buy a kitten specific food. As cats grow older, their dietary needs change. These changes are never so pronounced as they are during the first year of life.

What are the benefits of grain free?

As we discussed in the Things To Know Before You Buy section, carbs aren’t always the best option for your cat. Grains can sometimes be hard to digest and having a cat food without them can go even further to prevent vomiting.

Best Brands

Blue Buffalo

Blue Buffalo started when the Bishop family’s dog Blue developed cancer. This family didn’t just sit down and take it. They were convinced that Blue had developed cancer because of unhealthy ingredients in common dog foods. The Bishops set out to provide healthy, nutritious food for dogs and cats. They want to increase health, life, and happiness.

Purina ONE

Purina started all the way back in 1894 when Willam Danforth began feeding farm animals. Since then, they have expanded to take care of all our home pets. Purina strives to lead the charge in helping animals of all shapes and sizes live their happiest and healthiest lives. They back their products with the top notch in scientific research so that your cat can be healthy.

Hill’s Science Diet

As you could guess by the name, Hill’s Science Diet wants to be a leader in the field of science. Since the 1930s, Hill’s Science Diet has been led by the mission of enriching the relationship between people and animals. They think that when we give our cats good nutrition, we give our cats a better life. Hill’s wants to provide that life for your cat.

Royal Canin

Jean Cathery was born in the French town of Puy-en-Velay. When he began working as a vet for horses and bulls, he started to believe that the food we fed animals could impact their health. Royal Canin was born when Jean decided that he would take a stand. He would provide cats and dogs with the nutrition they needed.

Nulo

Nulo wants to provide nutrition and love (Nu + lo) in every bite of their cat food. Nulo started when a man named Michael realized that pet foods were filled with empty calories. Dogs and cats could eat the foods, but these animals would never know their best health. Michael’s goal is to challenge the status quo and give animals the nutrition they deserve.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading our guide on best cat food for sensitive stomachs and diarrhea! When it comes down to it, the best cat food for your kitty will be the one that suits his or her unique needs best.

First, ask yourself what the true underlying problem is, not the symptoms. If your cat vomiting with diarrhea? If you’re sure that he or she isn’t sick, then it’s probably going to be an overall digestive problem. If it is only vomit or only diarrhea, the best food for you will be different than if it’s both. If your cat struggles with hairballs, there are foods for that too.

You should also think about whether or not your kitty is active or lazy. For active kitties, you’ll want a lot of protein in his or her diet to fuel strong muscles. For lazy cats, avoiding carbs may be best if you don’t want your kitty to gain weight.

Last, take a look at the other benefits of your cat food. Some foods offer special blends of vitamins and minerals to promote overall health. Other foods are a little bit more lax.

If we could recommend a single product, the Purina One is our favorite since it helps soothe sensitive stomachs and end diarrhea for a great price.