Cat can't eat grain free has bad tummy now

jessisme

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Trying to give my cat a better quality food I've given him diarrhoea. He's on wet food because of teeth extraction, only has his fangs and bottom front teeth now. 7 days post op.
I tried him on grain free dry food months ago and same thing happened. Bought him the holistic select grain free and he's had a couple cans and it's gone straight through him and he's gone off his food now.
I bought him some chicken mince ( human grade) I'll give him some of that a bit later to try to calm his tummy down. Not like he hasn't been through enough. I feel bad.
 

denice

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One of my kitties can't eat the high quality grain free foods, will give her diarrhea every time.  I don't know exactly what the cause is.  A few people have told me that the foods are too 'rich' for some kitties, not sure exactly what that means.
 

jenny82

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Did you try changing the food gradually by mixing it in with the old food over time? Sometimes a sudden switch can cause tummy issues.
 

stephanietx

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I have one cat who doesn't tolerate grain free.  I have to feed him a prescription food.  For about the first month, we fed him the Rx food (dry), but continued feeding him canned grain-free.  Now, we're able to feed him grain-free canned and a combination of grain-free dry and the Rx dry mix.  I would say the dry food mix is 3:1 Rx:GF dry.
 
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jessisme

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I've tried the gradual mix, by the time with get half and half the runny bowel movements start. So I gave up.
I think it's the vegetables they put in as fillers. All foods have fillers unless you go raw. Some cats just can't digest the vegetables as well.
 

lisahe

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I've tried the gradual mix, by the time with get half and half the runny bowel movements start. So I gave up.
I think it's the vegetables they put in as fillers. All foods have fillers unless you go raw. Some cats just can't digest the vegetables as well.
The vegetables can be a real problem: one of our cats doesn't handle potato well. As our vet said, potato shouldn't be in cat food in the first place! I avoid all carby vegetables--potatoes, peas, carrots--in their foods as well as grains and carrageenan, which can irritate some cats' digestive systems.

There are quite a few canned foods that don't have carby fillers or carrageenan, though. A few brands that we feed our cats are Merrick LID (pate), Tiki (large pieces and shreds), Weruva's Cats in the Kitchen canned foods (small shreds), Hound & Gatos (pate), Bravo (does have small amounts of dandelion greens but carbs are low; there are pates and "minced" foods), Soulistic (shreds), and Nutro Natural Choice (various textures). There other pate foods that are just meat, too, like Wild Calling, Fancy Feast Classics, and some Newman's Own. There are plenty more and of course there's a lot of label-reading involved but I hope you're able to find something that suits your cat's stomach.

If you do find that you need to switch to raw food, there are lots of commercial raw foods that are good. Our cats eat Primal (which has vegetables as nutrients but still low carb levels) and Rad Cat every day and love both brands.

Good luck!
 
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