# Cat food recommendation



## Paige&Lily (Nov 4, 2010)

My mom has a 10 year old cat that she "inherited" from my brother in law when he was deployed after 9/11. So she has had her for most of her life. She is indoors, spayed, and declawed, and she throws up what I call "food tubes" once or twice a day-undigested food, shortly after eating. Occasionally mom says she throws up a hairball, but mostly just food. She eats Iams hairball formula, but I was just wondering if anyone might have a suggestion of a more easily digestible food. This hasn't bothered my mom (and doesn't seem to bother the cat at all) until now, but she's thinking about moving and doesn't want to ruin the carpet in another house (her carpets are older than me so they don't really matter!). Any ideas would be appreciated-thanks!


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

Our two cats had a problem with that for awhile. I recently switched (about 2 months ago) them to the ProPlan hairball formula and I top it with some Benefiber powder. I heard fiber helps, so I figured it couldn't hurt to try it. It seems to be working since they have GREATLY decreased the amount of puking since I made the switch.


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## Stretchdrive (Mar 12, 2011)

Sounds like a good question for a longhaired cat breeder, or a national cat breed club. Look some up, I am sure they wouldn't mind answering the question and would have the best advice for you.


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## lgnutah (Feb 26, 2007)

How do you get the cat to eat benefiber? 
BTW, my cat started throwing up about a year ago. The vet said maybe he was eating too fast. Took him a second time he gave a shot (maybe cortisone, I can't remember). The third time he gave me some pills. 
I switched foods until I found one he tolerated: Evo (the ancestral diet) chicken flavor (dry cat food). 
That stopped the vomiting for quite a while. I also give him a dollop of Vaseline on top of his nose about once a week to prevent hairballs.
However the vomitting returned, not all the time, but frequently, so I took him to a different vet who checked his kidney function. I found out he has kidney failure. One of the symptoms of kidney failure is nausea (which then could cause vomiting). The vet said dry cat food is hard on the cat's kidneys, so we have switched to canned and even add a little water to that.


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## jackie_hubert (Jun 2, 2010)

I have a long haired kitty who has not had a hairball in over half a year - healthy cats don't have them. Wet food will decrease or completely eliminate hairballs. Cats should be on mostly wet food anyways, especially if they're not drinking enough, granted that they will eat it. How much does the cat drink per day? If she's eating only kibble it should be a considerable amount. We do EVO canned and raw.


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

:wavey:


lgnutah said:


> How do you get the cat to eat benefiber?
> .


It has a texture almost of cornstarch. I actually mix it in with the dry kibble and it leaves a thin layer on the kibble pieces. It's supposed to be flavorless and odorless. It seems to be fine since the cats eat their food! 

We had a hell of a time figuring out why ours were puking. After about $1000 in vet bills, kitty enemas (ew), trying wet food only (which made it 1000 times worse), trying a mix of wet food and dry food, trying hairball gels, trying various medications, etc we tried this and it's worked the best out of all of them.


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## Jamm (Mar 28, 2010)

Jesse is six and short hair but he has never had a hairball in his life. He eats Fromm as well as Joey. Dry his whole life, he didn't like wet food and although he doesn't have this issue, the first thing that comes to mind for your kitty would be eating to fast causing throwing up. Maybe try a slow feed bowl? Or putting a ball in the bowl so that when the cat is eating it has to move the ball around to get to the food..


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

My cat has thrown up after eating nearly all her life. A friend suggested switching to grain free food, Wellness Core. It has helped quite a bit, didn't eliminate the vomiting but drastically reduced the frequency. Cats are carnivorous, they don't need the grains or vegetables in most cat food.


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## Paige&Lily (Nov 4, 2010)

Thank you for all the responses. I know my mom really doesn't want to mess with wet food, she's fed that to cats in the past and it makes such a mess if they don't eat it all right away. I know with my cats it was usually from eating too fast, but since she is an only cat and has food all the time I don't know why she would be wolfing it down, but maybe when she decides to finally eat it that's what she does. I think first of all I'll just try switching to a different dry food-I printed off the pro-plan coupon and think I'll get her a bag at Petsmart tonight to try. If she continues we might try grain free, I know cat really don't need carbs!


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## CarolinaCasey (Jun 1, 2007)

Charlotte began to do this when I switched her to Fromm. Since going back to Pro Plan, we haven't had many problems. Our vet suggested Laxatone to help the hairplug get thru instead of being thrown up. He also suggested that we feed her 2 meals slightly closer together. Sometimes when the belly is empty for too long they throw up.


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## Bender (Dec 30, 2008)

We have a longhaired cat and she's never had an issue with hairballs.

She does however get meals. Not free fed. Tried free feeding her and she ate herself sick so that didn't last long! She is on kirkland cat food twice a day (dry) usually with a fish oil capsule on every other day, and wet food mixed in once a day. Not sure if it's the meals or what but no issues. Maybe the amount of food plus the oil pushes everything through her or something. Every now and then she also gets chicken bones/meat, something like a chicken neck or a wingtip or back. I read the bone drags the hair through their system as well.


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## lgnutah (Feb 26, 2007)

an empty stomach makes my cats throw up (when they do get food), so I try to put food out every 3 hours


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

CarolinaCasey said:


> Charlotte began to do this when I switched her to Fromm. Since going back to Pro Plan, we haven't had many problems. Our vet suggested Laxatone to help the hairplug get thru instead of being thrown up. He also suggested that we feed her 2 meals slightly closer together. Sometimes when the belly is empty for too long they throw up.


We tried all the hairball remedies - Laxatone, Petromalt, this weird one that smelled like grass...none of them stopped the puking. Ours will still puke if their bowl goes empty and then they eat a lot. But not much otherwise. It was a 2-3x daily occurrence before.


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## Paige&Lily (Nov 4, 2010)

Bender said:


> We have a longhaired cat and she's never had an issue with hairballs.
> 
> She does however get meals. Not free fed. Tried free feeding her and she ate herself sick so that didn't last long! She is on kirkland cat food twice a day (dry) usually with a fish oil capsule on every other day, and wet food mixed in once a day. Not sure if it's the meals or what but no issues. Maybe the amount of food plus the oil pushes everything through her or something. Every now and then she also gets chicken bones/meat, something like a chicken neck or a wingtip or back. I read the bone drags the hair through their system as well.


I like the fish oil idea-my mom would probably go for that one. I'll suggest it to her too.


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## Judi (Feb 26, 2007)

Precise is good.


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## Hershey (Oct 31, 2009)

I'd cut way way back on the dry and feed primarily a good canned food, if you can. cats digest canned better. they are obligate carnivores and many don;t do well on dry. (some will get fat due to the equivalent of eating twinkies and potato chips all day every day, while others will vomit it right back up).


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