Hi there,

I'm new here & was looking for some advice about my lovely cat, Lupin (see introduction forum for pictures!) I adopted Lupin two weeks ago, from a family who didn't have the time for him anymore. He is a ten month old neutered male.

When I got Lupin, he was on a terrible diet - cheap Go Cat & nothing else. His owners said he didn't like wet food I immediately switched him over to two pouches of Hilife (the 60% meat wet food) & a couple of small handfuls of Applaws dry food per days, which he is loving.

My problem is that his stools are pretty loose & often very smelly (the smell actually once woke me up in the middle of the night!) He also had some diarrhea this morning. I have no idea if this is related to his sudden change in diet, or something else - I would have thought two weeks would be long enough to adjust to a new diet. I was under the impression that I was feeding him the best food within the limits of money & practicality, but am concerned I am somehow making a mistake. From what I remember, his stools were not this bad to start with.

Does anybody have any ideas, things for me to try etc?

Hi, my cat has a sensitive stomach (although it is getting tougher now and I can feed him a few different things!)

normal chicken is fine

plus these sensitive wet foods from zooplus -

Kattovit Gastro 6x 175g: Great Deals on Kattovit Cat Food at zooplus

Integra Canned Cat Food at zooplus

Animonda vom Feinsten for Neutered Cats 6 x 100 g: Great Deals on Animonda Cat Food at zooplus

Mainly the idea is to have a single source protein cat food so grau (which has rice in small quantities too which can help sensitive stomachs) and applaws/feline porta chicken should be ok too.

He may be stressed from being rehomed so his stomach might settle down a bit more in time. My cat has liked all the ones I linked to above but he has gone off them too. I found the kattovit seemd to result in overly dried poos once his runs had stopped so then stuck to integra and animonda. He loved the animonda turkey and (very tiny amounts of salami) and ate only that for a few months. Then just after I'd ordered another load from zooplus he told me he'd gone off it now

I've tried other stuff now he's got a bit bored with those and he does seem to manage eg hilife which he couldn't before. (Although I stuck to the poultry varieties rather than the more mixed fish ones but he's gone off that now anyway!) I still look out for mainly one source of protein now with perhaps a small amount of meat of another animal. I wouldn't risk eg butchers classic although I think that's an alright food for cats in general without sensitive tummies to have sometimes.

If he is a bit stressed from the move feliway plug-ins may help too although they never did with my cat. Zylkene capsules seemed to have helped him though.

Hi Lupin&Co and welcome to PF

Patch had runny poo's and was throwing up on occassion for a month after we adopted him (no probs with Lucky though). We were feeding felix and go cat (didn't know any better) at the time. We moved him onto Hills sensitive stomach and he got much better , but when we changed to Hills and Hi-Life pouches from the Felix we had the same issue.

Give Lupin some more time to get used to the food but if it still happens try the sensitive food.

Oh, and well done for rescuing him from the previous home.

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It is probably the sudden change in diet and house. When changing a cats diet you should very slowly add in the new food to the old food over a couple of weeks slowly increasing the amount of new and decresing the amount of old. He will get better, it wa just a shock to his system.

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please look at my website - www.finesthourcats.webs.com - for gorgeous GCCF registered RagaMuffins

Thanks - this is really great advice & very re-assuring! I just wanted to make sure I wasn't poisoning him, I guess. I know I should have changed gradually, but I really couldn't bring myself to buy the Go Cat, which is pretty pathetic, I realise, but there you go.

I'll persevere with the current diet for another couple of weeks, then try out the sensitive foods if there's no improvement - thanks so much for the links to those, which are a huge help.

Luckily, I have managed to "train" Lupin to poo outside in the mornings, so the process is not so bad for me ... I still have to watch, though, to check the consistency ... yuck!

Thanks again