10 Best Cat Foods for Diarrhea in Canada – 2024 Reviews & Top Picks
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When your cat has an upset stomach, you want them to feel better as soon as possible. A single episode of diarrhea isn’t something to worry about, but chronic diarrhea may indicate that it’s time for a diet change. Many cat foods are designed specifically for sensitive stomachs and digestive issues, but it can be hard to know which one to choose.
We went through hundreds of different cat foods to bring you these reviews of the 10 best cat foods for diarrhea in Canada. We also give you a few tips on what to look for and how to know when your cat’s diarrhea is something more serious.
A Quick Comparison of the Winners (2024)
| Rating | Image | Product | Details | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Best Overall
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Hill’s Science Diet Sensitive Stomach |
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Best Value
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Blue Buffalo Sensitive Stomach |
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Premium Choice
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Purina ONE Sensitive Systems |
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Royal Canin Feline Health Nutrition |
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Hill’s Science Diet Perfect Digestion |
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The 10 Best Cat Foods for Diarrhea in Canada
1. Hill’s Science Diet Sensitive Stomach Cat Food — Best Overall
| Main ingredients: | Chicken, brewers rice, corn gluten meal, whole-grain corn |
| Protein content: | 29% |
| Fat content: | 17% |
| Calories: | 524 kcal/cup |
Hill’s Science Diet Sensitive Stomach is our number-one choice for the overall best cat food for diarrhea in Canada. This easily digested recipe includes prebiotics to improve your cat’s digestive health and make it easy for them to absorb the nutrients from their meals.
The downside to Hill’s Science Diet cat food is the cost. It’s more expensive than most box store brands, but it has the quality nutrition that you would expect from prescription food.
- Promotes overall digestive health
- Easy to digest
- Reduces diarrhea and vomiting
- Doesn’t require a prescription
- Expensive
2. Blue Buffalo Sensitive Stomach Cat Food — Best Value
| Main ingredients: | Deboned chicken, chicken meal, brown rice |
| Protein content: | 32% |
| Fat content: | 16% |
| Calories: | 422 kcal/cup |
Blue Buffalo Sensitive Stomach is the best cat food for diarrhea in Canada for the money. It’s made with all-natural ingredients and no preservatives. You can feel good about offering this quality nutrition, soothing your cat’s digestive upset, and spending less on cat food.
This recipe is formulated with specific nutrients to support your cat’s heart, eyes, digestion, immune system, and skin and coat. It also has an appropriate calorie level to help with weight management.
While Blue Buffalo cat food is relatively easy to find, this sensitive stomach recipe isn’t. You’ll likely have to order this food online, making it less convenient than most other options.
- All natural ingredients
- Vitamins and nutrients to support your cat’s whole health
- Balanced calorie level to promote a healthy body weight
- Reduces diarrhea
- Hard to find in stores
3. Purina ONE Sensitive Systems Cat Food — Premium Choice
| Main ingredients: | Turkey, chicken by-product meal, rice flour |
| Protein content: | 34% |
| Fat content: | 13% |
| Calories: | 449 kcal/cup |
Purina ONE Sensitive Systems uses turkey as the number-one ingredient in this recipe, so it’s a great choice if your cat has a sensitivity to chicken. This high-protein food maintains your cat’s lean muscle mass, but it’s also easy to digest.
The downside of Purina ONE is that it’s more expensive than most other brands. However, if your cat is struggling with diarrhea, customer reviews show that this food offers better diarrhea control than many other foods. While many brands target vomiting and diarrhea in their sensitive stomach recipes, Purina ONE specifically addresses diarrhea.
- Formulated for diarrhea control
- Turkey is the number-one ingredient
- High protein
- Expensive
4. Royal Canin Kitten Food
| Main ingredients: | Water, pork by-products, chicken, chicken liver |
| Protein content: | 11% |
| Fat content: | 3% |
| Calories: | 130 kcal/can |
If you’ve got a kitten with diarrhea, you need food that addresses their tummy issues and still provides quality nutrition for young, growing cats. Royal Canin Feline Health Nutrition Kitten Food meets both criteria. It has easy-to-digest proteins to solve your cat’s diarrhea problem and includes all the vitamins and nutrients needed for healthy growth and development.
This is wet food, so it’s less cost-effective than dry kibble. Ideally, it should be paired with Royal Canin’s dry kitten food.
- Made specifically for kittens
- Easy-to-digest proteins
- Reduces incidences of diarrhea
- Appealing to picky cats
- Expensive
- Should be paired with dry food
5. Hill’s Science Diet Perfect Digestion Cat Food
| Main ingredients: | Salmon, brown rice, corn gluten meal |
| Protein content: | 29% |
| Fat content: | 14% |
| Calories: | 469 kcal/cup |
Our next choice of cat food for diarrhea is Hill’s Science Diet Perfect Digestion. This recipe is slightly different than Hill’s Sensitive Stomach recipe and specifically targets gut health and digestion. It’s nutritionally complete and easy to find without needing a prescription. The bag even claims that your cat will have “perfect poop” in 7 days with this food, which suggests that it’s incredibly effective at solving diarrhea issues.
As with other Hill’s foods, this one is expensive. It also has a flavour that many cats don’t like, and it may take your kitty a while to adjust to eating this recipe.
- Targets gut health
- No prescription required
- Expensive
- Picky cats don’t like the flavour
6. Halo Holistic Sensitive Stomach Cat Food
| Main ingredients: | Whitefish, salmon, dried egg product |
| Protein content: | 32% |
| Fat content: | 16% |
| Calories: | 414 kcal/cup |
Halo Holistic Sensitive Stomach is carefully balanced to reduce food intolerances and improve digestion. Halo claims to be a holistic, clean cat food company, so this food has no contamination or unnaturally raised ingredients. Halo goes above and beyond to ensure that you are getting real ingredients. Unfortunately, this also makes its food more expensive than most other brands.
Picky cats love the taste of Halo Holistic food, though, so it’s a good choice if you’re having trouble getting yours to eat. Customer reviews also indicate that it does a good job of reducing both diarrhea and vomiting episodes. The litter box is also less smelly overall, which is something that every cat owner can appreciate.
- Holistic option
- Loved by picky eaters
- Less smell in the litter box
- Expensive
7. Royal Canin Feline Health Sensitive Digestion Cat Food
| Main ingredients: | Chicken by-product meal, chicken fat, corn gluten meal |
| Protein content: | 33% |
| Fat content: | 20% |
| Calories: | 469 kcal/cup |
Royal Canin Feline Health Sensitive Digestion has many options for cats with sensitive digestive systems. This one contains easily digested ingredients and prebiotics to promote healthy gut flora. This recipe’s kibble shape is unique to encourage your cat to eat. The nutritional quality of this recipe is concentrated, so you can feed your cat small portions. This makes this variety more cost-effective and easier to feed to picky cats, as you don’t have to give them as much.
Royal Canin Sensitive Digestion seems to fix digestive issues for some cats but create them in others. The kibble also has an oily coating that some cats refuse to touch.
- Easily digested ingredients
- Concentrated nutrition
- Uniquely shaped kibble
- Doesn’t work for all cats
- Kibble has an oily coating
8. Earthborn Holistic Primitive Feline Cat Food
| Main ingredients: | Turkey meal, chicken meal, peas |
| Protein content: | 40% |
| Fat content: | 18% |
| Calories: | 395 kcal/cup |
Earthborn Holistic Primitive Feline Grain-Free Cat Food is a grain-free option for cats with diarrhea. It includes all-natural, quality ingredients like spinach, cranberries, carrots, blueberries, and apples. The high protein content comes from all-animal sources to maintain your cat’s muscle mass.
This recipe targets the health of your cat’s skin and coat and their immune system. As a bonus, Earthborn Holistic’s packaging is resealable and 100% recyclable.
While this food resolves diarrhea in many cats, it’s not specifically for sensitive stomachs. Serious cases may require a prescription diet food.
- Quality ingredients
- Animal-sourced protein
- Promotes skin health and immune health
- Resealable, recyclable packaging
- Not specifically made for sensitive stomachs
9. Royal Canin Feline Care Digestive Care Cat Food
| Main ingredients: | Brewers rice, wheat gluten, chicken meal, chicken fat |
| Protein content: | 36% |
| Fat content: | 13% |
| Calories: | 350 kcal/cup |
Royal Canin Digestive Care is a prescription food for sensitive stomach and digestive concerns. It’s specifically formulated to control diarrhea, vomiting, and hairballs.
The prebiotics and high fiber levels promote easy digestion. The kibble is ring-shaped, which is meant to slow down digestion and therefore help your cat absorb as many nutrients as possible from the food. The company claims that 10 days on this food will produce 42% fewer stools for your cat.
Since this is a prescription food, it is more expensive than most other brands. It also tastes a bit different, so it can be hard for picky cats to get used to the flavour.
- Specifically formulated for digestive issues
- Slows down digestion
- Ring-shaped kibble improves absorption
- Fewer stools
- Expensive
- Picky eaters don’t care for the flavour
10. Purina Pro Plan Focus Sensitive Stomach Cat Food
| Main ingredients: | Lamb, rice, corn gluten meal |
| Protein content: | 40% |
| Fat content: | 18% |
| Calories: | 539 kcal/cup |
Purina Pro Plan Focus Sensitive Stomach offers a novel protein option for cats with sensitive stomachs and skin. It’s rare to see a sensitive digestion cat food that doesn’t use chicken as the primary protein. This recipe contains easy-to-digest ingredients to promote overall gut health.
The kibble in Purina Pro Plan cat food is softer than you might expect, so its appeals to picky cats and those with mouth or dental issues.
The downside of this food is that you will go through quite a large amount of it, so it’s less cost-effective overall.
- Includes a novel protein
- Promotes gut health
- Soft kibble pieces
- Less cost-effective
Buyer’s Guide: How to Pick the Best Cat Food for Diarrhea
What Is Diarrhea?
Diarrhea in cats is similar to what it is in humans: watery, loose stools. Sometimes when cats have diarrhea, they will use the litter box more frequently.
Usually, diarrhea is a result of food moving through the digestive tract faster than it should. This means your cat is absorbing fewer nutrients from their food. This is also why most foods for cats with diarrhea are designed to slow down the digestive process.
The causes of diarrhea can vary and include viruses, bacteria, worms, or sensitivity to certain foods. It’s important to monitor your cat’s litter box trips, including how often they’re going, how long they have had diarrhea, and if the diarrhea is constant or a one-off episode.
When to Be Concerned
Cat’s bowel habits can change from time to time, and it’s important to note whether your cat has a one-off episode of diarrhea or if they have diarrhea every day. Much like humans, cats can have episodes of loose stools that aren’t a cause for concern. They may have eaten something that they shouldn’t, it’s hot out and they’re overheated, or they just aren’t feeling well. If it clears up on its own, it probably doesn’t warrant a rush visit to the vet.
If your cat has regular diarrhea, you need to get their bowel habits back to normal. It’s a good idea to have them see the vet to make sure there isn’t a bigger problem. They may be given a dewormer to ensure that that isn’t the problem.
The biggest concern with chronic diarrhea in cats is dehydration. When diarrhea persists, cats lose important nutrients and water. Sometimes this can be corrected by giving them wet food or extra water to drink; other times, it requires veterinary intervention.
Food Sensitivities
Diarrhea is often caused by the food that your cat consumes. Sometimes it’s because they ate something that they shouldn’t have or because their food is changed too quickly and their system has trouble adjusting. Other times, it’s the ingredients in the cat food.
Switching to a gentle food designed to alleviate digestive upset can help you determine if food is indeed the cause.
- High fiber — Fiber helps firm up stool by absorbing excess fluid.
- High protein — Protein gives your cat energy when they are lacking.
- Prebiotics — Prebiotics and probiotics help regulate healthy bacteria in the gut. This reduces the chance of digestive issues, including diarrhea.
- Vitamins and nutrients — Certain vitamins, like vitamins A, E, and C, help promote the health of your cat’s immune system.
Final Verdict
To recap these reviews, the best overall cat food for cats with diarrhea in Canada is Hill’s Science Diet Sensitive Stomach. This food offers high-quality nutrition and is great for cats with sensitive stomachs. The best value cat food for cats with diarrhea is Blue Buffalo Sensitive Stomach. This recipe improves your cat’s gut health, offers complete nutrition, and is available at a lower price than many other brands. Purina ONE Sensitive Systems is our premium recommendation. This food offers some of the best diarrhea control of any food on this list. Royal Canin Feline Health Nutrition Kitten Food is the best option to maintain healthy growth and development in kittens with sensitive tummies. Hill’s Science Diet Perfect Digestion is great for clearing up gut issues and restoring your cat’s bowels.
Featured Photo Credit: Chendongshan, Shutterstock
