Why do cats get diarrhea when you change their food?
One of the main reasons cats get diarrhea when you change their food is because you accidently overfeed them when you switch to the new food. This is very common when you switch from dry food to wet food, or vice versa, because it is hard to measure out the same amounts between the different textures. We recommend using a measuring cup the first couple of times you feed your cat the new food.
Change in food textures throws off your cat’s stomach. This is also very common when switching between wet and dry cat food. If your cat’s stomach is used to taking in soft, wet cat food, it will have a hard time trying to adjust to digesting bigger, harder dry food.
Cat allergies is another common reason why cats get diarrhea when you change their food. Between the flavors and main ingredients, the makeup of different cat foods nowadays varies a lot. There is definitely a chance that your cat is allergic to something in the new cat food. This is often the cause if your cat continues to have diarrhea two weeks after you switch the food.
Change. Yep, just change. If you have had a cat for a long time, you are very well aware that cats are animals of habit. They like to keep things as they are, and even the smallest of changes can give them anxiety. Sometimes even moving a piece of furniture to a different spot can make them anxious and even cause diarrhea. Therefore, when you change your cat’s food, the sudden change makes them anxious and can cause them to have diarrhea. This is especially common when you are changing a cat’s food that they have been eating for years.
How to properly change your cat’s food
If you are changing your cat’s food, it is very important that you don’t change it all at once. You should start off by only adding small portions of the new food to the old food. You should increase the new food little by little until you are serving only the new food. We recommend doing this over a span of 10 days. This will help your cat’s digestive system get used to the new food change.
Other Causes of Diarrhea
Although your cat’s diarrhea coincided exactly to when you changed food, it doesn’t mean that the food 100% is causing the diarrhea in your cat. Below are some other reasons that your cat could have diarrhea: allergies, worms, hyperthyroidism, food poisoning, and colitis.
