Good quality food causing Bengal runny poo?

[ALeapOfFaith]

My 11 month Bengal girl has loose poo. She only goes once a day and it starts off fine, but turns runny half way through and on occasions has the odd streak of blood in it.

She came to us at 13 weeks on Royal Canin and a supermarket wet food. Over the months I've gradually transitioned her onto Natures Menu wet and Cannagans dried which are the best quality foods I can find.

She is an indoor cat, has monthly worm/flea treatment and has been checked by the vet. He believes she has mild colitis caused by the food being too rich and has recommended we switch back to an apparently easier to digest Royal Canin that didn't give her these issues.

I obviously will in the hope that it helps, but it goes against everything I've been reading regarding good quality cat food. Could her problems really be caused by the better food?

I know raw is good option for Bengals but unfortunately it's not something I'd want to give her.
Thanks

[caffeinestream]

Royal Canin is a perfectly decent brand in my experience.

Not all cats can cope with every food, unfortunately. It's often a case of trial and error to see what they can tolerate!

[ChestnutsRoastingOnAnOpenFire]

Sometimes food with high grain contents exacerbate colitis in cats with sensitive guts. Having said that my Burmese had terrible guts on German high meat content low/no grain food but are absolutely fine on Royal canin gastro and sensitive options (that I was told on the cat forum are rubbish!)

[ALeapOfFaith]

Thank you! Really appreciate your comments.

I got a bit of a lecture every time I bought a bag of the RC from my local pet shop about grains and fillers so it really put me off which is why I switched to the grain free foods they recommended. Just in our case, it's had the opposite effect.

We'll stick with the RC sensitive and see how she gets on. Thankfully she's gone back to eating it without the drama I had trying to encourage her off of it and onto the Canagans!

[ChestnutsRoastingOnAnOpenFire]

I think sometimes the high meat options have too much offal in. The German cans were stuffed with heart and kidneys. Probably too rich.

[caffeinestream]

I have a cat with a sensitive stomach too. We've recently had to switch his dry food as it was giving him the runs - luckily it seems to have worked!

Another plus is his poos hardly stink at all now!

[Penfold007]

Pengirl came to us with terrible tummy issues. Changing to grain free has made a huge difference. Natures Menu Country Hunter is her fave but we still avoid the beef variant. Runny poohs and smelly trumps are now rare.

[ChestnutsRoastingOnAnOpenFire]

Yes I agree about avoiding foods that contain meat they wouldn't eat by nature. We avoid beef and sheep products.

[mistermagpie]

I've got two Bengals, one of them had a persistent upset stomach for YEARS (the other was fine, they are brothers, go figure...) so I tried every food going.

I did go raw for a while and he was fantastic on it, but the company I used went out of business and I couldn't find another I liked.

I find dry food made it worse so he has been on wet food only for years. Bizarrely, he is now the best he has ever been and eats wet food from Lidl of all places! Even the vet was surprised. He has been prescribed probiotics from the vet a number of times over the years and this seems to 'reset' his system after he has had a bad stomach. I would recommend those. I can't remember the name but it's a paste, your vet will know what it is.

It has been trial and error for us. He is now 8 and has been fine for years but if he eats anything other than his food he can have trouble. So he doesn't get out and gets zero treats. I hope you get it sorted, bengals can be murder with their stomachs.

[ChestnutsRoastingOnAnOpenFire]

I think often they grow out of it as well. Mine were terrible as kittens but their guts have become stronger with age and now they are fine.

[EwanWhosearmy]

We had exactly the same with our Bengal female. I tried every sort of high quality food but nothing seemed to work.

Her son can eat anything and seems perfectly happy on Bakers Complete tins and a grainfree dry food.

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

We feed a mix of dry Applaws and Aldi version of Sheba with 2 or 3 raw meals a week. Anything else results in an upset stomach,it's trial and error.

[ALeapOfFaith]

Thanks for the replies, it is very helpful to know it's not a completely unusual problem. I guess if you have an outdoor cat you don't get to see the detail of every toilet activity but being an indoor one, you obviously notice these things a lot more.

I will definitely ask about the probiotics as they sound like a very good idea to try.

I'm staying well away from beef and rich wet meat now too. Fish Hilife pouches (tuna in jelly) seem to be a bit better so I'll just stick with those for now along with a little bit of the RC dry.

Blimey at one point I was worried about her not having enough variety in her diet now I'll just be grateful to find something she can eat without problems!

[Lonecatwithkitten]

Has you kitten had a faecal sample checked for giardia, I my practice we routinely check all kittens with diarrhoea/soft faces and blood and are getting positives in around 70% of cases with pedigrees more commonly affected.
If that is negative it is worth remembering that there is no one food that suits all cats, horses for courses.

[Davros]

If they should stick to protein they would eat naturally, we need one if these companies to bring out Mouse and Bird varieties
I recently questioned (on MN) my Bengal's brand of food because a friend's pedigrees found grain-free food too rich. Mewler is now settled on her James Wellbeloved and thankfully has had no tummy problems that I've seen. On the other hand, she does like to be sick