Just eat the damn food! Advice please

[MyAlmaMater]

I have two rescues who have been with us for a year. Lots of trial and error around cat food. They came to us on Felix but I moved them onto higher meat content/less crap in the food brands within a month or so as we had one vomiting and the other with a loose tummy. Both checked at vets and told they were fine.

Since then I've gone round in circles with various food all from the zooplus website. I usually go for a mixture of a) something for sensitive tummies and b) what we can afford (usually no higher than about £5/kg).

The last order came with three/four brands which I was quite confident I could rotate as they seemed ok with them all - the flavour is the same for three brands and the last one is a mixture but main meat is always beef.

They just do not seem as interested as before. Have gone through pretty much all brands on the website and am considering just reverting back to Felix but worried about the vomiting and runny tummy again.

Any advice would be very much appreciated

Not sure if the above was clear - so one brand is all tuna, the other one is all chicken, the third is all turkey/veal and last brand all mainly beef.

Do you just switch foods and then they get a runny stomach?

Cheddar was really sicky when I got her. I tried loads of different brands. The one that stopped it was Sainsbury's complete. It's wheat free. My other cat doesn't like it much so they are both on iams vitality. Also wheat free. And it seems to have solved the problem.

@MadCatEnthusiast when they moved in I continued giving them Felix but was met with lots of runny poo from one cat and vomiting from the other cat. That's when I started looking into cat food more and put them on higher meat/grain free foods. I do think with hindsight that I should've introduced new brands gradually (which I didn't, I just switched them over).

Now, the cat with the loose poo is usually ok although still not very 'formed'.
Vomity cat still vomits about once a week but we're quite sure that's a combination of her being longer haired and eating grass.

I just want to find food they'll actually happily eat that wont set them off with poops and pukes. Funny, the rescue never mentioned any of this

@Toddlerteaplease thank you for the suggestion! Have had a look and it looks very reasonable but not sure about the 4% meat content:

Composition: With Lamb;
Meat and Animal Derivatives (43%, Minimum 4% Lamb), Minerals, Various Sugars, Oils and Fats, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (0.08% Chicory).

If it's 4% minimum lamb, what's the remaining percentage 'meat' and also what are meat derivatives?

Why is it so difficult to feed the bloomin cats!

I thought it was more than that. My bag says 84% meat protein. Although that doesn't always mean actual meat. It's certainly better than the Royal canin they were o.

Yeah, it seemed like you just switched it over super fast without slowly introducing it which can't have helped much. When I was new, I did the same and got a bumshuffling kitten not envy at all.

Purina does say "meat and animal derivatives that are surplus from the human food chain. This might include different types of meat, as well as materials like the lungs, kidneys and livers but, of course, only comes from animals that have been passed fit for human consumpting" so it's still vaguely meat

Will pop into Sainsbury's at some point and pick up their brand of cat food, any suggestions on how to introduce it if it's new? Do you go half and half for a few days first? Clueless cat owner here clearly

Do it slowly over a week. Mix in a little bit and increase the quantity each day. Don't go straight in at 50/50.

I have some probiotic powder thingies which I give to my chap when he's a bit runny. I just mix it in with his food and within 24 - 48 hrs he's back to normal. I'll then carry on giving them for about a week or so just to make sure.

These. Originally was given some by the vet (who could find no sinister reason for dodgy tum) but I got that box from P@H. I don't think it was very expensive.

Have you tried wild freedom from Zooplus? Mine wouldn't touch any dry food except that

My cat loves Felix as good as it looks and it's hard to get her to change. She will eat applaws and we are slowly changing her to that. She has had felix since she was a kitten and she is in perfect health.