The best cat food for sensitive stomachs is easy to digest, contains anti-inflammatory ingredients, and doesn’t contain anything that will irritate your cat.

With its highly-digestible recipe, abundance of omega-3 fatty acids, and personalized customer experience,Smalls Fresh Kills Fresh Minced Chicken is our pick for the number one best cat food for sensitive stomach.

But food sensitivities vary from cat to cat, not everyone is on the same budget, and there’s no one food that will solve every cat’s digestive woes. In addition to our top pick, we’ve included five more of the best foods for sensitive stomachs, giving you plenty of options for every cat and every home.

At a Glance: Best Cat Food for Sensitive Stomach To Buy

2000 hours of
research

88 brands
vetted

6 features
reviewed

6 top
picks

Want a quick look at the products reviewed in this article? In the comparison table below, we’ve highlighted some of the most important features of each product. You’ll find more detailed information about each product later in the article.

Image	Product	Features
	Top Pick Smalls Cat Food	Made from human-grade ingredients Low carbohydrate content Primarily made with high-value animal protein	25% Off First Order
	Best Freeze-Dried Stella & Chewy's Freeze-Dried Raw Absolutely Rabbit Dinner Morsel	Rabbit is usually a novel protein - ideal for allergic cats Contains probiotics for digestive health Highly digestible	Check Price
	Best for IBD Hound & Gatos Turkey & Turkey Liver Canned Cat Food	Made from turkey, which is a good alternative to chicken Free from commonly irritating ingredients A limited ingredient food with just one animal protein source	Check Price
	Best for Picky Cats Instinct by Nature's Variety Original Grain-Free Real Duck Recipe	Highly digestible formula Free from the most common cat allergens Supplemented with menhaden fish oil	Check Price
	Budget Pick FirstMate Turkey Formula Limited Ingredient Grain-Free Canned Cat Food	Contains a mix of nourishing turkey and chicken Highly digestible with 96% animal protein A limited ingredient diet for cats with allergies and food sensitivities	Check Price
	Dry Food Pick Dr. Elsey's cleanprotein Chicken Formula Grain-Free Dry Cat Food	Highly-digestible animal-sourced ingredients Affordable The inclusion of salmon oil introduces omega-3 fatty acids	Check Price

Why You Should Trust Us

Over the last year, we’ve reviewed over 80 cat food brands, including most of the biggest brands on the planet. We’ve read customer reviews, spoken with market insiders, and tested foods hands-on.

Based on that research, we’re bringing you an updated list of the best cat food brands and products in the industry. The following foods earn their place with outstanding ingredient quality, nutritional merits, and safety records.

Before we get into the reviews, let’s talk about what it means when we say that a cat has a “sensitive stomach”.

Cats with digestive issues are frequently misunderstood and their problems often dismissed. A cat who vomits multiple times a week is called “just a puker”.

When a cat can’t tolerate new foods, his problems are brushed off with the myth that domesticated cats should eat one food for the entirety of their lives.

The term “sensitive stomach” itself is a euphemism—no cat’s stomach is inexplicably fragile or fussy. There’s always a reason, always a systemic issue, always something with a cause and, usually, a solution.

In other words, a sensitive stomach isn’t a diagnosis in itself. Let’s take a look at a handful of the most common causes of sensitive stomachs in cats.

Acute Gastroenteritis

This is any condition involving acute inflammation of the GI tract. It could be caused by parasites, poisoning, eating something spoiled, or another disease. Acute gastroenteritis is typically short-lived.

Food Allergies

Food allergies are rare among cats, but the rare allergic cat may experience digestive issues.

While skin irritation and poor coat health are the most common symptoms, food allergies can occasionally manifest in vomiting and diarrhea.

Cats appear to develop allergies to the foods they eat the most. Feed your cat a beef food for five years and you might find that he’s suddenly having an allergic reaction to beef. Therefore, it appears to be a good idea to give your cat a rotational diet – constantly introducing new and varied protein sources.

If you suspect that your cat has an allergic sensitivity to a certain food ingredient, it’s time to put the theory to the test with an elimination diet.

Switch to a limited ingredient diet – that’s one with very few ingredients and, usually, a single novel protein. For at least a month, feed your cat this food exclusively. If symptoms subside, confirm the difference by reintroducing potential allergens one at a time.

Once you’ve identified the ingredients that your cat is allergic to, permanently eliminate them from your cat’s diet.

Click here for a list of the best hypoallergenic cat food. 

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

Although the pathology of inflammatory bowel disease is poorly understood, we can generally describe it as chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. It’s a diagnosis of elimination; in other words, you arrive at the IBD diagnosis by ruling out any other issues, such as allergies.

This condition leads to structural changes in the mucosal lining of the gastrointestinal tract. Over time, it can lead to digestive dysfunction and changes your cat’s ability to digest nutrients. It can also lead to a leaky gut, allowing food particles, toxins, and bacteria to leach into the bloodstream.

If your cat is suffering from chronic digestive problems, consult your veterinarian. They can perform tests to determine whether or not your cat has IBD. Following an IBD diagnosis, your veterinarian may prescribe medications or dietary changes to suit your cat.

Click here to read our guide to the best cat food for IBD. 

What’s the best food for cats with a sensitive stomach?

Switch to a bland diet.

If your cat has acute gastroenteritis, start with a 12 hour fast to allow their GI tract to rest, then introduce a bland diet.

Think of it like the BRAT diet for humans recovering from a stomach illness. Like the BRAT diet, a bland diet is non-irritating and provides enough nourishment for a few days, but you shouldn’t feed it for any longer than necessary.

This type of diet comes in various forms. Some like pumpkin puree and boiled chicken. Some recommend boiled chicken and rice.

I prefer to keep it simple and carnivore-appropriate. Try cooked chicken thighs with fat and skin attached. After cooking, remove the bones – cooked bones may shatter and hurt your cat.

This cooked chicken is ideally served with bone broth, which is very nutrient-dense, gentle, and palatable.

Don’t feed this diet for more than a few days. Your cat needs complete and balanced nutrition, so switch to a nutritionally complete food as soon as possible.

Eliminate inflammatory or irritating ingredients.

This often means choosing a food made with novel proteins – meats that your cat hasn’t been exposed to before. For example, if your cat always eats a chicken-based food, opt for one made with rabbit meat instead. Other potentially irritating ingredients include carrageenan and dairy.

While you’re ridding your cat’s diet of inflammatory ingredients, don’t forget to incorporate anti-inflammatory ones. Omega-3 fatty acids from fish or krill oil are powerful and species-appropriate anti-inflammatories.

Choose foods featuring highly-digestible ingredients.

Plant protein, for example, tends to be less digestible than animal protein. Animal by-products, similarly, may have lower digestibility scores than properly proportioned muscle meat, organs, and bones.

Fat follows the same carnivorous logic. Animal fat is more digestible than plant fat.

The guaranteed analysis on the label only lists crude fat and crude protein, so you’ll need to probe deeper to find the digestibility values of these macronutrients. You can guess by looking at the ingredient list or you can contact the company for exact digestibility values.

Promote healthy gut flora by providing probiotics.

Supporting a healthy gut microbiome is a cornerstone of ensuring that your cat’s digestive system stays in top shape.

Dysbiosis, or imbalanced bacteria population, is associated with poor digestive health and IBD. Particularly if your cat has undergone antibiotic therapy – which kills both good and bad bacteria – it’s likely that dysbiosis plays a role in your cat’s tummy troubles.

There’s a growing body of evidence suggesting a connection between antibiotic treatment and subsequent inflammatory bowel disease in humans.

One of the simplest ways to promote healthy gut flora is adding a probiotic supplement to your cat’s meals. You can also consider the inclusion of prebiotics, which promote the growth and activity of beneficial gut bacteria.

Top 6 Best Foods for Cats with Sensitive Stomachs

If you can’t find the right food for your cat, consider homemade cat food.

Making your cat’s food at home allows you to introduce novel proteins and create a rotational diet. It’s the best way to control what goes into your cat’s body and it makes it easy to track the relationship between dietary changes and symptom changes. Both cooked and raw homemade diets are perfect for cats with sensitive stomachs.

Read our complete guide to homemade and raw cat food diets.