Kitten Suddenly Puking Up Homemade Food

Long story short (since it's the end of naptime and I hear kiddos stirring)
- Gram & Tawny were adopted Feb 20. Their birthdate is listed as November 8.
- They came with Purina One Kitten Chow, and were transitioned to my homemade over about a week.
- I use Dr. Pierson's recipe from CatInfo.org, with the optional egg and homemade bone meal. And we cook it more than she does or Laelia pukes.
- They did well with that batch of homemade, and the next, but Gram's been puking about 2 hours after eating the most recent one, even when I mixed it half/half with the previous batch. (Tawny and the other cats have been fine with it, even Laelia.)
- I've tried warming the food, giving him less, and cooking it until there's no pink at all, and he still pukes it up.
- Most recently I've given him half as much homemade as the other cats and supplemented with Purina One. That seemed to help - the puke puddle was smaller than usual - but I don't want to feed him dry if I can avoid it.

Any suggestions besides continuing the Purina One until we make another batch? We make them all pretty much the same although it's impossible to make them exactly the same each time.

Hi!
Some cats just don't do well with raw, or are extremely sensitive to it. If it were me I'd try a wet food such as Tiny Tiger, Miko, Merrick Backcountry, or tiki Cat

amysuen said:

Long story short (since it's the end of naptime and I hear kiddos stirring)
- Gram & Tawny were adopted Feb 20. Their birthdate is listed as November 8.
- They came with Purina One Kitten Chow, and were transitioned to my homemade over about a week.
- I use Dr. Pierson's recipe from CatInfo.org, with the optional egg and homemade bone meal. And we cook it more than she does or Laelia pukes.
- They did well with that batch of homemade, and the next, but Gram's been puking about 2 hours after eating the most recent one, even when I mixed it half/half with the previous batch. (Tawny and the other cats have been fine with it, even Laelia.)
- I've tried warming the food, giving him less, and cooking it until there's no pink at all, and he still pukes it up.
- Most recently I've given him half as much homemade as the other cats and supplemented with Purina One. That seemed to help - the puke puddle was smaller than usual - but I don't want to feed him dry if I can avoid it.

Any suggestions besides continuing the Purina One until we make another batch? We make them all pretty much the same although it's impossible to make them exactly the same each time.

Click to expand...

Hi amysuen

So sorry to hear abut Gram's vomit I understand that your food is not raw-raw, but half-cooked. Since other kitties are doing fine I think nothing is wrong with your food itself, somehow it is not agreeing with Gram.

- Is it a possibility to give him canned food until you make next batch? "give him a break", so to speak?
- Is it possible to make small batch of fully cooked food for him (1-3lb), to try? (I see you already tried cooking your current batch though...)

- If he is not feeling good (is he behaving sick or not at all?), give him bland diet for couple of days?

Another possibility I can think of is - pure guesswork - is it really food? Can you think of any other reason? (emotional, hairball, anything else).

Hope Gram will stop puking soon

amysuen said:

Long story short (since it's the end of naptime and I hear kiddos stirring)
- Gram & Tawny were adopted Feb 20. Their birthdate is listed as November 8.
- They came with Purina One Kitten Chow, and were transitioned to my homemade over about a week.
- I use Dr. Pierson's recipe from CatInfo.org, with the optional egg and homemade bone meal. And we cook it more than she does or Laelia pukes.
- They did well with that batch of homemade, and the next, but Gram's been puking about 2 hours after eating the most recent one, even when I mixed it half/half with the previous batch. (Tawny and the other cats have been fine with it, even Laelia.)
- I've tried warming the food, giving him less, and cooking it until there's no pink at all, and he still pukes it up.
- Most recently I've given him half as much homemade as the other cats and supplemented with Purina One. That seemed to help - the puke puddle was smaller than usual - but I don't want to feed him dry if I can avoid it.

Any suggestions besides continuing the Purina One until we make another batch? We make them all pretty much the same although it's impossible to make them exactly the same each time.

Click to expand...

Where do you buy your chicken for this food, and were the previous and current batches from the same brand/company/butcher/pet food place?
If you buy a labeled product (usually meat you get in grocery stores) and the brand was different, is there a chance it was enhanced (with salt)? This could cause some digestive upset in a sensitive cat I bet.

CHIKITTIES - Thanks for your thoughts! He's been doing better since I re-cooked the current batch, but it hadn't occurred to me that it could be something else. I'll keep an eye on him for that too.

1 bruce 1 - It was the same brand from the same grocery store as usual, My hubby bought it this time so next time I'm there I'll double-check that they didn't change anything. Thanks!

Makes me wonder what would happen if he had stayed a barn cat - would his tummy adjust or would he be puking mouse parts up all over?

I'm glad to hear Gram's feeling better! I'm glad CHIKITTIES mentioned the possibility that something else was causing the vomiting: there can be so many reasons other than the food. Particularly if the other cats are doing fine with the same stuff.

One of our cats vomits from a lot of things: eating too fast, being too excited, varying amounts of fur in her belly, munging stuff off the floor, eating plants... you name it. The first thing -- eating too fast -- is a big problem because she's insecure about her food even five years after having been adopted out of a situation where she was horribly underfed. I think this is where the "being too excited" often comes from, too: she sometimes gets really worked up before being fed.

I tend to watch for patterns with her: although it was easy to recognize that potato in foods was making her gassy and barfy shortly after we adopted her, most of her other gacking is pretty easy to link to other things that aren't directly related to the food.

I hope all remains well!

amysuen said:

CHIKITTIES - Thanks for your thoughts! He's been doing better since I re-cooked the current batch, but it hadn't occurred to me that it could be something else. I'll keep an eye on him for that too.

1 bruce 1 - It was the same brand from the same grocery store as usual, My hubby bought it this time so next time I'm there I'll double-check that they didn't change anything. Thanks!

Makes me wonder what would happen if he had stayed a barn cat - would his tummy adjust or would he be puking mouse parts up all over?

Click to expand...

Read the tiny little fine print and see what the sodium content is and if they enhanced it. Some brands will state on the label (in tiny little letters) that the product has been "enhanced" with salt water to plump up the pieces and essentially have you pay more money if the price is by pound I've seen it as high as 20%, and if the brand you're using has started adding a little bit more of this, his GI might not be appreciating that.

Thanks all! He's definitely doing better since I started re-cooking the food. But I'll keep an eye on salt and the other things too. We've only had them about 6 weeks (and he hid the first 2) so I'm still getting to know him. <3