Cat food for kittens with loose stools

Digestive sensitivity in cats is very often down to food intolerance rather than a true allergy, and in young kittens the gut is still maturing, so loose stools after weaning are genuinely common — but they do need addressing. Limited-ingredient or easily digestible diets tend to work best in these cases. To point you in the right direction: are you seeing loose stools only, or also vomiting or wind? How long has this been going on since weaning, and what are you currently feeding your kitten?

That's really helpful. Four weeks of loose stools in a 12-week-old is long enough that it's worth changing something, but the pattern you're describing — no vomiting, just consistently soft — often points to the food rather than an infection or parasite. Before I suggest a product, a couple of quick questions: has she been wormed recently, and is she otherwise bright and gaining weight normally?

Good — healthy weight gain and a recent worming treatment rules out the most common non-food causes, so your vet's instinct is right. The issue with supermarket own-brand kitten foods is that they often contain a mix of protein sources, cereals, and additives that a young gut simply isn't ready to handle consistently. The combination of wet and dry from different ranges can also make it harder to identify what's causing the problem. What I'd suggest is simplifying things significantly.

I'd switch her to Royal Canin Kitten Instinctive wet food pouches as her main diet and drop the dry food entirely for now. It's specifically formulated for kittens up to 12 months with a highly digestible protein profile and a consistent ingredient list — no ingredient surprises between meals. Royal Canin's kitten wet is one of the most reliably well-tolerated foods for young cats with sensitive or immature guts, and it's what many vet practices recommend as a starting point in exactly this situation. Transition over 5 to 7 days by mixing it with what she's currently eating, gradually increasing the ratio of the new food. If stools firm up within 2 weeks on the new food alone, you've found your answer. If they don't improve at all, go back to your vet — occasionally there's an underlying issue worth investigating further.

Yes, once her stools have been consistently normal for at least 3 to 4 weeks, you can try reintroducing a dry food from the same Royal Canin kitten range — using the same brand means the protein sources are consistent, which reduces the chance of triggering the problem again. Introduce it slowly and keep it as a small part of her diet rather than free-feeding it all day. Some cats with sensitive stomachs do better staying on wet food long-term, and that's completely fine nutritionally.