Cat food for sensitive stomachs: Burmilla advice

Because you can't always hear what's happening overnight, it's especially important to get your Burmilla's digestion settled properly rather than just managing symptoms as they appear. Digestive sensitivity in cats is most often caused by food intolerance rather than a true allergy, and limited-ingredient or novel-protein diets tend to be the most effective fix. To point you in the right direction — what symptoms are you seeing (vomiting, loose stools, something else), how long has this been going on, and what is she eating at the moment?

Four months of regular vomiting is long enough to be confident this isn't a one-off, and the overnight timing issue makes it harder to spot patterns or check whether she's bringing up undigested food versus bile — both of which tell you different things. The supermarket chicken food is the most likely culprit. Chicken is one of the most common protein intolerances in cats, and mixing wet and dry can also increase the likelihood of digestive upset. Has she ever been on a food with a different protein source — duck, turkey, rabbit — for any length of time?

That's useful — fish refusal is common and doesn't rule out other proteins. Given she's never had a proper trial away from chicken, I'd want you to try a single novel protein with a short, clean ingredient list. I'd recommend Lily's Kitchen Chicken & Turkey Casserole — actually, hold on. Since chicken may be the issue, let me be more precise: the one to go for is Lily's Kitchen Duck & Rabbit for Cats. It's a genuinely limited-ingredient wet food, no chicken, no grains, no fillers, and the ingredient list is short enough that if she reacts you'll know what caused it. Feed it exclusively for four to six weeks — no treats, no dry food alongside it — and you should have a clear picture of whether chicken was the trigger. The vomiting frequency should drop significantly within two to three weeks if you're on the right track.

Yes, a couple of practical things. First, feed her last meal a couple of hours before you go to bed rather than right at bedtime — cats are more likely to vomit shortly after eating, so shifting the timing reduces overnight incidents. Second, keep a simple log: check each morning and note whether you found any vomit. Even without timestamps, tracking frequency over the four-to-six-week trial gives you real data to work with. If after a full six weeks on the duck and rabbit food she's still vomiting more than once a week, that's the point to ask your vet about doing a proper elimination diet or investigating inflammatory bowel disease, which is distinct from simple intolerance.

Good plan. Stick strictly to that one food for the full trial period — it's the only way to get a clean result. Most cats with chicken intolerance respond well within a few weeks once the offending protein is removed. If she takes to the duck and rabbit, you can introduce a complementary novel-protein food later to give her some variety, but one thing at a time. I hope you start seeing fewer morning surprises very soon.