Cat food for sensitive stomachs

Digestive sensitivity in cats is often down to food intolerance rather than a true allergy, and limited-ingredient or novel-protein diets tend to work best. The tricky part with your situation is that intermittent vomiting in a Birman — a breed already prone to hairballs — can be genuinely hard to read, because hairball-related vomiting and food-sensitivity vomiting look very similar. To help untangle that, can you tell me: what does the vomit look like (is there ever visible hair or foam?), how long has this been going on, and what are you currently feeding him?

That mix of hair-present and hair-absent vomiting is exactly what makes Birmans tricky — you're likely dealing with both issues simultaneously rather than one or the other. Switching between mixed brands also means his gut never gets a settled baseline, which can keep low-level sensitivity ticking along in the background. Before assuming it's purely food intolerance, it's worth addressing the hairball side properly, because until that's managed you can't get a clean read on whether the food is the problem. Has he ever been on a hairball-specific diet, or had any hairball remedies?

That's a really common assumption — and honestly, some vomiting in long-haired cats is normal, but six months of increasing frequency is worth taking seriously. Here's my thinking: rather than jumping straight to a novel-protein elimination diet, I'd start with a food that's specifically formulated to handle both hairballs and digestive sensitivity at once, so you're not chasing two problems separately. The one I'd go with is Royal Canin Hairball Care wet food in gravy pouches. It's formulated with a specific fibre blend — psyllium and beet pulp — that helps move ingested hair through the gut rather than back up, and it has a highly digestible protein profile that's gentle on sensitive stomachs. It's also a single, consistent formula, which stops the brand-switching that's likely keeping his digestion unsettled. Feed it exclusively for six to eight weeks and you'll have a much clearer picture of what's actually going on.

Gradually is always better with a sensitive stomach — a sudden switch can trigger the very vomiting you're trying to stop. Mix roughly 25% new food with 75% current food for two to three days, then 50/50 for another two or three days, then 75% new, and fully over by around day ten. If he vomits during the transition, slow it down rather than pushing through. Once he's fully on the Royal Canin Hairball Care, keep a simple note of any vomiting episodes — what came up and when. That log will tell you a lot after a few weeks.

Good plan. If after eight weeks on it consistently the vomiting is still happening without hair present, that's when I'd revisit the food-sensitivity angle and consider moving to a limited-ingredient diet. But tackle the hairball issue first — it genuinely changes what you're looking at. Hope he settles down quickly.