Kitten Intermittent Diarrhea

Question
Hello,

I have two kittens that are four to five months old. For the past few days, they have been having diarrhea (very loose stool but regular bowel movement frequency) intermittently: one of them will have normal stool, while the other one have diarrhea. I notice that when I switch their canned food (Felidae, grain free) to a homemade cooked chicken and rice, the diarrhea stops. They are as playful as always and have very good appetite.

I am wondering whether they have developed food intolerance with the canned food, or whether they have some deeper underlying issues.

Thank you very much.

Answer
Well that depends on a lot of things. Are they wormed and if so, how often have they been wormed?

Are they eating a high quality dry Kitten food as well? Do they eat the canned every day?

There is very little fiber in canned food and animals, just like humans, need fiber. That is why the rice is helping them. No animal can go without some sort of fiber or vegetable matter in their diet. All animals, wild and domestic, need this- be it from grains, or actual vegetable matter as is the case with wild carnivores. The first thing they eat is the stomach contents of their prey.

So aside from worming them, they need to be on a higher fiber diet, such as Science Diet Kitten Growth. They cannot live on chicken and rice as that is not balanced enough for them.

After you check their worming schedule, slowly get them on some dry food along with the canned.

If they continue to have diarrhea then they need to be checked for other parasites such as coccidia.

I hope that they are current on all vaccinations as well.