You've finally convinced your cat to try Raw Meow. They're eating it. You're feeling pretty pleased with yourself.
Then you check the litter tray.
Diarrhoea.
And naturally the first thought is, "Raw doesn't agree with my cat."
Not necessarily.
A change in diet can cause loose stools or diarrhoea in cats, regardless of whether the new food is raw, cooked or canned. An abrupt food change is a recognised cause of short-term diarrhoea in cats. That doesn't mean diarrhoea should be ignored, and it definitely doesn't mean it's some sort of "detox" that your cat needs to work through. It means we need to work out why it happened.
Very often, the answer is simply that we changed too much, too quickly.
1. The transition happened too fast
This is probably the first thing we look at.
Cats can be surprisingly sensitive to dietary changes. Even when the new diet is perfectly suitable for them, suddenly replacing the food they've been eating for months or years can upset their gastrointestinal system.
Part of what's happening is that a cat who has spent a long time on processed food has a gut microbiome that has adapted to that diet. The bacteria that thrive on kibble or canned food aren't the same ones that thrive on fresh raw protein, and during the transition that ecosystem is actively rebalancing.
On top of that, cats on long-term processed diets often have reduced output of the digestive enzymes needed to efficiently break down raw protein and fat. Their gut is recalibrating.. ramping back up to what it was actually designed to do. Some cats sail through this without a single loose stool. Others have a rough week or two. Both are completely normal.
That's one of the reasons we recommend introducing Raw Meow slowly.
Start with a very small amount alongside the food your cat is already comfortably eating. Once they're eating that amount and the litter tray still looks normal, increase it gradually. There isn't a prize for completing the transition in three days. Some cats fly through it. Others need a couple of weeks. Particularly sensitive cats may need considerably longer.
If diarrhoea starts while you're increasing the amount of Raw Meow, stop increasing it. Go back to the last stage your cat tolerated well, or return to their usual wet food for a day or two if necessary. Once their stools are back to normal, introduce a smaller amount and move forward more slowly.
You haven't failed. Your cat is simply setting the timetable.
2. The new meat may be very different from what they were eating before
Changing to Raw Meow often involves more than changing brands. You might also be changing protein, fat content, moisture, ingredients and the overall composition of the meal at the same time. Some cats tolerate almost anything. Others do not.
Food intolerance can cause gastrointestinal signs including diarrhoea, and some cats do better with certain proteins than others. Fat levels can impact the situation too. Raw meats vary enormously in fat content, and higher fat foods are well tolerated by many cats but can cause gastrointestinal problems in others.. particularly if their system isn't used to handling it in this form.
So if your cat repeatedly develops diarrhoea with one particular meat but is perfectly fine with another, look at the protein and the meat itself, rather than assuming all raw food is the problem.
When troubleshooting, keep things boring. One protein. One Raw Meow Mix formula. No new treats, toppers and extras at the same time. Once everything is stable, you can introduce variety gradually.
3. You changed too many things at once
We see this one quite a bit.
New raw food. New treats. New protein. New probiotic. Some bone broth. A fibre supplement. And then the cat gets diarrhoea and nobody has the faintest idea which change caused it.
When a tummy is unsettled, simplify. The fewer variables you have, the easier it is to work out what your cat actually tolerates. This is particularly important for cats with a history of food sensitivities, inflammatory bowel disease or other gastrointestinal problems.
4. The amount may need adjusting
Raw food won't need to be fed in the same quantity as the previous food you were feeding. Meal size and energy density are very different, and suddenly feeding large amounts of a new food can contribute to digestive upset. For a cat with a sensitive tummy, smaller more frequent meals can often be easier to manage than one or two large meals.
Transitioning isn't about getting as much Raw Meow into the bowl as quickly as possible. We're looking for two things: a cat who is happily eating the new food, and a litter tray that still looks normal. If one of those disappears, slow down.
5. Make sure your Raw Meow has been prepared correctly
If you're using Raw Meow Mix, please follow the preparation instructions for the particular formula you have. The easiest way to get this right is to use our calculator .. it takes the guesswork out of quantities entirely. Weigh the meat, weigh the Raw Meow Mix using a digital scale, using the correct amount of powder for the amount of meat you're preparing, and add the appropriate amount of water or plain bone broth. Different Raw Meow formulas do not necessarily use the same meat to powder ratio, so don't guess, check the instructions, choose the right blend on the calculator from the drop down menu.
And when we say meat, we mean plain muscle meat. The Raw Meow Mix is already formulated with the correct organ content, so adding secreting organs like liver or kidney on top of that will throw off the nutritional balance and is a very likely cause of diarrhoea.
Heart is technically a muscle but it's extremely rich, and feeding too much of it can upset the gut. The same goes for very rich proteins like kangaroo.. fantastic meat, but it can be hard on a sensitive tummy, particularly during transition. If you're troubleshooting digestive issues, plain muscle meat from a less rich protein is the place to start.
If something has gone wrong with the recipe, go back and check exactly what was used, and how, before assuming your cat can't tolerate Raw Meow itself.
If you're feeding one of our Freeze Dried Complete Meals, rehydrate it properly before feeding. These meals are intended to be rehydrated, not served dry.
6. Raw meat handling
Raw meat can contain bacteria capable of causing illness in animals and people, and freezing and freeze drying do not eliminate potential bacterial pathogen. That means standard food safety practices apply. Use fresh meat from a reputable source. Keep it properly refrigerated or frozen. Defrost it in the fridge. Keep preparation surfaces and utensils clean. Wash your hands after handling raw meat and don't leave meals sitting around for extended periods.
One step that is often skipped but shouldn't be: freeze your meat before feeding it. As a minimum, farmed meat should be frozen for at least 3 days, and wild-caught meat .. which carries a higher parasite risk .. should be frozen for at least 3 weeks. This applies to supermarket kangaroo too. Products like Kroo are sold fresh and have not been pre-frozen, which means they come under the wild-caught rule: 3 weeks minimum in the freezer before you feed them, not 3 days. This doesn't eliminate all risk, but following the freezing protocol significantly reduces it, and it should be a standard part of your raw feeding routine, not an optional extra.
If more than one cat suddenly develops diarrhoea after eating the same food, or you suspect something may be wrong with a particular packet of meat or Raw Meow product, stop feeding that batch while you investigate it. Keep the packaging and batch information and contact us. That's very different from assuming diarrhoea is simply part of transitioning to raw. It isn't.
7. The diarrhoea may have absolutely nothing to do with the new food
It's easy to assume that because two things happened close together, one caused the other. Your cat starts Raw Meow on Monday and has diarrhoea by Wednesday. It's natural to connect the two, but correlation isn't causation.
Cats get random tummy bugs just like we do. They can develop diarrhoea because of stress, parasites, infections, food intolerance, inflammatory gastrointestinal disease and a range of other medical conditions that have nothing to do with what you just changed in their bowl.
The most useful thing you can do in that moment is look at your cat, not just the litter tray.
If they're acting normally.. eating, drinking, playing, demanding attention.. that's reassuring. A cat who is bright and behaving like themselves is a very different picture from one who is hiding, not eating, or showing signs of discomfort or pain. If your cat seems well in themselves, the sensible approach is to treat the diarrhoea (see the S. boulardii section below), perhaps ease back slightly on the transition, and move forward calmly rather than assuming the worst.
If diarrhoea keeps returning, happens regardless of what you feed, or is accompanied by other symptoms, it deserves proper investigation rather than endless food swapping.
What can actually help
When diarrhoea appears during transition, one of the most effective things you can add is Saccharomyces boulardii. Saccharomyces boulardii is actually a yeast rather than a bacterium, which changes how it works entirely.
Because it isn't competing with the existing bacterial population in your cat's gut, and because it doesn't get wiped out by antibiotics, it can come in and do its job without interference. What it does is act as a temporary stabiliser.. it helps calm the gut environment, reduces inflammation in the intestinal lining, and actively supports the growth of the good bacteria you want to establish.
It's particularly well suited to transition diarrhoea because the reshuffling that happens in the gut during this period is exactly what S. boulardii is good at managing. We recommend Pure SB
A small amount of slippery elm powder mixed into food is also something many raw feeders use as a gentle gut soother, and making sure your cat is well hydrated, or adding a little warm water to their meal, helps things move smoothly.
So should you stop feeding raw?
Not automatically.
One episode of loose stools during a diet transition does not prove that your cat cannot eat raw food. It tells us to stop, look at what changed, and work out what happened.
Once your cat is feeling well and their stools have returned to normal, you can often restart the transition with a much smaller amount and progress more slowly. If one protein repeatedly causes trouble, try a different appropriate protein rather than abandoning raw feeding altogether.
The cats who come out the other side of a bumpy transition are the ones whose owners understood what was happening and held the course.
Please don't call it "detox"
Diarrhoea isn't evidence that your cat is clearing toxins from their body. We don't recommend continuing to increase raw food while a cat has diarrhoea because somebody has told you their body needs to "adjust" or "detox." Find the cause. Fix the problem. Then move forward.
When does your cat need the vet?
A mildly loose stool in an otherwise bright, happy cat after a food change is very different from a cat who is unwell.
Contact your vet if the diarrhoea is persistent or severe, contains blood, or is accompanied by vomiting, lethargy, poor appetite or other signs that your cat is unwell. Cats with ongoing medical conditions, kittens and more vulnerable cats warrant particular caution.
If diarrhoea continues for more than a day or two, veterinary investigation is appropriate rather than continuing to experiment with their food. We can always help you troubleshoot the feeding side of things, but we can't diagnose an illness.
If it happens during your Raw Meow transition, tell us what's actually been happening
If you contact us for help, the more information you give us, the easier it is to work through it. Tell us what your cat was eating before Raw Meow, which Raw Meow product you introduced, which meat or protein you used, how quickly you changed the food, approximately how much your cat is eating, whether you introduced any other foods or supplements at the same time, and whether any other cats in the household are affected.
Most importantly, tell us what your cat is like apart from the poop.
Because the litter tray is giving us information. We just need to listen to it rather than panic at the first loose stool and declare that raw feeding is over.