# No Hairballs Or Vomit?



## siouxdax (Jul 17, 2010)

Hello all:
I've had my Pookie-Bear for about three months now (he was originally a stray), and I've noticed something unusual. Not once has he had any hairballs, nor has he vomited. I'm almost worried that one day he's going to explode!

Is this normal?

Just before posting this I read a post mentioning that grass helps cats vomit. Coincidentally, I just purchased one of those little trays that grows a little patch of grass for them to chew on or whatnot. At first he expressed little interest in it, but I've noticed that he's rubbed his face on it has done a little chewing.

At any rate, I'm really wondering why he hasn't produced any hairballs or vomited at all.


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## Auntie Crazy (Dec 10, 2006)

It's most likely a combination of factors. What are you feeding him? Is he short-haired or long-haired?


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## siouxdax (Jul 17, 2010)

I feed him Purina Indoor Cat (that's all I can afford). And he's long-haired, but on the shorter side.


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

You could both be very lucky and he hasn't had any. Or.......he could be hurking them up where you don't see (or hear). I find hairballs in the strangest places sometimes.


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## lgnutah (Aug 7, 2010)

My family had a cat for many years when I was growing up and I never remember him vomiting or seeing any hairballs. Maybe because he was an outside and inside cat?
The two cats I have now never threw up hairballs until they got up in years and even now, once I have made some food adjustments, I don't have any vomiting or hairballs.
I fed my cat Purina Indoor for many years and he did fine on it until he got to be about 9 years old. Then I had to change his food because he was vomiting..


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

The Purina Indoor food contains a lot of fiber which is probably helping to keep things flowing. Or he could just be a cat that doesn't have a lot of issues with hairballs. Kobi hardly ever brings anything up (couple times a year maybe). Maggie barfs all the time. And Holly, even with her extremely long fur, brings up something every few months in the warm weather and rarely in the winter.

As for the food...take a look at Taste of the Wild...less $$ per pound and way better ingredients:

Purina:

Brewers rice, corn gluten meal, poultry by-product meal, turkey, soybean meal, whole grain corn, brewers dried yeast, fish meal, non-fat yogurt, wheat gluten, soy lecithin, powdered cellulose, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), soybean hulls, phosphoric acid, calcium carbonate, animal digest...

TOTW: 

Chicken meal, peas, sweet potatoes, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), potato protein, roasted venison, smoked salmon, natural flavor, ocean fish meal

Which looks better to you?


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## siouxdax (Jul 17, 2010)

doodlebug said:


> The Purina Indoor food contains a lot of fiber which is probably helping to keep things flowing. Or he could just be a cat that doesn't have a lot of issues with hairballs. Kobi hardly ever brings anything up (couple times a year maybe). Maggie barfs all the time. And Holly, even with her extremely long fur, brings up something every few months in the warm weather and rarely in the winter.
> 
> As for the food...take a look at Taste of the Wild...less $$ per pound and way better ingredients:
> 
> ...


Wow. I'm definitely checking out TOTW. I know Purina isn't the best, but I'm disabled, so I only have so much money to spend on my Pookie-Bear. Three months ago when I first adopted him (he was a stray) I gave him a bath with some kitty shampoo that claimed to reduce hairballs, but I don't really attribute it to that. Just yesterday I gave him his second bath with the same shampoo.

I should note that he's an avid cleaner. Whenever he's not loving, sleeping, eat or playing soccer (with his squishy soccer balls), he's constantly grooming and preening himself. I imagine he ingests loads of hair. I just wonder where it all goes now...


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## Sinatra-Butters (Aug 9, 2010)

Sinatra has thrown up once in the year we have had him. Growing up we had one cat who threw up all the time and two who never did. Some cats just don't.


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

Guess I jinxed myself....Holly horked up a big one this morning. At least it was on the kitchen floor and not on an area rug or my bed!


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## Kobster (Feb 1, 2007)

Sully and Ninja NEVER have furballs. Thurston has them all the time. I think its just an individual thing. Count yourself lucky!


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## Buggsy (Jul 14, 2010)

Arnie will eat grass all day, but ive never seen him throw up or cough up a hair ball, hes an outdoors cat so i guess hes saving me from cleaning it up and going outside!


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