Vomiting shortly after a meal is common enough that many owners stop noticing it. It is worth resisting that, because "my cat has always done this" and "my cat has a problem nobody has looked at" produce identical behaviour in the early stages.
Start with the distinction that matters.
Regurgitation is not vomiting
Regurgitation happens quickly and quietly, usually within minutes of eating. Food comes back undigested, often in a tube shape, with little warning and no heaving. It comes from the oesophagus and it usually means the food went down too fast.
Vomiting involves visible effort: drooling, abdominal contractions, retching. The material is partly digested and often bile-stained. It comes from the stomach and it has a much longer list of possible causes.
Telling your vet which one you saw is genuinely useful information.
The benign explanations
Eating too fast. The most common reason for regurgitation. Cats that gulp swallow air with the food, the stomach fills faster than it can accommodate, and it comes straight back. Common in multi-cat homes where eating is a competition.
The bowl. A deep, narrow dish presses on whiskers, and some cats respond by bolting the meal to get it over with. A wide, shallow bowl removes the pressure and slows things down.
Hairballs. Swallowed fur collects and gets brought back up. An occasional hairball is normal. More than one or two a month suggests either a grooming shortfall or something else worth investigating.
Overfeeding at one sitting. Cats are built for many small meals, not two large ones.
What to try first
- Slow the meal down. A slow feeder or lick mat forces a cat to work at the food rather than inhale it. This alone resolves a lot of cases.
- Change the bowl shape to something wide and shallow.
- Feed smaller portions more often. Three or four small meals instead of two large ones.
- Feed cats separately if there is more than one, so nobody is racing.
- Brush more. Two short sessions a week removes a surprising amount of the fur that would otherwise be swallowed.
Give any change two weeks before judging it.
When it is not the bowl
This is the important half of the page. Speak to a vet if any of the following apply:
- Vomiting more than about once a week, or a pattern that is getting more frequent
- Weight loss, however gradual
- Blood in the vomit, or material that looks like coffee grounds
- Vomiting alongside diarrhoea, lethargy, or a drop in appetite
- Any change in drinking, up or down
- Repeated retching that brings nothing up, which needs same-day attention
- Your cat is older and this behaviour is new
Chronic vomiting in cats is frequently put down to "a sensitive stomach" when the underlying cause is inflammatory bowel disease, food intolerance, pancreatitis, hyperthyroidism, kidney disease or something swallowed that should not have been. Several of those are very manageable when found early and much less so when found late.
Nothing here is veterinary advice or a diagnosis. A slow feeder is a reasonable thing to try for a cat that eats too fast. It is not a treatment for a cat that is unwell, and regular vomiting deserves a professional opinion.