? 8 meals a day or 6 meals a day?

[Evey]

I learned from this group that it's better to feed the cat small meals multiple times a day. But I'm not quite sure how many times a day i should feed my kitty. There is a group who recommends to feed 8 times a day (feed 25g every 2 hours before +6 if using Lantus). The logic behind this method is to let the pancreas rest while the insulin work with the food. If BG drops really fast, it's ok to feed more food and it's not necessarily to follow the every 2 hours rule.

But for my kitty, it seems if i feed her at +5 or +6, her BG will go up really high. So I'm wondering how many meals day people in this group feed their cat?

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

It's really up to what works best for you and your cat. The one thing we do know for sure is that most cats do better on multiple small meals per day than 2 big ones. Just like humans are told to switch to eating 6 smaller meals instead of 3 big ones. It's easier on the pancreas to deal with smaller amounts instead of a huge dump of food all at once.

There's no "right" answer to feeding every 3 hours vs. every 4 hours. Yes, it can be true that "most" of the food should be given in the first half of the cycle so that as the insulin is starting to wear off, you're not adding food on top of it, but some cats do fine being fed all the way to +10.

You could also do most of the cat food in the time before nadir, and then if your cat is like most and thinks they're going to starve if they don't get more food, give a little snack of pure protein, like baked chicken. It won't affect the BG as much as canned food will but will give them something to stave off imminent starvation until their next meal time.

The best thing you can do is keep very good records on your spreadsheet. In the remarks you could put when you fed, what you fed (or at least the carb %) and as you gain more data, you may be able to see a pattern emerging for your cat.

ECID (Every Cat Is Different) so there's no pat answer.

 

[squeem3]

Yup, ECID. My cat gets fed 4 times a day: breakfast, dinner, post-dinner snack, bedtime snack. Some people may say 12 hours between breakfast and dinner is too long but, again, ECID. My cat has never wanted a midday meal. I also feed raw which can't be left out. My cat will eat canned foods but those tend to upset his sensitive IBD tummy so I only give canned to head off a potential hypo.

 

[Evey]

It's really up to what works best for you and your cat. The one thing we do know for sure is that most cats do better on multiple small meals per day than 2 big ones. Just like humans are told to switch to eating 6 smaller meals instead of 3 big ones. It's easier on the pancreas to deal with smaller amounts instead of a huge dump of food all at once.

There's no "right" answer to feeding every 3 hours vs. every 4 hours. Yes, it can be true that "most" of the food should be given in the first half of the cycle so that as the insulin is starting to wear off, you're not adding food on top of it, but some cats do fine being fed all the way to +10.

You could also do most of the cat food in the time before nadir, and then if your cat is like most and thinks they're going to starve if they don't get more food, give a little snack of pure protein, like baked chicken. It won't affect the BG as much as canned food will but will give them something to stave off imminent starvation until their next meal time.

The best thing you can do is keep very good records on your spreadsheet. In the remarks you could put when you fed, what you fed (or at least the carb %) and as you gain more data, you may be able to see a pattern emerging for your cat.

ECID (Every Cat Is Different) so there's no pat answer.

You could also do most of the cat food in the time before nadir, and then if your cat is like most and thinks they're going to starve if they don't get more food, give a little snack of pure protein, like baked chicken

Is it ok to feed frozen salmon instead of baked chicken?

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

Is it ok to feed frozen salmon instead of baked chicken?

Yes but we do try to limit fish of any kind due to the heavy metal contamination found in fish these days. It won't hurt to give her a little piece occasionally though. You can use any pure protein as a "safe" snack.

 

[Evey]

Yes but we do try to limit fish of any kind due to the heavy metal contamination found in fish these days. It won't hurt to give her a little piece occasionally though. You can use any pure protein as a "safe" snack.

urgh... i've been feeding her Leonardo fish can food... maybe i should change it.

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

i've been feeding her Leonardo fish can food... maybe i should change it.

It also depends on what's available! Not sure where you are (other than someplace that's not the US). The cat has got to eat so that always trumps everything else.

 

[Suzanne & Darcy]

There’s no US tab on your spreadsheet.

I don’t recommend feeding after +6 because for some cats it will cause numbers to rise prematurely. Every cat is different, but trust your instincts and trust the data you see on your spreadsheet. Record what you’re feeding and when so that the numbers can be interpreted and you can see her response to different carb percentages.