10/4 Chispa, 159 AMPS, 124 +2, 78 +3.25

Karen and Chispa (GA)

Karen and Chispa (GA)

Member Since 2022
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/10-3-chispa-117-amps-127-2-118-3-132-6.282213/

Happy Wednesday to all! I hope everyone's day is going well. Mine is -- and yet, I have to vent ...

Chispa has always let me know when her BG is dropping too far or too fast by meowing insistently. When that happens, I jump up and test her, reward her with a piece of freeze-dried chicken, and then put some food in her dish. But lately, she has gotten into the habit of meowing -- no, practically screaming -- just to get the chicken. I mean, I'm glad that's what she remembers of the experience (or that it outweighs the pokes), but as I told her, part of the deal of me working from home is that I have to WORK from home. On many days recently, she's made it nearly impossible to get anything done, while also driving me nuts.

I don't want to NOT reward her cooperation with being poked, and yet I can't be hopping up every hour (or less) for "false alarms," either. I can't just ignore her, because sometimes it's a legitimate need.

I don't know what to do about this.

Help???
 
Hi Karen,
That's a tough issue! I see your dilemma.
It looks to me that you would have to dissociate snack from meowing.
Maybe to try set-scheduled testing with snack, regardless of her meowing for a while?
Whatever you can, every two hours, every three hours, or whatever is convenient for you and your work. You test her regardless of her crying out for snack. Test, then snack, and ignore her begging meows.
It'll take some time, and actually, I would expect her meowing to increase for a while ("extinction burst" is a technical term, I think) but eventually, she will break the association between her crying and getting treats.
I would suggest that you start out with more testing and gradually increase the intervals between the tests.

Unfortunately, I don't know exactly what this will do to her legit warning meows. But for now, her meows are everywhere and it is hard to tell if it's real or not :nailbiting:
 
What a smart girl!
Herman is the opposite - if he hisses and runs away from me I know his numbers are low! Doesn't matter if I even offered the much coveted and completely forbidden temptation cat treat - I often cannot get near him!
Great advice from Kit. Another thought, is there a toy she likes? Maybe you can switch the food reward to a play session with her favorite toy? This actually works well for herman when I need to lure him for a poke, a play session with his favorite elastic on a string helps him relax. Perhaps the play session is "treat enough" to be considered a reward but not so enticing as for her to feel the need to fake it?
 
She reminds me of Fistuk. The tricky ones who know how to get what they want :woot:
I know that saying no to Fistuk is nearly impossible. And ignoring doesn't help. Don't know how Chispa is but if she's like Fistuk one thing you can try is having one snack for poking, another snack for low number, another snack for....
I actually don't give Fistuk a snack for poking. I normally feed him when I know he needs food and with poking I sing to him or brush him or hold him in my hands but not necessarily snacking. You might want to try another prize than food
Good luck.. I know this is not the easy one :bighug::bighug::bighug:
 
She is smart, that made me laugh, I know it's not funny to be called back so often but cats are so smart. I don't give Bella snacks just for testing, so I don't think she associates that with snack, but I test her before feeding her, so when she is hungry she will sit at her testing spot and waits.
I think I would try what Kit said, test and snack, but not meow and snack :cat:
 
Karen, I have nothing to add to these already great ideas, but just want to say my, what a smart girl Chispa is! Wow.
Ivy isn’t a snack girl so we don’t have that. And if I play with her toys she bites me.
Her toys are hers, hands off.:arghh:
 
@Mikanmama @Amy & Herman @Fistuk & Shelly @cecile & bella Thank you all so much for weighing in on this. I do think it's key to dissociate treats from meowing, as Kit said, but it might also have to mean dissociating treats from testing. I used to try to test her on a fixed schedule, but it all fell apart when I realized she was in distress (or fake distress) at other times, and I had to test to find out what was going on.

She's not much into toys, probably due to her compromised vision, but she loves the cuddles she gets at testing time, as well as being brushed, so those things might have to be the reward. I guess I will know it's not enough of a reward if she starts hiding under the bed. Good to know that Fistuk and Bella cooperate without food treats!

She loves her chicken sooo much that it kills me to withhold it. But maybe it's better to surprise her with it at random times during the day, without her asking.

:bighug::bighug::cat::bighug::bighug:
 
Bella did that a few times too, she meows very loudly at night and I come downstairs because I worry (and because like Chispa, she had done that when she was really low a few times). But then usually she is completely fine and as soon as she hears me coming down the stairs she goes and sits by the fridge. And I cannot resist. They are very smart little bullies :bighug:
 
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