Jane & Jack & Karre the Emperor
Member Since 2009
Good morning, LL!
After Karre's 11th OTJ Day (Including Funny Signage Pics) yesterday, we took some extra time to re-read all the great feedback we got regarding Karre's feeding routine. All our cats free-feed, as you know, and always have.
Karre's individual free-feeding rhythm runs roughly in 4-hourly intervals. He'll come in, have a few moutfuls of FF, sit outside for a couple of minutes, come back in and have another few mouthfuls. Then he goes back to napping, mostly, or patrolling his territory
He'll eat about one third to one half of a can each time he comes in to eat. In 1 day, he'll typically eat between 1.5 and 2 cans of FF. His weight has been stable.
What with it being winter down here, and with Karre being 16 years old and just slower and less active throughout the day, we've noticed that in the past couple of months, he's been a little lax about coming in to eat as he normally regularly does. He sleeps curled up under a blanket on Jack's desk, and he seems a bit reluctant to leave his warm comfry cave to come over here and have his meals. I suspect that his eating a little less, and with the intervals between meals being greater than normal (up to 6 hours), has been affecting his BG in a not-so-great way. And then, as some of you pointed out - THANK YOU! - feeding him every couple of hours added to the overall apparent picture of BGs creeping up. Also, as we were reminded by you guys, when testing as much as we have been over the past couple of days, one can again end up with an impression that may not be as useful (or accurate) as it would be to stick to the OTJ guidelines:
TEST AMBG. If GREEN, wait until PMBG to test.
If BLUE (or other), FEED and retest 3-4 hours later.
If then GREEN, wait until PMBG to test.
If then BLUE (or other), repeat feed/retest routine.
HOLD THIS for 14 days. If BG almost always stays sub-120 for 14 days:
PARTY!
Did I get that about right?
As of today, I am going to watch and see if he comes in every 3-4 hours. If he doesn't, I'll go and feed him at the 4-hour marks. Hopefully, that will help keep him a little more firmly grounded in the green again. Thank all of you for your input! Here's the overview:
12th August
AMBG 5.7/103 --- Ate 1 TSP of FF
(+2) 5.2/94 --- Fed ca. 4 TSP of FF
(+4) 5.2/94 --- Fed ca. 4 TSP of FF
(+6) 5.6/100.8 --- I'm *so* counting that as green :mrgreen: Karre ate ca. 2 TSP of FF on his own at (+6).
(+8) 6.0/108
(+10) 6.9/124 --- No food given.
PMBG 6.1/110
13th August
AMBG 5.9/106 --- As per OTJ-protocol, fed and re-tested 3 to 4 hours later due to blue AMBG.
(+3) 5.4/97 --- :mrgreen: No food given. Will wait to see if he comes to eat within an hour; if not, will feed at (+4).
If any of you have other thoughts on this, please go ahead and share them. We love being able to consider different perspectives. Hopefully, the "monitored free-feeding/meal-feeding" routine will get us safely (and mostly greenly) through these last couple of trial days, so that we can then all celebrate together!
Happy Monday!
Jane
After Karre's 11th OTJ Day (Including Funny Signage Pics) yesterday, we took some extra time to re-read all the great feedback we got regarding Karre's feeding routine. All our cats free-feed, as you know, and always have.
Karre's individual free-feeding rhythm runs roughly in 4-hourly intervals. He'll come in, have a few moutfuls of FF, sit outside for a couple of minutes, come back in and have another few mouthfuls. Then he goes back to napping, mostly, or patrolling his territory
He'll eat about one third to one half of a can each time he comes in to eat. In 1 day, he'll typically eat between 1.5 and 2 cans of FF. His weight has been stable.What with it being winter down here, and with Karre being 16 years old and just slower and less active throughout the day, we've noticed that in the past couple of months, he's been a little lax about coming in to eat as he normally regularly does. He sleeps curled up under a blanket on Jack's desk, and he seems a bit reluctant to leave his warm comfry cave to come over here and have his meals. I suspect that his eating a little less, and with the intervals between meals being greater than normal (up to 6 hours), has been affecting his BG in a not-so-great way. And then, as some of you pointed out - THANK YOU! - feeding him every couple of hours added to the overall apparent picture of BGs creeping up. Also, as we were reminded by you guys, when testing as much as we have been over the past couple of days, one can again end up with an impression that may not be as useful (or accurate) as it would be to stick to the OTJ guidelines:
TEST AMBG. If GREEN, wait until PMBG to test.
If BLUE (or other), FEED and retest 3-4 hours later.
If then GREEN, wait until PMBG to test.
If then BLUE (or other), repeat feed/retest routine.
HOLD THIS for 14 days. If BG almost always stays sub-120 for 14 days:
PARTY!
Did I get that about right?
As of today, I am going to watch and see if he comes in every 3-4 hours. If he doesn't, I'll go and feed him at the 4-hour marks. Hopefully, that will help keep him a little more firmly grounded in the green again. Thank all of you for your input! Here's the overview:
12th August
AMBG 5.7/103 --- Ate 1 TSP of FF
(+2) 5.2/94 --- Fed ca. 4 TSP of FF
(+4) 5.2/94 --- Fed ca. 4 TSP of FF
(+6) 5.6/100.8 --- I'm *so* counting that as green :mrgreen: Karre ate ca. 2 TSP of FF on his own at (+6).
(+8) 6.0/108
(+10) 6.9/124 --- No food given.
PMBG 6.1/110
13th August
AMBG 5.9/106 --- As per OTJ-protocol, fed and re-tested 3 to 4 hours later due to blue AMBG.
(+3) 5.4/97 --- :mrgreen: No food given. Will wait to see if he comes to eat within an hour; if not, will feed at (+4).
If any of you have other thoughts on this, please go ahead and share them. We love being able to consider different perspectives. Hopefully, the "monitored free-feeding/meal-feeding" routine will get us safely (and mostly greenly) through these last couple of trial days, so that we can then all celebrate together!
Happy Monday!
Jane
