6/07 Merlin PMPS 385, 371 @+1, 328@+2, 286@+3, 232@+4, 265@+5

Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Hi Jill, how are you today? I hope it’s a lovely day in Cork and you get to enjoy some of it.
I’ll watch, like I did yesterday, and you can decide on what to do and when. Is that ok with you?
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Hi Bron. Sunny at the moment for a change! Had some troubles getting Merlin to eat ps and +1.5. He’s tired of his food selection. Had four options for ps. He grazed from all and eventually made up almost a can in an hour. Then at 1.5 I had to actually shovel the food down with a spoon and he didn’t get all of it. So we had to supplement with a different kind. Which he ate. :banghead: Hope today is better. He did get into green, but maybe too fast, hence the high red this morning?
 
Ok. Fed the scheduled +1.5, but a bit early because my mind was still on last nights schedule of it being a quarter past the hour shot time. So…still going to test at 1.5, but that snack may show in the BG? Or maybe it wouldn’t show yet 15 minutes after eating?
 
Ok. Are you going to test at +2?
I think in future you ought to look at maybe feeding the +1.5 meal at +1 to try and head off any big drops.
It may not always work, especially if he bounces but you need to somehow try and slow down these big drops.
 
Merlin’sMama said:
It’s still not clear to me how fast is too fast in a drop.
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Ideally it is better if a cat doesn’t drop more than 50-70 points an hour. But a lot of cats have not read the rule book and drop a lot more. And that can cause bouncing. Feeding the curve like you are trying to do is how to manage it but it doesn’t always work.
The higher the preshot, the bigger the possible drop (often). Normally with a lower preshot the drops are not as big.
Just keep doing what you are doing and adjusting the feed times ( and the carbs) if you think another time might work better to slow the drop.
 
But its not even green yet. It slowed between 1.5 and 2 because of the food. Then sped up a little. I think maybe feed 1 sp 8.8… I dont know.
 
Merlin’sMama said:
But it is within the range of 50-70 per hour…but he started high and dropped fast. And his last food could be burned up by now. This is where I need some advice, for sure. If we dont feed, he could drop too low too fast.
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Merlin’sMama said:
And also, would we switch to lower carb than 8.8 now?
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Good questions
He has actually dropped 100 points in the last hour from +1.5 to +2.5
I think a low carb snack now would be good. Around about 4%
 
I think it might be worth changing the 2 early scheduled feeds (if he will eat them ) to +1 and +2 and see if that helps stop these big drops.
If it doesn’t work, they can be changed but at the moment he is dropping before he is fed the first snack.
It may sometimes slow the cycle but if it works it will be worth it I think. You can experiment with the number of carbs to see what works best in slowing the drop.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
I think it might be worth changing the 2 early scheduled feeds (if he will eat them ) to +1 and +2 and see if that helps stop these big drops.
If it doesn’t work, they can be changed but at the moment he is dropping before he is fed the first snack.
It may sometimes slow the cycle but if it works it will be worth it I think. You can experiment with the number of carbs to see what works best in slowing the drop.
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He did only have one scheduled feed, which was at 1.5. The other was just a possible one if needed. Shall we change it, then to scheduled +1 and +2 feed? And since we are making it +1, that’s pretty close to his ps feed, so I have even more pressure to have him fed all of his ps meal in 15 minutes or so.
 
Merlin’sMama said:
He did only have one scheduled feed, which was at 1.5. The other was just a possible one if needed. Shall we change it, then to scheduled +1 and +2 feed? And since we are making it +1, that’s pretty close to his ps feed, so I have even more pressure to have him fed in 15 minutes or so.
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I realise it is close to the preshot meal. Can you feed the preshot meal 1/4 hour earlier?
You can only try it and see if he cooperates.
I would make those two snacks a higher low carb snack to start with, and adjust if needed.
What is the carb content of the preshot meal?
What do you think Suzanne…if you are around at the moment?
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
I realise it is close to the preshot meal. Can you feed the preshot meal 1/4 hour earlier?
You can only try it and see if he cooperates.
I would make those two snacks a higher low carb snack to start with, and adjust if needed.
What is the carb content of the preshot meal?
What do you think Suzanne…if you are around at the moment?
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As it is over the last week, we have been testing the ps at 15 minutes before shoot, and then feeding for 15 minutes, shooting, then letting him finish for about 15 minutes.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
I realise it is close to the preshot meal. Can you feed the preshot meal 1/4 hour earlier?
You can only try it and see if he cooperates.
I would make those two snacks a higher low carb snack to start with, and adjust if needed.
What is the carb content of the preshot meal?
What do you think Suzanne…if you are around at the moment?
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It’s like a super fragile time when he is eating. If we interrupt him to test, he may not go back to it. Shouldnt’ the preshot test be within 15 minutes of the shot and not involve any food?
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
I realise it is close to the preshot meal. Can you feed the preshot meal 1/4 hour earlier?
You can only try it and see if he cooperates.
I would make those two snacks a higher low carb snack to start with, and adjust if needed.
What is the carb content of the preshot meal?
What do you think Suzanne…if you are around at the moment?
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Preshot meal is around 7.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Maybe if that is a higher low carb that might help slow that very early drop.
I think it would be worth trying a 9% carb preshot meal to see if that can slow the drop because he doesn’t have a food bump after eating but goes straight into a drop.
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If we do that, would we still try something at +1 or +1.5? What carbs?
 
Merlin’sMama said:
If we do that, would we still try something at +1 or +1.5? What carbs?
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You can try the higher carb preshot with the +1 and +4 if you like, or you can try the higher carb preshot with the +1 and the +2.
I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
I think I would try a higher carb for the +1 (around 7 or 8%) and then a lower carb for the +2 and see how that goes.
 
We might actually have a little more of a drop, as in the past he has dropped some more between +3 and +4. But I think not to test until +4.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
You can try the higher carb preshot with the +1 and +4 if you like, or you can try the higher carb preshot with the +1 and the +2.
I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
I think I would try a higher carb for the +1 (around 7 or 8%) and then a lower carb for the +2 and see how that goes.
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Ok. What we did today, but feeding a 9% for the preshot meal. If he doesn’t eat that +1, I would have to switch to a different food in the same range and try it again a little later…
 
My summary of the plan, at least for next cycle:
Feed 9% preshot, trying to get it eaten up by 10 minutes after shot.
Feed 7 or 8% at +1 (hopefully he will eat it) to slow the drop.
Feed lower carb (3.7ish) at +2 (if needed?)
Feed very low carb at +4. (Or not, if he’s too high, or if there is worry about him not eating all of his next ps)
 
Merlin’sMama said:
My summary of the plan, at least for next cycle:
Feed 9% preshot, trying to get it eaten up by 10 minutes after shot.
Feed 7 or 8% at +1 (hopefully he will eat it) to slow the drop.
Feed lower carb (3.7ish) at +2 (if needed?)
Feed very low carb at +4. (Or not, if he’s too high, or if there is worry about him not eating all of his next ps)
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You could skip the +4 snack and give it a bit later at+6 or +7 if you wanted or leave it.
 
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