8/25 Sushi-How are we doing? - AMPS~329|+9~309

[Sushi (GA 5/05-3/14)]

Hi!
Here's our last post...

I'd love some input as to how we're doing. We've had a pretty mixed bag of colors lately; lots of blue, yellow & pink with some green mixed in. Just not sure where to go from here. I would like his #s to be lower, but does he technically "qualify" for an increase? Maybe we should just try fattening his dose?

He's also been practicing hard for the Most Obnoxious Cat event in the upcoming Cat Olympics. I say he'll qualify for sure. He starts around 4:30 or 5am with rapid-fire constant yowling. I'm supposed to ignore him to expel this behavior right? Except it doesn't seem to be working. And the trouble is he does it non-stop until it's time for him to eat; so a part of me fears I'm reinforcing the behavior. How can you ignore/not "reward" a behavior that happens all the time?

Biting is another of Sushi's bad habits that's turning into an issue. He will usually give me a few licks and a little nip when I'm petting him. At first I didn't want to punish this, because I thought he was showing affection. But the nip is followed by a bite, then a harder bite, and so on. This week, I was hugging him (against his will, I know...), and he bit the crap out of my forehead. As in I have scabs and bruises. He's never done that before. It was during his Most Obnoxious Cat practice; I suppose he thought he'd win extra points in the event by taking a chunk out of my forehead?
Any advice there?

And for some Caturday fun, here's a video of me trying to get Sushi to interact this hilarious broccoli balloon I got from a friend for my birthday. Enjoy!

[youtube]FJ8gdaEAAnY[/youtube]

:smile:

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

You need to raise Sushi's dose. If he were my cat, I probably would have raised his dose 6 weeks ago.

I'm wondering if you're overstimulating Sushi and that's why you're getting bitten. I'd suggest more interactive play and see if that reduces the aggressive behavior.

 

[Deborah & Shasta]

After just watching about 4 episodes of "My Cat from Hell" on Animal Planet, I'd say that Sienne is right. Interactive play is the way to go!! However, I must say that Sushi is a cat after my own heart...I don't like vegetables, either!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Good luck with the dosing.

~Deborah & Shasta

 

[rhiannon and shadow (GA)]

I agree with Sienne.
I watched your video.
I think you might want to try to watch that video as if you have never seen that cat before....like it belonged
to a stranger.
Sushi wanted very much to play but she wanted her little fuzzy toy. She looked very leery of the balloon
and reacted several times with a fear response to get away from it. And then she would go back for her
fuzzy toy. When the balloon was pulled down lower, she'd get further away.

Since she's your cat, you probably tho't she was being curious but what I saw was she really wanted you
to play with her fuzzy toy. The balloon? not so much....
She reached for her toy several times. She never batted at the balloon or the string.


And her yowling in the wee hours, does she get anything to eat between your bedtime and her am shot.
That would be a long period without food for an unregulated diabetic cat.
She could be genuinely hungry. Perhaps you could give her a quick random bg test and give her a snack
in the night and that would make her less fussy.
And being hungry could also make her snap at you since she can't speak and say, " hey mom, how about
a snack? I didn't want to play right now. " "you aren't listening. chomp. scratch. "

You said in earlier posts that she was cuddly and loving so it sounds like she gets fed up occasionally.
My cat will do that too.
There are times when she just doesn't want what I want. After all, she's a cat!

 

[Sushi (GA 5/05-3/14)]

Hi all!
Thanks for your responses.
Deborah-- :lol: :lol: love that you relate to Sushi's dislike of vegetables! ;-) And I love love "My Cat From Hell!" Yeahhhh!

I'll definitely try more interactive play* and see if that helps with the behavior issues we're having. I do admit and understand that I was doing something Sushi didn't like when he bit me; I'd just rather he doesn't react quite so harshly.

I do not feed him anything right before bedtime. One reason being I was confused about the proper eating schedule until a few weeks ago. I thought it wasn't a good idea to feed after +4, because it could artificially inflate Sushi's numbers. I feed him at 8:30, he eats on that until about 9-10:30 and shot time is at 6:30am. So that's about 8 hours between meals. I suppose I could try feeding him a small bit before bedtime and see if that helps as well.

* The balloon video is not reflective of my play sessions with Sushi. In fact, I wouldn't consider it playing at all. I admit, I was just bothering him and thought it was cute.

 

[rhiannon and shadow (GA)]

On feeding, Marje told me before she went on her trip to try to hold back food from the +6 ( or +7)
until shot times.
My girl is used to many small meals so now i'm trying to feed at shot times and i generally feed her
at +4 and a little more food at +6 or +6.5 and then she only gets a treat if I test her.
So far it's working pretty nicely.
I do get up at night for her, or stay up with her. I have observed that if shadow eats something, that it
takes 2 hrs 20 minutes for it to stop influencing her test number ( but she doesn't go up very much, maybe
20 or 30 higher) and I just note it to myself in my notebook/spreadsheet.

 

[Deborah & Shasta]

Goodness, I'm still trying to figure out the "right" feeding schedule. My cat, Shasta, peaks early (around +4), so unless she has one of her enormously large slides into the depths of the green grotto, I feed her larger meals at injection time (4-5% carbs) and then snacks (3% ish) from there on out, usually at +1, +2, +3, and then 2% Fancy Feast starting at +4. I leave her a tiny bit at bedtime; probably ~.25 - .35 oz. The advise is to not feed them after +10...so I say my prayers that Shasta eats it early! But again, every cat if different and we get to play the trial and error game until something clicks! Good luck!

 

[Sushi (GA 5/05-3/14)]

Rhiannon, that's good advice! I'll experiment with that.
Deborah, I can't even figure out when Sushi peaks! I'm not home enough to feed that often, but it sounds like you've got a good system there! :lol: love the carrot top kitty!! Bahahahahaha!!!