Do I need to change my feeding schedule?

Status
Not open for further replies.
JenM

JenM

Member Since 2013
So... when Tink first came of the juice, it was made possible by feeding 4 small meals per day. These meals came to be at 6am, 11am (via timed feeder), 4pm and 9-10pm. Roughly every 5 hours (a little longer overnight). However, it just occurred to me that with this schedule, I'm feeding him 3 times on his AM shot and only once on his PM shot. That seems like a bad idea.

Now that we're back on insulin, do I need to look at a 6, 12, 6, 12 feeding routine? I COULD do this, via the timed feeder - but I just like being there to make sure HE gets the food. If I did it this way, I'd only be able to monitor the 6's. I'm assuming it would be fine, as my pirhanna cat is in my daughters room overnight anyway. During the day, I can only assume that Tink is the one that eats the food in the timed feeder, as all the cats have access. Tink is kind of the king of the house though, and even crazy Taz doesn't push him too much. I do know Tink runs to the feeder when it opens (on the weekends, it still rotates on schedule, even though I haven't filled it).

Anyway... what are your thoughts on this? My main concerns are, as stated, that the one shot is getting way more food than the second shot. But also that I'm not feeding at the second shot currently. With my current schedule, he eats at 4pm and gets his shot at 6pm - at which time he's usually fairly high due to the meal 2hrs ago.

I'm not sure why none of this occurred to me until now. But assuming I really need to move to the 6, 12, 6, 12 feeding schedule, dont I? The other downside to this schedule is that I would have to go back to twice/day feedings for my other cats - which I'm not sure they'll be too crazy about... but they can deal.
 
Definitely worth a try Jen. If you have the PetSafe 5, you could feed 4 times a cycle with an empty space pretest.

Has it been 3 cycles with .6? what do you think about upping to .8?
 
I did up to .8 I think it was night before last. Got much better nadir with that, but then we've had some preshots in the lower-mid 200's so I went back to .6 on those. I'll try to update the SS tonight. We had a 124 I think it was last night at +4, but he also hadn't eaten since 2hrs before his PM shot. I fed him his evening meal and went to bed, but set the alarm to get up at midnight because I wanted to make sure the meal took him back up enough by then (it was fine). That's kind of what got me thinking about the food thing. I dont like shooting without a meal to follow - and then only having the one meal during the whole PM dose just freaks me out a little. Plus, he's been in the low 200s when I feed him at 4pm (and doesn't get his shot till 6pm), so that's causing him to be pretty high for PMPS.

I go through 2 cans per day, so I give the civvies their breakfast, and put half of Tink's in the feeder. So I'd just follow that routine for "dinner" too if I change the feeding schedule. Might try it out tonight. They're gonna try to eat my toes if I dont feed them at 4pm... but oh well.
 
I updated the SS. While the numbers are better than they WERE, they're still not great. I wanna see some GREEN! But, he has had a few early drops that concern me, as had he not eaten at that time, I fear he could have been in risk of hypo (some of his evening +3/4 numbers).

I decided to go to a 6/11/6/11 feeding schedule - that way he gets his food at both preshots (6s) and at +5. I was going to do 6/12 but he seems to drop a bit fast for that, so I thought a meal at +5 SHOULD avoid any hypo events. Of course this idea means that the beans got NO sleep last night due to kitties screaming about starvation. :roll:

I'm still torn on dosage. It seems that .8 works for maybe 2 cycles, but then I get a lower preshot and am afraid to shoot .8. At least the weekend is here, so I can be there to poke & prod the poor guy and hopefully between that and the new feeding schedule we can get him regulated a bit better. I'd feel so much better about the .8 if I was seeing CONSISTENT drops - but I'm not. Sometimes he drops a little, sometimes he drops a lot. Pretty sure he's trying to kill me. nailbite_smile
 
Ugh... just realized nobody else can SEE my little comment ticks that show his meal times. Darn it. They dont show up on the printed version either. Poo. Oh well.
 
How about a sliding scale just a little higher: .8 for the higher preshots, .6 if they are a little lower. And if there is any way to feed that early drop, it might flatten out the cycle- just a few little snacks after the test might be enough.
 
I can feed the early drops in the evenings... it's the morning that concerns me, since I'm at work. I'm probably just being paranoid as we've not had anything NEAR a hypo... but when we're in the mid-low 100's with 2hrs yet to drop... momma gets anxious. I'll see what he does throughout the day this weekend and maybe adjust his feeding schedule more. It may be that he needs to eat at preshot and at +4 or something, then not eat till next preshot to keep from climbing too high again - we'll see. I found it odd that his preshot was still in the 200s on the night I spaced out his 6pm shot and didn't give it until 9pm. I think, as usual, his pancreas is trying to work - it's just doing so in a really unpredictable pattern.

I COULD go to more frequent meals, via the Petsafe 5, but his servings are awfully small already, it would be somewhat difficult to divvy them up even more. He has dropped a few ounces in the last week or so - which is overall a good thing - though I dont like that it's likely because he's essentially starving in the 200s. :(
 
Once again, I didn't bring the SS with me to update - but I increased to 1u this past weekend. Even with that, I'm not seeing nadirs in the green, though we do seem to be bringing preshots down into the upper 200s, so that's something. This is SO frustrating! Of course, to top it off, I'm pretty sure this morning's shot was a furshot... so we'll probably be flying high by tonight. :/

I tried switching to 6/12/6/12 with the food and nearly had a feline revolution in my house! This idea was COMPLETELY unacceptable to all 4-legged beings and boy did they let me know it. "Human, we EAT at bedtime", they screamed. "Human, you forgot to feed us and thus we will keep you up ALL night". :shock:

SO that lasted two nights. :lol: I caved. But... it also didn't seem to be affecting Tink's numbers at all - in fact I think he needs to eat around +4 or +5 anyway because it seems that he bottoms out around that time. I'm almost wondering if I'm going to have to go with 8hr dosing on the ProZinc rather than 12hr (or if that's even an option)... but I'll post separately on that once I get the SS updated.
 
Maybe keep your current feeding schedule that you and your cats are used to but add another feeding mid-night. I dont know if adding an extra can of food is a problem diet wise, or financially. Right now between 3 cats I'm feeding 5 cans a day UGH! but I am using the petsafe 5 feeder. I feed at 7 am, 12 pm, 5 pm, 10 pm, and 3 am. I had to do the same thing with feeding every few hours or Hidey would spike, especially in the morning from not eating all night (that was with me feeding at 10)
 
Adding more food overall (an extra can) isn't an option - Tink has been packing on weight even with only getting half a can per day of Wellness (the large cans). He thinks I'm starving him, but he topped 13lb again before going back on insulin. His numbers were gorgeous at 12lb and he seemed well proportioned. While I know his weight isn't the only reason we're back on insulin, he DOES seem chubby now and I'd love to get him back down to 12lb.

I think simply moving my old 4pm feeding to 6pm will be a big help. At least this way, he's getting two meals on each shot. He went OTJ so quickly, I never had to worry about food in conjunction with insulin doses. Now that he's back on, I realized 3 of his meals were falling into the same insulin cycle and the night cycle was only getting fed once. The 4pm meal (2hrs before his PM shot) was spiking his numbers for preshot.

For now I'll stick with 6, 11, 6, 10 for meal times - but can certainly toy with a nighttime feeding if it seems he needs one. From my attempt at moving feeding time to midnight, all it seemed to do was make him INCREDIBLY ACTIVE all night. So if I can avoid it, and continue with that being "nighty night" time... all will be well.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top