Feed my cat twice a day, or small meals during the day?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Jennifer and Spot (GA)

Jennifer and Spot (GA)

Member
Spot was diagnosed about 3 wks ago. Since then, we've finally--just recently--figured out how to prick his ear and get blood the first time. Whew. Warm rice sock really helps. And because of this site, I learned we should be giving him insulin twice a day, 12 hrs apart, not once a day. Ok, so we are doing that, but .75 unit each shot. Don't know if it's enough or not. I also don't know about his food. How often should I feed him? We are giving him some raw food, CANNED Wellness, Merrick's and Fancy Feast classics. I thought I was supposed to feed him ONLY after each shot, so he'd have to wait 12 hrs for his meal. Meanwhile he is starving by the evening. Can he eat during the day, and if so, what time is best?

In other words, would this be a good schedule?

Test, Eat, shot - 7:30 AM

Eat - noon?

Test, eat, shot - 7:30 PM

Or should he eat more frequently?
 
There are people that only feed at shot time but I think that most feed more smaller meals a day. I personally feed mine 4-5 times a day. My kitty in diet controlled but the schedule is the same. Breakfast at 8, snack at 2, dinner at 8 and snack when I go to bed, if they seem really hungry I will give them an extra snack. The times you suggested would be fine - maybe you could add a snack before you go to bed so he doesn't have to go all nite with no food, it kinda just whatever works for your schedule. The only thing you want to make sure is that your kitty doesn't have any food within 2 hours of amps and pmps or the numbers could food inflated.

Good Luck
Sharon
 
Feeding small meals throughout the day is preferred. It is easier on the pancreas than loading it with food once every 12 hrs, and your cat doesn't have to starve in between.

Since Scooter is a hoover and prone to scarf and barfing, I feed him a quarter of a 3oz can about every 1-2 hours, all the way up until 2-3 hours before his shot. He gets about 3 cans a day. I haven't had any complications feeding so close to his preshot, but your mileage may vary :-D
 
I feed my cat 6 meals a day and it seemed to make a good difference: when he was on two meals a day, he needed insulin, and when I put him on six, he also at that time stopped needing insulin. I think the regular feeding makes a difference for my cat.
 
All of mine are fed 4 times a day. I feed at 7am when Musette gets her morning shot, then again at 1pm (+6) then again at 7pm with Musette's evening shot and then they get a frozen meal right before I go to bed at 10pm so they can snack all night if they want to. It seems to have made a world of difference not only to my sugarcats but to my non-diabetics as they aren't nearly as frantic to eat when its time for their meals.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
I "free feed" Motska. I don't have a schedule that allows me to be home to feed several small meals each day (I'm away from home 7:30am - 6pm. So I do test, feed, shoot at 7am and 7pm. She gets 3/4 of a Friskies can (twice per day) mixed with water, and she grazes on it whenever she's hungry. And then I don't worry so much about her having a hypo -- if her blood sugar starts dropping too low when I'm not home, she has food available to help bring her BG back up. And there's usually a few teaspoons of food left over by by the time she's due for her next test, feed, shoot.

Your decision will really depend upon your cat's natural tendencies (ECID). If he will naturally eat just a little at a time throughout the day, you may want to consider leaving food out all day. If he scarfs down everything in one sitting, then maybe several small meals will work better for you.
 
What I did with my kitty, Bob, was feed him a can of FF for breakfast around 6am when I gave him his AM shot. Then I'd stop by the house sometime between 5-6 hours later and feed him half a can of Friskees. He would then get another can of FF at his 6PM dinnertime shot. I would give him a spoonful of Friskees just before I went to bed to hold him over until 6AM.

Feeding smaller amounts during the day or night between shots can help level out the boost in BG that he would get from eating. Many people use auto-feeders set to go off in the middle of the cycle. A lot would depend on when (or if) you can be around the house in the time between the AM and PM shots. If so, you can give small meals or snacks. In general, you would see an increase in BG in the first hour or two after eating, which is why it is recommended that you not feed in the two hours before shot time (so that the test number you get a shot time isn't influenced by food raising the BG).

Also, like Kris just said, every cat is different (ECID). Some cats scarf all the food down in ten minutes (we can them "hoovers") while other cats will eat a little, and go back for more later (grazers). My two guys are definitely hoovers, and what one doesn't eat, the other will. If you have more than one kitty, that matters since your diabetic kitty may end up getting more (or less) than you want him to eat unless you can feed them separately.

Bottom line - if you can manage it, feeding more than twice a day would be best.

Carl
 
This is a very useful thread. I'm convinced that my cats eating habits and how I'm dealing with them are interfering with his BG levels - when he was OTJ for 18 months he ate 5-6 meals a day - 2 larger ones (7:30am/6pm) and 3-4 smaller ones - noon, 8pm, midnight or thereabouts before I go to sleep and 5am when he'd often wake me screaming. It was perfect he seemed happy and all was right with the world (except for my interrupted sleep schedule). Now - back from the honeymoon with his numbers running in the 300's most of the time and me bouncing around with insulin levels (for a variety of reasons some good some just probably my stupidity) he's looking for the same food schedule but I can't really regulate it with when I test and shoot. I try NOT to feed him at 5 or 6am even though he often asks for it - if he continues to be fussy and pulling him into bed doesn't calm him down I give him some watery FF Cod, shrimp mixture about 1/4 to a 1/2 a can and he hoovers it right down. I test him before I give him this so I have a PRE-food number to consider at 7am/7:30 when I give him his shot and he gets his "real" breakfast (about 3/4 of a can FF low cal/carb with metimucil in it) this he eats pretty quickly too - I test again and shoot but I compare the 5am # and the 7:30# since he's had food at 5am (which is technically about PMPS +10) and try to base my decision on what makes sense with the PMPS+10 number and the AMPS number. Than before I leave for work around 8:30am (AMPS+1) he gets the small amount of his breakfast with water added to it. I have a auto feeder that we can't get to work - it's about a year old and if I can't figure it out this weekend when I have time to fiddle with it I'm buying a new one - I think if he had smaller amounts in the morning when I'm home and than something mid - day he'd be better off - neither of us can always get home at noon or so - than I also think he if got some food at say 9pm and than again at maybe 3am he'd be happier and I would have a clearer idea of his morning number at shot time without food interference.
Didn't mean to hijack someone else's thread - but any input on this would be much appreciated.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top