(My internet service here is still touch & go.
Meant to get this to you much earlier, Bobbie. It's long ... but I hope it helps you some!)
You also wrote in your first post:
"Before he was DX the vet said to get him down to 20 lbs. So, should I feed him according to the desired weight? Because he looks too thin even though he is maintaining 17.5 lbs. I am just not clear about this and think I need to put a little bit of weight back on him. His back is boney when I comb him."
Just because you can feel Bubba’s backbone when you comb him does not necessarily mean that he is "too thin." I can feel Bat-Bat's backbone, and her weight is just fine: slender; not emaciated. (She is long and rather large-boned - for a female cat - the vet once pointed that out to me in her x-rays, with comment: "She's a big cat - look at her skeleton!")
You say Bubba gets into Forrest’s food sometimes. You’ll need to put the brakes on that, pronto. As what looks to us like “...a few extra bites” can significantly impact your kitty’s BG #s.
And perhaps you could forego adding any of the EVO kibble to Bubba's canned rations? (As looks like he gets up to 2 tablespoons of that mixed in: Is this a daily thing?) I don't think he needs additional food in the wee hours, either, unless he's actually having a hypo event. Treats? Not really essential. Remember: You're treating him for a medical condition; not rewarding him for cleaning up his room. It really helps to look at the food as "medicine.” Too little is not so good; too much food is not so good, either.
Bubba's diabetes will need to be under better control before he stops feeling hungry all the time.
If you and your vet have already ruled out any other medical problems, then you may want to try transitioning him out of mini-meals until you get his diabetes under control. I see only a single "green" number in Bubba’s chart to date (at a PMPS). This gives me the feeling that his current feeding schedule is not really helping his numbers to come down.
(The rest of this was from a post I wrote on another thread; I’ve edited it for your situation with Bubba.)
At present, it's very hard for you to determine where Bubba’s nadirs might be, on-insulin, using the mini-meals approach. (Plus snacks? And he's scarfing a little of Forrest’s food, too?) Every time Bubba eats again, his blood sugar rises - so how do you uncover nadir with a cycle full of mini-meals?
Here are my suggestions, offered sincerely, & with sympathy for the difficulties of feeding when you have two cats in the home and only one is diabetic.
Both of your cats transition (can’t be done overnight!) to just two meals per day, if at all possible - at least for now to help you get Bubba better regulated.
This would mean you have to take a hard line, toughen up & be the “alpha cat-mom” to your kitty duo.
Keep this in mind: In the wild, cats will characteristically eat a BIG meal, then not eat for an entire day! Our “domesticated” cats have learned to become grazers because we humans turn them into grazers - they would not normally eat this way otherwise. (I’d done that myself to Bat-Bat, which is how she ballooned up to 18 pounds before the diabetes hit her & whittled her down to skinny by the time she was first diagnosed.) So once we’ve turned them into grazers, it’s only natural for them to heartily pitch a fit (read: buy lots of earplugs
) until we transition them out of that not-so-helpful habit of grazing throughout the day.
It’s hard. You have to stand firm while those adorable kitty-faces whine & pout & cry & yowl pitifully to try to convince you that they are just STARVING.
(Some may even go as far as to pull a little “hunger strike” - not unlike a bratty 4-year-old who threatens, “I’ll hold my breath until I TURN BLUE!!!” Ha, my daughter tried that once, and found she didn’t win the game. No, it wasn't about food.)
Guess what? Your kitties won’t actually starve. (Ask Bat-Bat, who for a while sounded like an entire Mormon Tabernacle Choir of kitties as we were making the transition to twice a day feedings. She was a master terrorist, but I didn’t give in.) She’s still alive & well today.
Will they like it? H*ll, no! But here’s the deal: You have a sick kitty on your hands. Changing his feeding schedule won’t kill him ... but uncontrolled diabetes can.
It’s you who will have to decide how quickly you can best transition from multi-meals to fewer meals. If they’ve been eating, say, 5 times a day, maybe shift it to 4 times for a few days, then 3 for a few days, then 2. (And no snacks in between.) But here’s the foundation to help you get Bubba’s #’s to come down & stay down:
1) Bubba eats in a room BY HIMSELF, closed off from Forrest at mealtimes. He get the correct amount of food for his optimum weight and no more than that (unless you’re dealing with a hypo event, of course).
2) Forrest stays in another closed room until he finishes his meal. If Forrest normally grazes, that can’t happen anymore - otherwise his diabetic brother won’t get better anytime soon.
What to do about the large meal/ scarf & barf problem? (Yep, we went through that messy bit, too!
)
1) As you’re transitioning, the AMPS/PMPS meals gets gradually larger, and any other meals in between get gradually smaller.
2) If you can make it down to 2 (large) meals/day, add water to the food (slows them down) and pick up the plate for a short “food rest” halfway through the meal. (Essential for Bubba, maybe not so much for Forrest ... unless you actually get a kick out of cleaning up cat-barf. I am now an expert cat-barf cleaner-upper.)
3) Put your cat’s plate or bowl on a shoebox at mealtime, so that he’s not eating head-down-to-the-floor.
You will find, over time, that without so many meals/ snacks throughout the day, Bubba will (generally) be eager to eat, pre-shot. And by getting both cats in your house on board with this routine, mealtimes will feel saner/less stressful.
Will you run into an occasional snag? Sure! Bat-Bat recently barfed her ENTIRE meal, right after one of her “as needed” insulin shots. (Arrgh, panic time!
) So first, I reminded myself to breathe. I waited 15 minutes & fed her 1/3 of the usual ration. (TG, it stayed there.) Then 10 minutes later, fed the 2nd 1/3; and in 10 more min. fed the final 1/3. It all stayed down. Checked her BG - it was going up. Checked again at nadir-time to reassure myself. All was ok; crisis averted.
Once you’ve made the transition & are able to get a clearer picture of when Bubba nadirs, things get a lot easier. A couple examples: If he drops too low @ nadir, you give a little higher-carb something & test in 15 min. to make sure that # is rising; if his nadir # is too high after a few cycles at the same dose, you’ll likely need to bump up the dose.
I did not start giving Bat-Bat mini-meals until her pre-shot numbers were starting to average around 150 (or less) at a micro-dose of ProZinc. (She eats at around 6:45 am, 11 am, 6:45 pm and 10:30 pm., with the AMPS/PMPS meals being slightly larger.) If she actually makes it into remission, I will likely transition her - gradually - to 3 meals/day, then 2 meals/day --- because I’d like to have my life back one of these days!
It isn’t an easy task to accomplish, I know: Maybe you can only get down to 3 meals/day, for example. And if there are other health complications - like pancreatitis, CKD, etc. - you must do what works best to treat all of those conditions simultaneously.
Barring such complications, while I realize that every diabetic cat is different, diabetes is always the same for every cat: It sickens. It emaciates. It weakens. And it can kill.
So do your best; discover what works for you and your kitty. (Take what you need from the above, and leave the rest.) Here’s the little line that I keep in a frame above my desk:
“The greatest pleasure in life is doing what others say can’t be done.” 
