? How much food should my cat be getting per meal?

My cat Stewie was recently diagnosed and I immediately switched him to eating 2x daily, canned food. He has been getting Blue Buffalo Wilderness, 3/4 of a 5.5 oz can per meal. He was 15lbs on 3/28/18. The vet told me he should get 280 calories but is that a day or per meal???

 

That would be a daily amount of calories.

 

Ok thanks! I just want to make sure he’s eating enough.

 

By the way, feeding more often that 2 times per day may work out better for you. Some cats are okay with eating only twice a day, but many are not. I feed mine 4 times per day (every 6 hours). If he is not underweight, and you need to keep him to a certain number of calories, you can just divide the amount of food he can have into however many meals you plan to feed. As long as he does not have access to food about two hours before his pre-shot glucose test.. and as long as he will eat a little at shot time, he should be fine.

 

How often do you give your cat shots? I wondered if I could give him a snack in the afternoon but the vet told me to only feed him twice every 12 hours and then give him insulin...very new to this... I appreciate your help!

 

Mia gets shots twice per day, every 12 hours. That is pretty standard with the majority of cats on insulin.

A lot of vets say to only feed them twice per day, but the the AAHA Guidelines (link in my signature) say you can feed more times per day, using an auto-feeder, if needed. I have 'heard' that the twice a day thing is an old way of thinking and possibly related to the older types of insulin that were in use and required that the cat eat a lot more at shot time for it to be safe. I don't know.. that is before my time in diabetes land. Cats have fast metabolisms. I know my cats would not be happy at all if they could only eat twice per day.

 

Purr-fect, Thank you. I feel better I’m feeding him good and I can still give him a snack. Any other input or advice you have is greatly appreciated!!!

 

As long as he eats when he gets his insulin, you can feed whenever. The only times you really don't want them to eat is 2 hours prior to checking their BG before insulin, so you can get a true number.

 

I'm new here, so I'm not in a position to offer advice. I can say what happened with us though. We started out with two meals per day and it just didn't work. My sugar kitty was miserable and my civvie, who still thinks he's a stray after 10 years in my house, thought he was starving. Now they get four meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime snack (which is actually as large as the other meals). The cats are happy and I get to sleep through the night!