How often does your cat eat/snack?

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DaisyPaws

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For the first few weeks that Daisy was on Lantus, her highs and lows were pretty extreme, and even more so when we cut the carbs in her diet.
When we tried to give her more calories through larger servings of wet food (Merrick, EVO, Tiki) she would overeat quickly and then vomit.

We discovered that what worked for her at that time was a small snack every 4 hours.
Timer feeders helped a LOT with this, and she has been eating half of a small can of the foods listed above for "breakfast" and "dinner", and a quarter of a small can of Weruva for "snacks" every four hours in between. On days when she is trending quite low, we add 4- 6 pieces of lower carb dry food to the snack, and she thinks she is in heaven!

She also gets a "Wild Cravings" treat when we check her sugar at times other than before she eats. They are a little more "carby" than the freeze dried shrimp we tried before, but she loves them so much that she will run and bat at her "kit" (pencil box with meter, etc.) as soon as we take the Cravings bag out of the cabinet. Now THAT is a treat!!!

Setting up the timer feeders is a bit of a hassle each morning and evening, but the result is no more low lows, meaning we can go to work each day and not worry about her so much!

These days, her numbers are staying much lower, with pre-shot numbers typically between 85 and 160. She never needs more than .5u twice a day and sometimes has an even lower dose or no shot at all when numbers are lower.

So, as we near the point where we might start thinking about going OTJ - not yet, but maybe soon! - do you think the frequent, small-meal feeding schedule is helping her or hurting her? At one time, when her lows were extreme and sudden, it was the only way we could feel OK about leaving her.
I'm wondering now if we should stick with what is more or less working, or try some changes?
 
Sounds like it's working very well for all of you! Anything that helps keep those numbers steady is a good thing.

KT eats as he wants as I keep soft food out for all three of them in here. We're at home 24/7 so it's not an issue for me...

Hugs,
 
All of mine eat 4 times a day, they get breakfast, lunch, dinner and a before bed snack, although my kids get fed at 6 hour intervals except for the before bed snack, which I put out frozen so they can work on it overnight. But basically they eat at 7am when Musette gets her morning shot, then again at 1pm, again at 7pm with Musette's evening shot, and then the frozen meal goes down at 10pm. This schedule works for 11 civies, and 2 sugarcats. Maxwell has remained OTJ for almost a year on thsi schedule and Musette is trying real hard to follow him to the Falls. So I would say if it ain't broke don't fix it :-D

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
Bandit eats 4 times a day, about every 6 hours. He also gets freeze dried salmon and chicken treats throughout the day (maybe 4 or 5) and occasionally (when I think to buy them) half of a Fancy Feast appetizer as a snack once in a while in between meals. I can't feed him less than 4 times a day or he will tear the house apart!

I don't think the EVO cravings are bad--there isnt anything in the ingredients that would be real carb-y so as long as you're not overfeeding the treats I think they're perfectly fine.


I cannot stress enough how much I love my timed feeder. Now that Bandit is in remission again it's what allows me to sleep in on the weekends, or go to bed early during the week. :-)
 
We love the timer feeder, too, Julia!
We can't leave food out for all day grazing because the other cat will make it disappear as soon as we leave the house!
The timer feeder is a life saver in so many ways, though I wish we had your luck of it allowing us to get sleep in the mornings - even though the robot controls the food these days, the little dears seem to feel it is critical for us to get up, up, UP! as soon as there is the slightest glimmer of daylight outside! Best alarm clocks ever, but no "snooze" function.

Another funny thing - our feeder has an audio recording to call the cats when it is time to eat. This is cool because otherwise, Daisy is apt to doze right through robo-feeding time and the other cat will happily (and quickly) consume both snacks. But, the audio recordings of us calling her seemed to do no good. Daisy just looked confused and wouldn't go to the kitchen. We finally changed the audio recording to the sound of someone shaking the dry food container, and THAT wakes her from a dead sleep and brings her running!
 
i leave food out all day (refreshing at times) my cats are odd eaters, my civvie will sit there and eat her whole bowl and is done, patches will nibble very tiny amounts and make frequent trips back and forth so feeding at designated times i wouldnt know who got food and who didnt on the way they "eat"
 
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