How to deal with morning hunger?

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mimi4neeyah and Loki

mimi4neeyah and Loki

Member Since 2012
I get up about 2 hrs prior to Loki's AMPS, he starts looking for breakfast around that time, so for 2 hrs I am dodging him, How can I satisfy him and still get the prior breakfast reading without tripping over him because he is hungry?
Probably a dumb question but you guys are awesome at getting me answers to what I am looking for. I go thru the same thing around PMPS time. He does get fed in between around +4 and +8. During the day after breakfast he is not as demanding.
Any hints would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Mimi and Loki
 
Diabetics are hungry because they can't use all the food due to the lack of insulin. You might be able to feed about 50% more, spread out across the day, possibly with a bit of water added to give it more volume, to help him feel less hungry.

You can freeze a half to two thirds of it and put out both at shot time. He'll be able to nibble on the frozen as it thaws. And it will be fine sitting out all day. I feed 14 civvies and I put out food in the morning and at night; no one has gotten sick on it, all are doing well. Do keep it away from the refrigerator exhaust - it will fan the smell around!

Another option is an electronic pet feeder. You might budget to buy a PetSafe 5 to spread out his feeding. This model has been used by many of the FDMB folks.
 
It's recommended to not feed 2 hours prior to shot time so it doesn't influence the BG and potentially cause you to shoot at a much lower number that's been camouflaged by the food spike. So, if you get up 2 hours before you give his shot, go ahead and feed him right then! ;-) By the time he's ready for his shot, the food should be minimally affecting his BG (if at all).

One thing I did when starting out was I would test Mikey roughly 20 minutes after he ate, an hour after he ate, and 2 hours after he ate (regardless of shot time) and compared his BG with the amount of carbs in his food to get a rough estimate of which foods affected his BG by how much and for how long. This way, on the days I didn't make it home from work till right before his PMPS, I wouldn't have to worry about whether or not he ate 30 minutes before I tested him; I would just assume those tests were food-influenced and subtracted the difference to see if he was still at a safe number to shoot. (This is also how I discovered how carb-sensitive he really was.)

Now that he's more regulated, I'm shooting pretty low numbers (i.e. 70) so it doesn't really matter if his number is food-influenced any more. :lol:
 
If he's bugging you for food a couple hours before each shot, is there a reason you couldn't adjust the shot time to be at when you get up rather than a couple hours later? Not sure what your schedule is or if that would be a workable time for the PM shot, but I know how hard it is to ignore a cat that wants to be fed! I shoot at about 4:30 because that's when I come in the door after work in the afternoon and my cat expects to be fed when I arrive, so I made the AM shot to match.
 
If your schedule would allow the adjustment...

one of the best tests to get every day is a +2.
So if you got up, tested/shot/fed .... you'd be able to get that +2 .
A significant drop in bg from your amps to a +2 test is often a good indicator as to whether or not the cycle is going to be an active cycle where you know to monitor more closely.

Of course, each cat is different so they can still have an active cycle but it sure is useful.

The hunger issue gets better as their numbers get back to a normal range.
 
Hey there!!! I had that problem with Gobbles--I changed his shot time until 2 hours later. Of course, I was able to do this because I don't work and soft time really makes no difference....so now I get to sleep a little later
 
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