newbie q: what if my cat wants to eat every few minutes?

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KarenAmelia

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My cat Terra has been an on-demand feeder for her whole life (she is about 14 years old). Now that I know about her diabetes (just diagnosed a few days ago) I worry about her wanting to eat every few minutes. What is the best approach? Feed every several hours?
 
Switching Poopy to 2x a day feeding has been relatively easy (except he does demand more about +7 and beyond...still dealing with that and trying to get his dose right). The first couple of days my civvie Mia wasn't to with it though. She was used to the 24/7 available dry and wet was supposed to be a treat. So the first couple of days she only nibbled at the wet. Now she eats with gusto.

One of the benefits I've seen with the 2x a day feeding...Poopy now comes to me when he knows it's meal time, ready for his pokey poke! Woohoo!

If your kitty is eating during the 2x a day, maybe her pokey poke treat can be a tiny bit of canned???? I was doing that before getting the low carb treats.
 
KarenAmelia said:
My cat Terra has been an on-demand feeder for her whole life (she is about 14 years old). Now that I know about her diabetes (just diagnosed a few days ago) I worry about her wanting to eat every few minutes. What is the best approach? Feed every several hours?
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Unregulated diabetics are literally starving because their bodies can't properly process the nutrients in the food. It's best to feed them multiple small meals a day. You can use a programmable timed feeder to do this. Twice a day feeding isn't enough.

The PetSafe 5 compartment feeder is a popular one. PetSmart and other stores sell it. Catmate is another good brand. You can leave canned food in a timed feeder all day. Some people freeze cubes of canned food and put the cubes into the feeder to slowly thaw out for later meals.
 
I think it depends a bit on which insulin you use too, you haven't mentioned that. For long acting insulin like lantus mini meals spread out across the day is probably the best. My cat free feeds but he does not have any weight issues. If your cat is overweight you will want to control the amount eaten more closely.
 
Want to say welcome aboard! Terra is in a great place for suggestions, advice, and furry paw hugs :razz:
What kind of insulin and how much? Do you home test?
Sometimes when kitties go too low, they want to eat to bring that number back up.
I feed my girls canned foods that I add water to and just leave out. I will feed some when I wake up and right before I leave for work, if more is needed, I add a bit more. When I return from work, if any is left, it gets thrown away and we redo. Right before bed, if I need to, I will add more and throw away any left over in the am.
I always add water to the canned and this seems to keep it moist enough for the feedings.
When your baby gets regulated (home testing will help that), she will not want to eat constantly.
 
Such great help! I am grateful. Trying to understand too much in a short time. It helps to hear what others are doing.

My cat is not obese, so that isn't an issue. She's actually almost skin and bones now, and I can't believe I didn't notice as that was developing! I'm using Lantus, but nowhere close to regulated yet. BG this am, pre-shot was 378. No chance yet of hypoglycemia happening. So even before the insulin kicks in, some of the food is assimilated? I thought it might just be adding to the blood sugar, if she eats at any time regardless of the insulin curve. I saw somewhere that it isn't helpful to feed after nadir, as the insulin effect is wearing off. I also can't feed continuously because my piggy dogs will slurp up her food.
 
My cat was/is the same way. He was pretty skinny at the time of his diagnosis as well, and he's constantly hungry, even though he's on the path to regulation. He needs to gain weight, so i feed him often. I feed him a whole can of Fancy Feast when I give him his shot, then another 1/2 can (or 1/4 of a 5.5 o. can of something else) somewhere between one and two hours later, and another 1/2 (or 1/4 bigger can) around +3 to +4 after the shot. He has an early nadir, around +4, so I don't feed him much after that. In total, he's getting the equivalent of 4-5 cans of FF every day. He's slowly gaining weight on that amount, though he would eat more if I let him. One thing I'm thankful for is that if his numbers do drop low, I can pretty well count on him eating whatever it takes to bring them up.

Some people have seen their cats' appetites decrease as they get better regulated; I have not, but Mikey has always been a huge chow hound, so I have to cut him off somewhere. I'd say go ahead and add a couple more meals in the first half of each cycle, especially if your furbaby is underweight.
 
You've gotten some good tips about the feeding. See which ones work best for you.

Because I have 12 cats, I free feed and they all get the same thing. Right now, thats a canned food mix of 13.2 oz Sophisticat Turkey and Giblets dinner with 3 oz Purina Pro Plan Turkey and Giblets. It may wind up changing, as Sophisticat is being discontinued/reformulated and if they've put crap in it, I'll need to find something else.
 
Sophistacat is being discontinued/reformulated?! ARGH! We switched to that b/c Special Kitty was being discontinued/reformulated & I was having trouble finding it, then it was constipating one cat & making the other vomit. They have been doing great on Sophistacat & it's affordable, so I'm going to be really annoyed if they change it to something full of garbage!
 
Welcome!

We free feed wet. When Smokey was first diagnosed we used timed feeders that opened every 4 hours, moving to an empty slot 1 hour before shot time. Switching to wet food and feeding on a schedule and she came of insulin no problem. This time she is older, too skinny, and dealing with liver disease that makes her want to eat very frequently so I don't limit when she can access food (we also have more/younger/piggier cats that make feeders harder to use). It might be interfering with regulation, but right now her getting enough food is more important to me.

Take into account the whole picture of what is going on with your cat before making the decision. If she really needs to put back on some weight and is eating so much because she's too skinny, let her eat more often. As her weight begins to stablize you can work on scheduled meals. If feeding at a certain time seems to be really interfering with regulating the BGs, then try to find a way to eliminate the food during that period without stressing her too much.
 
Thanks for all the helpful info! I am a bit confused: I switched Terra over to canned food (she made the transition almost eagerly) just a couple days ago. Since that is very low in carbs, how does the feeding affect blood sugar levels? Can I feed canned , lo-carb and expect to see BG numbers rise as a result?
 
The low carb will help keep her BGs down compared to high carb food, but for cats that still have a mal-functioning pancreas their BGs can rise on any food. The body usually releases insulin to deal with the food, but in a diabetic cat not producing enough insulin that doesn't happen and food can cause a rise in glucose in the blood. Sometimes timing of meals can help level out those food induced rises. Often a good sign of a kitty going of the juice is a drop soon after food.
 
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