Nikki wants to eat between 2 feedings

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Shirl

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Hi. We are new to this web site. Nikki was diagnosed last weekend. And the doc has him on 2 insulin shots aday. But I also can only feed him at those times. Nikki is hungry in between and it is hard to ignore his meowing an d pawing at 4 in the morning - any words of wisdom out there? Nikki also only eats dry food-which is another challenge. Any help is appreciated. Thanks
 
Hi Shirl. I don't know what kind of insulin Nikki is on. I use Levemir. I pretty much break up the breakfast meal into 3 mini meals and the same with the dinner meal. During the day, when I go to work, I leave a timed feeder to give them some food around lunchtime, too. I don't really have a set mini meal time schedule, but it's not exactly free feeding either, but my cats get food throughout the day, and night. Why did you vet say to only feed two times a day?
 
Welcome! I feed Bandit 4 times a day, every 6 hours and he is fine with that schedule. I use a timed feeder with a piece of frozen canned food when I'll be away from home. Why can you only feed twice a day? Breaking the meals into smaller, more frequent portions helps with the begging immensely.

As you might already know, dry food can cause setbacks in treatment of feline diabetes because it keeps blood sugar levels high because of the carb content. It also provides inadequate moisture and can cause other conditions like urinary tract disease that can also impede treatment of diabetes. Here are some tips for transitioning your cat to canned food: http://catinfo.org/#Transitioning_Dry_Food_Addicts_to_Canned_Food_. Some cats can be very stubborn, but the majority do come around with a little patience and work.

What type of insulin is Nikki on? How much is her dose? Long acting insulins work best with cats--Lantus, Levemir, or Prozinc.

Finally, are you home testing? Testing your cat at home not only saves you a ton of money on vet testing, but it is also the best and only way to safely administer insulin. Any human meter can be used to do it, and are a lot of inexpensive choices for meters.

I'm glad you decided to join us! There is a ton of information on this site that can help Nikki get better.
 
Hi Shirl, welcome to the site. Tons of knowledgeable (I'm new to all this, so not me ;-) ) and very helpful people here.

My vet also told me to only feed my diabetic cat twice a day, timed with his 2 shots a day! The way I understood it, it was because it was of utmost importance that Neo had food in his belly to counteract the insulin that I gave him. But I couldn't stand the begging so I've been feeding him three to four times a day (depends on if I'm home or not - I need to invest in a timed feeder, by the sound of it!), and so far it all seems fine.
 
zubora said:
The way I understood it, it was because it was of utmost importance that Neo had food in his belly to counteract the insulin that I gave him.
Click to expand...

I don't have any personal experience with Caninsulin (Vetsulin), but from what I've read about it it's a harsher insulin with an earlier peak, and it's absolutely imperative that cats eat both before the injection and at the nadir, because it causes some very steep drops in cats. So it's really, really good that you weren't feeding only twice a day--at the very least with Caninsulin there should be 4 feedings a day: before each shot and about 3-4 hours after each shot.
 
another thing to consider is that kitty might want food because they know their blood sugar is low. Mousie for instance will eat on her own if her BG goes too low, if there's food out for her. if there's no food she starts talking to me alot and is a bit hyper which is 100% unlike her so that raises a red flag for me and over the years i've discovered that if i test her when she's doing that, i find her BG is too low. it's like she's yelling at me MOMMIE I NEED SOME DAMN HELP NOW!!

i personally would never withhold food from a kitty, and definitely not a newly diagnosed diabetic kitty. they need more food in the beginning anyway until they get somewhat regulated. feeding only at shot time and nothing in between in my own opinion is a menu for a bad hypo
 
Thank you for all the responses-Nikki & I never expected all the help.
He is on langue and we are continuing with 2feedings as he is a bit overweight & have to get his calories down. I have been giving him some catsup and wRm water in between each feeding and that quiets him down. He always had his "Milkie" before using 1per cent milk and warm water.
Does any one know the calorie count of catsup-I didn't see it on the box?
Thank you all again
 
Please tell me you're talking about "catsip" like you'd buy at Petsmart?

When I first saw this I thought "OMG, who would feed watered down catsup (Ketchup) to a cat?" I actually went to the fridge to pull out a bottle of Hunt's to check, then I thought, "wait a minute, she said she couldn't find it "on the box"???? You mean they sell powdered ketchup to mix with water???"
:lol:
I just googled the heck out of it, and can't find any site that gives you a calorie count, or any nutritional values. They just refer to it as "1% milk" that's lactose free.

Sorry, but I did get a chuckle out of it.

Carl
 
you can give extra food - especially in the early stages they are all very hungry, because their body cannot process the energy from the food and use it -- the sugar from the food goes into the blood, but there is not enough insulin to allow the muscles to burn the sugar.

So -- all the food energy (sugar) gets filtered out in the kidneys and peed into the litterbox.

You can worry about diet AFTER you have gotten to the right dose (which can take several weeks - be patient)

The best food for diabetic (and all) cats is grain free canned or raw food.
 
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