Transitioning from free feeding to timed feeding | Feline Diabetes Message Board - FDMB

Transitioning from free feeding to timed feeding

Lisa and Angel

Member since 2023
Just wondering if there's a guide for this? She's been freefed dry all her life, but I want to go to 100% canned (currently she has dry out 24/7 and wet food twice a day). I'm just so worried about her going low and NOT having food out whenever she needs it.
 
I'd encourage you to consider feeding Angel several small meals versus feeding twice a day. You can portion out food into a timed feeder if you're not around to provide several small meals, preferably up to nadir. Most of us do not feed our cats only twice a day. Having food available during the time that insulin is most active helps to level out blood glucose and it puts less stress on your cat's pancreas.
 
She is currently freefed, as in has dry food available to her at all times. She gets wet food twice a day. I want to transition to removing the dry food entirely, so she's no longer freefed. Of course that does not mean feeding her just twice a day! I would increase the amount of times she gets (wet) food. I just don't know how to go from dry out 24/7 to structured meal times (with wet food only). Like when in the cycle to feed, how much, and so on. And how to deal with the fact that without food out 24/7, she cannot help herself during a hypo by just going to get some food...
 
A lot depends on your cat. Since you don't have a current spreadsheet, I can't give specifics. What I look at first is when the lowest point in the cycle (the nadir) falls. You can divide up the typical amount of food you give your cat for the cycle into 3 or 4 mini-meals. That might mean feeding your cat every 2 hours if nadir is at +6.

It's more complicated if your cat has an early or late nadir. If it's an early nadir, you want to "front load" the food so you are still feeding the majority of the cycle's worth of food prior to nadir. My diabetic cat had an early nadir and I fed her at pre-shot, +1, +2, and +3. She got her normal amount of food spread out over those times. If your cat has a late nadir, I'd space out the meals more and make sure you're providing food until when you're typically seeing the nadir.
 
She is not well regulated atm, for months she's been struggling with her health. Chronic diarrhea (since basically most of this year), frequent bacterial UTI's, then an AKI in august became CKD, now she's in the midst of another antibiotic course for yet another UTI. So no set nadir to speak of, or even any sort of regular cycle basically. She's currently getting 1.75U Lantus and is mostly in the yellows and reds. The diarrhea is so severe that I'm having to wash her multiple times a day, and the vet has run out of ideas to try, so this complete diet overhaul is kind of desperate resort to resolve that.
 
Also, she sometimes gets wild swings late in her cycle. Like, red preshot, then in the yellows/reds sometime between +6 and +9, and then a green at next preshot testing like she's fallen off a cliff late in the cycle (despite eating well). I'm just scared with those crazy swings that she drops down too low when I'm asleep/away and then can't rescue herself by eating anything. How do you deal with that?
 
I'd love to hear from people who do timed meals *when* in the cycle YOU feed your cat. I can find plenty of info about *what* to feed diabetic cats, but none about *when* to feed them, which is frustrating.
 
ECID- every cat is different 🙂 What works for one cat may not work for another.

My cat has snacks at +4, +6, and +8 during the day and +3, +4.5, and +7 snacks at night.

With Lantus you don't want to feed 2 hours before insulin time so bgs don't spike.
 
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