? What’s your feeding schedule?

[Mimis mom]

I have Mimi on her meals broken up every 2-3 hours around the clock (autofeeders) but I was told a lot of diabetic cats are on a +1,+2,+3 and then nothing till PS meal.

I’m not sure what schedule to get her on now- and I don’t know how to tell what’s best for her.

What do you all do, and what is your explanation for it?

thanks!

 

[Ann & Scatcats]

When they want to eat is individual. Mimi can eat at her every 2-3 hours.

Simba likes to eat his food four times around the clock at 10 am, 4 pm, 10 pm, 4 am.
Plus his loved 9 pm evening fresh peeled shrimps and fresh raw beef.

 

[Mimis mom]

Well today she didn’t eat her second meal- I set the timer to give it to her only an hour and a half after first. Maybe the first was too much and she was still full.
I think what I’ll do it continue the every 2-3 hours and just do larger ones and slowly decrease it till next pre shot.

Every single time my cats have eaten beef they’ve puked. Every time throughout the years- I tried adding the protein in rotation with other flavors and like clock work, barf.

 

[Tina Marie (GA) and Jan]

Hi Rosa and sweetcheeks Mimi!
The feeding schedule I used, and continue to use after going OTJ, is AMPS, +3, +8, PMPS, +3, +8 - all equal portions. I would check the +3, and if BG was still a little high, I'd wait until +4 to feed. All my pets eat at +8 (early cycle), so I kept Tina on her before diabetes household eating time at +8.
In the beginning, I did not feed the PM +8, but to attempt to get the AMPS down, I started it, and it worked well!
After being off insulin for a little over a month, Tina still tells me when it's her snack time!

I know some cats would need a snack before +3.
Scritches and kisses to Mimi!

 

[Jennifer R.]

I generally feed my Simba at the morning shot time after his blood sugar test, then a snack three hours later after the second test, then a small amount two or three hours later, then at the evening shot time after I tested his sugar and sometimes 3 hours later after a blood sugar test at night if it looked low. This was on Lantus, though, which is long-acting, so not the same as other insulin.

Now that we're testing him off insulin, it has become slightly more erratic. Since my husband seems to think he's starving, I usually give him that third mini- meal (1.5 ounces or less) around the time my husband comes home to placate him. He is a big eater and would eat more often if he could. He nearly always is done in 5 minutes.

 

[Panic]

Typically you want to feed at onset (usually between 1-3) and then at least a couple more snacks until nadir. Reason being as you don't want to "use up" the rest of the insulin with all the extra food. Some do feed later to encourage pancreas activity as it actually helps them go lower, just depends on the kitty!

When my kitty was on Prozinc, onset was +2 and nadir at +6, so I would feed at +2, +5 and +6. Now that she's on Lantus we're relearning her onset/nadir but I do stick to this feeding schedule with a couple extra snacks thrown in for now.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Some do feed later to encourage pancreas activity as it actually helps them go lower, just depends on the kitty!

Only a good idea if kitty is on itty bitty doses (ie. 0.1 unit), and pancreas is sputtering. Otherwise feeding after nadir, when insulin action is slowing down, will shorten duration and give you higher preshots. When you feed in the first half of the schedule depends on whether they like to dive an onset, or not. Frequent small meals around onset can slow the dives. It really is ECID.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

When you feed your cat depends on the insulin you're using -- since the onset and nadir for different insulins are at different times, when onset and nadir fall for your cat, how sensitive your cat is to carbs, and your cat's metabolism. This is not one size fits all. Gabby had an early nadir and her numbers could take a nose dive. I fed her at pre-shot, +1, +2, and +3 as a means of offsetting her nadir which was often at +3.

I agree with Wendy in that feeding after nadir may cause numbers to rise more than you'd like since there's less insulin available to offset the effect of food.