??? About Feeding When Away All Day

Hi, been awhile since I have posted. All is going well with Miss Bobbie, her numbers are great. I check once a week. But I have a question. I am going to be out of town for a week in September. My retired husband who is normally at home will be working all day from 7 am - 5 pm. I am worried about feeding Bobbie this week.

She eats only canned Friskies. She would love dry and tries to get at it-sneaky girl! I know that it's a no-no for her!

She is a picky eater with the canned. She won't eat leftovers, will only eat it fresh from the can.What she doesn't eat at her feeding, gets saved in the fridge for the rest of the crew at their evening feeding. I have even tried warming it slightly to get the chill off of it. She won't touch it.

This is her feeding schedule- - morning around 8, afternoon around 3, and evening about 9 ish. A fresh can each time. Depending on her appetite she eats from 1/2 - 2/3 of a can. Sometimes she'll eat the whole thing!

I have a neighbor that will come for the afternoon feeding, but I hate to ask for a whole week. How do y'all handle feeding you diabetic kitties when you have to be away all day? I would love to try your suggestions before I go to see if they will work for her. I don't want to do anything to rock the boat of her being OTJ and I can get my neighbor to come if there is no other way.

TIA!

 

I freeze the food and use an auto feeder like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Automatic-Fee...DTJA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1314198527&sr=8-2

However, if she's so picky she won't eat the food out of the fridge, then that might not work. maybe you can experiment and see if she'll eat it if it's been frozen and thawed once it gets to room temperature?

The other thing you can is just add water to the fresh canned food and leave it out.

Have you thought about buying Fancy Feast rather than Friskies? It comes in smaller cans so you won't have so much waste, and it's a better quality food (muscle meat is the main ingredient for most flavors rather than byproducts). With what you're throwing away it might work out to be around the same price. I think sophistacat comes in smaller cans, too, and that's less expensive than the Fancy Feast.

 

I bought an auto feeder - Cate Mate C20 - from petmountain.com. It comes with an ice pack and I put a refrigerated portion on the left side to open between 10-11am and a frozen portion to open between 3 & 4 pm. Cedric also gets fed at 6am and again at 8pm. I have had no problems with the autofeeder (except when i forgot to load it yesterday - bad mommy!) - Cedric does not try to get in to it and he eats the food when he's hungry. If ther is stuff ont he right (frozen) side when I get home between 4:45 and 5pm, i add some water and call him. he comes and eats it, no problem.

Since your girl only gets 1 additional meal during the day, I would try freezing a portion the night before, then putting it out in the am and see if she eats it in the pm when it has thawed to room temp.

 

I'm going to go and look at those dispensers.... and I'll try her on some frozen this week and see what she does.


I forgot to ask, if she were to only get fed twice a day, would that be bad for her sugar levels? It would be about 6 am then he could feed her about 5 pm and again right before he goes to bed. Actually that would be 3 meals per day, the afternoon meal would just be late. Would that be ok?

 

What insulin is she on and what time does it usually peak? I get nervous when I'm not home to test Bandit's nadir, so I usually set the feeder for that time just to be safe.

 

Sje is OTJ and doing great on canned food only. Last week when I checked her, her sugar was 56.

 

Oh, if she's OTJ then she'll be fine with the three meals, and the one a little late won't hurt anything!

 

Cat Mate also makes a single auto feeder, but I don't think it comes with an ice pack. You might be able to improvise on it.

i usually feed Cedric a 5.5oz can and he gets 1/4 at each meal. Although his next meal is at 8, and he's already sitting in the kitchen crying..... :YMSIGH:

 

I agree. Mine are usually fed around 6:30 in the morning and sometimes not until 8:00 in the evening. Other than them insinuating that I am trying to stave them to death, :lol: they do fine on that schedule.

 

Talked with by DH last night about this. We both agree we can call on our neighbor if needed.

But---

Are y'all in agreement that if he feeds her around 6 am and as soon as he gets home- between 5 & 6 pm then again around 10 pm she will be ok? It will be about 8 days of this. I don't want to do or not do anything that would cause her to not be OTJ any more!

 

My Max is OTJ for about 3 months now and your last post sums up his feeding schedule. I feed him and 2 civvies in the morning aorund 6am before work. I get home around 6, sometimes later. I'll throw out (if any) leftovers and put fresh food down. And then they get a little bit around 10 or 11 when I go to bed. Max has been doing fine on this schedule.

 

Yes, if she's not on insulin that feeding schedule will be fine!

 

Thank you all so much!! this forum is so valuable to people like me that have questions! We would not be where we are today w/o the forum and all you knowledgable people! flip_cat drinking24