Wet food baby 3am wake up call

zoe has been in remission since end of November. I have her diabetes controlled on a strictly wet food only diet. I give her Friskies chicken pate 1 of those tuna can sized cans a day, half for breakfast half for diner.

Over the course of the past few months because she has nothing to graze on over night anywhere between 2-5am she on my bed, staring at me, poking me, letting out little annoyed meows. I try and get her to lay down and she’ll resist. I’ve tried portioning her meals a little differently. Give her half for breakfast and 2 quarters, one at about 5pm and the other at 9 and still she wakes me up. I was losing my mind a little and found my self feeding her a whole can a day and then opening up another and giving her a quarter at about 9 pm and results were a little better. But because of doing this I think she’s put on a little bit of weight. I don’t want to continue doing this as I don’t want her to get over weight and have diabetes kick back in. Also there’s times where she wakes me up I go out to her food dish and there is some wet food. A little dry but still ediable. I’ll pick it up and turn it over and suddenly it’s a new meal....Anyone else’s wet food only baby waking them up at the worst hours? Any advice? I really don’t want to put her back on a kibble as from what I’ve gathered from this place is that any and all kibble is bad.

 

I know there are strong opinions regarding the feeding of any dry food at all to diabetic cats - but we put out a bit of Young Again zero-carb kibble at night and it gets our kids* through the night. They consume a very small quantity compared to the quantity of wet food they get, so I don't worry too much about them not getting enough water in their diet - which can be a huge concern with feeding dry. You may want to research Young Again, though take their feeding advice with a grain of salt - they are, after all, trying to sell their product. I wouldn't feed it as their primary source of calories, let alone an exclusive source, but Benny has done very well with having wet food during the day (with his last meal around 11:30 PM), then having the zero-carb kibble available at night to graze on.

*Only one of our two is diabetic, but his brother gets the same diet. It's healthier for him, too!

 

Have you tried using an auto-feeder to feed wet food at midnight or later? My girls get wet food every 6 hours (6am/pm and 12am/pm) and any leftovers are left out for grazing.

I would avoid introducing dry food, if you can. Wet food can be served/left out just like dry. I would not call it an opinion but rather an educated decision based on the information available at catinfo.org and other sources. If you feel that you have to go with dry food, I would recommend Dr Elsey's Clean Protein Chicken (between 4 and 5% carbs). It has about the 'cleanest' ingredients you are going to find in a dry food. While Young Again Zero has only trace carbs, it has a reputation for causing poop issues. Even if not at first, odds are you will end up with a bag that causes them. There are several threads here where that topic has been discussed.

Another thing to consider is that it is not about food. Maybe your baby just wants your attention around that time in the morning. I don't know how old Zoe is, but I can tell you from experience that even cats who never did that before can start when they get older. My Willow wakes me up EVERY night, and it is not about food at all. She sits next to me and pats me with her paw, she walks all over me, she meows, usually loudly, whatever it takes to get my attention. She wants me to pet on her. She will sometimes settle down on top of me for a few minutes, but if I stop petting her, she starts with patting my face again. Sometimes, she doesn't settle down at all. She just walks all around me and over me wanting me to love on her, and rubbing her head on me. It is hard, but I have gotten used to it. I know that if I turned her away, I would regret it when she is gone.

 

Zoe is about 9 years old. when she wakes me up it doesn't feel like she just wants attention or to play. if i pet her or try and play with her she just runs to the edge of the bed, back turned, and meows until i get up. i have gotten out of bed and sat on the ground to play with her but that only keeps her distracted for a few and then she sits away at arms length and cries until i feed her. usually when i do get up she leads me out to her food dish. shes never done this until i started her on a wet food only diet. shes been good for all these years to leave me alone when i sleep, and if she did wake me up most of the time its because she wants me to turn on my side and spoon with her (shes a very cuddly cat). but most nights she just sits on the back of the couch and stares out the window all night. I dont know how well an auto feeder would work as she associates me with food. sometimes i think she has a bad memory because she meows and leads me to her dish and sure enough there is food. i either have to point at it or pick it up and pretend to do something with it and after she will eat it with content.

When i feed her in the morning she doesnt wolf everything down, she periodically eats it through out the day. when i get home at 4pm shes antsy for some food. its tough to hold off on feeding her because if i do she follows me, stands on me, and puts on her sadist meow until i cave in and feed her. Me and Zoe live alone so im the only living thing she deals with on a daily bases so when ever im home shes the focus pretty much 100% of the day! there's been times i just leave the apartment or go for a drive just to get away! I dont know exactly how much she weighs but im feeding her the amount that the vet recommended. shes not a fat cat, she was a little overweight before diabetes, lost some weight with the diabetes, and now she looks like shes back to the weight she was before diabetes... thats why im afraid to over feed her.

back when i use to give her dry food i always did work in half a can of wet every night and she was content with grazing on the dry food at night. and she does have constaption issues that started in the beggening of 2018 and i did have her on a high fiber dry food until i found out it wasnt the best for her. i do put restorlax (miralax) on her wet food every morning so i dont want to give her anything thats going to bung her up. i might consider the dr elsys. not sure if this is an american only food and id have to order it in (im in canada)

 

I went through the same problem until I started leaving Dusty and my civie Beni a little less than a can of FF (now Weruva) each just before bed. Now they have something to nibble on and they let me sleep all night. If she starts gaining weight just back off a little but you definitely need to leave something for her to nibble on overnight. Don't do dry food unless you want the dry food monster to wake up again.

 

I was leaving out about a quarter to half a can at night and i feel that was definitely upped her weight. like i said i was going off the vets recommendation of just 1 of those tuna sized cans a day. id much rather be woken up then have to deal with the 12 hour insulin fiasco again. I wonder if it might be worth it to instead of giveing her HALF for breakfast and 2nd HALF split into 2 in the evening to maybe give her 1/4 of the can for breakfast and 3/4 split into quarters in the evening? at least when im at work she cant bug me. im certain zoe sleeps most the time when im at work and then evening/night shes full of energy!

 

Have you tested her lately to make sure she is still in remission?

 

No, But i haven't seen any of the telling signs of diabetes. Shes obviously not losing any weight, her water fountain is not depleted every day like it was, i only have to refill about every 3-5 days. shes peeing small to medium sized pees, not giant cat litter islands like it was before. she was only on insulin for a week until i took her in for her 1 week curve and the doctor said " shes no longer diabetic" (yes i know once diabetic always diabetic) so no more insulin, and after a couple weeks she was definitely in remission. I never tested her through out the diabetic stint as the glucose machine a family member gave me was difficult to use and zoe was a nightmare when it came to poking her. so ive just been playing it visuals. Im not seeing any signs of diabetes. shes not ravenous with her food either.

 

But she is hungry if she's waking you. Weight loss will not show up right away. Getting a test or 2 will give you an early warning. Bad teeth will knock a cat out of remission and you won't know until diabetes is real bad again. Just saying........

 

I give them half each in the morning, then half each after work, then a 1/4 snack when I eat dinner, then 1/4 as I get ready for bed and then like I said leave about 3/4 of a can each for overnight nibbling. I think the two snacks after the half can fills them up so at night they just nibble. Each cat is different but I really think you're not feeding her enough. I know what the vet said but it doesn't mean you can't adjust as needed.

 

What are you feeding as snacks?

 

1/4 can of their normal food.

 

I feed home-cooked chicken breast as snacks and PureBites freeze dried chicken.

 

interesting. so you're basically feeding your cats 2 cans of food (per cat) in a 24 hour window? Like i said above zoe seemed better about not bugging me so much when i did give her 1/4 to half at bed time. but again i was worried about her weight as shes starting to look a little chunky again. and also theres been times where she bugs me but when i do go to her dish there is food but until i make it look like ive done something with it she wont touch it. there's been morning where i scrape out dried up food. maybe i should move her dish by my bedroom door as she might clue in that theres food

I still feel the dry food was what turned her diabetic to begin with as in jan 2018 I started feeding her Hill science diet perfect weight because it was high in fiber.since the diabetic scare shes been 100% off the kibble

 

Have you calculated how many calories she should be getting? There are a few different formulas floating around, but 20 calories per every pound of ideal body weight is an easy/common one. If you determine how many calories she should have, you can feed her accordingly. Some foods have higher calories than others, so to give her more food, you may need lower calorie food.

 

I use the 3oz cans. In the beginning it was Fancy Feast, then Pro Plan Prime Plus, and now Weruva. With FF they seemed to always be hungry, with Pro Plan I could tell they felt full longer and the same with Weruva. Dusty has always been a big cat at 14lbs and Beni is a skinny cat at 9lbs. Like you it was Hills Science that pushed him over the edge and hope it never happens again. I was scared enough transitioning from FF to Pro Plan and Weruva but all was good. All those foods are very low carbs.

She might not even be hungry and just wants your attention. Ask her.. LOL