Hi Stefania,
Good to see you and Jessi back!
Glad to see you're back to blues and greens so soon.
Hope Jessi’s ulcer is not bothering her too much.
I had this written out for you a couple of days back. I meant to post it on the older thread but since you look like you’re out of the woods for this cycle, I’m posting here
Most of the feeding suggestions might have already been covered by experienced members here. It took me some time to incorporate them properly since I was used to feeding Shen only dry food pre-diabetes and there was no fixed timing or amount for feeding. There was no concept of snacks either
Even though Shen seems more or less regulated now, I’m still having to experiment with his feeding times to bring his BG to the best levels possible. I didn’t think I’d be discontent with his current BGs but greens really are addictive after you get used to seeing and managing them.
Shen is around 6.5 kgs (~14.3 lbs) so he needs around 240-270 calories per day. The LC wet food (~6%) that I have is 85g and 64 calories per pouch. So I feed Shen 4-5 pouches per day.
When I started giving only wet food, I would give one entire pouch each at AMPS and PMPS and distribute the remaining 2 pouches across 3-4 snacks in each cycle, 1-2 tsps each per snack.
After having to increase the frequency of snacks to nearly 5-6 per cycle, I have started feeding Shen nearly the same amount at AMPS, PMPS and the rest of his snacks. Maybe he gets a smidge more at AMPS/PMPS. But since the onset starts at around +2 for him, feeding him after +1 seems to help more, than stuffing him up at shot times.
I will admit feeding every hour for 5-6 hours is crazy but I’m kind of used to it and I’ve tried to bring some flexibility into it now.
First 2-3 weeks of insulin - reds and pinks and mistakes: I started feeding Shen less than I used to pre-insulin under the very
wrong assumption that less food meant less glucose production and subsequently less blood glucose. This would have set the stage for DKA given how high his BG was then.
I thankfully course-corrected under the guidance of FDMB and moved on to feeding at shot times, +3, +5 and any time Shen asked for food by himself (which was rare in the first 3 - 3.5 weeks. I had to go behind him to finish his meals). So 2 main meals at shot time and 2-3 snacks in both AM and PM cycles.
This was the period when I was still feeding Shen his obesity dry food and was transitioning him to wet food. I must have completely stopped feeding dry food a week into glargine and started following TR another week later.
Lantus worked really well for Shen and I’m both grateful and aware that we had to go through reds and pinks for a shorter spell than most kitties.
Seeing yellows and blues: Once Shen broke through the reds and pinks and started dropping to yellows and blues, I had to increase the frequency of his snacks to add a couple more in each cycle. I usually relied on his BGs to get a sense of when to feed a snack. I was more comfortable with holding off snacks in yellows.
When I first started getting more blues (even yellows for that matter) I was very nervous and would have this urge to keep testing often since I didn’t know till when or how much more he would continue dropping.. But given how expensive the testing strips are, I didn’t want to overdo it. Over time I decided that if I was worried about lower BGs, I’d give a small snack instead of testing every hour. I do a test every hour if I get BGs below 50.
Seeing greens: Once he hit the greens, I had to start feeding snacks almost hourly till +6 in every cycle. I think this is called feeding the curve and it helps with keeping kitties to stay flat instead of diving in the absence of sufficient glucose for the insulin to work on while it is working at its peak efficiency (onset to nadir) - this is my understanding so far.
I think helping a kitty to stay flat ( not in the higher ranges but the lower, normal ones) is also good in the sense that it can help avoid bounces due to steep or sudden drops in BGs, which can also happen if one isn’t feeding their kitty during certain key points of the cycle. For some kitties, even feeding hourly might not prevent steep drops, so one might need to experiment with mixing in MC or HC with the LC snacks during certain parts of the cycle.
Managing BGs below 50: The first time I got a BG below 50, I rushed to get honey. I rubbed a bit on Shen’s gums, then fed him about 3-4 tsps of his usual LC food, topped with some HC creamy treat. He barfed all of it out
I repeated the process with a little less of his LC food and then checked his BG after 20-30 minutes. If his BG was still under 60, I would repeat the process (minus the honey, unless the BG was still under 50) till his BG rose to a number I was comfortable with (70+ ish). I don’t know if it’s because Shen has become used to small snacks now but he throws up if he gets a bigger meal now. He used to scarf and barf a lot pre-diabetes but hasn’t done so in quite a while since becoming diabetic.
Feeding after nadir or +6: I tried to restrict his snacks to +6 since feeding after nadir seems to reduce the duration of the insulin and feeding post +10 might temporarily elevate the preshot BG. Sometimes Shen's BG had dropped lower even at +7/+8 so I couldn't tell when his nadir even was.
But Shen usually starts begging for food around +9/+10 so I decided to feed him the last snack of the cycle at around +7.5/+8, so he has a smaller wait till shot-time.
Recently, I’ve been trying (a bit unsuccessfully) to feed him a snack at +8/+9 to sort of kick back the pancreas in action with some food and lower his BG a tiny bit more.
I think the general guidance is to feed your cat as much as he/she wants unless they have weight/GI/other issues. You’ll have to observe Jessi’s BG during various times in both cycles to see when the insulin starts working (onset), when it peaks (nadir) and when it drops (duration) and also if the BG dips in the later half of the cycle at times (lantus double dip - which could explain why the PMPS BG at times may be lower than BGs recorded earlier, say between nadir and +10 when you’d normally expect the BG to start rising again).
All of this is also a lot of trial and error since ECID and different % of carbs affect different kitties differently. It does take a couple of weeks of experimental feeding to figure out how not to over/under feed and also when to feed
Remind me of how good this feels tonight when it's happening again LOL! Oh wait, you'll probably be asleep so someone else will have to remind me. 
