Kiwi's Diet and Progress

[pear2apple]

OK, so last Thursday I was reading about someone's live mice and decided I would buy 2 for Apple and Kiwi for that night.

It went well. She lost her first mouse to Apple and he wouldn't share. Then she found the one in the box and she chased that thing down! I was surprised to see her try to hold it in her paws, whereas Apple just grabs it buy the neck. Which is more normal? Either way, she killed it and it was cool. She wouldn't eat anymore even with Ferretone on it. So I froze it.

Then today I decide I will just cut up the mouse into chunks and stick it in a soup. NEVER AGAIN. I have no idea if she ate any pieces, but I want to throw up. The smell was INSANE! And then seeing just a spine sticking out of the body?! Cutting up pieces of tail?! I will never go whole prey! I almost threw up when I was cutting up the mouse, and again when it was in the soup. It was so bad after they ate some I just threw the whole soup away, I couldn't take that smell! I think its still haunting me. I almost threw my container away I was so grossed out!!

Also, she is now eating the S&C! So perhaps she just needed some extra coaxing. I think she likes them a lot though. Everything else is going good!

[mustelidmusk]

I saw the videos of Apple and kiwi withe the mice!!! They were definitely into it . Both of you kids look good - healthy cats and weights

Mice do stink when butchered...When I was wildlife rehabbing, mice were put in a blender for feeding the baby raptors...gross!

What are you feeding these days? What percent is kibble? NV wet raw? freeze-dried raw? etc.

If Apple is doing well and you can cut back a bit on the kibble, it would be good for the pancreas. Make any changes very gradual to keep Apple's system happy. It would be good to figure out the smallest amount of kibble Apple needs to maintain good digestion.

How are their teeth doing? It would be good to addresse their teeth with the foods rather than having to brush/scape them clean!

I'm glad to hear things are going well!

-jennifer

[pear2apple]

Last night I fed chunks of raw rabbit with olive oil and salmon oil to Apple and Kiwi. Kiwi was most interested. She licked for ever on them, but not sure if she actually ate any at first.

I left it overnight in their cage, in the morning it was all gone. This morning they were super hyper, which is unusual as its almost always Kiwi that sleeps through the morning food check. I'm expecting some weird poops from the straight raw rabbit chunks.

I am sprinkling papaya on the ground raw turkey/beef and canned buffalo that I am feeding this week. I think its helping a little bit. I think the canned meats are for sure helping the digestion and adding some bulk tho.

[mustelidmusk]

This is great news. If the papaya seems to help with digestion, we can look into other slightly stronger enzymes. Bomelain somes from pineapple, and there are fungal-based enzymes that are even stronger. I can't recall if the enzymes you have include bromelain as well, but I'd try the bromelain for my next bottle of enzymes to see if you get more improvement. With supplements like this, you want to mov slowly and try to find the best balance for Apple's tummy. I'm glad we're finding some things that really help - so many IBD ferrets just continue to suffer on chicken-based kibble!

-jennifer