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Post by sherrylynne on Dec 19, 2010 12:13:13 GMT -5
He won't associate any bad experiences with it, the little drama queen Here's Boris being "convinced" he actually likes elk He does this with every new(ish) meat I just keep at it with him, and sooner or later he takes to it. And believe it or not- he's been raw fed for over 2 years!
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Post by sherrylynne on Dec 19, 2010 20:51:14 GMT -5
Got a response from one of the other mentors on the "pink" poops I'll just copy and paste her reply, since it's easier, and frankly- I'm lazy *Tell her to check her chicken, sounds like it's been chemically modified...food colouring so that it looks nicer (happens more frequently with ground than whole meats). It comes through looking a little odd It won't consistently happen and as her little ones progress, it should happen less and less as their bodies get accustomed to this. They could also be mildly sensitive to the food colouring too. The only reason I suggest this is that there have been complaints of odd stools with some newly switched kittens...the meat that was being dealt with was turkey but a lot of our meats are being artificially enhanced for our viewing pleasure . It's worth a thought.....if it continues I might be tempted to go to the vets but it does sound like an absorption problem maybe ciao *
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Post by acodlin on Dec 20, 2010 18:38:59 GMT -5
I don't know if my chicken has dye in it or not, its quite possible.. its from walmart.
Today I had a vet appointment to take Auggie in for his deslorelin implant, took Sam in because he is still grinding his teeth when he eats, and not 10 minutes before we were going to pack them up to leave, Naobi poops and its that yukky pink color. So I scooped up a sample and took her to the vets too. He seems to think its some kind of inflamation in her bowels. He gave her some pediapred to take for two weeks, twice a day and we'll see how that goes. If it doesnt fix the problem he's talking about taking blood and possibly doing an intestinal biopsi which I'm not so keen on, it'll require that he open her up to get the sample. He mentioned that she could have IBD and that might be why its so random.
We'll see though, right now he's testing the stool I brought him, and ofcourse as soon as we got home she pooped again and it was completely normal! The pink poop wasnt after soupies though, she missed getting fed soupies lastnight when my boyfriend was feeding them. So i'm not sure its the chicken. It's so weird, normal poops most of the time and then that yukky pink mess. It's loose and has alot of mucos in it.
Everyone else is doing okay, my mix is almost 50/50 kibble to pureed chicken. Gizmo still is fighting me. I set him on a pillow in my lap and usually lightly scruff him to get him going, but he's fighting it more now. I forgot to tell my boyfriend to add ferretone to his to see if that helped, so tonight he is going to. I have to work tonight/tomarrow night so I won't be the one feeding them. =/
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Post by sherrylynne on Dec 20, 2010 22:31:50 GMT -5
Just in case it is IBD, here's a good thread. holisticferret.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=medicine&action=display&thread=5901 Personally, I wouldn't even bother with the biopsy, since the treatment would be the same with or without it. If using things like probiotics, etc work, odds are it's IBD. If not, it could well be something else. I would go with the bloodwork, though. It's possible bringing in the last group of ferrets, combined with the diet switch, triggered it. Stress will do that sometimes, unfortunately. I'm dealing with it with Boris right now. Thank heavens his flairups aren't bad. Maybe try cutting out the kibble for a few hours prior to feeding soupies, see if that makes a difference. I know with some ferrets, having one too close to the other will cause tummy upsets. For Gizmo, just for the heck of it, try giving him some slivered meat. Believe it or not, sometimes that can make the difference. He could be getting tired of the chicken as well. You might want to try him with a different meat if the slivers aren't well received.
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Post by acodlin on Dec 21, 2010 2:09:25 GMT -5
What is a good meat to try instead? Im thinking the more mild tasting the better for him. I'll try to give him some small pieces tomarrow before I go to work. Usually I try to catch him when he first wakes up and hasnt eaten. He's just not into this poison mom's trying to feed him. Most everyone will eat it even if they've eaten kibble recently, he's just stubborn!
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Post by sherrylynne on Dec 21, 2010 23:34:11 GMT -5
Pork is usually well received. As is turkey. Or, he may prefer a stronger flavour, like beef. Unfortunately, right now, it's going to be trial and error to find what will work with him.
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Post by acodlin on Dec 24, 2010 8:50:54 GMT -5
Got a small piece of chicken down Gizmo, he gagged ,spit, threw a tantrum but he ate it. He's starting to realize he has no choice. He either eat atleast a spoonful or two or I don't let him go. He's not happy with the arrangement, he tries to hide from me.. but I'm persistant trying to add in a few small chunks to their soupie, its hard to cut chicken into small enough pieces that they dont notice! a few of them just eat around the chunks or spit them back out! Vaeda takes it all in stride, as long as its in her soupies she'll eat it. Forgot to buy some pork, so busy with the holidays that I'm running a big ragged around here. I think maybe I've identified a possible reason why Naobi is having weird poos.. I started feeding Evo about a month ago, so I'm wondering if there is something in there thats aggravating her. The food mix is almost gone so when it is i'll have to see if it helps her. I feel bad, her poor bottom is a little red, but I cant dig out all of the evo.. ordered new food today, so if it makes it here before the old runs out, i'll make sure she doesnt get anymore of the evo. I was hoping that trying to stuff her full of soupie so she didnt eat as much plain kibble would help, but theres still evo in the kibble part of the soupie so she's still having issues. Poor baby =/ Good news is that they eat a whole bowl of soupies in the morning. Use to take them all day to eat 1 bowl and even then there was some left.
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Post by sherrylynne on Dec 25, 2010 11:03:44 GMT -5
Poor baby girl! It's possible it's the Evo. She just might be sensitive to something in there. If her bottom is really sensitive, you can put a wee dab of prep H on it for her. Or even vaseline. That's fantastic that they are taking the soupie so well now Next step is like you are doing, and adding tiny bits of meat, or even just making it thicker by adding less and less water to it, til they are basically eating a ground consistency. At the same time, use less and less kibble, and more and more meat. You can also start leaving the kibble out of cage for the day, and just putting it back in at night.
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Post by acodlin on Dec 26, 2010 12:40:11 GMT -5
The Pediapred is helping Naobi lots it seems, she has more energy and no yukky poops that I've seen yay!
I'm a little worried about taking the kibble away just because I still have to sit Gizmo down and make him eat the soupies. I'm sure he wont starve for a day however, if I take the kibble away I'll probably need to increase the amount of soupies I make. How much do you think would be appropriate for all of them? Right now its just over a cup and they've been chowing down on it pretty fast in the morning. I made it about an hour ago and they have about 1/4 cup left in their bowl, and not everyone was awake at the time.
How long do you think it would keep in the fridge? I could make bigger batches at a time and just put half our for the first part of the day, the rest out later.. anything left over keep for the next day. Right now I don't make a whole lot because I don't want to waste a bunch of food, but it would be nice not to have to scrub down my food processor everyday!
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Post by sherrylynne on Dec 26, 2010 16:58:03 GMT -5
Good for Naobi! It's always nice when they start feeling better As for the soup, I make it in large batches, and freeze it I use ice cube trays and then pop the cubes out and baggie them, but with 14, you may want to use something a bit larger than that Just as an average, and they might go well over this for the first 2-4 months, count on 2 oz per male, 1 oz per female, and 3 oz per young kit(up to about 6-7 months old). That will let you know how much, if any, more you will need to set up. And that's per meal, so twice that amount a day. When I just had the four original ones, I went through about 10- 12 oz of meat per meal. They develop such an appetite at first, you literally think they are going to eat you out of house and home ! But it does calm down, so they won't stay with that much intake forever Don't forget- they get MUCH more nutrition from raw than from the kibble. Which is why they only need twice daily feedings. Just having it in there at night will be fine for the next while. As long as none of them have insulinoma, they will be fine.
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Post by acodlin on Dec 29, 2010 14:54:29 GMT -5
Well you certainly werent kidding. I took their kibble away yesterday for a while and I made soupies, 2 1/2 cups and they ate it all in about an hour. I was going to make more soupies but I forgot to thaw the next package of chicken, so today I made 3 1/2 cups of soupies, ate it all in 30 minutes. Vaeda who is my soupie queen, was quite upset! usually she eats first but 7 of them were crowded around the bowl eating off the spoon as fast as I could fill it, so she tried to steal the bowl, then the spoon and finally she started making growling noises and pushing everyone noses out of the way! My boyfriend was amazed at how quickly they devoured the whole bowl. They know the sound of the food processor and they start gathering at my feet, Vaeda will hang off my pant legs the whole time until I set the bowl down hehe. I'm trying to add in a few more chunks everyday, I tried to add less water but they seem to like theirs atleast oatmeal consistancy. Vaeda is eating a couple of chunks of raw chicken that I set beside the soupie, Church usually devoures her portion (Im setting out about 3 tablespoons worth of tiny chunks) sometimes Kodiak will eat his right away, othertimes he's more interested in the soupie.
Also all but three of my tiny girls have started gaining weight. Kodiak has put on 3 ounces so far, my bigger boys have gained a bit, my vet actually told me Auggie is almost too fat! All the boys are starting to get little bald spots on the insides of their tummies where their fur rubs off because of their chunky thighs lol! I wish the little girls would gain, but I think they are just petite girls and may not get very big, or it could be the Giardia. My vet called me yesterday and said Naobi's stool was positive for it =/ So we are going to treat all of them, my cats and dogs too for it so we can hopefully wipe it out. No one but her has loose stools but he said they could still have it and just not have any signs. So we'll see I guess!
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Post by sherrylynne on Dec 29, 2010 18:31:11 GMT -5
First let me say, I'm so sorry to hear about the giardia! That's a nasty, poor little mites Second- congrats on the success! That's pretty major For right now, just keep on with the mush, and yes, offer bits of meat as well. Just slowly increase the size of the bits, and try measuring the amount of water you are mixing in with the mush, that way, you can decrease it by only a tsp at a time. That way, they don't notice it as much
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Post by acodlin on Jan 2, 2011 14:21:29 GMT -5
I don't want you to think I've disappeared, nothing really new for you to comment on. I've reduced the water to as little as I can because of the kibble still in it, I did 1 3/4 cup of ground kibble today and added in 1.5lbs of raw chicken, 1/4 of that I cut into small chunks and mixed it in at the end. I added in only 1/2 jar of baby food so I can probably phase that out very soon. Gizzy and Hannable both were being little drama queens about the soup today. Gizmo got a few chunks and he just wasnt pleased, but I didnt let him go! He ate about 3 spoonfuls of it before I let him go. Hannable had to be spoonfed too, usually he digs right in. I think it's because I added in more chicken and chunks.
My soup is starting to smell better though. When the kibble is wet it smells like cardboard =/ I always feed bad feeding them that.
No one else is eating raw chunks yet (unless hidden in the soupie) I keep trying but they arent buying it lol! I thought about adding in some raw egg, they've eaten it before in their soup.. think its a good idea?
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 2, 2011 15:30:09 GMT -5
You can certainly add an egg. Just toss the whole thing in the blender. That way, they get the benefit of the calcium as well! I think now you need to start decreasing the amount of kibble in the soup, until it's phased out entirely, and is just the raw meat.
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Post by acodlin on Jan 4, 2011 16:20:17 GMT -5
I reduced the kibble by 1/2 a cup today to make a new batch. So I'm down to 1 1/4 cup of kibble, 1.5lbs of raw chicken, no baby food this time and I put in a whole raw egg. So far everyones happy with it! I left out a fresh bowl of soupies lastnight along with their kibble, they ate all of the soupies and 1/4 of the kibble (usually the kibble is gone by morning). I'm taking the kibble away during the day, but Gizmo still isnt happy about the soup.. he wont eat it on his own and when I do set the kibble out he digs into it like he's starving. I'm a little worried about it since I will be starting school next monday again and I wont be home to spoon feed him. My boyfriend could come home at lunch but that's still a good part of the day where no one is making him eat it. I also have some news, I got suckered into a new baby. 3 months old, she's adorable (i'll post some pics on the general thread about her later today) she's SO tiny.. but she absolutely loves, LOVES the current soupie mix. She was sent way too early from marshall farms and had to be bottle fed at the pet shop, they had just started feeding her plain marshalls mixed with water. I made her some when we got home from the vets and she turned her nose up at it and dived right into our soupie. She ate and ate until her belly was so round I thought it would pop. She had a little trouble chewing the chicken bits but she litterally inhaled the food like she was starving to death. I think once she gets past the chewing part it wont be hard to convince her that raw meat is good
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