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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2012 2:19:29 GMT -5
I tried introducing Alice and Cooper to a simple little mix.
I mixed 1 tablespoon of Gerber chicken baby food with 1/2 tablespoon of EVO cat food. I put some on my finger and stuck it on their nose so they'd get a taste of it.
Cooper took to it very well. He wasn't too sure about the little chunks of cat food, but he did well. He was trying to steal the little dessert cup it was in! LOL
Alice wasn't too impressed. She took a bit off of my finger when I held her, but if she had an opportunity to get away, she wasn't hanging around for the soup. Haha. She got a few finger-tip fulls, though.
I pulled their kibble for tonight, because I saw them eating an hour or so before I gave them the soup. Maybe if they're hungry, tomorrow we might have a little more success. (With Alice, anyway).
I may try warming it up a little bit, too. Just to be room temperature, since the cat food is in the fridge.
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Post by Sherry on Mar 10, 2012 12:28:37 GMT -5
How old are Alice and Cooper? If they are over a year old(sorry- can't remember right now) and you've not had them for that long, I'd not remove the kibble overnight. If there is any chance insulinoma might be at the beginning stages but not yet symptomatic, it could trigger the onset by being without food for that length of time. Instead, remove it a couple of hours before offering them the soup, and put it back in the cage when they go in.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2012 22:22:49 GMT -5
Alice is a little over 2 years old. I've had her for about 9 months. Cooper's 9 weeks and I've had him for a week.
I didn't think about the possibility for insulinoma at all for Alice. She's always had food available 24/7.
I tried out warming it up today. Cooper ate ALL of his! He's gonna be easy to switch. (Yay for switching early). Pretty sure Alice is going to be a bit tougher. She ate a little bit, but not much.
I'm wondering if I should start setting feeding times, and giving them some canned food mixed with the kibble? Maybe start adding liquified chicken, moving onto chunks when they're fine with chicken soup. I wish I remembered how I switched Tesla!
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Post by Sherry on Mar 11, 2012 11:49:56 GMT -5
Generally, most start with a raw soup, dab it on the nose several times til the fuzz will lick it from your finger, move to spoon, and then dish. Slowly add less water til it's like a wet ground mush. Start adding in tiny slivers of meat, working the amount and size of slivers up til the are eating small bits of meat with no mush. Then increase meat to chunks, start adding bone, heart and organ to the diet  |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2012 3:57:05 GMT -5
So, I'm having absolutely NO luck with Alice.
I've tried giving her kibble with a little bit of baby food. Nope.
I've tried giving her kibble with a little bit of canned cat food. Nope.
I've tried giving her a soupie mix with some raw, canned cat food, baby food, and mushy kibble. Nope.
I've tried giving her kibble softened with just water. Nope.
I'm getting concerned. I had to break down and give her some kibble because she hasn't eaten at all.
WHAT can I do? I'm going to go to Wal-Mart here before too long to get a shallow cat dish. She (usually) will eat whatever I have for her off of my finger, but I think she just doesn't like to stick her face in the dessert cup I put the food in. She'll usually dig the kibble off of the top and eat what she digs out. I'm HOPING that's what it is, but she loses interest quickly when she's licking it off of my finger.
Cooper, on the other hand, is eating pretty much whatever I put in front of him.
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Post by Sherry on Mar 15, 2012 10:52:30 GMT -5
Use your raw soup mix. Freeze it in ice cube trays, and baggie the cubes once frozen. Less waste that way. Defrost a single cube and while she's out playing, grab her and dab some on the end of her nose and let her go. Do this over and over and over again. She has to at least taste it this way. Once you've done that for a few days, then try getting her to lick some from your finger. When she'll do that, move to a spoon and hand feed on your lap. Then to her eating from the dish while on your lap, then to the floor. After all that is done, you can start moving her up to mush, slivers, then chunks There is no set time frame for any of this to be accomplished. It took me 6 weeks for Boris to stop thinking I was poisoning him with the pureed raw ;D He moved pretty quickly after that happened. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2012 15:21:16 GMT -5
Some good news. I gave them their kibble/canned food/baby food/raw mix and Cooper ate all of it in one sitting. I tried putting the soup mix in the bottom of Alice's bowl, and sprinkling some kibble on top of it. She's at least picking at it right now!  |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2012 21:23:00 GMT -5
have you tried getting her to eat pre made raw for the convenience of switching? Rolo wasted a lot at first, but I put ferretone on it and he started by licking that and accidentally licked up some meat. I basically repeated this with less and less ferretone until he would just get excited for his chicken or duck or rabbit/ whatever I happened to buy for him that week/month. If she takes to pre-made, you can easily start mixing in bigger cut up chunks  |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2012 21:38:11 GMT -5
You may want do a kibble soup switch for Alice. Start by crushing or soaking kibble and mix with the baby food and cat food. She will probably take to really liquefied soup with a drizzle of oil ontop if she likes oils.
You add more meat less kibble each batch and try to add a tad less water once you see them progress.
Sent from my SCH-M828C using ProBoards
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2012 21:40:21 GMT -5
Oh and a small tea cup or toast plate works great for soupies. Mine prefer it.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2012 0:50:32 GMT -5
I tried making a soup of just her kibble with water and she didn't care for it much.
It kills me to see her not eating at all. She hasn't really eaten anything in the past two days, so I had to break down today and give her kibble. I don't want her to figure out that if she waits long enough, I'll give her the food she likes, though....
Cooper, on the other hand, is already eating raw medallions by themselves. I've been moving pretty quick with him, since he's taking to everything so well and he has a ravenous appetite.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2012 4:47:11 GMT -5
Had the closest thing to a breakthrough a bit ago. I mixed two raw medallions with one jar of turkey baby food. She licked a bit off of my finger (even little chunks of the meat!) I had to dip her nose in it a few times and rub it on her gums a couple of times. (I'm not giving up this time, dang it!) It's the FIRST soup mixture of any sort I've tried so far where she actually licked it out of the bowl. She didn't eat much from it, but she took some from the bowl!  We're half a step forward! LOL Meanwhile, Cooper the pig is cleaning his bowl for the 4th time today.... How much should I be feeding him? He always seems like he's starving. I've been giving him 1.5 - 2 tablespoons per meal. I gave him a whole raw medallion earlier and he ate all of it. I'm not sure how much those weigh, but I'll check. I also need to see exactly how much the kids each weigh. |
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Post by Sherry on Mar 16, 2012 5:58:15 GMT -5
That's a major first step for your girl!!! Keep it up cooper's just a baby, right? They are essentially teeth with tummies, so fees him all he'll eat ;D |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2012 16:44:39 GMT -5
Got Alice to eat almost a tablespoon of soupies. I say 'almost' because she flung a lot of it on me....
She's funny. After I give her some soup (when she fights me), she'll throw a fit and go nuts in her dig box. LOL
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Post by Sherry on Mar 16, 2012 17:43:11 GMT -5
Keep offering it from you finger or the spoon from your lap once she quits eating it from the dish. You don't want to leave her very long with no food. When she goes back into the cage, put her kibble back in for her.
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