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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2014 9:50:20 GMT -5
Ok. Thanks for the lesson. I do have gmail so I'll try using that. I realize that my original one was pretty confusing but I figured you gotta start somewhere I guess. I will work on the new schedule. I was confused and thought you wanted this schedule for in the future and wanted to start doing things that involved less stew like I would be normally. I also feel kind of bad because I have lots of stew and I know it's probably delaying this process quite a bit. But we did make great strides in regards to Rhea eating bone so that's great! I will work on a new one and do what you said when I feed bone to Rhea. Ps. Thanks for your patience with my terrible spreadsheet! lol
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2014 18:47:22 GMT -5
No problem on the spreadsheet lesson. I teach and have lots of patience. They both go hand in hand. But, you know that you don't have to post your feeding schedule on a spreadsheet. You can type it out as I did on the one example. Whatever if easier for you is fine by me. Dont want to force you to use a program that is difficult. Although, if you do want to use a spreadsheet and need help, don't hesitate to ask me about it.
We can keep the stew at 2 times a week if you want. We can stay at the temporary key that I previously posted until the stew is gone OR we could do AM stew and PM separate meals (of bone-in, heart, liver, kidney, boneless meat). Let me know what you want to go ahead and proceed with.
Glad Rhea is still accepting bone! Did she accept it from a plate by herself? That would be awesomeeee if she did. Lol
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2014 22:09:06 GMT -5
I really like the way it looked when you made it on Excel so if I can I would like to use that but if for some reason I can't I'll just type it out. I will work on that tomorrow. I actually just wanted to tell you that yesterday I gave some cornish hen with the crushed bone and Rhea ate it all by herself! I was feeding them on my way out so they weren't out of their cage like they normally are and I sat in front of it to see what she would do. At first she tried to avoid the pieces that had bone but she eventually was eating bone and doing it all by herself! So proud!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2014 16:56:19 GMT -5
Sounds good. The only downside of google drive's spreadsheet is that you cannot color the text in a single box different colors. Basically you'd have to color it one color, that's why I like excel a bit more because you can format freely. But it's becoming a headache, just type it out. It's easier.
Yay Rhea! So glad she's eating on her own! (dance) Now, try slowly upping the size of the bones to see if she'll continue to accept them.
Since it's sunday, can you plan and type out what you plan to feed from sunday-saturday. If you're going to continue to feed the stew (2 meals per wk), make sure you reduce 1 bone-in meal and 1 heart meal. Let me know so that I can be on the same page as you. I want to make sure they're not getting a lot of bone or too little of liver, etc. I'm a visual person and since I dont have a schedule in front of me, I tend to worry >.< And since they're pretty much eating bone and organs just fine, we need to get them up to whole bones and you need to practice on balancing out feeding schedules. Once we have them on munching on whole bone-in and you can write up an entire feeding schedule completely well balanced, You make one last final schedule for our admin who graduates students and you and the kids graduate!
So... plan out and type up what you plan to feed from today (AM) until saturday (PM). Sound good? I want to make sure you're getting enough practice (through trial and error) on writing feeding schedules until it becomes second nature. It's all about planning out in advance. If something goes wrong, you have it planned out and someone could just thaw out what will be fed on that day and your kids will be covered. My last mentee was in the hospital for a day or two and her son stepped up and used her schedule to keep the kids well fed. Just an example. Things happen and we need to make sure all our bases are covered.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2014 16:43:45 GMT -5
Ok, so I did it in a word document and I think it turned out a little better. One question though, can I always use the same schedule? Assuming their stools are normal can I just use the same weekly schedule every week or am I suppose to change it up all the time?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2014 18:45:37 GMT -5
So quick look at your schedule and it looks good (dance) ... but, just a few modifications...
-Tuesday AM: Make it just a liver meal day
-Delete 2 of the boneless meals and make (1) an entire heart meal and for the second (2) one make it a half liver and hald other organ meal. I thought you had kidneys but not 100% sure if you still have some on hand. If not you can make it a 1/2 liver and 1/2 muscle meal. They should be fine for this week. If you're out of kidneys, let me know.
-Pork ribs.. did they eat all of the ribs last time? I dont know if they'll eat the entire rib, most likely they'll chow down on the tips and the pork meat because the bone is too dense. So as long as they eat the rib tips and meat, it counts as bone-in. If not, it counts as just boneless meat (muscle)
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2014 22:41:35 GMT -5
Ok, I modified the schedule and I think it's ok now. Regarding the ribs... last time I gave it i kind of just gave them the entire rib because I couldn't get the bone to break apart. I have since started using something else to crush the bone and I think they will be ok with it if it is smashed up like the hen was. But that has yet to be seen. I still have some from my last trip to the store so I was going to try that out. I do have liver I don't think you saw, but I asked this question in my previous post can I always use the same schedule? Assuming their stools are normal can I just use the same weekly schedule every week or am I suppose to change it up all the time?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2014 19:43:17 GMT -5
Sorry for the delayed post, Filling came out and I was in some pain until I got it fixed, then I was completely out of it. lol All better now...
That looks a lot better! One last note on the feeding schedule, just make sure to state what protein their having. Like if it's chicken liver, dont just put liver.. write chicken liver. That way you can count how many proteins they're having in a week. But other than that, looks great!
I thought you didnt have kidneys since the last one didnt have any kidneys in it. But since you do, you did a great job on doing half liver half kidneys.
Andddd.. yes you can use the same feeding schedule but remember this feeding schedule include their stew. Once it's gone, you'd have to add 0.5 heart meals and 1 more bone in meal. You can mix it up once in a while or if you find something rare like rabbit you can add it in there. But so far, the schedule looks great.
How's everyone on bone so far? Hopefully still doing great. Try increasing the size of the bones to slightly larger than they currently are and see if Rhea is willing to munch on them.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2014 11:57:05 GMT -5
Oh jeez! Hope you're feeling better. Ok, got it with the schedule. I'll start working on one that doesn't include the stew. I made the bones a little bit bigger last night and they didn't seem to mind.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2014 16:45:17 GMT -5
How much stew do you still have left. I dont want it to go to waste. But, practicing balancing out of the schedule is good! It'll become second nature soon enough. Ooh! Bigger sizes and they still ate it! That's excellent! Lol, Soon enough they'll be crushing their own bones. Lol. Great progress!! And thanks for the well wishes. Everything is almost back to normal. Injection site still kinda hurts but it'll go away soon, I hope lol.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2014 22:23:14 GMT -5
Sooo.. I didn't make the schedule yet but I will work on it tomorrow, I swear!
Just wanted to give a tiny update. I portioned out the whole week with the new schedule and gave the chicekn wings which went great. All of them are eating no problem, even Rhea. So now it's just a matter of getting the bigger bones introduced.
I went to the market today and they were out of kidney but said they should have it back soon so the on meal where I have 1/2 kidney I replaced with 1/2 heart... is that ok?
Also, despite my best efforts the pork ribs seem impossible to mash up. The last time I gave them that I didn't cut it up just gave it whole and they dragged it off and I think I caught Portia chomping on it but no one actually got though it. When I was cutting up the meal that should have had pork bones I just cut up the cartilage or whatever that softer bone stuff is and put that in there. Would I be able to just put some bone powder in for that day or is that not ok?
And for the stew I have left it's not that much. Probably 6 meals worth... maybe.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2014 5:54:15 GMT -5
Sooo.. I didn't make the schedule yet but I will work on it tomorrow, I swear!
It's okay. I know your a nursing student, so if you have classwork, exams, finals, it's okay. I've been there and I get it. This new schedule is practice for when you're no longer feeding the stew mix.
Just wanted to give a tiny update. I portioned out the whole week with the new schedule and gave the chicekn wings which went great. All of them are eating no problem, even Rhea. So now it's just a matter of getting the bigger bones introduced.
That sounds great! Keep working on giving out slightly larger bones. If you want you what you can do when you're chopping up the bone-in, section off a large section and chop that up to their current bone size, and section off a smaller section and chop those a bit larger than what they're eating and see if anyone eats them with no problem.
I went to the market today and they were out of kidney but said they should have it back soon so the on meal where I have 1/2 kidney I replaced with 1/2 heart... is that ok?
Yes you can do this. It'll take several months until any deficiencies to show up, so if the kidneys are unavail for this week, it's fine.
Also, despite my best efforts the pork ribs seem impossible to mash up. The last time I gave them that I didn't cut it up just gave it whole and they dragged it off and I think I caught Portia chomping on it but no one actually got though it. When I was cutting up the meal that should have had pork bones I just cut up the cartilage or whatever that softer bone stuff is and put that in there. Would I be able to just put some bone powder in for that day or is that not ok?
Pork ribs are kinda hard for them. I think I said that they're actually a bit too dense for them and that's okay. You can feed them the soft part, I usually call them the rib tops. It's the cartilage. If you feel the rib meat and the cartilage of the pork rib, then that counts as a bone-in meal as long as they eat everything. If they don't then it only counts as a muscle meal. So make sure they're eating the cartilage and rib meat.
And for the stew I have left it's not that much. Probably 6 meals worth... maybe. Not bad. So maybe 3 wks worth. =) Sounds good.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2014 11:38:49 GMT -5
I finished the new schedule that didn't include the stew. I included the animal it came from as well (only one liver says chicken but the other liver day is chicken as well)
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2014 17:10:51 GMT -5
Awesome job! Only thing that is in excess if 1/2 a meal of liver (the one with hearts). You can feed half a meal of hearts with muscle meat (gizzards, chicken breast, etc). But other that that, fantastic work! You're getting the hang of it!
So any updates on the kids and them eating bones? Did you increase the size of the bone?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2014 17:17:41 GMT -5
I did increase it a little bit and everyone is eating just fine and I'm not hand feeding anyone! I got my am/pm mixed up and fed chicken feet this morning. This is what I was a little concerned about since it's so different than anything they've ever had but they chowed down no problem, maybe because I mixed it with chicken thighs which is their favorite. And those pieces of feet weren't even that small. Each finger was cut into maybe two pieces. But all my food is chopped up for the week already so next week when I prepare food again I'll increase the size of the bone but for now they will all be the same until then.
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