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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2015 9:03:09 GMT -5
I'll try that today. Everyone is doing well. Otis is moving his back legs more each day and using them to crawl like a baby. Still doing daily massages and water therapy. I have been increasing the sizes of the food and this week I'm going to try a wing just cut in half. Otis seems to prefer meals that have bone. Lately he gives me a look when the meal doesn't have bones which is funny. They are still eating organ soup and so is Riot. I want her to get used to eating from the same plate as the other 2. Linus doesn't have a problem crunching bone. Ty seems to be a real grazer. He is eating the larger pieces but I takes him more time than the rest. He'll eat a large piece and then he's done but he does come back to eat just like Otis. Otis is a real piggy lately. I have to tel you that last night my husband threw out a large chunk of dried chicken not knowing the Otis had stashed it. Well, Otis went to his spot to eat and it wasn't there. He was searching all around and he looked mad then he gave my husband the look. What did u do with my chicken? It was soo funny! Charlie is the same. He lost a little bit of weight which made me nervous and he was eating less than I'd like. So I started to hold him when he ate and he's eating better. I just don't want him to lose too much. He is small already and he may need that fat at some point. Heather Below is the video of Otis moving his back legs. You can see how much he does move them but not to walk. However, he did pull his legs up and attempted to use them normally this week. It was only once but I was happy
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Post by Heather on Mar 15, 2015 11:07:45 GMT -5
He seems to have good reflex action and the fact that you're seeing progress is wonderful. There is nothing easy about this and he may never get full locomotion but it sounds promising ciao
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Post by gfountain on Mar 15, 2015 19:14:27 GMT -5
Otis really is moving those legs! He obviously has movement and feeling there. It makes me wonder if the problem with bearing weight might be in the spine. Whatever it is, he's showing progress! That makes me happy. So Ty, Linus, and Otis are all eating the same menu, right? Chunks of everything except organs and hearts? Can you post another picture of the size of the chunks now? How is Riot doing with slivers? Any luck getting her to eat them just with a little gravy? It is quite all right for Ty to graze all day if that's the way he prefers to eat. It just makes feeding a little trickier because you have to make sure the others leave him enough. As long as there is food in the dish, he should be fine. Otis' reaction to his dad throwing his stash away is hilarious. My little girl throws miniature hissy fits when I mess with her stuff, whether it's stashed food or treasured toys. And I have to laugh at her every time which only makes her more upset, lol. I feel like you have enough knowledge to graduate from the program, but I would like to get the boys' chunks a little larger and get Riot on chunks before I cut you loose. I'm not going to worry about Charlie's menu since he's a special case. You have his diet well under control. Let's work on getting all the chunks bigger this week and let me know how you feel about graduating.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2015 18:54:36 GMT -5
gfountain. Gee I really checked out for a bit. Sorry about that I've been swamped over here. Otis has made some HUGE steps forward and walked a bit yesterday! His back legs crawl constantly now and he's pulling his legs underneath him and trying to stand. He pushes back with some force when I push against his back legs and he's starting to reach for the floor. It's been a lot of work but I'm finally seeing some improvements and we are so excited! I had him and riot in the snow yesterday on the porch and they had a blast. Too cute. Yes, bearing weight seems to be the issue but the X-rays showed no damage. Any idea why? Riots on slivers and soup now and they are getting bigger but she fighting me a bit. Everyone else is doing good. I'm still chopping the meat but in larger pieces. Otis has no trouble with really large pieces, then Linus followed by Ty. Otis is still stashing legs or no legs. Everyone loves their heart soups and organ soups riot too. Charlie is doing well. Such a trooper my little Charlie. That would be great! I'd really like to work on getting them as large as possible before you cut me loose. Riots being a pain and I can't seem to find anything to bribe her with either. No EVOO, hates, egg, coconut oil, marrow, baby food... Driving me batty. I know you've got great tricks up your sleeve. Also once the menu is set do I stick to it forever or can I switch things around? How are you? And the crew? How's the knitting going? I've been designing again and I nearly threw out my needles yesterday bc nothing went right all day. One of my goals this year to design more. I went against all my instincts last night after a disastrous day and cast on a hot pink plain lace wrap. I hate pink and I don't knit lace bc it's like knitting with thread and 2 number 2 pencils but so far so good. Like 6 hours and I don't even have 8" done. that's lace!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2015 19:38:05 GMT -5
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Post by gfountain on Mar 21, 2015 22:27:52 GMT -5
I don't have much time but want to make a couple of comments before I forget. The goal with the mentoring program is not only to help you switch the ferrets, but also to make sure you are equipped with enough knowledge and confidence to make and remake menus and switch things around to make use of the meats that are available to you. So no, you don't have to stick to one menu forever. As long as you stick to the right percentages for the different types of meat, you can change things up as often as you want. My menu is never the same from one week to the next!
I won't 'cut you loose' until you feel that you're ready, but just so you know you won't be completely on your own. All of us are just a mouseclick away.
I'm so glad to hear that Otis is improving! I have someone waiting on me, so I'll finish replying to your post later.
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Post by gfountain on Mar 23, 2015 19:50:59 GMT -5
Otis not being able to bear weight could be neurological, nerve damage in the spine,mor it could just be that he has to relearn how to use those legs. Hopefully, therapy will continue to help him. It sounds like Ty, Linus, and Otis are doing great with their meals. Little riot is just being lazy, lol. What size are her slivers now? Try giving her a dish of just slivers with soup 'gravy' on top. Make the soup thin enough that it will run over her slivers. She likes the organ/heart soup doesn't she? If she won't eat the slivers with the gravy, you can try thinning the organ soup and drizzling that over the top of the slivers. She's been eating slivers so you know she knows how. You may just need to let her go hungry for a meal if you can stand the pitiful eyes, lol. It's hard not to give in and give them what they want. I know. I cut pork into tiny slivers tonight because they begged. :/ I know I'm gonna regret that for the next few days. All my needlework has been set aside for a little while. I'm super busy with school stuff right now. I also got discouraged after my trip to the yarn shop. I thought what I got would be perfect for my owl project and I came home and whipped out an owl and the color run is too long. My little owl came out all the same color instead of being striped. AND he's too small. Although the stitch gauge on the yarn is correct for the pattern, he is almost an inch smaller than he should be, and the neutral color she told me would be right seems a lot thicker. So, yeah.... I've been practicing my knitting. It's still terrible. I started with 20 stitches and after 10 rows of basic knit, I only have 15 stitches. I have NO IDEA where those other 5 went!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2015 13:38:12 GMT -5
My apologies for not being around I've had lots going on recently and so busy with work. Well Otis is now officially always crawling but still not standing up. He does try to but just can't seem to push his body up. Ughh. However, he's still my best eater and now sits at my feet while I prepare the meals for everyone else. I also fed him too and he eats from the fork. Hysterical. He's otherwise very active. I just wish he would walk already. I finally got Riot to eat some egg today not a lot but some. She is driving me a bit insane. She ate slivers one meal and won't do it again. I put one in her mouth and she just holds it in there for at least a minute or two and then finally eats it. If I put her down with it in her mouth she stashes it and I don't think she goes back. Just stashes. Making meals a bit of a hassle to say the least. Yes, she does like to organs and I did try that a few times, today too, and nope she won't eat them. I've tried the tough love and no dice. This girl is so stubborn. She is also a slow learner bc she she hasn't gotten that digging in my couch as well as stashing my yarn is a serious no no. I feel like a jack-in-the-box no Riot, no Riot, a minute in time out and shes back to the couch, back in time out, back to the couch, then grabs my yarn. Up and down all afternoon and at this rate I should be losing 4lbs a week and have a tight butt Linus is doing great and chomping on his bones but he still searches for any morsel of missed kitty kibble before he goes to his food. He does eat everything though such a cutie. Ty lost weight and he's now 2 lb 2 oz. his body is straight up,and down with no protruding belly. He's is getting a bit finicky now and I have no idea why. I'm watching him and I do see him eating just not much. I'm trying to figure out if the weight loss is just from the Spring slim down or he's reverting back? The jury is still out and he also prefers Charlie's soup to any meal that's not soup. Charlie is doing good. He has his days but more ups than downs. It sounds like you are knitting 2 sts together or dropping them not a big deal, I still drop them. You sound like a tight knitter. I was a tight knitter when I started too. Did you swatch? How large of a swatch did you make? I've learned that I have to do a larger swatch when gauge is critical because I tend to start tighter but at some point I relax and my gauge is very different from start to finish. However, gauge really isn't critical with toys and to solve the problem you can just go up a needle size. Some yarns have very long color changes and others don't. I've only knit with Noro which is also a self striping yarn and has long color changes www.ravelry.com/projects/PreciousKnits/spectra. The yarn store SHOULD have known which yarns have short or long color changes. Did u bring the pattern with you? I know when I started I relied heavily on the knowledge of the owner bc I just didn't know enough yet. Most of the time I was substituting yarn because the yarn for the project was always above my price range. She was great and we are still friends today even though she no longer has the shop. I'd be ticked if I went in for help and was given the wrong yarn,especially if it was a lot of money. What yarn did u buy and does the pattern have a name? The beginning is always rather frustrating but hang in there it does get easier. mistakes happen all the time. Knitting should be relaxing. Any questions just let me know I'd be happy to help. Really, anytime. Here's my email PreciousKnitShop@comcast.net
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2015 19:47:05 GMT -5
Well, I tried the egg again tonight (yolk only) and it was a hit with Riot. She ate all of her pork slivers. She's a little devil. How was I supposed to know it would take me weeks to find something to bribe her? She hated egg all the other times I've tried it. What makes tonight egg any better? Well if at first you don't succeed try try again and again and again. I know she shouldn't have a whole egg daily but can I put a little on her slivers each meal and then back it off little by little?m
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Post by gfountain on Apr 2, 2015 8:43:22 GMT -5
I'm so glad that Otis hasn't lost his enthusiasm for life! He sounds like such a fun little guy. Linus sounds like my Slinkee...a carb junkie, sigh. Slink has been on raw almost his whole life and he still begs for kibbles. I have to make sure the ferrets are out of the room when I feed the dogs. Ty has lost quite a bit of weight! Post a dangling picture of him again, please, and one from above when he's on the floor. I want to make sure he still looks ok. Does he seem thinner than last year at this time? How is his activity? Poops? Charlie needs hugs and smooches please. He is such a trooper! And Riot, the problem child, lol. What exactly is she eating now? What size, what proteins? Is this the first time you've tried her with just egg yolk? That may be the difference. I have a boy who loves the yolk but hates the white. If I whip a whole egg really well, he'll start on it, but if he finds a slimy white bit, he's done. I'm pretty sure it's the texture that he doesn't like. If she likes the yolk, by all means take advantage of it and use it to bribe her. Just watch her poops and make adjustments as necessary. I have to run right now. I'll get back to you about the knitting later.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2015 12:40:33 GMT -5
Riot, I've tried eggs at least 4-5 times before and she just would not eat it no matter what I did. This time she liked it, why this time? Who knows! I'm decreasing her soup and adding more slivers. She about at the size of a pinky nail. So far she's eats chicken and pork. I added a bit of egg to her breakfast today and she ate all the egg some of the slivers and left some soup. I did give her plenty though. I also watered the egg yolk too.
No, Ty seems to be at his normal weight maybe a little thinner. He really porked up when I switched him. He just seems to prefer any kind of soup to chunks and bones. His teeth are way better and I'm still varying the sizes but leaning towards larger pieces. I'm keeping a close eye on him. He also lost some back teeth. So that's why I make some pieces smaller. Should I go backwards with him? He's hard to bribe too. He used to love EVOO but will not touch it now at all. He doesn't seem to have a favorite protein anymore either. Egg is a no go as well. He loves Charlie's food and baby food but I'm not sure I should use that bc I don't want him to go too far back.
Just portioned all their food. OMG there was so much food. Man that's a chore.
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Post by gfountain on Apr 2, 2015 15:28:39 GMT -5
Silly Riot...who knows why she changed her mind. I hope it lasts this time! But she's a female, so she'll probably change her mind again, lol. Being a female, she's also just too busy to take time to eat. Try a different protein with her. She's probably tired of chicken and another protein may be enough different to make her more interested in eating.
When they first switch, they do tend to eat a lot. And soup is easy to eat so it's easy for them to OVEReat. Ferrets are lazy things, so they'll always go for the easier to eat meals. I don't think you need to back up much with Ty, if at all. He is missing teeth so you might always have to cut him some smaller pieces, but he IS eating the chunks. If you go back to soup or baby food, you'll have wasted all the time and effort you've already put into him.
How much food did you do? I'm having a hard time getting ahead with food! I always buy in bulk and portion it as I have time, so I always have at least a month's worth of meals in the freezer. But with me being sick for 7 weeks, we ran out and I just can NOT get ahead again. Before I got sick, I would spend about an hour once a month prepping meals, but right now I feel like I'm constantly messing with meat!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2015 13:27:30 GMT -5
Update: riot all of the sudden started eating bone. She usually eats on a smaller dish where the others can't get it. I do this bc her food is cut smaller and I was bribing her with egg yoke. I looked over a few days ago and she's fighting Otis for a piece of chicken. I nearly fell off the couch, I was so shocked. Lol. So far she loves all the organs, chicken and I gave her pork this morning and she ate that too! I just hope it continues. She is also quite the stasher as well. No one seems to be thrilled with beef lately and, of course, I have no idea why.
I have to change my menu. I've been winging it lately bc things have been crazy. They are eating everything on the menu every week but not in that order. Is that okay or do I need to be more strict?
I try to do exactly what you are doing. I don't buy in bulk but what I buy I get a lot of , for example, I found turkey wings on clearance! 50% off and I bought all they had which was 6 packages. I buy 2 pkgs of chicken backs, chicken wings and thighs, pork in various ways, belly, neck, chops, organs, and beef in what ever is cheapest. I also buy the CGH 4 at a time. I really hate doing the prep. It's just gross and time consuming. I use a food saver which keeps everything well and easy to defrost. I got the bags at a thrift store and they were cheap but once they run out I'll have to find another way. Those bags are pricey!
I pkg everything out by oz. right now they are eating about 6oz per meal which is drastically down from winter and the beginning of the switch. I really think Ty over ate the soup and now he's back at his normal,weight. He was 2 lbs. 4 oz en I started the switch. His energy level is fine. His favorite meal is organs of any kind. Soup again. Anything soup he loves. Little bugger.
Linus is still a carb junkie but as soon as he realizes there isn't any, bc mommy picked it up, he eats whatever I'm serving. BUT he always goes for the kibble first.
Otis has made some more progress. He's pulling his legs underneath him and trying. This morning he pulled them both underneath and was standing a bit while he ate. I think one day he'll just start walking again. How well, who knows but I think that's what will happen. The main issue I have with him is going to the bathroom. OMG organ days are the worst! He also can't control when he pees so if you pick hm up he always pees. He also drags himself all across the floors which means I'm washing them everyday. I think steamer is going to go on strike. Lol. Thank goodness for hardwood floors. Carpet would be a nightmare! I also have to give him baths when the wipes aren't sufficient. He does seem to like them though.
Charlie has had a couple of bad days. I can tell he's p!ssed at me bc of the meds. Yesterday he protested and wouldn't eat for me last night. However, my husband had no trouble at all. He yells at me when I give him his meds and shakes his head. Ugh, what am I to do? He needs those meds. Breaks my heart.
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Post by gfountain on Apr 11, 2015 20:13:23 GMT -5
Aww, poor Charlie. Makes me sad that he has to take all those meds. I know it's hard on Momma when he protests. Give him hugs from me. That Riot! So give her the big kid meals now - no looking back! If she doesn't want to eat them, maybe cut them smaller for her, but don't go back to soup. If you do, she will have successfully manipulated you and will do it over and over. As far as switching up your menu, as long as they are getting everything on the menu in a week's time, that is fine. Just try to always follow an organ meal with a bone meal to keep the poops firm. Now that you're almost graduated and doing this on your own, I'll tell you how I do my menu. I keep all my meat in a big freezer that is not convenient for getting into every day. I pull out the 'weekly menu' and put just those meals in my kitchen freezer, but I don't balance for a week. Since they get 10% heart and organ, I balance in multiples of 10, either 10 meals or 10 days, which is 20 meals. For every 10 meals, they get 1 heart meal, 1 organ meal, 6 bone-in meals, and 2 muscle meals. My kids are constantly changing the amount of food they eat in a meal, but this still works for us. Sometimes those 20 meals last exactly 10 days, sometimes they only last 8 days, sometimes 12. As long as they eat everything in the kitchen freezer before I refill it, I know their diet is balanced, no matter if they eat twice a day or end up eating 3 or 4 meals a day. I keep their meals in the door of the freezer, organs/hearts/muscle meats in one tub, bone-in in another tub. Every time I feed a meal, I switch the tubs and I always feed from the tub on the outside. That way I make sure I'm alternating boneless meals with bone meals, and it's easy to tell my husband which meal to get out if I'm late getting home. Food prep is a nasty job! I've been using baggies, but I just broke down and bought 100 8-ounce freezer containers. I'm tired of discovering during thawing that a bone poked a hole in the bag and now there's duck blood dripping all over my refrigerator! The only problem is the containers won't fit in the freezer door the way the baggies do, so I'm going to have to come up with a solution for that. So Ty's weight has finally stabilized? I'm glad. I thought he was probably overeating on the soup. It's so yummy and so easy to eat that it's easy for them to gorge themselves and pack on the ounces. Linus may ALWAYS be a carb junkie. Slinkee still is. After more than a year (most of his life!) on raw, he'll still go for kibble if he can find it. And Casper... that poor baby must have been fed people food in his former home! He wants cereal, salad, ice cream, potato chips, milk, Cheetos, carrots... He loves to eat and he loves his raw meatz, but we always have to fight to keep him out of our food. I'm so glad Otis is doing better! I've been wondering about him. And I have to say again, I am SO HAPPY that you got him before this happened!! Hopefully, he'll be able to get his bladder under control again. I'm sure he doesn't enjoy his daily wipe downs any more than you do, lol. Let me know when you feel ready to graduate, so I can post your 'final exam'. Don't worry, it's easy! Hugs to everyone.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2015 18:01:48 GMT -5
Soooo happy about Riot and we a re not going back...nope.. She still isn't eating all the proteins but i will work on it with her. She always goes to the bowl and checks it out but then goes for her jerky that's she's statically placed. I let her in my bedroom today while I was cleaning things up and she was bouncing around like crazy. Then she went after my chi Geddy and they played for a while. She's still driving me crazy though and she now taught herself how to scale my baby gate in a single bound. She is definitely trouble. I've noticed in the last week that they are less interested in beef and now pork. Does this happen where they just don't feel like eating a particular protein for whatever reason? I'm not sure if I should be worried or not. For the first time in a while they even snubbed their noses at heart/liver meal which is usually their favorite. Minus Otis bc he eats everything. Just odd. They've snubbed their noses at beef 3 times. I wasn't giving in and sent them to bed with the meal. However, not much was eaten. Grrrr... I even tried ground..then ground with water and ground with egg yolk. They ate the egg and left the beef... The meals. I just want to feel a little more confident in my menus before you cut me loose. They are eating everything on the menu weekly but not in that order, I had to skip the heart meal on Sunday morning bc I ran out of heart and didn't notice it. Oops but I cleaned out Pathmark on Monday and bought all they had 6 pkgs. I usually do prep as I shop and then defrost and go. Just concerned about Ty and sometimes Linus skipping a meal and snubbing some proteins. It's a new protest. I also noticed that they aren't thrilled with non bone in meals. Is this weird? They need coaxing on muscle meat meals. I'm not doing anything different on my end. Ughh. Thank goodness for Otis. He eats everything with a smile on his face. He also comes a running when he hears me banging away preparing a meal. I feed him some meat with my fork and he eats it right up. Why can't they all be that easy? I ALWAYS follow an organ meal with either chicken or turkey. OMG just grosses me out and the smell..OMG. I must really love my ferts Ty was definitely overeating now that I look back and Im more knowledgable. He really pigged out and gained nearly a whole pound...now he back to his svelt self at the weight he was when we started. His energy is the same but he's getting quite picky which is concerning me a little. Refusing meals but I'll keep an eye on him. Gave Charlie hugs for you. He's such a trooper.
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