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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2012 16:20:25 GMT -5
Beef is perfectly fine - it CAN be a bit rich and cause looser stools. A bit of eggshell powder or bonemeal powder sprinkled on top can help.
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2012 21:57:54 GMT -5
^bump
how are things going?
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Post by Deleted on May 2, 2012 10:35:19 GMT -5
Today Tomo weighed in at 1 whole kg! He looks great.
Here was his menu this past week:
Wed-bone in chicken with a piece of chicken liver; boneless cubed pork
Thurs-chicken heart; bone in chicken, a chicken foot
Fri.-bone-in chicken which he didn't eat until that night.
Sat. bone in chicken; bone in chicken, small whole fish (didn't eat any of it)
Sun.- chicken heart; bone in chicken, cube of "soup"
Mon.-bone in chicken (didn't eat); chicken liver/gizzard
Tues.-chicken neck (barely ate any); cubed pork sprinkled with eggshell
Probably heavy on chicken, huh? I was going to buy game hens but they wanted $3 for them where I was and I can get them cheaper somewhere else. But I did get some beef liver.
He has slowed down some but I've also been giving him more bone in meals and those are the ones he is most likely to skip. He tears right into the boneless ones. Especially the heart and organ meals.
This week I will try him on a little beef, its good beef raised by a friend so it's basically organically grown. Now that pay day came I will see about mice too.
About poo--sometimes after bone in meals with chunks of meat on them it looks like things didn't get digested much. Otherwise it looks good.
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Post by Deleted on May 2, 2012 13:25:56 GMT -5
It is rather heavy in chicken, but that's great that you have such a nice source for beef!
As for the poos - can be more specific in how it looks? I know it's gross, but it's also important. Are you just seeing bone fragments in the stool? (if so, that's normal)
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2012 11:11:26 GMT -5
It looks like small chunks of chicken that just went straight through and out with minimal processing. It only happens when I give him bigger pieces. He eats everything better if I snip it with my kitchen scissors, but obviously there's no snipping with bone in.
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2012 14:36:12 GMT -5
Have you tried attaching the bone in sections to shower hooks in the cage? The hanging pieces will slow maybe slow Tomo down so he'll chew and digest better.
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2012 16:13:00 GMT -5
I will try it. So you think he's just pigging it down without chewing? I cut his hearts up into about 4 pieces each today and his poop had some undigested chunks. He really loves heart. Should I leave them whole? Maybe I'm being an enabler by making it just easy enough to scarf it down without really chewing. I don't want to be an enabler--that's bad  lol |
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2012 16:19:20 GMT -5
It's something to rule out. If these poos are also slimy, seedy, or extremely smelly or funky-colored, it's possible we're looking at a GI issue - either an upset or a sensitivity.
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2012 9:48:51 GMT -5
Some are stinkier than others, they are not funky colored, pretty consistently in the brownish range. I wouldn't say slimy but the consistency seems a little on the mucousy side maybe. I'm not sure what you mean by seedy. Can you describe more?
Last night he ate the bone in but not the bone.
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2012 14:12:55 GMT -5
Seedy - it generally looks a bit like some kind of actual seed (birdseed,etc) is in the poo. It's not, but that's undigested food. Mucus in the poo - it could be transition poos (how long were you doing the switch for before you actually got a mentor?), or it could be a sign of the food running through the GI track too quick or irritating the lining. We'll have to rule things out as we go  Have you any crushed eggshell powder? I'd start sprinkling it on his meat meals (1/2 tsp per 8 oz). Also, what was his bone in that he didn't eat, and what was his meal *before* that meal? |
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2012 1:19:24 GMT -5
I would say that his poo is seedy.
We were working on switching for about 2 wks before we started working with you. He hadn't had much but soup and fuzzy mice.
The bone in he ate was the large section of a chicken wing--the part that is connected to the breast. He stripped it clean and left the bone. The meal before that was chicken heart. This morning it was more chicken wing and he ate some of the bone. Tonight I am giving him soup. I do have egg shell.
Also, he doesn't eat the acorn squash that I cooked this week. Tomorrow I will buy the kind he liked. Doesn't that help their digestion too?
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2012 2:36:06 GMT -5
I find that it often soothes the stomach in ferts, at low doses, generally though it's a good cleanse, lol.
Seedy poos are definitely undigested food. It's possible that it's transition poos still, but mostly with those you see dark green stool and the like.
I would say that it could be a sensitivity and the most likely cause is his heavy intake of chicken. He might not be *allergic* (signs would be irrefutable), but he could be sensitive and having a diet high in it will wreck his tolerance, where, with most sensitivities, you'll find that feeding the triggering food once a week or so doesn't cause flare ups.
With the bone, you may want to stick to rib bone and wing tip rather than the drummette section. Those bones are easier for them to get at.
We are definitely going to have to work on getting variety in his diet on a consistent basis.
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2012 23:49:43 GMT -5
I bought him a game hen today and the Korean market has little quail, a bit spendy but that's ok. What other bone in stuff could he eat?
He did super with his bone in today but I guess I need to give him some different bone in stuff. I've been super busy today so I actually haven't checked his poo yet. He seems to feel great. He's been tearing around the house as I write.
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2012 5:37:43 GMT -5
It always sucks when variety equates to having to spend more $$$$, but the benefits in our furbabies really are worth it. Smashed turkey necks are great, pork button bones can work (they have to be the button bones, and 1/4" thick at the max).
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2012 15:53:38 GMT -5
He had pork with eggshell sprinkles for dinner and game hen for breakfast. No seedy poo. What's a button bone?  |
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