Miya's Switching Thread Journal

[Sherry]

Oh that is WONDERFUL news!!! And definitely hope she grows out of that!

[mjbez]

Update:
Miya's weight: 1lb 15 oz (up an oz since she came, but this does fluctuate)
Poop: Normal, is peeing a lot
Energy: great

So Miya has been eating her soupie no problem for over a week and a half now. However, I am having difficulties with her eating her slivers. I think I need to backtrack to smaller sizes again. She will eat the odd one (I have watched) but overall is wasting most of the chunks and just licking up the soup around them (headwall)
She does this with both beef and chicken slivers. They are about the size of my pinky nail.
She is eating the commercial duck/soupie wonderfully. I don't know if I will be trying lamb yet this week. I may just concentrate on getting her to eat her slivers! Picky girl. She will chew them a few times then they just fall out of her mouth. She sometimes will lick at it and then just lick more soupie. I have tried leaving her with the same food (when there are only slivers left) and rewetting it but she still just sniffs it.

[mjbez]

So last couple days I tried going back to smaller pieces. There have been some meals that she eats all at once! Every little chunk! I obviously give her a bit more to tide her over until the next meal when that happens. But I have found she doesn't easy much of her "refill" on food. But better to have it then be hungry possibly.
She is eating primarily chicken. Chicken soupie is every meal. I have put chicken chunks (which is successful) in the soupie, beef chunks (some success), ground turkey (pretty successful), and tried pork (didn't look like she ate that much but this was when I was trying bigger slivers. . And she started rejecting them all). She eats comm raw duck that is mixed with some soupie. I try to slowly increase duck and decrease soupie. Tonight I tried comm raw lamb and soupie. There was more lamb than soupie. She showed no interest. I let her sleep for a bit then woke her to try it. She put the brakes on pretty good but with some convincing I got get to lick it off my finger. I did this for a few mins and slowly lowered my finger until she ate from the bowl! Yay!
So her variety isn't bad for 2 weeks in. But I want to keep working her up to larger pieces. I'll be slowly increasing. Maybe just by adding a few larger pieces (finger nail size) at a time. I have already increased the number of pieces drastically in her meals. It is about 50/50 with slivers to soupie. So pretty good I think. She is a bit harder to switch than I though for being pretty young (7.5 months)

[Sherry]

It's odd, but lately we've found even kits as young as 4-5 months are being much harder to switch than they used to be. Hypothesis is possible genetic preferences being bred in? Or since they have developed a shorter life span they are reaching life stages earlier than before.
Either/or it sounds like you've got her well in hand!

[mjbez]

Weight update (because this excites me) 2lbs!! (dance)
My bf is home from school and just since last weekend mentioned she looked a little thicker than before. Thank goodness because she is such a petite little thing!
She is eating well, but still leaves some slivers behind. But for the most part she eats most of them. I am slowly increasing the size and amount.
I made another double batch of soupie (I have been making one double batch a week... ugh) and I made the soupie much thicker. I have got to get her eating a little bit bigger pieces. My hands are sore from all the fine chopping. I packaged serious amounts of meals today for all my fuzzies. 2 hours worth! A lady from my work is providing me with free beef atm. She finds the beef that she ordered from her butcher kinda tough. I chopped up rump roast tonight for all 5: some pieces for the 4 and then tiny little pieces for Miya. Repeat this for turkey, chicken, pork, quail... I lost track.
So all in all, Miya eats very well. She consumes about 3oz or so a day. She doesn't eat very big pieces but is eating a good variety so far.

[mjbez]

I this past weekend I went away to my hometown for a couple days. My bf was home to take care of the ferrets. BUT Miya really didn't eat much while I was away. My bf ended up having to scruff and stuff her with her Soupie which she had always been fine with. I did have him putting small beef slivers in but typically if she doesn't want them she eats around. She just didn't want to eat. He also found puke behind her litter box. Needless to say we were both worried. As soon as I got home I defrosted an oz of Soupie. I put it in her cage and she immediately ate. I put another cube in and she ate that to! (headwall) I think she refused to eat without me here. But now my bf will be home so she will get to know him. I felt so bad for leaving.
But good news is she ate commercial lamb this morning with no Soupie. So that's a big step! I will try duck this week with no Soupie as well.

[Sherry]

I'm thinking that right now the soup is safe when you are there, but questionable when you aren't.

[mjbez]

So what do I do if I'm not here? I do not want to go back to kibble. She's been off of that crap for weeks! I guess no leaving for a while for me! I don't plan on any more days away for at least a few weeks. I hope she grows out of that! Silly girl. Kinda feels nice to be loved that much but what a pain! Lol.

[Sherry]

Oh she will Most are like that at some point in the transition stage. I've had a few who would willingly eat if on my lap, or even if my hand was on their back, or finger resting in the soup but not otherwise. It really is a reassurance thing.

[mjbez]

It has been a few days. I have seen many improvements with eating. She is not as picky and I've been working with the size of the slivers I'm feeding. I fed quail the other night and it had little bones that I chopped nice and fine. She ate almost all of it. I even heard the crunch of bone a couple of times. So that convinced me to push the chunks more. The past few meals have been only 1/2 cube soupie and the rest had been slivers. They are about the size of my pinky nail now. Last night was beef. She ate it all. Today was chicken wing. She crunched away on the slivers of meat and bone with just enough soupie to cover.
she also eats both comm raw lamb and duck with no soupie added now.
In terms of eating what my others eat she eats: chicken, Turkey, beef, duck, lamb, quail, hearts, and will be getting pork tonight. She had eaten it once before so I will assume she is now on all the proteins I feed. Once she eats larger chunks I will try feeding her an organ meal and then I can slow down the soupie even more. She eats about half the soupie she used to since she is eating slivers. I feel like things are going very well!

[Sherry]

Things are going very well indeed!

[mjbez]

Miya's last weight check she was at 1lb 15oz (so not much change).
Poops : Normal (and she hits the litter box faithfully now YAY)
Miya has continued to eat chunks of meat in her soup. It does seem like she is eating less now, but I assume that is because she actually has to chew.
She is eating chunks about the size of my ring finger nail and will chew through bones that are cut into that size of meat (chicken backs, quail, chicken wing etc). I love to hear her crunching on the bone, as it is very encouraging. Today I fed her duck and put a few pieces of chicken back in it. She didn't simply eat around the chicken pieces like I thought she would, especially because she loves duck. She ate any piece that she encountered. The pieces are big enough now that not all of it goes down in one bite.
Tonight is heart night. I am going to be bold and try hearts cut in quarters and chicken back pieces for Miya sans soupie. wish me luck haha.
Also, my bf just notified me she has grape tail already and does she ever! I love that smell.
Odd thing with Miya is she never did get the detox smell. Which amazed me. Even Zeke got stinky when detoxing and he was half her age when I switched him. (he was only about 3 months, she is almost 8 now). But I'm NOT complaining about that

[mjbez]

So last night I tried chicken backs and hearts cut up to about my pinky nail for Miya. She didn't know what to think. She sniffed. . And went back to bed. So I cheated. I put a little treat on top and showed her again. She licked up the treat and then started eating! I was so excited. Tonight I gave her chicken wings no soup. I cut up the pieces to about the size of my thumb nail. She ate again crunching through bones and all. So now this week when I feed organs I will try that. Then she will be fully switched!! Just gotta work on chunk sizes.

[Thérèse]

Well done to both you and Miya

[Sherry]

Oh that is excellent news!!!