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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2014 22:31:01 GMT -5
Thanks for the well wishes! Wednesday is my day off and that's when I plan on going to the Asian market. Are chicken necks something that would be sold there? If I can find them there I will definitely pick them up but I've never seen them at any market around me. I will try that with the chicken next time though and let you know how it goes. Nothing really new with the kids. Rhea is still not eating the bones but Portia and Callisto seem to love them more and more each day. I did try to hand feed Rhea some pieces with bones again and she just runs off with it and stashes them and I have to throw them out later. But I will try the new advice and see if she likes it. Thanks for asking around for me Edit: This morning I hand fed Rhea a piece of chicken wing that was split down the middle to expose the marrow and she ran of to her box and ate the entire thing! It was a decent sized piece too. I talked to my bf who will be feeding my little ones when I'm on bed rest and we decided not to introduce any new foods while I'm not there to assist. I was planning on going to the Asian market today but if new foods are going to be introduced I'd like to be there to monitor them and see exactly how they react. Today I will be preparing/labeling meals for that. I will have him hand feed Rhea the bones and hopefully she takes them from him as well as she does from me.
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2014 0:57:59 GMT -5
Another suggestion I got was using turkey necks, apparently they're widely available (?)
a 3RD suggestion was going a very gradual transition for Rhea with bones. Not sure how small the bones she was eating were vs. the larger bones. She's being very stubborn... so try a slow and gradual approach with her so that she's getting her calcium intake. Not sure if you want to make the entire batch the same for everyone or have 2 separate batches. Completely up to you, but she needs to be eating bones one way or another.
Let me know how the asian market goes, if I dont hear from you tomorrow, then good luck on the surgery and hope for a speedy recovery. =)
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2014 20:48:32 GMT -5
Sorry this response is so late, I was really hoping for a quicker recovery. I've been on a a lot of pain meds so I've pretty much been sleeping since I've gotten home. My little ones are in my bedroom which is in the basement and because of the stairs I've been staying upstairs in a spare bedroom. Today was the first time since the surgery that I've gotten to see them and they are doing well. Rhea was eating the chicken feet just fine but, as usual, only eats them when there is no boneless meats left. Portia and Callisto have been doing fine with the bones still.
I was actually pretty excited that the last time I went to the market I did find some turkey necks! Tomorrow night is a bone meal and I plan on replacing that with the necks and see how they take it. It does seem like the muscle is attached to the bone pretty well so I was thinking I would give Rhea her own bowl that only had muscle w/ attached bone pieces and watch how she handles that.
Since my surgery was in my abdomen it's hard for me to lift and get up/down from a sitting position. When I get a little more recovered I plan on sitting with Rhea and hand feeding her some of the bone pieces. I don't want to go back to the super small pieces of cornish hen I started with so hopefully that will work and I won't have to.
Thanks for the well wishes!
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2014 1:50:50 GMT -5
No no, it's okay. I figured you'd be down for a bit longer. I had a laproscopic surgery to remove a cyst from my ovary and I was knocked out for days on pain meds. I had to stop taking the pain meds to drive to school on the 4th day. I was in pain but had to get to school lol. But I also had help feeding the kids because it hurt to bend down as well. So You got Turkey necks! How'd that go with Miss Rhea? Hopefully she had no choice but to eat? God I hope so. I didn't want to revert back to small chunks again but a mentor said maybe the transition in size might have to be a very slow and gradual one since she's being a bit on the stubborn side. Glad that you're slowly getting back into the routine (dance). I overdid my recovery. I went to walmart the same night I got out to get meds. Lol. Eventually I may need to have the same surgery again as another cyst grew back 8 months after my surgery, but I'm not rushing into that one again.
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2014 21:14:35 GMT -5
That's what I had! The cyst was a little bit bigger than a tennis ball. I'm better now and have stopped taking the pain meds but bending down and lifting is still painful. That means my boyfriend is on litter box duty lol.
I gave the necks and Rhea was less than thrilled for them but she did eat a piece that I handed to her. The pieces were decent sized too, about the size I would normally cut their food. She would only eat the one at the moment but the whole bowl was gone by the next feeding so I am assuming she ate some more after I had left. I will be closely monitoring her again tonight when I feed the chicken wings and get back to you.
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2014 1:42:48 GMT -5
how'd the chicken bones goes with miss rhea? i thought i posted that last night after i read your post. must've not hit the reply button. lol hopefully she ate the bones and the turkey neck from the other day as well. tennis size cyst. that must've been causing you lots of pain. mine was about 5cm. the pain i had the first few days was on my shoulder. it was due to the co2 gas they add into the stomach if they removed your cyst laproscopically. i had to force myself to walk everyday to get rid of the pain. felt like someone punched my shoulder in. lol.
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2014 9:58:40 GMT -5
Omg, yes! My family couldn't understand that the majority of my pain the first couple of days was in my shoulders. That pain radiated and made it hard to even breathe. Surprisingly, I didn't even know the cyst was there until the MRI. Rhea did ok with the chicken. I am not cutting them up any smaller than normal and she ate one that I hand fed her without any problem.
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2014 3:45:26 GMT -5
God, I am sooo sorry that I haven't been on for a few days. Family came down from NYC, I'm planning my 10 yr anniversary, been planning for the move into new labs at work for this upcoming fall. Stress lol. Alright lets get to it. The thing is, I'm a little worried about Rhea's bone/calcium intake. If she's only having one small piece per bone-in meal days.. it's about 7 pieces of bone? I want her eating more though. Try getting her eating more bone, somewhere along the lines as the other 2. =/ Like I said, I want her getting enough calcium. No loose stools on bone-in days? They should be on the solid side, not too dry but not wet (like they would be on an organ or just muscle meat day). On the same note, I want her to eat bones on her own. What if you have to put their bowl in the cage and you're running out the door? The other 2 will munch on bones while rhea decides not to eat or just pick at the meat. I thought she'd do a lot better on the turkey necks. Grr.. stubborn little one. lol. Whoa, you had no symptoms? How crazy. My left hip would kill me and I didnt know why. I mean I found out after getting my pcos under control. But my gyn said it could be cancer to get an oncologist to confirm or tell me otherwise. It sucked because I was in the middle of doing research, working, in school on my 2nd to last semester, had my ferts. It was horrible trying to find time to make appts. But it was 5cm wide I believe, same as the one I currently have . So keep trying to get Rhea to eat bone, pleaseeee, preferably on her own -fingers crossed- If not, hand feed but try not to. Maybe give her a separate bowl in a feeding den?
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2014 18:28:06 GMT -5
No problem. While you were out we made great progress. Rhea has been eating bone on her own! I guess she just decided she didn't hate it as much as she use to, lol. She's been doing it mostly on her own but likes when I give her a little bit of encouragement by handing her the pieces I want her to eat. She dives right into the bones when it's chicken feet but still picks around the bones when it's other stuff. I'm confident that she's almost where we want her to be! I will be feeding necks today and I'll get back to you on the results! Yeah, the surgery really cut into my life. Because of the lift restriction I had I could no longer attend the required clinicals so I'll be redoing most of this year. But it will all be worth it in the end!
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2014 18:57:14 GMT -5
Ohhhh that's great news!!! (dance) Hopefully she'll see the light and eat the turkey necks and the other bones more. Let me know how she does! Yeah the lift restriction sucked, I had to have people at work lift stuff for me. Remember that ovarian cyst do grow back, sadly. Mine grew back 8 months later, same side and same size.
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2014 10:34:45 GMT -5
Rhea is a tiny bit reluctant with the necks but I think it might be just because turkey necks are relatively new to her, she's only had it once before. But she did eat it, bone and all. It just took a little bit of extra love. I handed it to her and she ran and ate it in a box but the pieces were pretty big so I think it's still a step in the right direction.
Thanks for the heads up. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this because I surely don't want it happening again!
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2014 19:57:05 GMT -5
I thought she wouldnt be as reluctant with the necks since she did have some last time. But she ended up eating it in her den, which is still good. Did she eat the entire piece you handed her?
Since it's been wks since we're talked about a menu, are you still following that one or did you chance it up. Just want to be in the loop on what is being fed. If you're still following it let me know, if not can you write one out that you are following. Just want to make sure everything is all balanced out. =)
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2014 10:51:57 GMT -5
It seems like they never eat the entire neck bone. All three will sit there and munch on it but there is always a dense piece that they leave uneaten. It's really not that big of a piece but they always leave them laying around their cage. It must be something about that specific bone because they never do that to chicken wings or feet. They get most of it so I really wasn't worried about them not getting enough calcium.
So... to answer your question, she did not eat the middle part of the bone but she normally does to bones that are not necks.
I'm using a schedule that I posted previously only I have swapped turkey necks for the stated bone meal a couple of times.
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2014 2:07:40 GMT -5
maybe the middle is probably more dense and harder since the spinal cord is there so more support. but if theyre eating bone from other sources then they should be good. hopefully rhea is doing better on other bones that are not chicken feet.
regarding the menu, i remember that the lastest one did not have bonemeal included. we got rid of using bonemeal since they all were eating bones and because callisto was having dry stools. last menu i remember was completely balanced out.
can you take a screenshot of the one youre using. just want to make sure im on the same page as you are. sorry for being a pain.
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2014 12:42:06 GMT -5
Rhea has been doing well with all the bone meals recently and I was thinking the same thing about the middle being a bit more dense than the rest. No problem, here is the schedule I'm using. It doesn't include turkey necks but I just replaced one of the bone meals with the necks since I didn't have them when I made the schedule.
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