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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2015 6:53:38 GMT -5
She also has gained two oz. since she has gotten the implant.
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Post by katt on May 21, 2015 2:45:57 GMT -5
Good girl! (dance) I'm glad the implant is kicking in and she's feeling better. Have you started to work slivers back in again? Are you thinking of doing commercial grinds instead of Frankenprey, or just in addition?
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2015 7:33:26 GMT -5
I'm really on the fence about what to do next with her diet. She is eating really well right now with the soups. It's not super watery, but a little smoother consistency than ground meat. I have begun to add in slivers and I think I need to make them quite small again. I like the idea of getting the hare today's whole rabbit grind. But it's hard to balance her diet with that. I also purchased her some chicken liver instead of the beef liver. I'm pretty sure I don't intend to feed her frankenprey. I'm going to keep looking around for food that has other organs and muscle meats to offer. I haven't had much luck in finding anything else other than beef tongue, chicken and beef liver and chicken heart
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Post by katt on May 23, 2015 2:55:56 GMT -5
That's not bad honestly as long as she get variety in her muscle meal proteins. It is ideal to have organ variety (and HT sells organs and organ grinds btw), but muscle variety is the most important. Whatever you do though she really needs to at least be on grinds. A liquid diet really isn't meant to be fed long term. Yes raw soup is better than kibble, but the gut needs physical stimulation. :/ RadCat sells balanced grinds and has a good reputation. HareToday sells many different grinds and it is certainly very possible to give a properly balanced diet of HT, it just requires knowing the proportions in the different grinds and balancing accordingly - which I can happily help with.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2015 12:33:38 GMT -5
Hello So I stopped at the local pet store and picked up a bag of Stella & Cheweys fdr raw turkey cat food. You mentioned that her gut may get irritated from being on soupies so long. Her poos hasn't been very formed at all for a long time. She's also making a mess in her cage, tracking it all around. Not sure if some of that is just because she is getting old? This food also has probiotics, which I thought would be helpful if her gut is messed up. She has also seemed stuffed up for a while now. I had a cold a couple weeks ago, maybe she caught that? Anyway, I think I'll try out the S&C fdr. And see how she does with it.
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Post by katt on Jun 12, 2015 21:29:11 GMT -5
The soft poops are probably partially from the soft diet. It could also be that she isn't getting enough bone-meal - how much are you adding to each batch of soup?
Is commercial ground raw an option at all? Lots of places now carry RadCat in-store, that brand has a really good reputation and I believe is pre-balanced. HareToday is also really good, you just have to make sure to keep things balanced. A commercial ground diet would be ideal if you aren't going to move her on to chunks for Frankenprey.
Freeze dried is convenient, it is better than kibble...but it still has some significant drawbacks. If it is going to be used as a significant part of their diet (rather than as a treat or occasional add-in) it needs to be fed rehydrated or it will dehydrate them. At that point, you are still feeding soup, so it is no better than raw soup on that front (raw soup is better :/ ). Also, most FD has some level of plant products used in them - far less than kibble to be sure, but any amount is still something the pancreas has to make insulin to balance out. Something to consider.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2015 6:14:51 GMT -5
There is a place about a hour and a half away that has RadCat. She is doing really well on Stella and Chewey's right now. On the package they instruct to soak the food in water for a minute before serving. Bea's Poops are much much better and she doesn't seem as frantic in general. Her poops were super runny on soupies. I was putting 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp. of bone meal in the soupie mix. The only plant based thing in the FDR is pumpkin seed, so i thought that didn't sound bad. I also liked that it had probiotic. She was doing okay at one point eating slivers/chunks, but she is super picky and didn't really weigh that much. I think that I like the sounds of the HareToday rather than RadCat. But then I run into the problem of very little freezer space. My parents live 15 min away so maybe they can help me out there...
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Post by katt on Jul 7, 2015 22:26:23 GMT -5
There is a place about a hour and a half away that has RadCat. She is doing really well on Stella and Chewey's right now. On the package they instruct to soak the food in water for a minute before serving. Bea's Poops are much much better and she doesn't seem as frantic in general. Her poops were super runny on soupies. I was putting 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp. of bone meal in the soupie mix. The only plant based thing in the FDR is pumpkin seed, so i thought that didn't sound bad. I also liked that it had probiotic. She was doing okay at one point eating slivers/chunks, but she is super picky and didn't really weigh that much. I think that I like the sounds of the HareToday rather than RadCat. But then I run into the problem of very little freezer space. My parents live 15 min away so maybe they can help me out there... Hey! Sorry I got buried by studying for my board exam, then we moved and had no internet. I'm back in action now though. I'm glad that she is doing better on the FD. Check the ingredients again though as S&C does tend to have more veggies and fruit than just pumpkin seed BUT that may not be true if you found the feline formulas. Problem is to my knowledge the feline lines have been off the shelves for several months now. Maybe feeding a mix of FD and RadCat would be an option? Especially if you can get RadCat locally, freezer space is MUCH less of an issue since you don't have to do a big bulk order.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2015 12:14:11 GMT -5
No worries! I totally understand. Summer time is super busy for me. Bea is doing great on the Stella and chewey's. The cat formula only has pumpkin seed for vegetable ingredients. I checked radcat and it has more vegetable ingredients in it. Stella and chewey's duck duck goose formula has three proteins in it too which is great. They also include ground bone. Here is the ingredients: Ingredients: Duck (ground with bone), Turkey, Turkey Liver, Goose, Turkey Gizzard, Pumpkin Seed, Potassium Chloride, Sodium Phosphate Monobasic, Choline Chloride, Dried Pediococcus acidilactici fermentation product, Dried Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, Dried Bifidobacterium longum fermentation product, Dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product, Taurine, Tocopherols (preservative), Zinc Proteinate, Zinc Sulfate, Iron Sulfate, Iron Proteinate, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Copper Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Riboflavin, Manganese Sulfate, Sodium Selenite, Manganese Proteinate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Calcium Iodate, Vitamin B12 Supplement.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2015 12:23:20 GMT -5
I'm also still giving her fish oil daily
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Post by katt on Jul 16, 2015 23:32:45 GMT -5
I'm glad she is doing well on the FD. I know some ferrets can have issues with pumpkin seed. I like S&C, they are a reputable FD company but supposedly pumpkin seed can cause blockages so just something to keep in mind. Unless there's chunks that missed getting ground properly (which is always a risk really), or for some strange reason it doesn't digest and hangs out and accumulates in her gut then the risk is probably pretty low but it is something to be aware of. I use S&C canine (have never been able to reliably find the feline formulas where I lived) as treats. So what's your plan then? Do you want to keep her on the FD, try introducing some commercial raw to mix in, something else?
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Post by katt on Jul 22, 2015 0:54:13 GMT -5
Keeping in my feed, let me know what you want to do
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 16:26:29 GMT -5
Hello, Bea is still doing good on Stella and cheweys. She seems to be gaining weight too. I think she may be loosing her eyesight and/or hearing, she's gotten jumpy. I keep looking around for other things to add to her diet. Rad Cat has a lot of veggie fillers so I decided against that one.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2015 10:18:31 GMT -5
Hello, I have some very sad news. Bea disappeared from our house yesterday. We have no idea how she escaped. There is no way out except through the front door. We tore apart the house and looked everywhere. She has never disappeared like this before. I'll keep you posted. We are hoping that she is okay and will show up soon.
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