Post by Deleted on May 14, 2014 6:58:55 GMT -5
Hi everyone! (dance)
Until the mentoring program opens back up, I am going to document everything related to Ezra's progress in this thread. I am ready to go and so is he! Hopefully this thread will keep us on track, because both Sam and I are very dedicated to getting him switched over and want to do it now, while we have the attention, time, and money to dedicate to the endeavor.
Please give us your feedback and advice so we can do this right!
The goal is to eventually have him on a fully raw, natural diet, with one or two meals a week being live prey. We are nowhere near set up for live prey yet and want to focus currently on getting him on the raw meat with a plan to progress to live prey in the future.
We have in our freezer: about 6 lbs chicken hearts, 2 beef livers, about 4 lbs chicken gizzards, chicken thighs and wings (about 4 lbs each), and a rogue turkey breast.
We also have a whopping 2.2oz of eggshell powder that we ground up and weighed last night. Making pancakes and brownies twice a week paid off!
If there's anything else we need to get him started out, or anything suggested to have on hand, please let me know and I will pick it up as soon as possible. We do have a scale, coffee grinder, and cleaver in addition to the above ingredients.
Here is the soup recipe I'm going to be making tonight (open to correction if this isn't right):
- 8oz chicken thigh meat
- 1oz beef liver
- 2 chicken hearts
- 1/2 tsp eggshell powder
Or should we stick to all chicken elements for now to eliminate a possible sensitivity to beef? I have no problem picking up chicken liver on my way home if that's suggested instead!
Our scale for Ezzy measures to an accuracy of 0.1 of a pound, and I weighed him in last night at 3 lbs even. I'll be posting pictures of him from the top for a weight comparison sometime tomorrow.
Right now, he is on a Marshall's kibble diet and does not take snacks of any kind. He eats kibble in the AM (4oz) and PM (4oz).
We also have some confusion about variation requirements in regards to a frankenprey diet vs. otherwise. Like the turkey breast we have - is this suggested to feed to him? I know it's white meat... Should we wait until he's eating chunks, or is it best to just stick to dark meat whenever possible?
In the long-term, is it fine to keep him on just (for example) chicken and rabbit, paying mind to our ratios and percentages of heart/muscle/bone-in/organs, or is it required to give him beef/pork/duck/etc as well? If not required, is it suggested?
As mentioned, we eventually want him on a fully raw diet with live prey twice weekly or so. The live prey would be gerbils, mice, etc, if he takes to it. I guess I just want to fully understand our end goal. Is a diet of just one or two animals acceptable, so long as the ratios of heart and organs and bone-in are met? Or is the variety really essential to their health?
Questions aside, we have a game plan for right now. Basically (please tell me if I'm wrong, I am so new to this and want to get it right!), I am planning to give him ~5 oz of the soup tonight after work. It will have been about 9 hrs since he was fed his kibble in the AM. I'll have 5 hours(ish) to monitor him and work with him, and we will try spoon feeding him after a couple of hours with the soup in his food bowl, and if he's not into it, then I'll give his kibble back before we go to bed.
If he DOES eat it, I will give him more soup in the AM tomorrow and see how he does. Once he gets into it, do I just keep him on this soup recipe for AM and PM, and gradually try to get him onto the oatmeal consistency, then add slivers of chicken, etc, as I've read? Or do I need to be mixing in a variation of organs and other animals while we're working with him on the soup? How quickly can he drop the kibble, if he's eating well on the soup?
Thanks so much for reading, and sorry for all the questions! Wish us luck.
Until the mentoring program opens back up, I am going to document everything related to Ezra's progress in this thread. I am ready to go and so is he! Hopefully this thread will keep us on track, because both Sam and I are very dedicated to getting him switched over and want to do it now, while we have the attention, time, and money to dedicate to the endeavor.
Please give us your feedback and advice so we can do this right!
The goal is to eventually have him on a fully raw, natural diet, with one or two meals a week being live prey. We are nowhere near set up for live prey yet and want to focus currently on getting him on the raw meat with a plan to progress to live prey in the future.
We have in our freezer: about 6 lbs chicken hearts, 2 beef livers, about 4 lbs chicken gizzards, chicken thighs and wings (about 4 lbs each), and a rogue turkey breast.
We also have a whopping 2.2oz of eggshell powder that we ground up and weighed last night. Making pancakes and brownies twice a week paid off!
If there's anything else we need to get him started out, or anything suggested to have on hand, please let me know and I will pick it up as soon as possible. We do have a scale, coffee grinder, and cleaver in addition to the above ingredients.
Here is the soup recipe I'm going to be making tonight (open to correction if this isn't right):
- 8oz chicken thigh meat
- 1oz beef liver
- 2 chicken hearts
- 1/2 tsp eggshell powder
Or should we stick to all chicken elements for now to eliminate a possible sensitivity to beef? I have no problem picking up chicken liver on my way home if that's suggested instead!
Our scale for Ezzy measures to an accuracy of 0.1 of a pound, and I weighed him in last night at 3 lbs even. I'll be posting pictures of him from the top for a weight comparison sometime tomorrow.
Right now, he is on a Marshall's kibble diet and does not take snacks of any kind. He eats kibble in the AM (4oz) and PM (4oz).
We also have some confusion about variation requirements in regards to a frankenprey diet vs. otherwise. Like the turkey breast we have - is this suggested to feed to him? I know it's white meat... Should we wait until he's eating chunks, or is it best to just stick to dark meat whenever possible?
In the long-term, is it fine to keep him on just (for example) chicken and rabbit, paying mind to our ratios and percentages of heart/muscle/bone-in/organs, or is it required to give him beef/pork/duck/etc as well? If not required, is it suggested?
As mentioned, we eventually want him on a fully raw diet with live prey twice weekly or so. The live prey would be gerbils, mice, etc, if he takes to it. I guess I just want to fully understand our end goal. Is a diet of just one or two animals acceptable, so long as the ratios of heart and organs and bone-in are met? Or is the variety really essential to their health?
Questions aside, we have a game plan for right now. Basically (please tell me if I'm wrong, I am so new to this and want to get it right!), I am planning to give him ~5 oz of the soup tonight after work. It will have been about 9 hrs since he was fed his kibble in the AM. I'll have 5 hours(ish) to monitor him and work with him, and we will try spoon feeding him after a couple of hours with the soup in his food bowl, and if he's not into it, then I'll give his kibble back before we go to bed.
If he DOES eat it, I will give him more soup in the AM tomorrow and see how he does. Once he gets into it, do I just keep him on this soup recipe for AM and PM, and gradually try to get him onto the oatmeal consistency, then add slivers of chicken, etc, as I've read? Or do I need to be mixing in a variation of organs and other animals while we're working with him on the soup? How quickly can he drop the kibble, if he's eating well on the soup?
Thanks so much for reading, and sorry for all the questions! Wish us luck.