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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2014 17:32:57 GMT -5
Finals are going pretty well, I think! I finished one final essay for an anthropology class in ~6h, and another in about ~23h. That amounted to about 12 pages of essay. I'm currently working on an extensive french linguistics final exam, but it's a take-home, and open book, thank god. Although take-homes take much longer. I have until Saturday to finish it. Basically, I'm chugging along (twitch)
Piper is eating like boss. Baby girl puts away upwards of 2oz every day, often eating more like 4oz. We jokingly refer to pork as her "pink chicken", and we've experimented with a little of the grass-fed ground beef that Travis uses to make his cheeseburgers. She loved the "red chicken"! hehe.
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Post by gfountain on Dec 11, 2014 17:40:47 GMT -5
My daughter hates take-homes, lol. She's much rather study and take a 2 hour exam, lol. What are you guys in school for? I forgot (if I ever knew).
At least Piper is causing you any stress during this week, lol. Glad she's eating well. We'll work on a menu for her once your exams are done.
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Post by gfountain on Dec 17, 2014 15:51:54 GMT -5
How's it going? Finals should be about over, right? I know you're relieved to have a break!
Anything new going on with Piper?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2014 17:00:01 GMT -5
In fact, your timing is impeccable. I'm done as of midnight tonight! (dance) Baby girl is doing well, a little tummy with teeth. She was very skittish the last couple days because the jerks living beneath us were playing very loud music, which I think frightened her. But she's eating 2-4oz everyday. Aaand~! I used your model diet from page 1 of this thread to make a diet plan for her. Let me know what you think when you can access the picture again.
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Post by gfountain on Dec 19, 2014 16:12:15 GMT -5
I swear this forum hates me! I typed out a whole long reply to this days ago and it's disappeared again! Fortunately, this time I saved it on my computer at home so when I get home I'll re-post it. Dang computers...
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Post by gfountain on Dec 20, 2014 15:08:17 GMT -5
And it disappeared AGAIN! And I deleted my saved copy. Technology is kicking my butt this week. (headwall)
Your menu looks pretty good. I'd like to see some more variety in the protein, but you do have 4 so you're meeting the minimum requirement. On the days that you have chicken/rabbit, does that mean you're mixing those proteins or are you alternating them? Which of those proteins is Piper eating now? Have you tried her on any of the kidney or pancreas? Now that she's eating bones happily, I want to get her started on all these new things.
As far as her skittishness (from your other thread from which my comment was also deleted), ANY TIME a behavior changes suddenly and drastically, it's time for a vet check. I HOPE that the problem is just behavioral but she's a middle-aged girl so it is possible that it's medical. You said you were going to make an appointment. Keep us posted.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2014 13:07:11 GMT -5
I'm alternating the chicken/rabbit and beef/pork. We could not find pancreas, but we were able to find uteri!!!
There's a couple things though: my big eater is going to the vet on christmas eve. Apparently a lot of pets wind up at the vet over the holidays because of goodies left out or small objects eaten, which I never thought about. The intern was really cooperative and understood that I needed an appt much earlier than he originally suggested, so I'm glad we got something soon.
You saw the post, which means there's that much I don't need to explain. But for the last three days, she's eaten very little. The first day I fed her rabbit, she devoured it as quickly as I could cut it! (And it was hard because I had to carve the whole rabbit, which I had never done before!) But last night for a bone in meal, I just have her say .3oz with a little teeny sprinkle of eggshell, and 12 hours later it wasn't touched. The one good thing is that she is still full of mischief.
Honestly, I'm scared. My first furbaby died suddenly of symptoms which manifested in just a few days, and he was in so much pain. If something is going on with Piper, I want to know right away, and at least eliminate any discomfort or pain...
If she's not eating, is there anything you could recommend to entice her to eat?
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Post by gfountain on Dec 21, 2014 17:37:42 GMT -5
Try soup. She loved that. Warm it with a little hot water. Sit with her & feed her with a spoon if necessary. If you need to, mix a little bit of her favorite oil into it. How long has it been since she's eaten ANYTHING? Ferrets can and will fast themselves once in a while, but if she's gone longer than 24 hours, she NEEDS to eat!
I'm glad she's getting in sooner rather than later.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2014 22:20:34 GMT -5
It had been over 24 hours since she'd eaten any significant amount. Travis and I sat down with her and spoon fed her a quail egg, along with a lamb heart treat. She ate pretty readily. Fingers crossed this is just a passing thing! We weighed her just now and she's at 1lb, 12oz.
While we wait to see how she feels, please tell me what about her menu I can improve!
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Post by gfountain on Dec 22, 2014 11:27:30 GMT -5
Oh good.. I'm glad she finally ate. That may have just been one of those ferrety things that we can't explain. How are her poops and activity? If all ok, then we'll assume she's fine until you see the vet.
About the menu... you have 9 rabbit/chicken meals, 2 beef/pork meals, 1 organ meal, 1 heart meal, 1 organ/heart meal. You have 4 proteins and all the categories are covered, but I'd like to see at least one more protein in there. If you rotate your chicken and rabbit each week, that gives 4 of one and 5 of the other in a week's time. You really don't want more than 4 meals of the same protein if possible. I'd like to see one of the rabbit/chicken meals replaced with something else.. turkey, lamb, bison, venison, quail, goat, duck, frog legs, fish. I try to throw in one of the more expensive meats at least once a week. I rotate those over the weeks, so one week they might get duck and frog; the next week they would get quail and fish.
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Post by gfountain on Dec 26, 2014 14:09:09 GMT -5
Merry Christmas a day late! :christmastree:
I've been sick and out of the loop, so fill me in on where Piper is with her diet now!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2014 21:38:23 GMT -5
Merry Christmas to you too! Please feel better. Ginger tea is my go-to; highly recommended Piper finally went to the vet today and came in at a weight basically unchanged, which is good. I think my earlier weighing of her (1lb 12oz) was wrong, because at the vet she came in at 1lb 8oz, which makes more sense. She's been touch-and-go with eating, which might have been because most of the organs are new to her again. But now that she's eating her bone-in meals again, we feel a lot less worried. Also, I wanted you to know that while at the vet, I had them do urinalysis and blood work. We should find out in a few days if there's anything to worry about. The vet said her physical exam was fine, but we can't be too careful.
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Post by gfountain on Dec 26, 2014 21:52:10 GMT -5
Ah, good. I've been thinking about her today. So hopefully you'll find out soon that you paid a lot of money for peace of mind, lol.
And she's eating her bones again. I'm glad to hear that. Where are we with her menu? Have you made any adjustments? What proteins/organs do we still need to work on? I feel like she's so close; I want to push ahead and maybe get this switch completed before your next semester starts. (When is that?)
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2014 22:27:57 GMT -5
We're rotating beef & pork and chicken & rabbit as per your suggestions. We're looking for a fish that we should give her that Travis will also eat- likely Salmon (if that's ok). I think Piper is distrustful of kidney, because she tends not to eat much of her organ meal.
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Post by gfountain on Dec 26, 2014 23:09:52 GMT -5
Salmon should be fine. You just don't want to give her large fish that could have high levels of mercury.
So she's eating all 4 of those proteins without problems, beef, pork, chicken, and rabbit? That's great! I didn't realize she'd already been introduced to all of them. And she's eating her bones, so all we really need to work on are the organs, right? What organs are you feeding, kidney and what else? Are they mixed?
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