|
Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2014 20:44:53 GMT -5
Oh, I just shop accordingly to the menu and what I'm running out of... Of course, I just noticed I ran out of chicken wings! And we leave on our trip tomorrow morning, whoops! In the time of the trip, there's 3 meals of chicken wings - I have some turkey necks in the freezer that are for my dog, would they work instead?
|
|
|
Post by kraesmom on Dec 3, 2014 23:58:02 GMT -5
Well, turkey is a perfectly acceptable alternative, although the neck bones are pretty sturdy. You may need to bash them with a hammer for fez to be able to handle them
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2014 9:10:12 GMT -5
I gave him one last night that had a lot of fat on it, he devoured it pretty quickly, guess he likes turkey necks too now haha. But the other pieces I have in the freezer are less fatty, more bone-y. So we'll see how he likes them. Might take a hammer in the car with me just in case I need to bash it for him.
We're leaving pretty shortly, so might not be on here to post until Sunday night!
|
|
|
Post by kraesmom on Dec 4, 2014 10:23:27 GMT -5
Have a safe trip!
Also, if the other necks are really bony, you may also need some plain muscle meat so he doesn't get constipated from too much bone. Just keep an eye on it, and if he is having trouble or the poops look chalky, stop at a grocery store and pick up some supplementary meat.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2014 21:43:21 GMT -5
We're back!
He seemed to do just fine with the necks, and loved them. Took him a bit longer but he seemed to have no issues.
My family hated his smell. I had to clean the litter box out each time he pooped (so they would stop complaining), but he peed a few times on the carpet in the hotel... shh... don't tell anyone... But yeah, they kept going on about how much he/his cage/etc stunk. I guess I just don't notice it anymore. But it was nothing a good wash of his travel blanket & a scented wall plug in thing couldn't fix. Then they liked him again. I think maybe it was cause it was the time of the week for liver and organs in his menu, which doesn't help the smell.
He's pretty much over-excited to be home with all his toys, dig boxes and tunnel... he's loving it.
|
|
|
Post by kraesmom on Dec 8, 2014 11:11:50 GMT -5
Glad you had a safe trip.
So...they hated his smell huh? How long has he been on 100% raw? He may still be detoxing (excreting all those awful chemicals and additives from his body leftover from the kibble diet). If so, he is probably more stinky now than he will be at any other point in his life. Now that my boys have been on raw for a while, they mostly smell like corn chips when they have clean bedding. Near the end of the week, they can start to smell a bit "ferrety" after they've cuddled together in the same hammocks and beds all week.
Can you repost your menu and Fez's weight each week? And after his weight, please put in his original weight for the switch in parentheses.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2014 23:37:50 GMT -5
He's been raw for quite awhile now, I mean definitely over a month. He shouldn't still be detoxing the chemicals, right? One girl at work keeps telling me he smells like honey, but she's the only one who can smell that from him... haha.
Menu this week is looking like:
Mon AM: liver/organs Mon PM: 1/2 chicken wing
Tues AM: 1/2 chicken wing Tues PM: 1/2 chicken wing
Weds AM: heart Weds PM: 1/2 chicken wing
Thurs AM: pork meat Thurs PM: chicken strip thing
Fri AM: heart, liver, organs Fri PM: 1/2 chicken wing
Sat AM: gizzards Sat PM: 1/2 chicken wing
Sun AM: pork meat, gizzards Sun PM: chicken strip thing
Started a food/poo diary finally too. I noticed his poo was pretty much all black and ick after the liver Monday morning. All day black, even today it's still pretty black.
|
|
|
Post by kraesmom on Dec 10, 2014 12:02:15 GMT -5
Detox can take up to 6 weeks to purge everything. I'm seeing a LOT of chicken on here...can you work on finding another source for bone in meats to give him some more variety? Turkey, CGH, Beef, Goat, Lamb, Quail... I would just replace two of the 6 chicken wing meals with something else.
Poops...black and ick. Yep! That's a liver poop. Colors will vary. Consistency too. Were they hard or soft last night? He would have had 3 bone-in meals since, so they should have firmed up, but not TOO much.
|
|
|
Post by kraesmom on Dec 10, 2014 19:50:54 GMT -5
Oh yeah...and whenever you are shopping for bird parts, keep an eye out for thighs, in addition to your usual wings and backs. They're usually pretty cheap and are better nutritionally than white meat. Dark meat is higher in taurine and fat, which are both good for Fez.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2014 22:36:21 GMT -5
Poop was a lot better last night, but he had heart this morning so it was gooey/runny again today.
I can throw in some turkey necks instead this week rather than chicken. I was at the store last night looking at the "drum sticks" and thighs and couldn't remember which was the one to get, so I didn't get either just in case.
The heart is beef and/or deer, liver is turkey and/or deer, organ is beef kidney. But organs don't count for protein numbers, right? I haven't come across any quail or goat, only expensive lamb bits, beef isn't the cheapest either - what kind of bone-in stuff would you get for the other protein animals? Like what would I be looking for at the store? I have no idea what any of it is being a vegetarian and all haha, I just stare at it very confused. I'm waiting for the CGH to go on sale again like I saw a few weeks ago, then I'm gonna buy a few of them. I found it pretty gross to pull apart, but it must be done... Actually, is the skin fine for him to have? I remember it had a lot of skin just peeling off...
|
|
|
Post by kraesmom on Dec 11, 2014 11:25:54 GMT -5
Legs and thighs are both good for them, but the large bones in the drumstick will likely need to be smashed in order for Fez to eat it.
I will confer with the other mentors on the organ source question and get back to you.
|
|
|
Post by kraesmom on Dec 12, 2014 13:23:10 GMT -5
You are correct! Organ meats do not count toward the diversity of protein. Ideally, you will have a *minimum* of 3 proteins (more is better) and no more than 3 meals of a single protein. My boys really love rabbit and eat those bones well. Some tiny pork rib bones are edible.
CGH...if you have a good knife, you can cut them apart, rather than pulling it apart. Yes, the skin is fine for Fez, although I wouldn't make an entire meal of it...too fatty. I usually just include whatever parts of skin are (or were) attached to the meat I'm feeding them.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 13, 2014 21:13:35 GMT -5
Hmm, so no more than 3 meals of chicken a week?? Cause wings, gizzards, necks etc... So I can't do all that? Or am I understanding that wrong?
Where do you find rabbit? That's an interesting one. Which pork bones are edible? Things like pig tails wouldn't work would they?
I bought a better knife but it still wasn't good enough for the CGH last time, it was a mixture of cut and pull and break, I nearly bought some last night and wanted to but my freezer is too full right now! Uh oh. I'm trying to reorganize it again. There's no space for my food anymore haha. There's a LOT of turkey necks in there at the moment too for my dog, took me all year to find them so I stocked up around thanksgiving.
|
|
|
Post by kraesmom on Dec 13, 2014 21:58:44 GMT -5
I bought rabbit at mypetcarnivore.com (MPC). I can get 5lb of rabbit chunks for $20. This week, my boys' menu contains chicken, turkey, rabbit, beef, pork, mutton, and duck. (Organs are beef tongue, mixed with calf liver, goat testicles, and kidney (can't remember if beef or pork)). The duck is nature's variety frozen pet food, the ground mutton and rabbit chunks came from MPC, and the rest came from the grocery store.
Definitely good to stock up when this gs are on sale/available.
|
|
|
Post by kraesmom on Dec 13, 2014 22:04:41 GMT -5
I should clarify: my boys do not eat chunks of heart or organs well. I mix up a puree of half heart or tongue (for taurine), 1/4 liver, and 1/4 other secreting organ(s). I feed three meals per week of the puree, so they get their 1.5 meals of organ/liver and 1.5 meals heart/tongue per week. fez has progressed to the point where you don't have to puree that stuff. But rather than continue using to push my boys, I chose to keep organ soup on the menu so they can't pick and choose what to eat.
|
|