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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2015 18:25:38 GMT -5
Thank you so much Celene! The nice thing with Alvin on raw besides his health of course is that I can now buy pork! My husband doesn't really like pork so I can share with Alvin.
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Post by Celene on Mar 25, 2015 21:06:06 GMT -5
Haha I hate pork, and duck. My husband adores both. He gets pretty jealous when I buy it for the fuzzies
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2015 20:30:07 GMT -5
We got our meat grinder today! Alvin will get to try some new meats. I know that he should be chewing to keep his muscles strong and clean his teeth. He doesn't seem interested in anything other than a consistency sightly thicker than baby food. If he doesn't want to chew on gizzards or bone in meat, will he suffer with muscle weakness in his jaw? He would probably let me brush his teeth but would he have any ill effect without chewing other than possible teeth issues? Thanks!
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Post by Celene on Mar 30, 2015 21:35:10 GMT -5
Start him very slowly on smaller slivers before you even consider bone. The easiest way to get good, thin, "starter" slivers is to freeze meat (preferable one he's already familiar with such as chicken), let it thaw just the slightest bit, and use a vegetable peeler to get thin strips. You can even cut them to make them skinny (think noodle-shaped) if you need to. Mix them into the soupie and he will probably eat them. Then you just need to slowly increase the sizes once he gets comfortable with each level.
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Post by Celene on Mar 30, 2015 21:38:52 GMT -5
PS - you definitely don't want to keep him on soup long-term. Even if you brush his teeth (which you should be doing) you won't be getting in the sides and insides like meat and bone will do.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2015 6:35:07 GMT -5
Thanks Celene! Good tip about the slicing with a veggie slicer. Would ground also work until he is ready for larger pieces? I have mixed ground turkey from my own dinner plans (precooked of course) so he will eat those bite sized pieces. I really need to get him a feeding den as well. Right now he gets his meals in the kitchen and he does like to take his slivers over to the carpet. I've seen folks use an upside down storage bin. What would you suggest?
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Post by Celene on Mar 31, 2015 9:29:50 GMT -5
Yup, ground works fine for them too. It's not nutritionally balanced of course, but okay as a snack. What I personally use is a higher up shelf on my FN cage as a "food shelf". Nova never tries to stash. Mocha does with the larger chunks, but then I have time to see her coming down the ramps and intercept her and put her (and the meat hanging from her mouth) back on the shelf. After a few tries she just gives up and eats. (She still stashes with my husband though because he isn't nearly as vigilant and she knows she can sneak past him.) I've also tried clipping meat to their cage with shower hooks, but they don't seem to like it too much. Stashing isn't a huge issue for me as my girls are pretty good about it, but this thread has a lot of great ideas on different ways to set up a feeding den! The most common seems to be a storage tub with the meat clipped to the sides with shower hooks. Some people prefer to use cardboard boxes so they can throw them out rather than having to clean them.
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Post by Celene on Mar 31, 2015 9:37:15 GMT -5
Ooooh! I just saw you got a mentor! Congratulations and good luck!
:boing:
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2015 12:49:45 GMT -5
Thanks Celene! You have been so very helpful!
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Post by katt on Apr 21, 2015 21:11:06 GMT -5
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