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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2015 12:52:27 GMT -5
I'm glad the dentist went well! (dance) Her weight only dropped a half ounce; that's great! All my kids except, Zoey and Zekrom, dropped another ounce this week :evil4: (I miss my chunky butts!) So she's not diggin' the beef huh? As in she's not eating as much or is it giving her funky poops like the chicken? (I know you said more later-work her is actually pretty slow so I've got time-shh!) Yes, my appointment was today, thank you! It went pretty well-she was confident that my liver and pancreas is fine, but still suggests the surgery or do an endoscopy(sp?) to see if I have any ulcers or bacteria in the stomach lining.(what?!?) I cannot stand having a sore throat, so once I heard that (endoscopy and for surgery they would place a breathing tube down my throat) my mom suggested trying some yogurt and probiotics for a few weeks and the surgeon thought that was fine. (she's so nice and not pressuring at all). Since I'm not in agonizing pain, I'm willing to try it out for a bit-hey, I've gone this long already right? (The more I 'grow up', the more I see my mom (emotional) and dad (stubborn) in me-it's silly!) Happy Friday! Thanks for checking in :hug:
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Post by Blue on Apr 27, 2015 18:43:58 GMT -5
Hi Katy, sorry I'm so rubbish at checking in and/or even at following up on my own posts! I'm glad to hear you're feeling a little better right now, hopefully the probiotics will help. Are you saying they want to take out your gall bladder but aren't even sure it'll fix things?!?!? Have you had a second opinion? Weigh in on Sunday: 2 lbs 0.5 oz although this was in the morning before breakfast whereas usually I do it in the day several hours after eating anything, so maybe the lost oz is due to that? I'm all over the place right now with her which can't be good. I was doing a sliver & soup mix, and she'd eat the soup and sometimes some of the slivers. So sometimes I'd leave it in the spirit of slivers or nothing. Sometimes I'd refill it with soup. Sometimes she'd still eat just the soup, but sometimes she's eat the whole thing. And then I panicked thinking I wasn't feeding her enough and fed her soup at will, at which point she completely cleaned 2 bowls of soup (3 oz total) but then completely ignored the third. I think what this long ramble is saying is this: - I'm not sure how to figure out if she's full / done eating - I'm not sure how much I should insist on the slivers - I think I need to be more consistent The latest soup is pork & lamb, and the slivers are pork. The beef I've mixed in half-and-half with the rest sometimes. But that's another option: beef soup but pork slivers? And of course I'm trying not to waste too much meat, although I guess that's just what's going to happen at this point in the game. Poops still good -- I did think of giving her chicken soup and testing the IBD theory when I was running out of soup the other day, but didn't want to without checking with you first. Also, I thought it might be a bad idea in the middle of sliver-transition. I have no idea what I'm doing. On the plus side, I've offered her kibble in despair when she was hungry and her meal wasn't ready, and she hasn't touched it. Not even to stash. So that's good! Did I tell you I managed to break the tip of my ceramic knife? Sixth item sacrificed to the kitchen gods. Sorry for the ramble!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2015 8:55:18 GMT -5
Good to hear from you and I know things can get crazy sometimes so no worries! Where Maisie is right now in the switch, I think we should check in/update every other day? Would that work? Let me know what's do-able for you. (no pressure! whatever works for you can work for me too!) The ounce loss could be from having an empty tummy or maybe she just pooped? I giggled when I took Zoey to the vet once; I had mentioned Zoey pooped on the way there and she was down an ounce and the vet said "did her poop look like it weighed an ounce?" Haha! We'll see what her weight is on Sunday-no need to worry though, I think her weight is still great! I know when we get out of rountine and have a busy schedule, things can get overwhelming. It's okay, we'll just pick up where we left off! So, right now you have lamb and pork soup? Oh, what happened with the beef? You said she did not like beef-how so? I'd say let's wait on the chicken trial if you're okay with that. I'd like you both to get back into a more consistant schedule and then we can try the chicken-is that okay? It's hard to not waste in the beginning and that stinks, I know. I think what could work, with minimal waste, is make a batch of soup; 8oz meat (pork, lamb, beef-whatever you would like) 1oz heart 1oz liver 1/2-3/4 tsp egg shell/bone meal Either freeze the soup into an ice cube tray or tupperware containers. If you do the tupperware containers, weigh out 2oz. Make up some slivers (pork, lamb, beef, or combination) and keep them separate from the soup. My idea is, give her the 2 oz soup for breakfast, and 2 oz soup for dinner. For breakfast, give her 5 slivers mixed in the soup. For dinner, also give her 5 slivers. We can try this for 2-3 days and see what she leaves behind. If she is leaving the slivers, we'll reduce the soup to 1 oz, but still 5 slivers. We know she will eat them, but chewing takes effort. Soup is yummy and delicious and can be scarfed down easily. Maisie is smart and cute and knows she can get her way (I think that's in the book every baby ferret reads!)...so we need to teach her slivers are the way to go now. (Does this make sense and sound like a good plan?) Just a reminder, soup has a "shelf life" of 6-8 hours. Does she stay in a cage or confinded area during the day/night? I'm so glad she didn't go for the kibble-but don't tempt her Oh no, not your knife!?! The kitchen gods will be able to open their own supply store if you keep this up! Let me know what you think. It sounds like a good plan but a lot of my ideas always sound good, until I say them out loud! (shy)
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Post by Blue on Apr 28, 2015 20:08:36 GMT -5
I really like the idea of counting slivers -- that way I can get an idea of what exactly she's eating. But my slivers are really small. So I tried 5 larger slivers, hoping she would surprise me. She didn't. I only did 1 oz of soup with that, I'll give her another oz later this evening with the smaller slivers. I tried to show the scale of what I'm doing here. To the right are the slivers she didn't eat. In the middle are my smaller slivers. I'm not even entirely sure that she eats any of those on a regular basis, although it does look like it. To the left is a "big kitchen" match: Yes, that's the soup recipe I'm using, except it's 5% liver, 5% kidney. Liver, kidney, and heart are all pork. I get 25+ frozen 1 oz cubes out of doubling the recipe. - beef: she wouldn't even start eating the soup, although she'd lick a bit off my fingers. Once it's mixed in with more than 1/2 something else it begins to become acceptable. So she'll eat it, but no more 100% beef muscle soups. - current soup is 1/2 lamb, 1/2 pork muscle. She likes it - the slivers are always pork now; I tried beef slivers several times before I realized that she really didn't like them: She's in the cage at night and during the day when I'm at work. The rest of the time when I'm home she's almost always free roam. Sometimes I'll leave whatever she hasn't eaten in the cage when I leave/go to bed, on the theory that it's good for at least a couple of hours.
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Post by Blue on Apr 28, 2015 21:18:15 GMT -5
And here's what left after the 2nd helping, which was the original 5 big slivers, the small slivers shown above, and ~1 oz soup. There's some soup left over here, so at least I'm not worried that she's still hungry. But sometimes it is really obvious that just the slivers are left, and she'll still eat soup if offered.
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Post by Blue on Apr 28, 2015 22:09:22 GMT -5
Oh, just found this as I was cleaning out her cage before putting her to bed. That's left over slivers from breakfast that I left in her cage. That's how it usually looks, although she has eaten everything a couple of times. But this is the level of slivers that we're at, and she eats some of them sometimes. Sorry for all the pics, I'm making up for lost time Thanks!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2015 8:47:57 GMT -5
I love the pics! (keep 'em coming!) The sliver size, next to the match, is great! Keep them those size this week. (The ones to the right look more like chunks to me-which is what we want to work towards.) If you have some time, make different size/shape slivers. You could make them long and thin (just like the match) and keep some how you have them. You could even try triangles (cut off a chunk, then cut that in half diagnally, etc). If they are not going to be long and thin, keep them small how you have them. I'm glad the frozen ice cubes are working! Keep up with 1 cube soup and 5 slivers per meal. If that looks to half and half (like half soup half slivers), drop to 3 slivers and see how she does. Beef tends to seem like a strong tasting and smelling protein for the fuzzies. When I introduced beef to my kids, they looked at me like "umm, what's this? This isn't food" and walked away. I had to hand feed and hold them (along with salmon oil drizzle all over the plate) to get them to try it. I can tell it's not their favorite, but it's a great red meat that they need in their diet. (which we will talk more about when we get into making her weekly menu!) Maybe the next time you make soup, try doing 3/4 pork and 1/4 beef? Getting her onto slivers is the priority, so we can worry about the beef later if you want. I *thought* she was caged when you weren't home, but I couldn't find it in the thread (shy) You read my mind though-leaving the soup and slivers in her cage while you're away/asleep. Since she seems to leave about an ounce, let's do 1 oz soup with 5 slivers. IF she eats all of that, give her 5 more slivers with a drizzle of warm water. Does she have a favorite oil? (My kids go nuts when I drizzle some salmon oil and then drizzle that with warm water! Aromatics! hehe) Soup is great-everyone loves it! I think that's why she's leaving the slivers behind. She knows if she eats all the soup, you'll give her more soup - so why bother eating all the slivers now? Ferrets are smart and tricky little things! (My kids have played me more times than I can count!) How does that sound? 1oz soup with 3-5 slivers. If she eats all the soup, just leave the slivers or offer more slivers? (Oh and for slivers; keep with pork slivers or even lamb slivers, but no beef slivers (not yet)).
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Post by Blue on Apr 29, 2015 13:27:12 GMT -5
Oh yeah, I'm not worried about the beef. I'll just be sure to never have it be more than 50% (your 25% idea sounds perfect), and I definitely won't be trying to win her over with beef slivers (learned my lesson there). Do you mean she seems to eat about an oz? She almost never leaves an oz. Yeah, I'd say she generally eats 1-2 oz soup. So if she eats the 1 oz soup and leaves the slivers, no more soup? So she might go hungry a little bit, but at this point it's OK? I'll definitely try the differently shaped slivers. It appeals to the artist in me Thanks!
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Post by Blue on Apr 29, 2015 13:34:06 GMT -5
Oh, and this morning's report:
round 1: 1 oz soup + 0.4 oz small slivers => she ate all the soup, left the slivers
round 2: I added another 1 oz cube of soup to the 0.4 oz slivers: ate the soup, left the slivers.
I left the slivers with her in the cage but I don't think they'll be eaten. So if I don't give her a 2nd serving of soup, she'll be more likely to eat the slivers? It might take a while since in her experience I almost always come up with something else.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2015 14:29:53 GMT -5
Do you mean she seems to eat about an oz? She almost never leaves an oz. Yeah, I'd say she generally eats 1-2 oz soup. So if she eats the 1 oz soup and leaves the slivers, no more soup? So she might go hungry a little bit, but at this point it's OK?
In the picture, it looked like an ounce was left over. (thinking if you gave her 1 cube (1oz) and she ate that. Then you gave her another cube (1oz) plus the left over slivers, it looked like an ounce to me?) I'm bad at guessing though. (shy) My thought was if she ate a little more than an ounce per sitting, 1 oz of soup plus the slivers should make her hungry enough to eat the slivers. (Does that make sense? I feel like I said that confusing?)
As far as her going hungry-as long as you're feeding her in the morning AND in the evening-she should be fine. If she's hungry, she can eat the slivers (giggle)
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2015 14:33:54 GMT -5
Oh, and this morning's report: round 1: 1 oz soup + 0.4 oz small slivers => she ate all the soup, left the slivers round 2: I added another 1 oz cube of soup to the 0.4 oz slivers: ate the soup, left the slivers. I left the slivers with her in the cage but I don't think they'll be eaten. So if I don't give her a 2nd serving of soup, she'll be more likely to eat the slivers? It might take a while since in her experience I almost always come up with something else. Yes, if you do not give her the second round of soup, I think she should eat the slivers. Since she might be expecting you to give her another round of soup, you could try taking the dish and drizzle a little warm water on top of the slivers and give it back to her. Try not to give into the boo boo eyes when she wants more soup! Be tough! You can do it mom!
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Post by Blue on Apr 29, 2015 22:38:25 GMT -5
Success! I made 7 slivers tonight (1st pic) and added them to a cube of soup (1.3 oz). She ate absolutely everything without blinking. Then she started licking the bowl very, very clean, which means she's still hungry. I hung in there and just gave her more slivers, about 0.1 oz worth (2nd pic below). I added some warm water, and she drank all that, leaving the slivers. Then I tried dribbling salmon oil on them, some in the bowl, some on a spoon (she doesn't seem to care one way or another about the spoon) and she ate a couple of pieces. At most 5. Then she did her flounce to bed routine which means she's waiting for something more acceptable. So I hardened my heart and made sure not to go anywhere near the kitchen, since she understands that means more food coming. So then I made a great racket (on purpose) pulling down the stairs to the attic and rummaging around in there. I threw down a bunch of spare blankets and towels, and some summer clothes. By the time I got down she was out of the cage and in the hallway rolling around in her new possessions. Then we played some, she took a nap, and I just now put her back in her cage for the night. I added some warm water to the slivers, and dribbled some more salmon oil over them. When I left she was licking the salmon oil... We'll see what's left in the morning! Normally I don't think she'd touch it, but I think she's really hungry (poor baby) so there's a chance. Pics of the 1st slivers and the 2nd slivers, with my ceramic knife for entertainment purposes
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2015 7:37:57 GMT -5
Woo hoo! That's great! I can't wait to hear how much she ate overnight!
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Post by Blue on Apr 30, 2015 11:28:46 GMT -5
Nothing I think, although she did do some rearranging: This morning, I did 1.3 oz soup + 0.5 oz slivers, cut up the same as yesterday. She ate all the soup and left all the slivers: but since I know for a fact that she can/will eat slivers, I gave her nothing more, even though that means she's still definitely hungry I did manage to get her to eat a few slivers by dribbling salmon oil on them, and I left the bowl in the cage with some added warm water (she likes drinking that) and some oil drops. We'll see what happened tonight!!!!! She was following me around frantically this morning, waiting for more & better food... I felt very mean, but remembered what you said and didn't give in!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2015 12:07:14 GMT -5
Nothing I think, although she did do some rearranging:
She was looking to see if the soup was under there! Haha!
The second picture (soup and slivers) - is this after she eats? (Like what's left over?) Or is this the slivers she has while she's in the cage? I only ask because it looks like a lot of slivers vs giving her 3-5 slivers.
I'm glad you were tough, not mean, and did not give in to more soup! I know it's hard to do, but Maisie will understand you're doing this because you love her! :hug:
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