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Post by Sherry on Jan 12, 2018 7:48:39 GMT -5
Valid reasons When spoon feeding, try holding him on your lap, and don't let him down the first time he tries to get away from it. Keep offering for a good five minutes, then repeat later on. It shouldn't take him long to switch over at that rate.
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Post by mfouche89 on Jan 12, 2018 14:56:00 GMT -5
Valid reasons When spoon feeding, try holding him on your lap, and don't let him down the first time he tries to get away from it. Keep offering for a good five minutes, then repeat later on. It shouldn't take him long to switch over at that rate. I did the 5 minutes and tried to get him to eat more after letting him run for a bit, but he didn't want any more. I noticed he didn't eat all the kibble I left for him yesterday- which he has finished the past two days till I gave him raw. His poops are noticeably thinner and slightly less in volume but not watery or looking like he has any intestinal stress from a new food. He must have a very adaptable stomach. Today he ate nearly a half a teaspoon, which is about twice as much as he ate yesterday. Talk about leaps and bounds easier than all my other kids. =O I gave him more time with my Sable, but once again there was initial sniff of noses and then complete indifference. The others got another lap visit from him, and my female hounded his cage once I put him away for the day. I wish the business merger was as easy as this raw transition.
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Post by mfouche89 on Jan 13, 2018 15:17:18 GMT -5
Well today I set the dish out and he went right to it! He didn't eat much- about as much as yesterday (half a tsp) but he took interest without me putting it in front of his nose. Progress ^^
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Post by Sherry on Jan 14, 2018 10:45:11 GMT -5
That is definitely progress! Next time you are home for the day remove the kibble early and leave it out all day. If he eats a couple ounces raw, leave it out of the cage that night and put down a dish of raw.
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Post by mfouche89 on Jan 19, 2018 15:07:03 GMT -5
That is definitely progress! Next time you are home for the day remove the kibble early and leave it out all day. If he eats a couple ounces raw, leave it out of the cage that night and put down a dish of raw. He's started eating enough so I am putting a dish in his cage tonight. I'll be letting him out again around 3 am do I'll check on him then. ^^
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Post by mfouche89 on Jan 20, 2018 13:13:27 GMT -5
So he ate all of what was in the dish! We are official! On to eating raw for over 24 hours now. His poops are solid little things, just like the others. He seems to have no adverse changes.
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Post by Sherry on Jan 22, 2018 7:56:01 GMT -5
That is fantastic news!!!
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Post by mfouche89 on Jan 26, 2018 4:41:27 GMT -5
So here we are, about a week in for Ghost and he's eating very well. I usually have to put it in his bowl and inside his cage, but he eats everything I leave him and I'm excited to start trying new foods. I feel naive because I thought I could vary the organs and be ok, but now that I know I need multiple sources of protein, I went out and got a rabbit. I'm thawing out in the fridge and hopefully by saturday it'll be good enough to cut up and I'm not sure if I should grind a little and let them try it on my finger alone, or just sneak it in about a lb worth into the chicken/pig grind I've been making them. I have a feeling Biscuit will never care. She's my adventurous one. Ghost will be easy enough because he did so well with the transition to raw to begin with and he's still so young he will probably try anything I give him. I am most concerned about my 3 other boys. They sure love to pout and complain. I had a bit of a scare with Edge, my fluffy boy the other night. He vomited up foam and a little hair so I tried to give him egg yesterday to help his hairball problem (I didn't see him shedding and I clean the cage with a handvac daily...) and he acted like he'd never had it before. We started this whole adventure with eating eggs every day. Needless to say I was a little confused and had to put him in my lap and feed him from my finger. As soon as I got him to lap it up from the plate, I moved away and he bolted. =\ I can't wait for saturday when I'll be off work and can dedicate time to setting them all down again to try this new experience.
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Post by Sherry on Jan 26, 2018 10:00:47 GMT -5
What can I say but "ferrets" My Boris suddenly didn't know what a protein was when he'd not had it for a month. I actually had to start him over at the soup stage with it. With the rabbit, try giving some small hand fed slivers like a treat and see how they accept it.
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Post by mfouche89 on Feb 7, 2018 13:11:19 GMT -5
Sorry! I got distracted! I have rabbit in this week's meal prep and they're doing ok with it. Next week I want to try them on beef. After they've had a few mixed in their chicken I'll open it up to 3 types a week. Is that ok?
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Post by Sherry on Feb 8, 2018 10:05:58 GMT -5
That sounds like a good idea By spacing it out you can keep a close eye on whether or not one may have a sensitivity.
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Post by mfouche89 on Feb 17, 2018 11:42:41 GMT -5
So I went to the store (food lion) and they had this meatloaf mix with veal, beef and pork in it. I know I said I was going to only do beef but it was on managers special so I figured I'd only put a half lb in my 8 lb meat portion of the grind. I had to spoon feed everyone the first time because it smelled different, I get that. But now it's been about 12 hours and no adverse gastrointestinal distress or anything of the sort. Technically there was still rabbit in the mix too because I saved and ground the rabbit bones I had from the last batch. I couldn't completely take the meat off the bones. So they have a grind this week of rabbit, chicken thigh, veal, beef and pork. When we run out of chicken liver I wanna try beef liver on them, too. Energy levels are on high power lately. Beaker can be kinda emo and mope about on a typical day, so did my big boy Edge. But ever since we added new meat to the mix, it's been dook party bounce house every time they're out. It's great to see your usually less energetic 2 and a half year old babies acting like your 9 month old.
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Post by Sherry on Feb 19, 2018 11:00:40 GMT -5
Just to let you know, beef liver is VERY strong, so expect some resistance to it.
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Post by mfouche89 on Mar 17, 2018 20:45:13 GMT -5
Phew! So sorry! We're pretty much getting into the rhythm of things here. It's been 7lbs of chicken and 1 lb of new meat to get them used to it since I last posted. Everyone does well with an initial spoon feeding to show them it's a-ok to eat even though it smells new! This coming week we are going to try subbing 3lbs instead of one and then hopefully we can go to 3 types a week instead! This coming week we are starting with Turkey and Chicken Thigh.
So since starting on more than one type of meat we have had- rabbit, turkey, beef, lamb, pork and veal (of course we have had chicken, too). Hopefully I can get some duck in the near future, because I'd love to try that on them!
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Post by Sherry on Mar 18, 2018 9:25:37 GMT -5
It sounds like progress is being made slowly. I would definitely push at increasing the ratios though. Even if it is only by a half pound a week.
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