Post by angelak on Apr 8, 2018 19:10:24 GMT -5
Catching up!
I got two new babies, born 1/28/18, on Wednesday 4/4/18. I got a good kitchen scale the next day (4/5) and weighed Victor at 475g and Marcus at 462g.
I also have a 6 year old girl, Luna, who we adopted about 6 weeks ago. Three weeks after we got her she was diagnosed with insulinoma and we're still trying to get her glucose stable on prednisolone. She also was positive for coccidia when we got her and it took two rounds of antibiotics to get her clear so she finally has had normal poop for about 6 days. I'm introducing her to raw but I'm not confident enough to try to fully switch her without some help as I'm not sure how to make certain she has constant access to food with raw as she does with kibble. I've tried giving her egg but she reacts to anything but dry food like it's poison. She's currently fed a mixture of Purina Cat Diabetic Management that my vet recommended along with Dr. Elsey's Pure Protein which I found that has lower carbs and better protein sources. Once I run out of the Purina I won't be buying that anymore. She weighed 697g.
I didn't buy any of the crappy food the boys were getting at the pet store but immediately transitioned them to the same food Luna's getting. Marcus' stools maintained a good consistency and color but Marcus' became considerably looser.
4/7/18
Victor down to 448g, Marcus up 489g, and Luna (right after eating breakfast) 725g.
0900: Removed kibble. Prepared Rad Cat Chicken with warm water to make soup (5g) and put it in the cage at 930. Boys searching cage for leftover kibble so sprinkle some on the soup.
1015: Held ferts on my lap with soup but not interested. Tried to offer on my fingers but also no go. Finally tried to scruff and stuff but ended up only able to rub some on each of their gums. No one liked it. Boys wander in and out of cage for next couple of hours but no one interested in soup.
1300: Add more warm water to total 12g and tried spoon feeding Victor - no go. Marcus sleeping too heavily to try.
1445: Success! Victor eats all 12g of soup, first from spoon then directly from dish in my lap. Made more but was so excited I forgot to weigh it. Woke Marcus and got him to eat some from spoon and dish. 16g left after M ate.
1545: Victor ate that 16g so I mixed another 37g and Marcus ate all that! Mixed another 63g into a slightly thicker (pudding) texture.
1745: Victor ate a bit more and Marcus finished that off. Poops are tan, formed and sticky. Made another 65g and they ate all of that by 2045.
I went out for a few hours. I don't know what I did to make the next part yellow. Sorry.
<msreadoutspan class="msreadout-line-highlight msreadout-inactive-highlight"><msreadoutspan class="msreadout-word-highlight">4/8/18
Midnight: Fed 60g of pure Rad Cat, no water added and they ate it in 10 minutes. Put another 74g in cage and went to sleep.
0815: Put 106g, the last of the 16oz of Rad Cat, in cage and went out to buy more food.
0945: Cut up chicken wing and beat the bone. New container of Rad Cat is still frozen so don't have anything else to offer. Leave 135g of very chunky chicken wing in their cage and head out for the day.
1700: Return to find nothing everything but 21g of largest bone eaten. Smashed up a wing and a half (216g) into large pieces and put it in cage. They played for more than 30 minutes before bothering to check if there was food and went back to playing once they found it so clearly not starving.
I'm writing this at 1900 and it looks like they've eaten about 1/3 of that at this point. Their little tummies are round!
Questions
So besides the chicken, I also got Rad Cat turkey and lamb/mutton. Should I start adding other proteins right away and just include a little chicken wing so they have some bone each day? The Rad Cat chicken has eggshells for calcium but I read that's not enough in the long term and also that they need some crunchy to keep their teeth healthy. Long term I'd like to get the balanced whole animal (fur and feather) grinds from My Pet Carnivore. I don't know if course grinds will have enough crunchy bone or if I'll have to still supplement some wings and necks, do you? I'm concerned about qualifying for a mentor because I have an out of town work contract from end of April to end of May so won't be able to work with Luna and the boys during that time. My husband will take good care of everyone but I want to make it as easy as possible for him so don't want him to be struggling with trying to transition Luna during that time. I am concerned about having food always available for her, especially once all the kids are in the same cage instead of two separate cages as they are now. Thoughts?
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With the two babies, since they are eating smashed up wings they'll switch to pretty much anything pretty quickly now. I would offer as varied a diet as possible. And you are right, rad cat isn't a good complete long term sole diet. Since grinds are what interest you, and won't give enough whole bone to clean teeth, you will have to balance the whole grinds against the frankenprey. Here is a menu to help balance the frankenprey(whole wings etc) against the grinds(alternate meals)