Post by riceandbeansandatlas on Sept 30, 2020 11:13:32 GMT -5
Hi everyone,
Our 2 boys have been on Wysong Epigen 90 Digestive Support for a little over 2 years (we got them when they were a year old, and on Marshall's Kibble). Obviously this is a high-quality kibble, but we want to give them their best and longest lives so we are officially making The Switch. I have been following "The Switch" article closely and already working through the Raw Soup phase. Day 1 was yesterday.
Day 1:
After making sure they both ate I took their kibble away for about 3 hours. I prepared raw soup according to the specifications, although did not have access to bonemeal or egg powder (bonemeal in the mail right now). To compensate I crushed up and blended a chicken thigh bone.
Beans was hesitant at first but quickly ended up willingly licking some off our fingers, and then off a spoon. Haven't been able to get him to lick out of the bowl but he consistently eats from the spoon.
Rice is not too sure about the soup. He sniffs it a lot and has watched his brother take it well. Have tried rubbing some on his mouth and he licks it, but he usually gives resistance after the first instance of that. Same results with Grab n' Dab.
After the soup was out for about 8 hours I got rid of it and made a new batch, then continued to have some tasting sessions. After 3 hours and minimal success with both of them, I put their new soup in the fridge and left kibble overnight so they don't starve. They both seemed almost hesitant to eat the kibble for a minute which I thought was weird.
Day 2:
12:00PM
They are both eating the kibble as normal. I am taking it away now as I have seen them both eat plenty, and will resume raw soup tastings in 3-4 hours.
3:15PM
Both of them seemed hungry as they kept looking at where their food normally is. I held a spoon of raw soup out for Beans and he ate a few bites. I put the spoon in a bowl full of the soup and he ate from the bowl this time. He ate for about 1 minute. Rice is still very resistant and will not willingly lick the soup even from a finger. He sniffs and keeps watching his brother eat but has no interest and often struggles when you attempt to give him some.
I just cannot seem to get Rice to eat the soup. Obviously I need to keep him fed, but I am don't want to cave and give him kibble unnecessarily. He likes FerretLax a lot, but even with it mixed in I can only get him to lick minimal amounts of the soup. I read some info here about slowly mixing mashed kibble and ground meat, but I don't want to cause stomach upset or bacterial bloom so I am wary of the idea. Suggestions?
7:00PM
After some thought we decided it would be best to take a step back and transition Rice by slowly adding water to his kibble and mushing it further each day. In the interest of making feeding cheaper and easier we are planning to have Beans transition this way as well. Hopefully after some time, they will be well adjusted to eating kibble mush that is a similar consistency to raw soup. Giving back their kibble now in a clean bowl.
Day 9:
12:00PM
I haven't been posting daily as we have been taking a much slower approach to their transition. Initially, we had too much water in the kibble and they would not eat it, but now they are eating more consistently. Slowly adding water everyday and soon I think it will be time to mush the kibble up to be more similar to the raw soup. I have noticed that kibble immediately takes on a slightly different smell once water is added and I am hoping this will make them more open to different smells with raw products. Also the bonemeal came in, yay!
Our 2 boys have been on Wysong Epigen 90 Digestive Support for a little over 2 years (we got them when they were a year old, and on Marshall's Kibble). Obviously this is a high-quality kibble, but we want to give them their best and longest lives so we are officially making The Switch. I have been following "The Switch" article closely and already working through the Raw Soup phase. Day 1 was yesterday.
Day 1:
After making sure they both ate I took their kibble away for about 3 hours. I prepared raw soup according to the specifications, although did not have access to bonemeal or egg powder (bonemeal in the mail right now). To compensate I crushed up and blended a chicken thigh bone.
Beans was hesitant at first but quickly ended up willingly licking some off our fingers, and then off a spoon. Haven't been able to get him to lick out of the bowl but he consistently eats from the spoon.
Rice is not too sure about the soup. He sniffs it a lot and has watched his brother take it well. Have tried rubbing some on his mouth and he licks it, but he usually gives resistance after the first instance of that. Same results with Grab n' Dab.
After the soup was out for about 8 hours I got rid of it and made a new batch, then continued to have some tasting sessions. After 3 hours and minimal success with both of them, I put their new soup in the fridge and left kibble overnight so they don't starve. They both seemed almost hesitant to eat the kibble for a minute which I thought was weird.
Day 2:
12:00PM
They are both eating the kibble as normal. I am taking it away now as I have seen them both eat plenty, and will resume raw soup tastings in 3-4 hours.
3:15PM
Both of them seemed hungry as they kept looking at where their food normally is. I held a spoon of raw soup out for Beans and he ate a few bites. I put the spoon in a bowl full of the soup and he ate from the bowl this time. He ate for about 1 minute. Rice is still very resistant and will not willingly lick the soup even from a finger. He sniffs and keeps watching his brother eat but has no interest and often struggles when you attempt to give him some.
I just cannot seem to get Rice to eat the soup. Obviously I need to keep him fed, but I am don't want to cave and give him kibble unnecessarily. He likes FerretLax a lot, but even with it mixed in I can only get him to lick minimal amounts of the soup. I read some info here about slowly mixing mashed kibble and ground meat, but I don't want to cause stomach upset or bacterial bloom so I am wary of the idea. Suggestions?
7:00PM
After some thought we decided it would be best to take a step back and transition Rice by slowly adding water to his kibble and mushing it further each day. In the interest of making feeding cheaper and easier we are planning to have Beans transition this way as well. Hopefully after some time, they will be well adjusted to eating kibble mush that is a similar consistency to raw soup. Giving back their kibble now in a clean bowl.
Day 9:
12:00PM
I haven't been posting daily as we have been taking a much slower approach to their transition. Initially, we had too much water in the kibble and they would not eat it, but now they are eating more consistently. Slowly adding water everyday and soon I think it will be time to mush the kibble up to be more similar to the raw soup. I have noticed that kibble immediately takes on a slightly different smell once water is added and I am hoping this will make them more open to different smells with raw products. Also the bonemeal came in, yay!
