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Podge was, for want of a kinder word, quite Podgy when he arrived.
(His name had nothing to do with this and was chosen by my youngest as the diminutive for Padraig)
Part of his adoption agreement included maintaining him on the diet he was used to, but when I asked what this was, the foster mum said ‘whatever was donated, plus whatever veg she could pick up from the supermarket’. It turned out he’d been given a whole carrot pretty often, and I wasn’t going to give him that! Too much carrot and no running around had left him what his foster mum called ‘solid’.
With no clear diet to follow, he went straight onto what everybun else here gets, i.e. 80-90% hay and grass, daily greens and small portions of good quality pellets, and he seemed happy enough with that. His tum is still settling down, though. It seems, like Pippi, he can’t handle much green stuff, so, like Pippi, he gets small portions throughout the day, and dried grass as well as hay. I was just giving him rubs, and for the first time I can feel his ribs and spine through his fur. I’ve just weighed him, and he’s dropped around 300 g since being here. He’s not gone short of anything (except carrots maybe) and I’m putting it down to all the running around he loves to do during his morning and evening floor times.
I’d say that calls for a celebration slice of carrot
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Well done Podge!
You’ve really gone about this the right way IMO. Not limiting him per se, but rather, just providing an abundance of the right foods. I like that you are still giving pellets as it is important they don’t drop weight too quickly.
I think you’re right, all the running around and excitement has probably helped.
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When I weighed him I was a bit concerned he’d lost too mush too fast, as I’m aware that can cause liver damage, but given he’s spent the past couple of hours tearing around, jumping on and off furniture, people and laptops, and racing Gina up and down the stairs, I’m sure he is fine. He is noticeably lighter on his feet than he was when we got him 17 days ago, and I guess he’s building up nice strong leg muscles, as well as loosing weight. He’s started jumping onto me over the arm of the settee, and the look on his face when he leaps says clearly how much he is enjoying himself.
I think it helps that Gina loves her hay so much. The two of them spend hours side by side in one of the hay boxes, chewing contentedly away
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If you try it, and it works, let me know, and who knows, maybe I’ll join the buns in the hay box for dinner
I hadn’t actually planned to get Podge loosing weight as soon as he arrived. I was more focused on getting nice droppings. The weight loss just happened (I’m slightly jealous!)
When he first arrived, he was leaving lots of cecotropes uneaten, which was not good for him. He hasn’t been leaving the grape clusters for the past couple of weeks, but although the majority of his droppings look fine now, he is still producing a few oversize soft squidgy ones, plus the odd little trail of 2-4 tiny individual cecotrope grapes.
I’m sticking with the same diet, at least until I see what the vet says on Wednesday, when its his registration appointment.
Meanwhile, I’ve 2 10 kg bags of hay ordered, plus 3 of the 1 kg bags of dried grass. They are going down noticeably faster
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Here is Podge, showing off his nice new waist line, I think the camera angle and his position help, his nose and front end are right down, as he hunts for pellets.
Call me daft, but I’m worried he’s being so active he’s going to go from over to under weight, the speed the weight is coming off
I’ve just given them all extra pellets, just to be on the safe side, and no bun or piggy argued with that
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Posted By Gina.Jenny on 4/09/2016 4:06 PM
If you try it, and it works, let me know, and who knows, maybe I’ll join the buns in the hay box for dinnerI hadn’t actually planned to get Podge loosing weight as soon as he arrived. I was more focused on getting nice droppings. The weight loss just happened (I’m slightly jealous!)
When he first arrived, he was leaving lots of cecotropes uneaten, which was not good for him. He hasn’t been leaving the grape clusters for the past couple of weeks, but although the majority of his droppings look fine now, he is still producing a few oversize soft squidgy ones, plus the odd little trail of 2-4 tiny individual cecotrope grapes.
I’m sticking with the same diet, at least until I see what the vet says on Wednesday, when its his registration appointment.
Meanwhile, I’ve 2 10 kg bags of hay ordered, plus 3 of the 1 kg bags of dried grass. They are going down noticeably faster
Gooseman has times like this though I’ve seen it less and less. But when he was under 1 (2?) year of age, I saw him do the single cecal pellets when he was outside hopping around. Almost like territorial droppings but with cecals instead.
He also had days where leave 3-4 big cluster logs of them. It was like annual cecal overproduction day or something. I have pictures!
This was even up to age 3 think. I don’t see it too often now, but it still occurs, just not as many. -
Posted By jerseygirl on 4/12/2016 10:49 AM
Gooseman has times like this though I’ve seen it less and less. But when he was under 1 (2?) year of age, I saw him do the single cecal pellets when he was outside hopping around. Almost like territorial droppings but with cecals instead.
He also had days where leave 3-4 big cluster logs of them. It was like annual cecal overproduction day or something. I have pictures!
This was even up to age 3 think. I don’t see it too often now, but it still occurs, just not as many. Yes, it is just like territorial droppings! Oddly, he doesn’t seem to bother with the normal territorial ones. Its still only Pippi that does, which is also odd, as he is the most laid back and least concerned with dominance of the four, as far as I can tell.
I’m going with not increasing pellets too much as long as he is still producing excess cecals. Its not that he isn’t eating any, as I’ve been keeping an eye out, and I see him doing it just as often as the others, though with more gusto!
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I decided to weigh Podge this morning, as he looks to me like the weight is still coming off. He’s now dropped from 2.85 kg to 2.44 kg in 23 days, which is an awful lot. He lost 300 g in the first 12 days we had him, but only another 110 g in the 11 days since I started this thread, so the weight loss is definitely slowing down.
He was running bunny 500’s last night, and he spent his floor time today jumping on and off the settee over at least a dozen times, so he is clearly fine. He is like a hyperactive juvenile, with so much floor to explore! He looks and feels a nice healthy weight now, unlike when he arrived, when he was clearly overweight. At the vets on Wednesday they said the fast weight loss is probably down to the new active lifestyle.
I slightly increased his and Gina’s pellets yesterday, and there weren’t any uneaten cecals this morning, so I’ll slightly increase the pellets again today too, as I don’t think he needs to lose any more weight. He’s now only 80 g heavier than Pippi!
No bunny turned their noses up at extra pellets! However, when I went back five minutes later, Podge and Gina had left uneaten pellets, and were more interested in ‘chatting’ with Pippi and Jenny through the cage bars! So he clearly isn’t hungry!
(the folded footstools are to block off where the plastic cage base tapers in, that tapering left enough space for Jenny to get through)
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Posted By Gina.Jenny on 4/15/2016 3:44 AM
I decided to weigh Podge this morning, as he looks to me like the weight is still coming off. He’s now dropped from 2.85 kg to 2.44 kg in 23 days, which is an awful lot.
Weighed Podge today and he is still 2.44 kg
Now we just want him to stay at what looks to me to be a very nice weight for him.
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