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Post by creggle on Nov 2, 2021 21:28:08 GMT
My girls used to love dandelion root so I used to cut it up small, maybe 5mm cubes or slightly bigger depending on the root thickness, so I could give several very small pieces every day. I think calcium should be fine if his pee is clear, it's actually fairly normal for it show some whiteness sometimes. The Vitabiotics vitamin d in the link says it is 400IU per 0.5ml, please do check that your packet says the same. If so then 0.1ml is 80IU so you could do as I suggest above and give 0.1ml every two or three weeks, or some equivalent amount like half as much twice as often, whatever is convenient. I would apply this direct to a treat, rather than dilute in his water bottle, then you know exactly how much he has had. Again, as I said above this is your choice and I do recommend you trying to work out what he currently gets from his nuggets. And, as I mention in the other thread, I think a dental checkup is worth doing. The Rosewood Delight looks OK, obviously not ideal if he doesn't eat the pellets and you are trying to pick out the wheat. Your pic looks sufficiently similar to the Rosewood pic to me. If you mean the blue flowers on the far left middle of your picture, they are cornflowers, if you wanted to look for more of those. Do Galen's Garden still do a nice meadow mix? bouncy Do you not have any goos anymore molette? i do like the idea of snipping the roots up though, they are MASSIVE. His pee is clear yeah, he did one small pee today that had a little white on it like a pea sized but the rest have been clear. Do you think adding 0.5ml to 250ml water bottle is okay? That way he takes 20IU per day from water as he drinks around 5% of a bottle per day (around 12ml). The bottle is very good and doesn't leak, and I monitor his drinking amounts closely. He has started to barely eat the science selective since he got these different types of foods, the handsome little man is hard work! I will keep a close eye on his pellet intake and swap his water bottle out for one that I dosed 0.25ml incase he starts taking vitD from the pellets again. I don't think anything else he eats really has any vitD in it. Nigela seed Celery seed Dill seed Rosewood Chingu treats (he eats... the blue flowers (cornflowers?) the hard red petal things, the things that almost look like colourless dandelions and the soft beige things. I really have no idea what anything but the cornflowers are Forage - A mixture of Nature's Touch Degu feed and Selective Science Timothy stuffed into a sea grass funball and hollow log Dandelion roots Science Selective Degu Pellets ^ does anyone have any suggestions of more things to add to his diet? I am open to anything, glad he likes the high calcium seeds that came today! He does eat the pellets from the Rosewood but he only eats them in his cage, when I hand feed him during play time he generally only goes for the stuff he really likes, but the meadow pellets (I think that's what they are) do get devoured in his own time. I am considering a dental though, but he doesnt have spurs as I checked myself. I can make him sort of bark at me by squeaking at him and then I can see his molars when he's shouting He has started to enjoy belly and face rubs too, and I can not feel any roots or bumps.
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Post by creggle on Nov 2, 2021 21:34:05 GMT
Mine used to love this! I haven't gotten it for them in a while, but they go berserk over cornflowers, I started growing my own for them! If he's being fussy, leave him with the new food stuff for a couple of days. It really does seem like they do a 24hour safety test before they decide something is safe enough to feast on. It does seem like it is cornflower yeah! He chases me around the whole room when he knows I have one, they really do love them huh I don't think Blinder is a cautious Goo like that though, he has eaten fabrics before, and wood, and he even nibbled and ate a little of the plastic packaging their x-mas treats came in last year. He is enough to give you a heart attack. A few months ago he ate about 1/4 of a clothes peg, I'm not joking. He didn't shred it or destroy it, he was sat in a corner when I was giving Peaky treats during playtime and he had stolen the peg I used to seal the treat bag, I didn't notice until he was holding what was left of it in his hands looking very guilty, and not a single piece of wood could be found. I don't know why he eats those kinds of things but it is a nightmare. I have bought new drawers because the old ones were varnished and he does like a good snack on them when I'm not looking. He eats wallpaper too. I mean it when I say he eats these things, everytime I catch him there is no shredded materials around him and he's sat there chewing. Do you have any idea what the other things in the Rosewood treats are? Specifically the things he does eat as posted above in the list!
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Post by Xellie on Nov 2, 2021 21:39:48 GMT
the red petal things are likely the rose blossoms
Maybe a nut in the shell once a month? And some herbs too! Parsely and basil are especially liked
You can also give them various types of hay too, mine love the herby hay and chamomile hay. Green oat hay very sparingly.
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Post by moletteuk on Nov 3, 2021 16:15:20 GMT
I think you still need more green leafy forage in the form of products that don't have any fruit or grains added. See this link, although it's probably out of date, but you should get the idea deguworld.proboards.com/thread/15657/bought-herb-leaf-flower-mixes?page=1I would dial back the extras so that he is still eating a reasonable amount of pellets. Forage (with no grains or fruit in) and hay can be fed unlimited. Perhaps report back to tell us how things settle after he gets used to the new stuff. It is natural that he will eat fewer pellets if he gets a taste for the forage. You might need some heavy duty diagonal cutters or snips to cut the dandelion root up. You can put the vit d in the water, bouncy does it this way and finds it effective. I think 20IU per day is too much though at the moment - that is what is recommended for no pellets. It is possible to overdose vitamin d so you have to be a bit careful. If he likes to eat solid things, I would experiment with different sizes of fresh twigs and branches from different trees (see our safe wood list). My girls would spend hours chewing sticks. My last degu died a couple of years ago and a couple of years before that I had been getting more into wildlife and wildflowers/plants, so I'm enjoying concentrating on the nature outside now. My degus took a lot of care at the end and I found it very stressful and tying and we couldn't go anywhere overnight for a long time, so much as I enjoyed and loved them dearly, I've decided not to have any pets at all for now.
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Post by moletteuk on Nov 3, 2021 16:16:30 GMT
I think it might be easier to ID the contents of your mix if you post pics.
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Post by bouncy on Nov 6, 2021 9:50:29 GMT
Fresh flowers are a Sausage favourite My guys go through dandelion root like it's a piece of sugar cane. They'll turn up their noses at seeds, but snatch dandelion root from your hand!
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Post by creggle on Nov 6, 2021 18:31:14 GMT
the red petal things are likely the rose blossoms Maybe a nut in the shell once a month? And some herbs too! Parsely and basil are especially liked You can also give them various types of hay too, mine love the herby hay and chamomile hay. Green oat hay very sparingly. I tasted one, it's carrot! I'm glad I did not give him many of those. I got him some Parsley and he doesn't like it, though it isn't full parsley, it's shredded like a seasoning but 100% natural He does seem to forage a Nigela/Dill/Celery seed mix with some Parsley though but not much and only if it's in his cage, he won't take them by hand. Where would u recommended hay? I'm open to different types, he has Pets @ Home Timothy (he uses as bedding and rarely eats) and science selective Timothy (he eats this by the log full, he goes crazy for it, he'll even let you hand feed him the fluffy bits)
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Post by creggle on Nov 6, 2021 18:34:33 GMT
I think you still need more green leafy forage in the form of products that don't have any fruit or grains added. See this link, although it's probably out of date, but you should get the idea deguworld.proboards.com/thread/15657/bought-herb-leaf-flower-mixes?page=1I would dial back the extras so that he is still eating a reasonable amount of pellets. Forage (with no grains or fruit in) and hay can be fed unlimited. Perhaps report back to tell us how things settle after he gets used to the new stuff. It is natural that he will eat fewer pellets if he gets a taste for the forage. You might need some heavy duty diagonal cutters or snips to cut the dandelion root up. You can put the vit d in the water, bouncy does it this way and finds it effective. I think 20IU per day is too much though at the moment - that is what is recommended for no pellets. It is possible to overdose vitamin d so you have to be a bit careful. If he likes to eat solid things, I would experiment with different sizes of fresh twigs and branches from different trees (see our safe wood list). My girls would spend hours chewing sticks. My last degu died a couple of years ago and a couple of years before that I had been getting more into wildlife and wildflowers/plants, so I'm enjoying concentrating on the nature outside now. My degus took a lot of care at the end and I found it very stressful and tying and we couldn't go anywhere overnight for a long time, so much as I enjoyed and loved them dearly, I've decided not to have any pets at all for now. I want to! problem is I never know where to buy them. I've gotten a few things from Amazon and it seems like they're all more in line of being seasoning for cooking rather than able to part of a forage. (all 100% natural tho) I'm gonna go to Pets @ Home soon and have a browse, I don't trust them for pet advice and the chewables I ordered from them were in rank condition (think rusted metal bolts, horrible smell etc.) but I do know that for the most part they stock a huge variety of foods. Sticks and branches are at the top of the list, he's never had anything like that, except the small twigs that seem to come with sunflower seed packs, he does like those. Sorry to hear about your Degus, but if you get more in the future it sounds like they'll have alot of home made chow
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Post by creggle on Nov 6, 2021 18:34:59 GMT
I think it might be easier to ID the contents of your mix if you post pics. Yes, I'll edit later with individual pictures, my phone camera is really poor though, hopefully you will be able to tell what the things are.
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Post by creggle on Nov 6, 2021 18:37:36 GMT
Fresh flowers are a Sausage favourite My guys go through dandelion root like it's a piece of sugar cane. They'll turn up their noses at seeds, but snatch dandelion root from your hand! Flowers, would you recommend any safe types? Cornflower is in the Rosewood mix and he LOVES those. He eats roots but will not hand feed them, I leave one on one of his shelves each day when I refill how forage log and he eats it, but he isn't super interested in them sadly. Now I have his calcium at a high level, are sunflower seeds (in moderation) okay again? I stopped giving them to him once I learned how DIRE the C:P ratio is, but he really does not take to any other kind of treat like he does those, wow he really goes crazy for them.
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Post by savvy on Nov 6, 2021 19:12:57 GMT
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Post by Xellie on Nov 7, 2021 5:25:22 GMT
haybox.club/ for hay! And it's literally what it says, a BOX of hay. Mine love the meadow hay. Pets at home do a woodlands hay variety, chamomile, green oat and herby harvest. Try those to give a bit of a change up. (sparing with the green oat hay tho) haybox do GIANT pieces of dandelion root that they go mad over. Mine also love the coriander stalks and peppermint. Plantain is also a favourite. I just try them with various bits of forage to see what they like. I'll go through my collection of random forages that I treat them with later and give you some exact names. Also the SAB leaf mix from ratrations goes down really well - I use that as their main forage 3x a week. On this note, I also dry a lot of plants from the garden. Strawberry leaves and raspberry leaves are well-liked. Fresh pansy blossoms, dried pansy leaves. Dried rose petals (I have a huggggggge bag harvested over the summer), sunflower petals. Various dried and fresh herbs (sage, lemon balm, basil, coriander, parsley) And well... Any part of a dandelion plant.
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Post by bouncy on Nov 8, 2021 9:17:44 GMT
Do a search for Bunny Bistro in eBay. You can buy mixes, or even individual flowers such as cornflower!
Mine have settled on the Great and Small meadow hay, munching happily.
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