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Post by Die Fledermaus on Jul 19, 2010 19:35:13 GMT -4
I guess.
I have never seen one fat. Syrians nor dwarfs. And if they ate everything I left out they surely would have been chubby. *shrugs*
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Post by pinky on Jul 22, 2010 23:36:25 GMT -4
What happens is that if you leave them a big pile of seed mix they may overeat some, but they will also definitely root around for the parts of the mix they like best, which will probably be the seeds. They lose two ways: they may consume too many calories overall, and their nutrition drops because they're not really consuming "18% protein, 5% fat. . ." since they're not eating all parts of the mix.
Mal and Jayde were fed freely and were chunky; I controlled their portions and they slimmed down. Works for me. Frasier and Ethel don't seem to mind that food isn't there all the time any longer. She seems to eat everything eventually; he doesn't like the black pieces in the Hazel Hamster mix, whatever they are. But he attacks broccoli, whereas she'll eat it overnight. Both of them are big shredded wheat fans. And they both like cheese, egg white, yogurt, and chicken baby food. What they are NOT getting is sugar, anywhere.
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Post by Die Fledermaus on Jul 23, 2010 1:52:48 GMT -4
>>he doesn't like the black pieces in the Hazel Hamster mix, whatever they are.<<  I always found the pieces too big for dwarfs. This discussion harkens back to one years ago about the benefits of lab blocks - no chance to pick and choose. Fruit contains lots of sugar as do such as milk and peas and carrots. I should get some shredded wheat. . . what about Kashi? |
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Post by Andrea on Jul 23, 2010 14:39:56 GMT -4
I have puffed Wheat and Rice in my mix. They also get rasins, and some tiny bits of dried papaya not a lot but it's there. Other things like Flax, millet, peanuts, sunflower, saflower, dog kibble, pellets, wheat, oats and some other rolled grains.
I feed in dishes so I can keep an eye on whats is eaten. if soemthing will not be touched i will consider removing ti from future mixes, and i will not fill the dish again untill msot of the pellets are gone. Those are usually left last and are important, so i will wait to see msot of them gone.
Do you have any new pictures of your little guys?
I guess I should also try and get soem decent ones of Issy.... i almsot called her Ayla LOL... my old female dwarf.
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Post by pinky on Jul 23, 2010 16:02:39 GMT -4
Photos on camera--will post them soon. But Mazuri is heavy on corn, so not good. Here's a strange one for you: Last night I was holding Frasier and I noticed that he had a small piece of white material sticking to his chest fur. It looked and felt like a 1-cm piece of really thick cooked spaghetti, but it was bright white in color. I then saw another piece around his penis, and when I tugged at it his penis came slightly out of the sheath and then snapped back. What IS this stuff? Congealed semen? He has been on Baytril since Saturday for an abscess around his penis, but that seems to be clearing up. I wrapped the pieces in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge--if I end up back at the vet I will play show-and-tell. . .  |
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Post by Die Fledermaus on Jul 23, 2010 16:11:47 GMT -4
>>when I tugged at it his penis came slightly out of the sheath and then snapped back.<< Now THERE is a sentence I never expected to see on this site!  Snap! Hope it is not serious, to be serious. 1 cm seems long.  |
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Post by Andrea on Jul 23, 2010 17:56:08 GMT -4
Don't Panic! It's normal!
Gerbils have it too, and yes it's like a penis secreation... i cannot for the life of me remember what it was/is called after I asked my Vet about it.
I asked her about it b/c I had seen it a couple times, I believe it came up when my Degu had some as well.
Yeah, yuck... but totally normal and fine. They will sometimes 'groom' it off, sometimes it will just fall off.
I found a male gerbil i was breeding had this happen more often then others.
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Post by pinky on Jul 23, 2010 19:58:52 GMT -4
OK, Tom, so maybe that imagery was a little over the top--when I say snapped back I don't really mean snapped, but the penis did come out as though it was being tugged on by the white stuff and then when the white stuff released it it slid back into the sheath.
And yeah, maybe more like 0.75 cm or a bit less.
Andrea--I wasn't panicking, I was just really curious about what this stuff could be. Frasier has so much wrong with him that to have one more malady wouldn't matter much. . . but good to know that this is just some normal male-rodent thing.
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Post by Die Fledermaus on Jul 24, 2010 2:08:29 GMT -4
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Post by pinky on Jul 25, 2010 23:08:08 GMT -4
Sheesh. . . . TMI! My preferred expert is Andrea!!!!!!!!!  |
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