Raw/Whole Prey Diet Appreciation Thread! *graphic warning*

[satomi325]

God damn it guys....
I was taking a bath. I was about to rinse the shampoo out of my hair when my boyfriend comes rushing in to show me some left over rat guts that the ferrets did not eat. I didn't have my glasses on so I couldn't see and he pushes his hand too me to get a better look and he freaking drops the rat organs into my bath water by 'accident'.

Damn it...........

[Anya]

LOL...Language, Satomi, lolol. But seriously funny. And one day you'll look back at this and laugh.

[satomi325]

Whoops. You'd be flustered too if someone dropped rat guts into your nice clean bath. Lol:p

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[DooLittle]

God damn it guys....
I was taking a bath. I was about to rinse the shampoo out of my hair when my boyfriend comes rushing in to show me some left over rat guts that the ferrets did not eat. I didn't have my glasses on so I couldn't see and he pushes his hand too me to get a better look and he freaking drops the rat organs into my bath water by 'accident'.

Damn it...........

New moisturizer? :p

[catzeye21138]

This is kind of a weird place for me to jump in, but I wanted to let you know why you might have had a hard time finding guinea pig feeders at a good price.

They are insanely slow breeders. Gestation takes 68-72 days in general, and they shouldn't* be bred until 5 months of age. If they aren't bred before 8 months, their pelvic bones actually fuse making farrowing impossible without a C-section. On top of that they are really susceptible to pregnancy toxemia** and prolapsed uteri. The mortality rate is really depressing as well, at 20%-25%. That's the chance for the sow, the pups, or a combination of the two. With the common sized litter being 2-4 it's a pretty low production rate. I found the life span of my breeding sows on average to be 2-3 years shorter than the non breeding stock.

I showed cavies for about 9 years and it's all a rather depressing beauty contest, now that I'm out.

*Sows can easily double in weight when pregnant, making movement difficult. Less movement = buildup of ketones = usually fatal especially without steroids or antibiotics.

**They can get pregnant as early as 4 weeks from a boar as young as 3, exponentially increasing the chance of mortality in the sow.

Lol sorry I'll step off of my soapbox now.

[satomi325]

Thank you for that info. It was very insightful.



Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[catzeye21138]

I got those asterisks mixed up. Always realize the dumb things after the editing period has passed. And thank YOU for not freaking out! I can't talk snakes with my guinea pig people, and it can be hard talking guinea pigs with snake people.

Just wanted to say also that I love reading your posts; they are all so insightful and interesting reads!

[anatess]

I have to tell you some downsides to raw feeding besides the obvious of a little more elbow grease and noggin work.

It is difficult to find a dogsitter or a dog kennel who is willing to take on raw feeding.

They don't drink water as often (enough moisture in the raw food) so they don't find the need to drink water after eating so they would walk around with blood breath after eating.

White dogs are a pain to keep white around the mouth. After gnawing on raw meaty bones, the hair under their chin turns brown.

[sorraia]

These are old pictures...

My parvo pup, not too long after she was released from the vet hospital, cleaning up after her dinner. (That's right, I put a parvo pup on a raw diet!!! )


My other dog gnawing on some meaty pieces.


This is my senior cat (RIP) who was converted to raw at 12 years of age. I need to double check my dates, but I think she was 17 years old when I took this picture. (I swear I have a picture of her as a kitten dated 1991, and she was put to sleep in 2011 about a month before what I thought was her 18th birthday, but may actually have been her 20th birthday.)


Raw fed! I'm just sharing because I think it's a great picture. Not to say a non-raw fed dog can't be athletic (because we all know they can be!), but I love showing what great shape my dogs are because there are a lot of naysayers out there.


Another bone-gnawing photo. (Note for anyone not familiar with raw: She doesn't get bones like this except as a rare and supervised treat... these heavier weight bearing bones can cause teeth to chip or crack, especially in over-zealous dogs. Better bones to feed are non-weight bearing bones. Even those can sometimes cause chipped or cracked teeth, again especially with over-zealous dogs, but are less likely to do so than the heavier and harder bones.)


This freezer has since been replaced with something bigger. The bigger freezer now has the bottom 3 shelves dedicated to pet food, with the top 2 shelves dedicated to people food, and the door shelves a mix of both (pet food on the bottom door shelves, people food on the top, reason being I do sometime get non-human grade food, such as green tripe, and I don't want to risk any dripping onto human food, just in case). This freezer was entirely dedicated to pet food (with human food relegated to the tiny freezer attached to the ridge).

[GoingPostal]

Little jumpy at first but video of my kitty eating a mouse




My ferrets sharing