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Health / Hay problems
« on: June 04, 2012, 09:20:59 PM »
i have had velvet for about 10 years, and have fed her a variety of pellet foods, as well as compressed bricks of hay, she has allways been a picky eater, however, recently she has become increasingly picky, and i have had to switch from a multi-food (looks like it has treats in the with the pellets) and pellet mix back to a plain pellets formula (again), however, she has slowly been backing off her hay for the past few months, she now allmost completely refuses to eat any. her poos have been consistant as ever, for a chin, she has an iron stomach... the only hay i can really get her to eat are a product i buy, called hay cookies, when i read the ingredients list, they are primarily hay, wheat flour, with rolled oat flakes, and a small amount of beet sugar molasses to bind it together. I'm not sure, but i don't think that this is really the best for her, she has been regaining the weight that she lost with the gradual refusal of her previous food (she was eating everything but the pellets, which i didn't notice at first because those she began hiding in her bedding, and refused to eat when presented with only the pellets) i used to switch her food slowly , but she immediately would eat all of the new, and NONE of the old, so switching is now done with minimal change time because ANY food is better than refusing all food. oddly enough , she only has had diarrhea once, when my brother unknowingly fed her WAY too many treats (he left the bag on top of the cage while i was away for the weekend and she chewed a hole in it and gorged) she will often after a few months (3-4, sometimes up to 6) of a food, simply get tired of it, and refuse to eat it, this has been going on for a few years now, and i have been rotating through 3-4 different brands, depending on what i can get, its allways a challenge making sure each change covers all nutritional requirements. it has been slow, but she now consumes allmost no hay but the mentioned cookies, its not a freshness issue, i have allready addressed that, but maybe she will become more interested if it looks different? her current pellets contain ground hay as the first ingredient, but i am unsure if this is enough, she does eat a bit off of her house occasionally (compressed hay bound with a little honey). i am simply at a loss at how to address this, i know its that she's overly picky, but it is to the point that she would rather starve herself than eat something she has gotten tired of 
i have tried everything i can think of, but she isn't losing weight, actually gaining back (slowly), yet hay is supposed to be the primary component of her diet, what can i do? if she's fine should I just keep on as is? even with little to no straight hay consumed? I may switch to loose hay and see if that helps, even though i would have to make a bin to hold it, as i have never used loose hay before, what else should i do? 
i know this is long, but maybe, with knowing all of the details, i shall get a usefull responce sooner...
i have tried everything i can think of, but she isn't losing weight, actually gaining back (slowly), yet hay is supposed to be the primary component of her diet, what can i do? if she's fine should I just keep on as is? even with little to no straight hay consumed? I may switch to loose hay and see if that helps, even though i would have to make a bin to hold it, as i have never used loose hay before, what else should i do? i know this is long, but maybe, with knowing all of the details, i shall get a usefull responce sooner...
why? who knows... but they dont, I looked all over) I ended up just getting another like the one I had, it would just need replacing from time to time, 2 more bottles later, i was getting annoyed, so I got one of those metal gaurds to see if that would help, it slowed her down a bit, but diddn't cover the part that she really liked to chew, so after a couple more bottles, I decided to get creative and see if I couldnt find a way to make somthing myself to fix it...
...its been years sience i've needed a new waterbottle 