Henry's Thread

[TwoWhitePiggies]

We've noticed that Frost really follows Henry's lead. If Henry is suspicious of something, so is Frost. If Henry wants something, so does Frost. It's kind of cute, but a little maddening, too.

[cavykatie]

Heh, that's cute. I hope Henry feels better soon!

[Brimstone]

Do Henry and Frost eat at the same speed? We had to separate Apollo & Spike for pellet feeding for a while because Apollo was losing weight. Giving him a chance to eat without competition helped his weight climb back up.

[TwoWhitePiggies]

Brimstone - yes, for the most part. The only time it's a problem is when I put a variety of things, like lettuce and apples, into their food bowls. Frost is a dessert first kind of guy, and Henry saves dessert for last. So Frost will eat his apple slice and then try to yank Henry's apple slice out of Henry's bowl.

[TwoWhitePiggies]

One day later, and Henry is suddenly walking more comfortably and even more playful. When I came downstairs, he leaped over a food bowl. I am very hopeful that this issue is him not getting enough vitamin C because he's boycotted his pellets unless they're in mush form. At the same time, I will feel very stupid that it took us this long to figure it out.

[dgarriques]

I am for sure no expert but I wonder, could you make a mash out of pellets for Henry and form them into a ball (isnt that what Momo did with McMac?)

[Lynx]

I hope you found the cause too!

[Karin1]

Hey everyone, I was reading a couple pages back about the stone pigs. My Lilly passed two stones on her own this past December and then now almost getting to March she passed her third stone.

I switched her diet to Oxbow Cavy Cuisine, unlimited timothy hay, leave lettuce, and apple from time to time. Her water that I give her comes from bottled water instead of tap.

From reading what you guys posted maybe the Oxbow is creating the stones after all. I give her about 1/4 cup each day and she eats her whole bowl!

Should I take the pellets out of her diet?

[TwoWhitePiggies]

We really don't know if Oxbow is the problem, so if you aren't seeing a connection, I'm not sure I would worry. In our case, I wonder if it could be a weird combination of pellets and our water composition? It sounds like you're giving Lilly a really balanced diet.

And my happy news - Henry was eating real pellets tonight. I am wondering if the vitamin C is kicking in and taking away some discomfort, which maybe made it less comfortable for him to eat hard pellets?

[WindeSpirit]

On the Oxbow Cuisine, I can't say anything about stones but I can say it has in the past increased the amount of calcium deposits I find on the fleece. Switching to KM's did reduce it to only finding a spot or two a week.

I've also have used different waters when I went to Michigan and again moving last year, it does have a impact, how much depends on the degrees of change with foods fed. I believe each town/city is required to send out what the water breakdowns are, you can call the township offices to get it. Well waters you'll have to get a sample and send it out. There is kits for it with where to send, though I don't remember where to buy them.

Kishes to Henry.

[Bugs Mom]

Good to hear Henry is eating his pellets again!

[TWP_2]

There is a "Need for a 'weight gain' diet" thread where I'm looking for and trying ideas to help Henry gain weight. He lost another 1/8 ounce since the last weighing a couple of days ago.

It's a small amount, it could be whether he has gone to the bathroom recently or not, but we're trying to be very cautious about his weight. He doesn't have a lot to lose.

I did a test-run with sweet potato tonight, and he LOVED that. At a 10:6 ratio with kale, that should give us a 1.6:1 Ca:P ratio for that combination of foods. Sweet potato has about a calorie of energy per gram, and kale has about a half calorie per gram.