Making a Substitute for Pellets
I've given up on the current formula for one of my 5. He's not adjusting, so from this I am concluding that if it doesn't appear to be working after a few days, it's not going to work, and something needs to change in the formula. It seems to not be the case that introducing it very slowly or just persisting longer will do the trick. After a few days it is what it is.
I've tried dehydrating, with no luck (poops still soft), so the added fluid doesn't seem to be the problem. Next I'll try taking out the psyllium to see if that fixes the mushy poops. This time I got everything weighed and the ratio I used is: quinoa, barley and sweet potato flours 100 grams each, brewers yeast 15 grams and flax meal 25 grams. It will be a while before I can attempt to see what this breaks down to in terms of nutrients. For that reason, I think I erring on the side of caution and keeping it somewhat dilute.
It's hard to gauge very accurately how much each pig is getting per day, because at each feeding I'm pulling the soaked hay out of the liquid, and quite a bit of the liquid goes back in the frig for the next feeding. I'm doing 3-4 per day, so I would estimate that each pig is getting 1/2 tp 3/4 of a teaspoon per day of the dry powder. Hopefully Henry's gut will like this better and I can get him off pellets too.
I've tried dehydrating, with no luck (poops still soft), so the added fluid doesn't seem to be the problem. Next I'll try taking out the psyllium to see if that fixes the mushy poops. This time I got everything weighed and the ratio I used is: quinoa, barley and sweet potato flours 100 grams each, brewers yeast 15 grams and flax meal 25 grams. It will be a while before I can attempt to see what this breaks down to in terms of nutrients. For that reason, I think I erring on the side of caution and keeping it somewhat dilute.
It's hard to gauge very accurately how much each pig is getting per day, because at each feeding I'm pulling the soaked hay out of the liquid, and quite a bit of the liquid goes back in the frig for the next feeding. I'm doing 3-4 per day, so I would estimate that each pig is getting 1/2 tp 3/4 of a teaspoon per day of the dry powder. Hopefully Henry's gut will like this better and I can get him off pellets too.
I should add this to Melvin's thread too, but he was the reason for the pellet substitute experiment, with his suspected interstitial cystitis. The vet recommended taking him off all vegetables to see if that helped. I wanted to try getting him off dry pellets first. it seemed to help, but didn't stop the pain altogether. Then I stopped pepper and cut back the amount on carrot. He still had pain. Then I tried cutting out all the fibrous white portions on the lettuce, giving him only the tender green portions of the leaf. This seems to do the trick, about 1 to 3/4 of a baby carrot and tender green lettuce in addition to his hay and the soaked hay is all he gets. What a relief. It was getting scary and stressful hearing him in pain, but I think we've fixed things for now.