kellylynnmarie
lovin' my chinny boys!
Looking for some advice on weaning a chinny off of critical care food.
A little background: Cotton is about 8 years old and has recently developed some teeth problems.
He stopped eating and we saw the vet on April 2nd. He got a trimming and was in a lot of pain and lost some weight so we've been feeding CC since then. Went back to the vet last Wednesday for a follow up and another trimming (had a couple of points again, so they were trimmed). From now on, he'll be needing regular trimmings (vet said probably every 4-6 weeks). It's been almost a week now since that trimming and over the last couple of days, he's been nibbling on some hay, herbs, and even a shredded wheat. So, the last couple of feedings he's been fighting the CC feedings and eating less of it.
On average, he's been eating about 80-120cc of CC every day split between 3 feedings (every 8 hours) and that's been going really well. He's gained weight back so he's back to his normal/average weight (around 545g) and has kept steady.
So, with that of all, I have a couple of questions:
1) If he's eating less CC on his own, can I trust that he's probably eating enough solid foods and let him guide the transition back into all hay/pellets/etc.?
2) How do I know that he's eating enough? Is it just keeping track of his weight? Or is there something else I need to be checking?
3) If he doesn't completely wean himself, what's the best way to go about weaning him off of the CC completely?
Any advice would be appreciated!
Thanks!
A little background: Cotton is about 8 years old and has recently developed some teeth problems.
He stopped eating and we saw the vet on April 2nd. He got a trimming and was in a lot of pain and lost some weight so we've been feeding CC since then. Went back to the vet last Wednesday for a follow up and another trimming (had a couple of points again, so they were trimmed). From now on, he'll be needing regular trimmings (vet said probably every 4-6 weeks). It's been almost a week now since that trimming and over the last couple of days, he's been nibbling on some hay, herbs, and even a shredded wheat. So, the last couple of feedings he's been fighting the CC feedings and eating less of it. On average, he's been eating about 80-120cc of CC every day split between 3 feedings (every 8 hours) and that's been going really well. He's gained weight back so he's back to his normal/average weight (around 545g) and has kept steady.
So, with that of all, I have a couple of questions:
1) If he's eating less CC on his own, can I trust that he's probably eating enough solid foods and let him guide the transition back into all hay/pellets/etc.?
2) How do I know that he's eating enough? Is it just keeping track of his weight? Or is there something else I need to be checking?
3) If he doesn't completely wean himself, what's the best way to go about weaning him off of the CC completely?
Any advice would be appreciated!
Thanks!
