force feeding...HELP!

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Rhona

hiah as some of you know i have to start force feeding my wee boy, but how exactly do i do that? and what do i puree ? can i mush some of his normal food up? HELP!
 
also i have some "peachy porridge" heinz dry baby food could i mix some of that up for him to eat?

and i have a syringe should i cut the end off it?
 
When i have to feed my girl Aggie i fed her Heinz simple food, peas, or carrot i mixed the two together i also boiled up Swede and broccoli, wrap him in a towel or if he is happy to sit him on your lap, depending on how pureed your food is depends on if you cut the syringe, put the syringe in the corner of his mouth and push out a small amount of food, BE CAREFUL he mustn't take in to much as i think the can take it down into their lungs, after the first couple of drops you may find he will start to gobble.

Others may give you better advice, but this is how i do it an i do it at least once a month with Aggie.
 
lol lettice could be a prob to mash up, by the way whats wrong with him
 
they still dont know whats wrong with him:(

we didnt have any wheatabix but we had porridge and bannana and he has had 3 5ml syringe fulls happily and is sat eatting romaine lettuce himself :) :) :) :)
 
i had to syringe feed my gucci for 4 months before she passed away, at first when i had nothing in i gave her creamy oat porridge by heinz, that went down very easily, you can also boil up some veggies such as carrot, parsnip, brocolli, cabbage, celery, tomatoes, peppers what ever else he likes and blend it down, i also came across something called ella's kitchen its puree baby food in a sachet with nothing added to it not even water, so if you cant make that buiy a sachet of the veg.

if you make porridge without the sugar and milk maybe add a little stweed apples made by you as the shop bought ones contain way too much sugar, try and get him to take it off a spoon if you can its safer then it wont get on his lungs but syringe feeding is fine just take it slowly and give him time to chew it, offer him water evey few syringe fulls, have you checked his teeth? gucci had malocllusion of the molars, which resulted in her front teeth overgrowing. if you need anymore help dont hesitate to get in touch

if it becomes a perm thing which hopefully it wont you may want to invest in some critical care, and pellets if you dont already use them.

when i made gucci's mix i did this 1tsp crictical care - 1tsp of mushed pellets - 1 tsp of oaty breakfast baby food - 3 to 4 tsp of puree'd veggies, mix it all up with some warm water, as piggies generally prefer it warm to cold when they are eating mush
 
TY very much for taking the time to type that reply :)

the vet checked his teeth tonight and all was fine. tomorrow i will be going shopping with mum and i have printed all this off so i wont forget going round the shop ;D tonight i just wanted something in his tummy...if that makes sense. i put some of the porridge i made him in his cage in a little bowl and he is happily munching on that now he knows its yummy ;D so hopefully i wont actually have to force him to eat if i can just make him up some mush for him to try eat himself :)
 
I got half a carrot, two small bits of parsley and a bit of lettuce... blended it up and shoved it in a syringe with a bit of space to spare so i could add a bit of water... if you have like 2/3 of the carrot mix and 1/3 of water and slowly sqirt it for the piggy they love it... well at least cindy did ;D she kept chewing the syringe! So at leat i know if she ever gets sick to do this ;D

hope your piggie gets better soon :)
 
Thats good thats its not the teeth :) otherwise you would have to feed him 3-6 times a day ;like i was doing, but thats really good its not that.

Your vet said he was fine, but if he isnt eating properly there must be something else causing a problem..is your vet really good with small animals? my vet is useless and when i assked about my pregnant piggie he told me to go to the pet shop and ask them!, luckily i managed to gather all info on the net, sometimes i dont know why vets bother going to vet school if they dont cover all animals.

the best thing to do is try to get him eating veggies/hay and pellets..he will learn to like the mush and not want anything else, therefore if his teeth aint working and grinding they will overgrow and he'll end up with malocllusion, which you really do not want.

if he totally refuses to eat they you need give him the mush so he has something in his stomach i agree, maybe if you dip the raw veggies into the mush that might tempt him to eat the veggies again..good luck and keep us updated :)
 
my vet is normally excellent with small animals, she just doesnt want to put him under to put a scope down his throat if there is someway else we can get him to eat. if he is no better tomorrow we are taking him back down.

today he seems a little chirpier(which may just be the steriod) but hes still not eating much he has had a little hay this morning though. he is due another feed shortly so i will let you all know how it goes :)
 
i have just spent the last hour making up some slop lol, he has once it cools some celery cabbage carrot parsnip sweed and brocoli all mushed up with the blender
 
it was lovely when it splattered all down my top xx0

I'm just waiting for it to cool a little more before feeding it(watch this space i bet he spits it back at me ;D)
 
he took 2 5ml syringes quite easilly :) then tried to spit the 3rd back ;D

how much should i feed him each meal?

edited for spelling (blame the lack of sleep ;D)
 
I think it all depends on his weight, but if you can give him a bit every hour or so then it should be fine :)

Plenty of water too :)
 
i feel really stupid to be honest i hate not knowing how to look after him and make him better! (hense the constant questions!) :(
 
Longer term try and get a hold of a complete syringe food like Oxbow Critical Care/Science Recovery (you can buy this online or from some vets). Some of the other stuff recommended is great short term but doesn't provide all the nutrients and fibre that piggies need to keep their digestive system moving. Piggies need 6g of food per 100g of body weight each day.
 
Rhona said:
i feel really stupid to be honest i hate not knowing how to look after him and make him better! (hense the constant questions!) :(
Click to expand...

Please don't feel this way. You are doing you're best and asking questions, which is great!

You don't learn if you don't ask! :)
 
thank you, i think its just the whole feeling pretty helpless(its the bad part of keeping animals isnt it, they cant tell you whats wrong :()
 
Even the best of us have days like that when it comes to our own pigs. Everytime something happens to one, especially Ton, all that I 'know' goes out of the window!

Yeah they can't tell you, but with experience of fully getting to know your pigs you learn to understand them and if they hurt :)
 
well the "good" news is he is eating some romaine lettuce just now.....thats the only solid except the odd bit of hay he will eat alone.
 
Hi, sorry I havent been on..how is he getting on now?

If you need to get some critical care the cheapest, wuickest and most reliable source i found was thistle cavies rescue..if its going to be a long term thing you need to get that as it keeps their gut going, and has all nutrients he wont be getting, its £24.75 from thistle cavies
 
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