Tips for weaning?

[becca623]

I'm glad to here it was nothing serious. Sometimes we have to go with our gut instinct even when a breeder or vet says there is nothing wrong just like with human doctors.
Piper is an adorable baby. I, too, hope you will keep the pictures coming. I love the sweet baby faces blue and golds have. :)

[Frankie]

I am embarrased to admit this but I have a 6 yr old B&G that still likes handfed at suppertime

[Clarionite]

She had her first dose of the meds last night, and she took it ok.
This morning she had another dose, and decided she didn't like it at all.
This evening, we buised a cherry (her favorite fruit) and pulled some cherry
juice into the syringe with the meds to make her like it a little better, but
I think she's decided she doesn't like the small syringe.

We feel like we're starving her. The vet wanted us to start her out with thin
formula and in small amounts. About 40cc each feeding. So today she's had
4 feedings so far. Tonight we bumped her up to 75cc to last her through the night.
Before she was at 120 twice a day. She's constantly hungry now, but she seems
to be feeling a little better.

We also switched her to the plain colored Zupreem. She seems to like it ok. She's picking through it as I type this. One to eat, three to listen to hit the bottom of the cage, then one to eat and three for the bottom again.

She's also drinking a lot more now. We hardly ever saw her drink from her water bowl before. We didn't think much about it because she got a lot of water from her formula.
But now she actually drinks.

She's been a little more active about climbing around her cage this afternoon too.

So hopefully she's on the road to recovery.

[papayamama]

Glad to hear Piper's doing better.

[Clarionite]

How's Papaya's Beak and Eyes doing? The pics you posted looked like he didn't feel well.

[PenelopeGem]

I'm glad you took your baby to the vet - now, it can be on the road to feeling better. One thing that has worked for me in the past, is to mix the medication into a dose of handfeeding formula, and maybe add some apple juice to further mask the taste of the medication. Since your baby likes handfeeding formula already, this will probably work.

On another note, when tapering off on the amount of handfeeding, as baby weans, start with cutting out smaller amounts over a longer period of time, so that baby doesn't notice he's getting less. Let's say the baby eats 120 cc's per feeding - cut that back only 10 cc's at a time over several days. It's sneaky, but it might work better. Your baby is beautiful, by the way - it has such a wonderful expression on it's face. I, also, love it's mohawk!

[Clarionite]

We'll try the mixing tonight with her second dose. Thanks for the Idea.

Right now I'd be happy to get her back up to the 120 and have her empty like she should
before I worry about weaning again. But when we do get back to it we'll try it slowly like you've suggested.

I've read one of the other threads where someone talked about their 2 1/2 month old being over 1100g. I just kept thinking WOW. I guess her growth was really stunted from the rough start she had at the pet store. She's under 900g now. I'm hoping to get her back up closer to 975 or 1000g before we attempt to wean again.

[Clarionite]

Well, that didn't work. <G> We figured out it's the small syringe she's associated with the meds. She doesn't want the small syringe. But we did figure out how to get her past that. She's very jealous of Petey our Quaker. Usually Petey gets to lick a few drops of formula from our finger when we're done feeding Piper. Tonight we put the meds in the small syringe and then pulled a little formula into the small syringe. She didn't want to take it. When we finally did get her to take it, and then finished with the feeding I got a clean syringe out and fed Petey with it. He knew what it was, as that's what he hand fed with. So when she saw Petey eating from the syringe she wanted some too. So I fed her a couple of CC's of formula with the small syringe and she loved it. I think that in the morning I'll mix up two syringes. One with Meds and formula and one clean. Then I'll start giving Petey the clean Syringe first, and when she decides she wants it too I'll give her hers withthe meds.

[papayamama]

That's too funny that Piper gets jealous of Petey. They're like little kids lol. Smart solution to get her to take her meds!

Papaya is doing good. The vet said it was normal but I'm nervously waiting the test results.

[Clarionite]

After three trips to the Vet this week, Piper seems to feeling better.
She wanted to play today. She is eating great, and she's emptying
like she should. She's had her mohawk down for a couple of days,
and has been pretty loving. We've got our Piper back.