Watch the birds for a bit--are they pecking each other and yanking feathers? Are they picking themselves? Do you find feathers on the ground, or none? If a bird does yank a feather, does it then eat it or spit it out? How is their skin--dry and itchy? Eating feathers can be a sign of a nutritional deficiency, usually protein. Overcrowding and boredom can lead to pecking and picking in general. Since you say the feathers are dull (dry skin can go along with this), you might try adding some oils to their diet--pet stores sell some feed supplement oils for birds that you can mix into their daily feed ration, or set some vitamin E capsules and mix a few capsules contents into the daily ration. Don't mix it into the feed barrel itself, you don't want it to spoil and go rancid. Try changing up their diet a bit-- offer some table scraps once in a while, live mealworms, fresh greens--chickens are omnivores, like you and I, and like you and I, don't thrive on just one type of food. Velvet ~:>

Hi Deb! Here is what I wrote to a friend's sister recently: Raw feeding your dog is not difficult, contrary to what you may read on some web sites, where ultra-high maintenance type people act like it is rocket science. Think about it, we feed ourselves pretty well so why can't we feed our dogs without a doctor okay or pet food company okay? It's all marketing! To start a newbie dog out, put down an old towel or plastic mat - I use a vinyl outdoor tablecloth - and give her a chicken leg. I warm up chicken pieces in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes since Odo doesn't like it cold out of the fridge. See how she reacts. If she doesn't pick it up or looks unsure what to do, pick up one end of it and hold it up to her to sniff and encourage her to eat it. if she is a food gulper, you might have to hold the end and get her to eat it more slowly. don't be afraid, dogs can swallow much larger things than we can. You do want to supervise any feeding of meaty bones, just in case the dog swallows too much and tries to hork it back up. �Sometimes a dog will do that. If Odo is hungry and excited, he might swallow too big a piece. He will hork it up and break it into more manageable pieces. Ideally, the dog will crunch the bone and scissor the meat and skin into pieces they can manage to swallow. Dogs don't really chew - they don't have molars. If she doesn't want to eat a chick leg, cut the meat off for her instead. If she is not accustomed to eating bones, you can feed her other raw food and meat-and-veg table scraps. You can also buy premade raw meat patties that contain ground bone, but this premade stuff is expensive. You can make your own patties and freeze them. �I did that in the beginning. Now I just give Odo the stuff separately. The ideal raw diet is mostly meat, bones, organ meats, eggs - dogs can eat egg shells too, cooked veggies, raw veggies. Don't feed garlic and absolutely no onion, which is deadly for dogs. Here is a list of food I feed Odo: Chicken legs, wings, necks Beef meaty bones Ground meats Turkey necks Pork chop bones Eggs - Odo doesn't like raw eggs unless they are mixed into a meat patty. i will give him scrambled egg when we eat them. Cooked veggie scraps like squash, green beans, broccoli, carrot, sweet potato, asparagus - whatever you are having. Feed starchy vegs like sweet potato and carrots sparingly since they are high in calories. Raw lettuces - Odo like this with salad dressing, he won't eat it plain! Dogs do have their likes and dislikes just like we do! Organ meats like liver - this is very nutritious but very rich. Try tiny portions first. Red meat like beef is richer than poultry, so start with small amounts. Regarding doggy taste buds - they do appreciate tasty stuff like we do, so sometimes when Odo looks longingly at our aromatic grilled meat, I'll do something extra like rub his raw chicken in my plate juices (after dinner!) or put a little cooking juice or broth on it. Dogs don't need grains. Dogs don't need dairy so don't feed yogurt or cheese, even though, like us, dogs love all that. Meat and bones should be 80 percent or more of what you feed. Dogs notoriously get sick with the runs when introduced to new foods. So introduce one new food at a time, a small amount at a time. Keep a can of unsweetened pumpkin onhand - it helps with diarrhea. If you give your dog bones that she gnaws on but doesn't eat up, that's okay. Some bones may be too hard for her to break. In fact, many raw feeders give their dogs bones that are too large for the purpose of gnawing on, which is good for the teeth, gums and jaw, and keeps the dog occupied in something that wild canines do. Just be sure to supervise, train her to keep bones in one place so she doesn't carry raw bones all over the house. Don't feed any commercial treats, edible bone treats, and absolutely no rawhide products. These are bad for dogs. For treats, those dried chicken breast pieces are good, and Kong toys stuffed with ground meat/egg mixtures (maybe a touch of peanut butter), then freeze the Kong. it will take her a while to work the stuff out. Odo is 20 lbs and he eats 2 chicken legs worth for dinner, and doesn't like to eat breakfast, just a couple of treats during the day. Best of luck!

I think you may be surprised about the answer to which ones would die first. I'm not sure why you are posting or what questions you are asking... but if you seriously need answers for your play, I'd talk to a nutritionist... maybe even a nutrition teacher at a college. I think your play maybe cute but you may need a twist...like the candy kid being the only one that can survive, or the kids secretly sneaking the other ones food's group or something, and how they start mothering each other and sharing their food.. because of the lack of parenting from their sick mother or something.

Another great informative post, Dr. Meghane! :-) I'd sure hope there a C+S done for the urine but as I'm sure you've experienced too ... often the client declines it and you're forced to do one of those ~best guess~ treatment options. Unfortunately people often can't spend the $$ for one culture and forget multiple cultures so one can only try to do their best within the constraints the client allows us. It's *REALLY* frustrating when there's a stone culture and the lab can't identify a specific nidus or worse ... no bacteria! We had one lady who's cat was developing bladder stones because she was a vegetarian and forced her cat into a vegeterian diet. After the second surgery she was annoyed with US because her cat kept developing stones. She wasn't listening to our diet recommendations so referred her to OSU for a nutrition consult. She didn't listen to them either. :-( *~*~*~*~*~* Hi Elly. Sorry you lost your kitties. :*( Pee issues can be so very frustrating for everyone. When I was an animal tech. a thousand years ago one of my cats had FUS, was obstructed BIG TIME, and had the PU surgery. He still had crystals and blood in his urine. We did repeated cultures, dye studies of the urinary tract ... no improvement. Finally we went to Ohio State Univ. and met with Dr. Chew, the kitty pee problem guru. He too did all we had done and concluded there was NO reason why my cat should have crystals and blood in the urine. All these years later I remember his asking me, "Do you want to try some voodoo medicine? ... Give your cat Vit. C daily ..." (For the reasons I mentioned earlier) "... and he'll be fine." What did we have to lose? Woody got Vit. C , 100mg. tablet once a day for 17 years! If we miss one dose, he'd have blood in the urine for 3 consecutive days. Of course, bear in mind, every kitty is different but that's what worked for my kitty early on and I have no problem recommending it for my patients either, unless there's other medical issues to consider. As Dr. Meghane stated, the struvite crystals can be normal for dogs but, especially in male kitties, they can be a real risk for problems. I tend to think that very early castration of the male cats could predispose them to obstruction because the urethra doesn't have a chance to develop more fully. That's just my own personal theory from observation of the male patients who are obstructed. As with anything, PLEASE consult YOUR veterinarian BEFORE changing anything for your kitty! Don't take the word of a faceless, nameless me when it comes to your pets health! Your vet. and you know your kitty better than anyone and you need to make sure any changes are safe for them. :-)