Thanks for the comforting thoughts and feedback, guys. I had a looksie at Wendy's urine when I cleaned her cage and it really looks no different than it always has, so I'm hoping that since this cropped up at the same time as the dietary change, it's just a matter of more fiber in the diet demanding more water. But, I called my more local vet and will be dropping off some wee for them to have a look at on Monday, and if anything seems off, she'll come in for an appt later in the week. Crossing all crossables that nothing's up!
In other bunny news, today is an exciting day for my bunnies (ok, probably more just for me) because today we switch to 100% new diet! I've been upping the % new food by 25% a week. Even going this gradually, Brinny always has a stomach upset the day we change the food, so I'm glad I elected to do it over the course of four weeks instead of a week. While I know my girl will have a grumpy tummy today, I also know that this is the beginning of my girls on a much healthier pellet base, so I'm very pysched. AND I found a local (SUPPLIES ONLY, WOOHOO!) vendor that sells their food for what I get it for online, which is awesome because now I needn't pay shipping. Believe it or not but everyone around here sells their Oxbow and Zupreme for such a radically high price that even with the price of shipping, it's cheaper online.
I really wish that high quality pet food was affordable for everyone. I see no reason, based on the ingrediets, that Oxbow should be so overpriced. I think a lot of these new "all natural" pet foods have deliberately inflated prices simply because there are folks willing to pay that much. People assume it's expensive because the higher quality ingredients are so costly, and while this may be the case in a select few pet foods, it certainly isn't the case for all. Soy and wheat are heavily subsidized and make up 3/4 of the top ingredients in Oxbow Bunny Basics T, after all.
I just hate that the classism of good nutrition has spread into pet foods. I am very passionate, as a certified animal nutrition counselor, about quality animal nutrition. Diet related illness in pets is on the rise, and one thing we are consistently finding in animal nutrition is that animals are healthiest on diets that most closely mimic their natural/ancestral diets. Cats shouldn't be eating wheat, cattle shouldn't be eating corn, budgies shouldn't be eating 100% seed, and so fourth.
Yet these poor ingredients dominate modern pet foods due to their cheapness, and as a result, pets from lower income homes are typically fed foods that directly result in poor health later in life. And when owners can't afford vet bills for diabetes, food allergies, chronic urinary complications, and the like, the pets lose their homes or are euthanized. So much unnecessarry pet homelessness, suffering, and loss could be prevented if there was a higher standard for animal feed production, and a greater availability of higher quality, lower cost pet foods for ALL pet owners. [/rant]
While I'm on a rant...I went to the NW Berks Reptile Show & Sale yesterday to get bulk crickets for my cane toads. Cane toads eat tiny prey in their natural habitat, and since most cane toads in the pet trade are WC, they go for smaller prey despite their reputation of eating "anything and everything." Unfortunately, when one has a LARGE cane toad, that means they eat a whole lot of small prey - enough to say, decimate your entire cockroach colony in a few feedings! So I need to buy crickets, but at 20+ crix per feeding, and pet stores charging 10c a cricket, I'd be going through at least $8/wk in crickets - per toad! At reptile shows, I can get 1000 for ten dollars, which lasts up to two months.
I find reptile shows very sad, however. While there are some good, conscientious breeders of reptiles present, there are also always unethical vendors selling large quantities of stressed, unhealthy, wild caught or mass bred stock. I see animals with very demanding care needs like iguanas selling for low prices to little kids whose parents doubtless haven't researched. I see sensitive wild caught animals with their noses rubbed raw from trying to escape their collection cups. I see flagrant violations of USDA regulations, turtles and tortoises with unhealthy shells being sold to unwitting buyers, anacondas and alligators being sold to folks whose ability to provide life-long care is dubious, and more. It fills me with great sadness, because I've been doing exotics rescue for years now, and know just how prevelant improper husbandry and shuffling between homes is among these species.
Due to the money involved, reptiles and amphibians are more often sold privately between individuals than surrendered to shelters and rescues when they are unwanted. Don't get me wrong, our herp rescues are OVERFLOWING. But much as it is hard to get numbers on parrot homelessness because parrots do the "home to home shuffle" three, four, five times over before finally winding up in shelters. The same seems to happen with herps; several of my rescues have had the stories from their owners of "I got it from some guy who didn't want it anymore, and now I see why!" which means with me they're on at least home number 3.
I'm not sure where this was going other than: sometimes, I feel very, very sad and hopeless when I look at the state of captive animals in this country. With easter on the horizon, I know there are many rabbits, ducks, and chicks who will lose thier homes or their lives in the disposable easter pet rush. I know that many of the tiny baby turtles I saw going home in critter keepers in the arms of smiling children at the herp show will die of stress from poor husbandry or be released into non-native habitats before a year has passed. I know that the next animal I have to turn away from my (at capacity) rescue effort has an uncertain fate.
So much commodification and suffering, all of the sake of but I want one! I think we vegans have it wrong, campaigning about animals being used for meat or research; the exploitation of these animals has a real or perceived need. Is there anything more abhorrent than suffering and exploitation that occurs for the sake of want? I am not saying that we should go the path of PETA and liberate domesticated pets, but god - we need more education, more advocacy, more protection for pets.
