He explains in this article that chucks have a water storage mechanism built into their physical makeup to help them get through droughts in their native landscape. Captive chucks don't face drought, so they carry excess fluid and have to release it. We don't know how this might impact their health long term, but it could. He says that wild chucks have well formed stools as opposed to our captive chucks who produce much looser stools. Do these looser stools pose a problem? I would say they do. For one thing, even if having runny poo doesn't dehydrate me, I feel back when I have it. I have to imagine that they don't feel great either. Also, if they have runny stools over a long period of time and it affects their appetite, which it did in one chuck here, they will get dehydrated from it as they will eat less and store less water. hat is what happened to this guy here. He had more runny stools than the others and he just didn't feel good. He lost weight and was staring to get dehydrated. Since I added these hay/grass based pellets, he is eating like a pig and is very active again.



The other issue in my chucks was fiber. Richard M. mentions in that article that chucks in the wild probably eat a lot more fiber than we feed them. Fiber keeps things moving just like it does in us, so we should pay attention to their need for it.



The person who reminded me to examine the amount of fluid my chucks were getting was Maureen, who has been keeping chucks since she was a kid. I won't say how long ago that was, Maureen. LOL! But her chucks live into their 20s, and she feeds them a diet much closer to their natural diet than I can. She grows flowers and buys greens at a farmers market, I think. She can confirm that. I have to find ways to make up for what I can't provide them until I can get some grasses, flowers and weeds going, and even then, I have to wonder if adding some dry vegetation, like hays, isn't a good idea.



Do you belong to any uro groups?

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]