Post by Lannie on Oct 19, 2011 13:20:41 GMT -5
I thought I'd start a new thread on this subject, rather than tack it on to my other thread about Bandit.
Since Bandit's episode of "whatever" where she stopped eating and was losing weight and stopped milking and all that, I've been keeping baking soda out for her. She had been mildly bloating during that time she was eating badly, which is why I started putting it out, but she hasn't bloated since then, and she's still eating tons of it. Last month she went through three 13.5 pound bags of it! I've been putting a 3-lb. coffee can of loose minerals and about that same amount of baking soda in a rubber feed pan for her (and Cricket) and every night the baking soda is GONE. Licked clean. Some days the mineral is completely gone, too, but usually it takes two days for that amount to disappear.
What is IN the baking soda that she might need so much of? And not just her, baby Bonk is partaking freely as well. He's only a month old and still on mom's milk, so what could he be lacking? Or is baking soda like ice cream to cows? Am I just feeding an addiction? The first thing little Bonk does when he comes out of his stall is run to the mineral pan and start eating minerals and baking soda, THEN he goes to Cricket to finish nursing. Weird!
I don't want to stop putting it out in case they need it, but honestly, we're going through an astronomical amount of it every month. Bandit also still has very loose poops, and she's mostly on hay now, so they shouldn't be this loose. I'm wondering if all that baking soda is causing her poops to be more loose, or maybe the minerals? They're not high-mag minerals this time, just regular. I don't know, but I figured someone here would have gone through this before and might have some ideas.
~Lannie
Since Bandit's episode of "whatever" where she stopped eating and was losing weight and stopped milking and all that, I've been keeping baking soda out for her. She had been mildly bloating during that time she was eating badly, which is why I started putting it out, but she hasn't bloated since then, and she's still eating tons of it. Last month she went through three 13.5 pound bags of it! I've been putting a 3-lb. coffee can of loose minerals and about that same amount of baking soda in a rubber feed pan for her (and Cricket) and every night the baking soda is GONE. Licked clean. Some days the mineral is completely gone, too, but usually it takes two days for that amount to disappear.
What is IN the baking soda that she might need so much of? And not just her, baby Bonk is partaking freely as well. He's only a month old and still on mom's milk, so what could he be lacking? Or is baking soda like ice cream to cows? Am I just feeding an addiction? The first thing little Bonk does when he comes out of his stall is run to the mineral pan and start eating minerals and baking soda, THEN he goes to Cricket to finish nursing. Weird!
I don't want to stop putting it out in case they need it, but honestly, we're going through an astronomical amount of it every month. Bandit also still has very loose poops, and she's mostly on hay now, so they shouldn't be this loose. I'm wondering if all that baking soda is causing her poops to be more loose, or maybe the minerals? They're not high-mag minerals this time, just regular. I don't know, but I figured someone here would have gone through this before and might have some ideas.
~Lannie