Question regarding hand-feeding (dependency, etc)

[fanofdmb84]

My little Roo-man was neutered about 11 days ago. He went off his food for a few days so I was hand-feeding every 3-4 hours. His weight held steady around 547g (he was 540 the day of surgery). Once he started eating his pellets again I stopped hand feeding. Unfortunately, he lost about 40g after about 3 days of eating on his own. I'm wondering if I should continue to hand feed a meal or two per day to keep his weight up or if I should leave him to eat on his own. I don't want him to become dependent on the hand-feedings and stop eating on his own, but at the same time I don't want him to loose too much weight.

He is otherwise doing great. He's very grumpy about not having a wheel and I've been restricting playtime to not at all or very short periods. He's nibbling on hay a tiny bit (he never was a big hay-eater) and is eating pellets like a champ. He's no longer on pain meds and I've been supplementing with LifeLine every other day or so. He doesn't take anything willingly, so everything I give him, including LL, has to be force-fed.

Any advice or experience is appreciated!

 

[Christina Noraas]

I'm so glad to hear about successful nuters, I'm getting Rex in... evenutally. I'm still too much of a scaredy cat.

I hope your chin continues to do well! Sorry I can't help with the eating and such, haven't really had any experiences with it.

 

[ticklechin]

Wean him off starting with the last meal of the day, cut that one out, wait a day or so, then cut out the next to the last one and so on, weighing as you go. He can eat on his own since we are not dealing with teeth issues so he may indeed be holding out for the CC and LL.