Phone Call

This was from a few days ago, but I didn't want to forget about it.  Was driving along, and the phone rings, and usually I'll pick it up, but I'd been letting the calls go to voicemail that day because I was trying to get some errands ran and such.  But this was an out-of-country call, and I will always pick those up, because I don't want to have to call them back and pay the charges.  We have long distance, but not worldwide.

So, it turns out it's this guy from Saudia Arabia who has two chins, who just had a baby.  He had separated the adults and had mom in with the baby, and the baby was a few days old and had picked up some hay and was munching on it.  Well, apparently he'd read somewhere that if a baby chin ate hay too early in its life, it wouldn't digest and would cause stasis, and he was terrified this baby was going to die because he saw it munching on hay (which he had explained he'd removed, and then called me).

I told him I didn't know where he read that, but not to worry, we (and other breeders) feed the mom chins the same way we do before pregnancy (with pellets and hay) and in 10 years, no babies have died due to that.  I explained that the baby would try the food at this point, and moreso later on, but wouldn't be able to actually eat enough of it to sustain itself until it was older.

And then we talked about him caring for the chins, he ships in Oxbow from the states (pellets and hay), and gives them a variety of different Oxbow hays (timothy, orchard grass, alfalfa).  It sounded like he was caring for them well, and he wanted to know my thoughts on Oxbow vs. Mazuri.  As local people know I lean towards Mazuri, but that's mainly because I could never afford to feed Oxbow on such a large scale.  But if a chin is doing fine on Oxbow, I told him it's fine to stick with it.  He seemed relieved to hear that as well.

So he said thanks and that was it.

What I find interesting is how he ended up calling me.  I mean, he must have gotten my number either off my website or some rescue page, but I always find it interesting when I get the call.  Like, out of everyone in the U.S., he called me, you know?  Just interesting.