The drought has hit us hard. It takes me an hour in the morning to get all the water buckets and kiddie pools filled for the day. On hot days,  I change them out in the afternoon and again in the evening.

The ducks and geese are all fine... they just sit in their pools and beneath their shady trees and nap while I do all the work!

Jodie-Dee is steadily losing weight and we suspect cancer at this point. She went in for an exam and bloodwork and cancer is all that remains. She's eating well, she's just losing weight. And I'm beginning to see changes in her breathing--her abdomen pumps while she breaths (tail pumping). So... she's on a small dose of Torbutrol for pain, which appears to be working very well.

In other news... all this Mazuri recall stuff has worn me out. We have rec'd dozens of emails and phone calls from people who are concerned about our flock, but none of our bags fell within the recall dates and all of our birds are fine.

I have been knee-deep in ingredient, manufacturing and quality control research and have been talking to reps at all of the major companies.

A few people have tried to push us towards a mixed grains diet, where we buy the oats, wheat, corn, sunflower seeds, etc and do our own mixing, but there's no way I can store that much whole grain and not draw in every rodent in town. It just isn't do-able. And... I like having our flock on a vitamin fortified diet.

Then someone told me that people out there think Mazuri is giving us free grain and that's the only reason we're keeping our flock on it--because they're compensating us. I told that person, "Anyone who thinks that I would risk the health of our ducks and geese doesn't know me or our sanctuary at all and probably isn't one of our supporters, but someone speaking off the cuff--and I'm betting by people you actually mean one person. Our flock does NOT have a price tag and neither do I. Mazuri does not give us free grain."

I've been on the phone with our Mazuri contact, speaking with her for hours--even late at night. I have asked her and their nutritionist every question and received all of my answers, and I still feel like Mazuri is the best option we have. I've also been talking to Blue Seal and Nutrena (and further checked out Purina through my Mazuri contact) to make further comparisons.

Our ducks and geese mean EVERYTHING to me and I feel confident in sticking with Mazuri. Our birds blossom on this food--their feathers are gorgeous, they're happy and thriving... I've seen proof that it works. I just can't in good conscience put them on anything less, especially when I've seen the side-by-side results of feeding them Purina, Blue Seal and Nutrena. Mazuri has made miracles happen here and we need to stick with miracles.

Jocamo and Yolanda "Yoyo"