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Post by Sherry on Feb 18, 2013 10:01:40 GMT -5
They are looking good! Now, we need to start balancing her diet more. Also introducing liver and other organs(usually kidney) as well as new proteins and bone. Since she's doing well on chicken can you get some wings? With Sherlock I think you are going to need to do some more hand feeding to get him fully accepting the soup.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2013 14:15:34 GMT -5
We have given her wings a few times recently. She only likes to "ferret" them somewhere, but has yet to actually attempt to eat them. I bought more hearts, and gizzards today, and got chicken livers. I am going to try to mix them together today to try to get her to get the flavor of the liver in her food and see how she does again. Kidney has been an issue for us locally, as we have not been able to find it at the 3 grocery stores we have. We may end up having to order them from a food place. Would you have one you would recommend if it comes to that? Also, how would you recommed we encourage her to actually eat the wings rather than just hiding them because it is a fun thing for her to do? We freeze the soup for Sherlock, but I was wondering if you had a way you recommend it to be thawed/warmed without overcooking it because the goal is to feed them raw food. Thank you so much for all you have helped us with for getting our babies on a healthier diet. We really appreciate it.
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Post by Sherry on Feb 18, 2013 17:38:19 GMT -5
First for the soup. Put a cube in a small plastic container with a tight lid, and put it in warm water. You can always take them out ahead of time to thaw in the container. That way it will warm a lot faster. For the wings you can try a couple if different things. You can slash the meat so it's just hanging on to the bone, skewer it with a shower curtain hook, and hand it from the side of the cage. You can try a feeding den. Examples of both of these methods are in this thread: holisticferret60.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=questions&action=display&thread=4544&page=1You can also try segmenting at all three joints, cut between the two middle bones, and chop the drumette in a few pieces.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2013 11:11:48 GMT -5
Thank you for the advice on submerging the soup in water, it worked really well.
On a "regression" note - She is eating all of the soup, and not allowing him to have any, so we may need to move to seperate feedings. As i mentioned previuosly, this weekend I added chicken liver to her mix of stomaches and gizzards. She started out by just picking out the stomachs and gizzards, and avoiding the liver. Yesterday she rejected the mix altogether and ate kibble, which she hasn't done in several weeks.
I'm in the midst of trying to take care of him (as you saw on the other thread), and I haven't been trying to scruff and stuff with either of them because I haven't wanted to do that on top of him not feeling well.
I just wanted to let you know what was going on there. I'm hoping we get back on track when my wife gets home so we can work together, but I'm not doing well at trying to work with them on their feed while I am not sure what is happening with him, health wise.
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Post by Sherry on Feb 20, 2013 15:22:12 GMT -5
Understandable. With her, try pureeing the liver and mix in 1/2 tsp heavy cream. You may need to hand feed, but it should go fairly easily.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2013 15:50:55 GMT -5
Just puree the liver and then mix in some cream, and try that by itself, or puree everything and add a touch of cream to the whole puree'd mix?
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Post by Sherry on Feb 20, 2013 19:10:43 GMT -5
Try the liver and the cream by itself first. If it's a major battle then add another meat in with it.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2013 23:37:41 GMT -5
She took a little persuading with a taste of cream first and then a drop of cream on top of the liver puree. She tried licking the cream only but got some liver and then was done. Will leave it in the cage tonight to see what they do with it. Weighed them both, and they have both gained a little. Sherlock - 1.28kg (still mostly kibble, but eats the soup sometimes, if he feels like it and Mo feels like sharing.) Moriarty - .889g I thought her raw food intake was going up a lot, but when i pulled their bedding out of the cage today to clean it, i found a decent size stash of the food Will have to be more vigilant about checking all her spots to make sure she isn't just hiding it.
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Post by Sherry on Feb 21, 2013 0:15:34 GMT -5
You will most likely need to hand feed it. And the cream needs to be well mixed in or stools are likely to be really off.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2013 15:24:34 GMT -5
Okay, fed the kits this morning and then came home for lunch to check on them. I gave Sherlock soup and put 2 small chunks of heart in the bowl as well. He didn't touch it. For Mo I put .30 grams of gizzards/hearts and some of the liver soup. She didn't touch it. It doesn't look like any of the food is gone, or the water.
There are three messes in the box, 2 of which look like kibble messes, and the third looks like a raw/kibble mixture.
I'm worried about their refusal to eat.
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Post by Sherry on Feb 21, 2013 15:43:17 GMT -5
That's why I mentioned you may have to hand feed either or both a liver/organ soup as well as one of heart until they accept it.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2013 15:54:47 GMT -5
Hey Sherry,
Its Matthew this time:
I may be confused on the "by hand" part of the feeding.
Last night I held Mo, and let her eat a bit of the liver/cream mix and she only tried a bit. It was how she initially started trying the hearts/gizzard was me allowing her to rest on my right forearm, while holding her dish in the left. Is this what you may be referring to for "by hand" or are you talking more of the scruff & stuff?
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Post by Sherry on Feb 21, 2013 18:12:49 GMT -5
Sorry ;D Spoon feeding. And don't let her run off the first couple of times she wants to. Most times when you keep the spoon in front of their mouths, they'll compulsively lick at the spoon.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2013 21:55:27 GMT -5
OK - thank you for the clarification.
I think we "may" have come up with another possibility for her recent behavior change as well. We switched stores where we got the raw chicken parts. I think I have seen some other posts about people dealing with their ferret's rejection of a new food source even though it may be the same "stuff".
Will try the hand feeding tonight again with both and give an update in the morning.
Thank you again for all your help.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2013 22:38:10 GMT -5
Attempted to give her just plain hearts tonight, and they never touched any containers with liver. She rejected them again. Did a scruff, and put the heart in her mouth, and she chewed for a moment and then stopped and didn't want it. Let her run around some and then tried again. Repeated four times before stopping with her.
Similar results with him. We did get soup in his mouth with a scruff & stuff, but he spit out several other pieces we got in there. Gave him breaks and then tried again with same results.
Put soup and hearts in cage, without kibble tonight, and fresh water.
We discussed trying to record the feeding attempts to show how much he is resisting, so you may be able to give more advice in case we are doing this wrong. At each next attmpt this evening his rejections got more and more violent. He isn't biting, but he fails around a lot, and starts acting panic'd if i restrain him by holding him between my arm and chest.
Neither ate tonight, but we didn't give a kibble option so we will check food in the morning.
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