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Post by Heather on May 5, 2013 22:50:18 GMT -5
Name: Marnie HF Forum Username: Sanuk 1. Where did you first learn about natural diets for ferrets? Holistic Ferret FB Page 2. Please describe the type of diet you would like assistance in switching your ferret(s) to. Be sure to include if you are interested in feeding whole prey (live or frozen-thawed) and if you are wanting to FULLY switch to a natural diet or PARTIALLY. If you are unsure what kind of diet you want to put your ferrets on, please express that and we can help you find the best type of natural diet for your ferret. I would like to learn Franken Prey 3. Why are you interested in switching your ferrets to a natural diet? I want to feed the best for him, so he lives a long & healthy life. 4. Do you understand that switching your ferret to a natural diet can be a lengthy, arduous process? Its not an overnight switch. It can be a commitment of several weeks or even months. Your HF Mentor will be more then happy to assist you in switching your ferret(s) to a natural diet, but you need to be equally as committed. If you aren't willing to tough out a potentially lengthy switching process, or if you have major life changes approaching (baby on the way, moving, starting school, getting married/divorced, etc) then it might be a better idea to wait on switching your ferret's diet until you have more time. Are you willing to make the commitment? Yes 5. How many ferrets do you currently have? What are their names? Ages? Genders? Do they have any health problems? Are they overweight? Underweight? How long have you had each ferret for? I have one ferret, male, his name is Sanuk, he turned a year old in March. There are no health problems, not overweight or underweight. I have had Sanuk since he was 3 1/2months old. 6. What diet do you currently feed your ferrets? (Please include all treats, supplements, etc) Sanuk currently gets two wet meals a day. Wysong Arch 1; Stella & Chewy’s Freeze Dried (feline) chicken; duck, duck, goose; Tummy Ticklin Turkey; Yummy Lickin Salmon & Chicken; (dog) Chicken Steaks; Duck Duck Goose Steaks; Surf & Turf Steaks. He also eats dry for inbetween his wet meals, Stella & Chewy’s Freeze Dried Beef & Lamb Steaks. Rad Cat (frozen) Chicken, Turkey & Lamb. Bravo “Basics” (frozen)Turkey, Duck, Rabbit. Stella & Chew’s (frozen) chicken & lamb. For treats: all Freeze dried, S&C Carnivore crunch, chicken & duck. Carnivore kisses, chicken & beef. Wysong Dream Treats, chicken, pheasant & beef. N-bone. I also give him mixed half & half olive oil & Grizzly’s Salmon Oil. I supplement with Freeze Dried chicken & turkey hearts & Taurine. 7. Have you ever tried to switch your ferrets to a natural diet in the past? If yes, what happened? No, Sanuk is my first attempt to a natural diet. 8. What additional information about yourself or your ferrets would you like to share? I love learning new things, it’s amazing how things have changed in the past 25 years in the ferret world. My goal is to be a mentor for others. 9. How often during the week do you have access to a computer? Every Day 10. Please post a picture of each of your ferrets (if possible) Hi and welcome to the mentoring program (wave). In a little while your mentor (Yurei Avalon), our newest mentor, will introduce herself and you can get started on a new adventure in natural ferret care and diets. Please remember to post regularly (daily or as per arranged with your mentor) so that your mentor can assist you move along safely in this adventure. If you experience computer difficulties or are going to be away, please notify your mentor and most of all relax and have fun . Your mentor is here to help you on this journey. ciao
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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2013 10:30:02 GMT -5
YAY, So excited.
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Post by Sherry on May 11, 2013 11:07:25 GMT -5
Sorry about this. Your mentor has somehow missed it- she'll be in shortly
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2013 17:25:20 GMT -5
Thank you Sherry.
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2013 16:45:41 GMT -5
So sorry about the wait! Things have been crazy on my end lately.
Hi Marnie my name is Bethany and I'll be helping you switch your awesome ferret Sanuk to raw with any luck! If you have any questions or have a problem and need an answer quickly you can email me at darkmoonnh@gmail.com or pm me.
I'll post my into below so you can skip it or read it as you chose. For right now I'd like to know what your feeding schedule is with your boy (ie twice daily, food always left out etc), and what you have on hand available for meat for him. I would say try mixing some of the FD raw into a soup with some ground or pureed meat or commercial raw, mostly the FD with a smaller ratio of meat in it and slowly reverse it. It sounds like he eats wet meals already so that shouldn't be too hard to overcome.
Name: Bethany HF Screen Name: Yurei Avalon Location: NH, USA
About Me: I’m 25; Someday I hope to run my own business as well as a nonprofit ferret rescue and education program. I currently live with my boyfriend Matt in a condo, which we hope to upgrade to a larger house in a few years. Once we have an appropriate house we intend to make the most excellent ferret habitat possible and look into getting privately bred ferrets, living as natural a life as possible. I currently work as a realtor.
My favorite color is..... Silver My favorite food is.... Chocolate, followed by spicy things My favorite holiday is.... Halloween My favorite hobby is... Reading I like to listen to... Pretty much anything but rap and country. I collect... Ferrets! Model kits, Mounts/pets in WoW and MtG cards Something about me you might be surprised to know... When I was a sophomore in high school I won my town’s fall chili cook-off contest with the recipe my high school culinary program gave to me. It got me $100, a story in the local newspaper and to this day, that chili recipe makes everyone who tries it a believer. (Turkey Cilantro for those inquiring minds.) I became a mentor because... I switched my own ferrets using information and tips I found on this site and from other places on the internet. I know from painful experience what a poor or inappropriate diet can do to a pet and I don’t want anyone to have to see their animal suffer like I watched mine suffer growing up. I’ve also made mistakes in pet care in the past, and I feel that the best way to atone for them is to learn everything I can to make myself the best pet parent I can be so that it never happens again. And if I can help other people do the same, so much the better!
About My Ferrets: I currently have 9 ferrets with no desire to have more for now as I feel I am at the limit at which I can handle caring for them all appropriately. I have 6 hobs and 3 jills, all of which are Marshall Farm ferrets and are all young. Most of my ferrets were eating kibble for several months and then were switched to raw. The three newest went straight to raw the day they came home from the store. My ferrets are very spoiled- they have 4 triple unit ferret nation cages and a couple of hundred feet of tunnel connecting them to each other as well as a ferret playroom.
1. Murder – Male, sable. One of our oldest two ferrets, he is our alpha and a bit over a year old now. 2. Mayhem – Female, sable. One of our oldest two ferrets, she is still stuck on the soupy stage and is a bit over a year old now. 3. Artemis – Male, albino. My only “rescue”, purchased off of CL. He’s believed to be about a year old now. 4. Chell – Female, silver panda. A sweet, deaf wardy girl who is about 8 months old now. 5. Glad0s – Female, silver. An 8 month old, tiny jill who can out eat the hobs and is a tunneling expert. 6. Zar’thun – Male, dark sable. A well behaved, 7 month old hob with an excellent nature. 7. Stormageddon – Male, polecat. A clever 5 month old hob who believes he will one day rule the world. 8. Sigma – Male, dark sable. A 4 month old hob with a temperament as sweet as the Ood’s song. A real cuddle bug. 9. Wheatley – Male, silver panda. A 9 month old hob who may be a few sandwiches short of a picnic but he’s as affectionate as any other ferret. Currently still stuck at the soup stage.
About My Natural Feeding Experience:
Type of Mentor: I have fed kibble so I have experience judging quality of kibbles. I mainly feed commercial raw products right now and I also use raw, meaty bones and muscle meat. I am trying to secure myself a local raw meat supplier so I can begin to transition my group to a full frakenprey, non commercial, homemade diet. I also use freeze dried and jerkied meats. I have two ferrets that refuse to eat anything but mush, so it makes life challenging.
My Specialty: I would have to say that I seem to find creative ways of getting ferrets to try new things when the normal process just isn’t working for a stubborn ferret. I’ve never fed whole prey, but I could certainly come up with ideas to help others who wanted to try get there.
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2013 19:01:32 GMT -5
Sanuk as of now is eating the Frozen Commercial Raw(Rad Cat, Bravo Basics, S&C) with a half tablespoon of ground S&C FD sprinkled with the frozen, I add 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of HOT water to warm the frozen twice a day. I keep dry FD lamb & beef for in between meals. I also add 1/4 capsule of Taurine a day to one of his meals.
What I really want to do is, learn how to get Sanuk to eat more bone to his diet like chicken wings, necks, ect. To help keep his teeth clean.
What I have on hand right now are chicken wings. The same website that I get my frozen from also has frozen chicken & turkey necks which I will be ordering shortly.
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2013 7:16:19 GMT -5
Chicken wings and necks are great start bones, though you will probably need to cut them up at first with a cleaver. Have you tried feeding him any chunks of meat yet? You could try slivering up some muscle meat and bone and offering it to him to see if he likes it, if he immediately snubs it you can try mixing some into his soup. The tip on a chicken wing (normally cut off and thrown out by humans) is a ferret delicacy in my house. Murder will try eat eat them so fast he'll choke or vomit them back up lol.
They're also small and easy to chew, so often I'll start with those. For turkey/chicken necks I'll cut them into small sections as my guys won't touch it whole. I usually served in 1" sections, but to start out I'd chop it into small bits if you can manage it. If you're having a hard time using a cleaver, you can try using a hammer to smash some things up.
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2013 13:09:27 GMT -5
I have offered him small chunks of meat the size of kibble pieces & he has eaten a couple pieces plain, but not much. I have also put some in his wet meals too & he will eat a few there also. I will cut some slivers of meat from the chicken wings & put some in his supper tonight, along with smashing some of the bone form the wing.
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2013 13:12:43 GMT -5
That sounds good, sometimes letting the little pieces marinate in the soup for a little while to smell/taste like the soup is all they need to get started. Some ferrets go right to chunks with no fussing, others have to work up to it.
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2013 18:49:31 GMT -5
I'm going to put the tip in his cage tomorrow & see if he will have attempted to chew on it while I'm at work. The only time he is in his cage is when we are at work or running an errand, otherwise he is free roam.
I took the meat cleaver to the chicken wing & broke up some of the bone & cut up a few small chunks of meat & put about 1/2 tsp of meat in his commercial raw (Bravo Basics-Duck)& he ate it all including the meat chunks. I didn't put any bone in it. How small do I make the bone? Some of the pieces were really sharp & I didn't want to give him any of those. I did try & offer him just a chunk of chicken & used the scruff method, rubbed it on his mouth & stuck a piece in his mouth. He did pretty good with that, a lot of licking & some chewing, so I will continue to do that tomorrow as well. I will get a weight for you also. I think he is loosing some of his winter belly. When I weighed him about a month ago he weighed 3.11 lbs. the other night he weighed about 3.8lbs. Will try & get a more accurate weight for you.
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2013 19:32:55 GMT -5
Raw bone is actually pretty soft, it shouldn't be too sharp unless it's been cooked. Stuffing a little in his mouth is good, I'm doing that with one of my stubborn two and it's slowly getting him to the idea it's food. If he likes salmon oil or anything like that, you can rub a little on the bone in piece and see if he'll start out licking it, then end up nibbling at it.
Don't kill yourself trying to chop the bone up, do the best you can. Even a 1" piece will probably be good enough for this.
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2013 21:43:39 GMT -5
I hung the chicken wing tip in his cage today with Salmon oil & olive oil slathered all over it & he didn't even touch it. I added more small chunks of meat with some skin from the chicken wing tonight in Sanuk's Bravo Basics Turkey, about 1 teaspoon, he ate it really well. I had to spoon feed him a little. I'm going to buy some chicken breasts tomorrow & add them in his wet meals. I should be getting my chicken & turkey necks Thursday or Friday. I'm looking forward in trying them. I will cut them into small sections & use the mallet to crush them into little patties, I hope I have more success with them then the wings.
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2013 22:03:57 GMT -5
Hmmm... maybe try tossing the little bone in pieces in his soup as well as the muscle meat chunks? It's good that he's willing to eat the boneless chunks though.
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2013 19:47:45 GMT -5
Got my order from Only Natural Pets today. (dance) I got some turkey & chicken necks. I cut one package of chicken necks & need to get a sharper knife so I can do the turkey necks. I'm hoping these will work better than the chicken wings for starting out. I took a meat cleaver to one & will try later tonight or tomorrow with Sanuk. He is eating less than he was this winter & has lost a little weight, so I'm guessing he is on his spring/summer portion & weight. He just turned one in March, so I'm learning his food & weight. Thought I would check in, since it has been a couple days & let you know what was going on. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, I also got some Ostrich in Bravo Basics & will see how he likes that. He didn't care for the Rabbit in the Bravo Basics, so I got some Primal CAT, in rabbit, will see how that goes.
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2013 19:59:49 GMT -5
Most new proteins you will probably have to mix in a smaller ratio gradually increasing with something they like. Ferrets are like children, making icky faces at something just because it's new. But sooner or later it's not new anymore and they actually love it. My guys adore lamb now but boy did they hate it at first! Same with pork.
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