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Post by katt on Nov 19, 2013 15:29:45 GMT -5
That is fantastic, she sounds like she is doing extremely well so far. That is great that she is chewing on the bones - eating them will come as she learns that they are food and as she builds up the jaw strength - that can take a little time. How thick is her soup right now? Try hand feeding the grinds once you have those and if she will eat that you can skip some steps. lol IF not/until then, start gradually thickening the soup by adding less water. Slowly increase the number and size of chunks at the same time. She's such a cutie. I bet her coat is going to be absolutely amazing on raw. I love DEWs so I'm jealous haha
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2013 1:03:06 GMT -5
Kaylee ate a Cornish Hen wingtip today! I looked and looked and couldn't find a trace of it!
I'd come home on my lunch break to bring in my new FN 182 so none of the area tweakers could steal it. While I was home, I picked the wingtip out of her dish and offered it to her, she took it and ran into her house and when I left, she was crunching away!
She'll eat her soup at any thickness. Just pureed, or with water to make it very thin, no difference. She just seems to like it. LOL When I get my grinds I will definitely be offering them by hand, she seems to accept hand offerings very well.
Kaylee is already so pretty, I can't even imagine how gorgeous she'll be in a few months! LOL
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Post by katt on Nov 20, 2013 5:00:37 GMT -5
Kaylee ate a Cornish Hen wingtip today! I looked and looked and couldn't find a trace of it! I'd come home on my lunch break to bring in my new FN 182 so none of the area tweakers could steal it. While I was home, I picked the wingtip out of her dish and offered it to her, she took it and ran into her house and when I left, she was crunching away! She'll eat her soup at any thickness. Just pureed, or with water to make it very thin, no difference. She just seems to like it. LOL When I get my grinds I will definitely be offering them by hand, she seems to accept hand offerings very well. Kaylee is already so pretty, I can't even imagine how gorgeous she'll be in a few months! LOL I know! My thoughts exactly - she is going to be absolutely stunning when her raw cost comes in. Ooo esp her winter floof! I'm so jealous, I want a little DEW. I'll just keep living vicariously. LOL That is fantastic that she are the wing! Have you tried offering her any larger chunks of meat yet? I'd start mixing more chunks in, she can obviously handle it if she ate that wing. Start building up those chewing muscles! Have you tried any organs or hearts with her yet?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2013 15:05:55 GMT -5
I blended up organs with some beef heart this morning. River likes soupies, too, so it works to get them their organs in a thick soup! After a couple fingertips worth, Kaylee wandered off, but about three minutes later she was happily slurping the mix out of River's bowl. And River was eating Kaylee's LOL I guess when it's the same meal it doesn't really matter who eats which, as long as they're both eating. She's tried a few little chunks of meat, she seems to like the taste, so we'll see how she does on some non pureed meats this week. I know she likes to chew, so I put some chunks of the fat from the beef heart in their feeding areas too. (River loves that stuff) Kaylee hilarious after eating, by the way. She does a full-body-roll face wipe on the cage liner!
Heh...in her raw winter coat, she's going to look like a little ermine.
On a side not, I'm going to buy a couple of frozen pinky mice and see what River thinks of them as an occasional treat. If Kaylee's game to try one, she can have one too! I doubt they'll be any harder to handle than a CGH wingtip, they're only the size of jelly beans.
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Post by katt on Nov 20, 2013 22:25:50 GMT -5
I blended up organs with some beef heart this morning. River likes soupies, too, so it works to get them their organs in a thick soup! After a couple fingertips worth, Kaylee wandered off, but about three minutes later she was happily slurping the mix out of River's bowl. And River was eating Kaylee's LOL I guess when it's the same meal it doesn't really matter who eats which, as long as they're both eating. She's tried a few little chunks of meat, she seems to like the taste, so we'll see how she does on some non pureed meats this week. I know she likes to chew, so I put some chunks of the fat from the beef heart in their feeding areas too. (River loves that stuff) Kaylee hilarious after eating, by the way. She does a full-body-roll face wipe on the cage liner! Heh...in her raw winter coat, she's going to look like a little ermine. On a side not, I'm going to buy a couple of frozen pinky mice and see what River thinks of them as an occasional treat. If Kaylee's game to try one, she can have one too! I doubt they'll be any harder to handle than a CGH wingtip, they're only the size of jelly beans. Haha She sounds like a ferret! A true smelly thief! Thats good she liked the soup. If you want to get her eating organ chunks, add chunks to the organ soup and slowly increase them in size and number while decreasing (and thickening) the soup. Lots of ferrets don't care for the texture of organs so that's often what you have to get them used to. For others it's the taste - but clearly that isn't an issue. Try offering her some chunks of organs hand fed too. As good as she is doing she may go right for it. The mice are a great idea. If they don't take them right away, mix them into some of their regular meat so the juices get on the pinkies and disguise them a bit. If you wan to do whole prey, you can work up in size from pinkies too. The hardest part of whole prey is getting them used to the fur. Some slit open an adult mouse and drizzle oil into the belly. Others work up slowly from pinkies (Pinky, fuzzy, hopper, small mouse...). If the first method doesn't work, some people chop the (adult) mouse up and mix it into their other meat and slowly build up the size of the mouse chunks while decreasing the other meat. Just some different approaches you can try if you want to get the girls eating whole prey.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2013 12:49:26 GMT -5
This morning Kaylee happily ate about a quarter ounce of chicken thigh chunks, cut fairly fine, from my fingers. She's not so sure about the ground turkey, but since there's EVOO on it she's licking it. I'm pretty sure she's not done with breakfast yet, she's standing there watching River eat, looks like she's trying to decide if she should steal it or not.
Aaand now she's soaked again. Apparently she actually WASHES her face in the water bowl after eating.
Next week I'll try just mincing the organs instead of blending. I think Kaylee will take them that way, too.
Gonna pick up a couple of pinkies today when I'm at Mom's. I'll let you know how they go over! River will probably take them just fine, since she'll pretty much eat anything.
Kaylee is starting to plump up a little, and her fur is already feeling softer, especially on her head and neck.
Edited to add - Kaylee stashed a gizzard last night, she's working on that now. LOL She gets SO focused on her eating!!! It's hilarious, the closed eyes and just the intensity while she chews. River is way less intense an eater. Unless it's frog legs...
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Post by katt on Nov 21, 2013 17:49:30 GMT -5
That means she really enjoys what she is eating. She sounds like quite the character! LOL For the turkey, try mixing the oil in and maybe some chicken chunks. OR you can mix a little turkey grind at a time into her soup or a bowl of chicken or something else she already likes.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2013 19:07:58 GMT -5
Well, River got a pinky mouse. I'll pick up a three pack on Friday so Kaylee can have some too. (she slept through River's snack LOL) I just had to drizzle it with a little EVOO and River went straight for it, took her maybe 20 seconds to eat it. She got that closed-eye, focused look of delight, and wanted more. LOL I must admit to being a little creeped out handling it. But, mice are pretty much the MOST natural thing a ferret can eat, right? So it's good for her. And she obviously likes it very much. I won't be switching completely to whole prey, but as a treat now and then, I can handle it.
Got my chicken quarters ground. Coarse enough where they still have to chew, but small enough where it's not a LOT of work. Just lets me get manageable portions out of those bigger pieces, that's the main reason I even decided to grind them since Kaylee with happily chew bone. I can mix the turkey into that a little and she'll most likely eat it that way.
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Post by katt on Nov 21, 2013 21:08:17 GMT -5
haha Good girl! Hopefully when Kaylee sees River eating it she wil get jealous and steal it. Gotta love social learning!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2013 18:49:10 GMT -5
My girls are awesome. That is all.
Today they each had a CGH wing and half a CGH breast. Kaylee imitated River's pattern of tip, meaty end, middle, for the wing. Apparently not all ferrets imprint on food, Kaylee seems to be cool with eating anything! She was voraciously gnawing on a pork neck bone, which they hid from me the other day, a little bit ago. Unless she shows zero interest, I'm going to just start offering her the same things as River! I'll save the rest of my soup cubes to put on stuff they don't immediately like, since they both LOVE soup and olive oil.
I got the old fridge/freezer out in the shop cleaned up and plugged in, and now, I can use that freezer for ferret and cat food! YAY! It's not huge, just 3.5 cubic feet, but it's ALL for them, and means things like frozen mice or chicken feet won't be in the main freezer scaring the husband. LOL
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Post by katt on Nov 22, 2013 21:17:02 GMT -5
My girls are awesome. That is all. Today they each had a CGH wing and half a CGH breast. Kaylee imitated River's pattern of tip, meaty end, middle, for the wing. Apparently not all ferrets imprint on food, Kaylee seems to be cool with eating anything! She was voraciously gnawing on a pork neck bone, which they hid from me the other day, a little bit ago. Unless she shows zero interest, I'm going to just start offering her the same things as River! I'll save the rest of my soup cubes to put on stuff they don't immediately like, since they both LOVE soup and olive oil. I got the old fridge/freezer out in the shop cleaned up and plugged in, and now, I can use that freezer for ferret and cat food! YAY! It's not huge, just 3.5 cubic feet, but it's ALL for them, and means things like frozen mice or chicken feet won't be in the main freezer scaring the husband. LOL ROFL! I am jealous! I really want to buy a little deep freezer - they are $200 for a small one. But I can't right now since I don't have my own place atm and we will be moving multiple times for school. Right now Shane's parents have half of a fridge-freezer designated for ferre meat. Before this year I always shared with a roommate. I look forward to having our own place next year so the whole freezer can be ferret food. Kaylee is doing wonderful. I have seen old ferrets eat anything you put in their bowl and I have seen kits so hooked on kibble that it took months to switch them. There are always exceptions to the rule, especially with ferrets! Haha I'm glad she has been such an easy switch for you. For the soup cubes, it is good to give them soup every now and then so they remember it is food in case they ever get sick. And of course like you said, it's good to have on hand for new meats and such. I'll keep this thread open a little while longer in case any more Q's come up or she decided to be extra stubborn about something.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2013 2:00:16 GMT -5
Kaylee is just amazing, you know? LOL She's learned super fast, and she's doing really well health-wise. She'll probably take a little longer to get detoxed than River did, but then, three years is a lot longer than four months to be on kibbles!
Tonight I gave them both pinky mice, no oil or egg or anything added, and Kaylee took hers just as eagerly as River did. (River got two, since they come in packs of three at PetCo and I haven't found a better supplier yet) She looked for more, very excited and bright-eyed, even wagging her tail. LOL
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Post by katt on Nov 30, 2013 3:29:51 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2013 12:45:49 GMT -5
Kaylee has a very animated tail. She poofs over nothing, wags over food, it's like her tail has a personality of it's own! (and it's HUGE when poofed, bigger around than her head!)
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Post by katt on Nov 30, 2013 13:56:01 GMT -5
Kaylee has a very animated tail. She poofs over nothing, wags over food, it's like her tail has a personality of it's own! (and it's HUGE when poofed, bigger around than her head!) Ahhh! How did you manage to find such CUTE babies?! Again, pics and videos are a MUST!
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