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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2014 8:39:46 GMT -5
I had a paper towel under the plate, so it caught the food, but some of the juice undoubtedly soaked through and into their rug. Do I need to clean that part of the rug with a soapy sponge or something? I'd toss it into the washing machine. I have a bunch of older towels, rugs and place mats, that are for ferrets only. Since we are dealing with raw, everything should be carefully cleaned and frequently. More for our sake, than for the little guys. We don't want to be spreading bacteria.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2014 8:44:24 GMT -5
With the regular soupie recipe, we start adding slivers to the soupie. You can do the same thing with the FDR, leave a full size pieces in the FDR soup.
I saw where you added fresh water to the FDR. I did that also, after a few hours the FDR became thick and soaked up all the water. So, I would just "freshen" it up with some warm water.
Try ditching the kibble tonight and just leave some FDR with them. They will probably eat it. If they don't, then they will just eat a better breakfast in the morning.
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Post by raynebc on Sept 18, 2014 12:06:56 GMT -5
I'd toss it into the washing machine. I have a bunch of older towels, rugs and place mats, that are for ferrets only. Since we are dealing with raw, everything should be carefully cleaned and frequently. More for our sake, than for the little guys. We don't want to be spreading bacteria. This is an area rug, so I don't think I have many options except to spot clean it. I could try a place mat, but I think they'd slide the bowl around a lot if I did that. It might have to be a place mat with a towel on top or something. With the regular soupie recipe, we start adding slivers to the soupie. You can do the same thing with the FDR, leave a full size pieces in the FDR soup. I can give that a try, we'll see what they think about it. Last night was their second evening having wet FDR as their overnight food. This morning I found they only ate a third of it, so the rest will have to be disposed of because it had already been wet for 7-8 hours. I removed the wet and returned their dry food an hour later and they went to work on it right away. I'm not sure if it's that they like the wet FDR quite as much when there's so much rabbit in it, that they aren't willing to give up their kibble quite yet or just that they didn't happen to be hungry in the early hours this morning. They were eating plenty of it last night.
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Post by raynebc on Sept 19, 2014 1:04:12 GMT -5
They're eating half and half duck/rabbit wet FDR pretty well this evening, even when the rabbit is a little chunkier than usual. Copper is still hesitant, but he ate a couple teaspoons when I brought it up to him while he was in a hammock. Even he can't resist room service while he's in bed. They still like it when it's a little more watery, I'll make it a fresh batch that's a little runnier before I go to bed, so it will go longer without drying out.
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Post by raynebc on Sept 19, 2014 12:48:57 GMT -5
They didn't eat much of it during the evening, which seems like it's becoming more of a pattern with their eating habits. They did have BMs this morning after I took the remaining FDR out so I know they were snacking on it a little bit up until then. This morning their dry food had turkey FDR, we'll see how they handle that because I'll run out of the duck FDR before long.
On my way home I'll stop and get chicken thighs and livers. Is this recipe still good to use? 8oz chicken thigh with skin 1oz beef heart 1oz chicken liver 1/2 tsp bone meal
Are chicken livers usually consistent in size/weight that I can just use a half liver per batch or should I be weighing liver portions?
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Post by raynebc on Sept 20, 2014 0:28:45 GMT -5
Well, my first soup experiment turned into a debacle. I got home and washed all the equipment involved (deli containers, blender, chef knife, cutting board) and started portioning the beef heart into 1oz amounts. It started out alright, I was able to get 10 portions made in quick order, 1oz per container. Then I portioned chicken liver into 1oz amounts (turns out they were in very randomly sized pieces so I had to trim pretty much every portion just right) and added one portion to each of the containers with beef heart, and I put 9 of them in the freezer so they'd be ready for future use.
Then came the chicken thighs. I can't remember the last time I worked with raw chicken (I rarely cook anything from scratch) and the skin really turned out to be a hassle. After chopping it up into smallish pieces I managed to weigh out 8oz worth and dumped it into the blender, putting the heart and liver portions on top and a 1/2 tsp of bone meal. I used the pulse setting on the blender but it wasn't making much progress until I noticed the blender was starting to smoke a little bit. I poured out the soup ingredients and removed a piece of chicken skin from the blades and remembered I probably should also have added water, so I did so and blended the soup half batch at a time. By the time I was done, it was a consistency similar to pudding, I don't know if that's normal.
At this point I'd been cleaning and portioning for hours and I knew the ferrets would be getting hungry. I didn't have enough energy left to try to teach them to eat a new food so I just put the pudding soup in deli containers and put them in the fridge and gave the ferrets wet turkey/rabbit FDR. Reska started eating it right away and Copper was dozing off. I'll try to feed them some of the raw pudding soup tomorrow.
I know my next attempt will probably go smoother, but I had the meat out of the fridge for longer than I hoped I would. As long as the meat was all still cool to the touch, would it be OK? Also, if it's any consolation I still have 9 portions of liver and heart made up so the next batch will be much easier to make. My big question now is whether or not it's important to use the skin or if it's OK to leave it out when I make the next batch? If I should leave it in for the extra fat content, I'll have to cut it into really small pieces next time.
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Post by katt on Sept 20, 2014 2:56:24 GMT -5
Meat is good for: Soup 6-8hrs Grinds 8-12hrs Chunks and bone-in meat: 12-24hrs depending on size Whole prey. 48hrs
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Post by raynebc on Sept 20, 2014 13:46:58 GMT -5
By late morning, the ferrets had finished off their wet turkey/rabbit FDR so it looks like they're used to it now. I put some raw pudding on a plate and worked with them for a bit trying to get them to eat it. I gave them each a couple drops of salmon oil to make them more receptive (it seems like it helps, it probably masks the taste of food). After a couple dabs of raw pudding on the outside of her mouth, Reska started eating out of the spoon and then I set her down and she went to eating it out of the plate. She must have eaten 1-2 tsp or so before she'd had enough. Copper was revolted and every time I dabbed a little on him he squirmed away. I put a little wet duck FDR on top to coax him into trying it, but Reska started eating it. She even tried to grab a mouthful of duck and run away, but I stopped her. I mixed them together to prevent either of them from trying to stash it and added more duck so that it was about half soup, half duck. About an hour later, a little had been eaten, but I don't know which of them ate it. I'll leave it in for about another hour or two and get a fresh plate of it for them. I imagine I'll have to mix in some FDR then as well to help them recognize it as food.
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Post by raynebc on Sept 20, 2014 20:56:30 GMT -5
I left the raw pudding in their pen while my room mate and I went out for a while and when I came back they had eaten all of it. I washed their plate and put a fresh portion of raw pudding out for them. If they haven't finished it in a couple hours I'll mix in some wet FDR again.
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Post by raynebc on Sept 21, 2014 5:32:53 GMT -5
I decided not to mix in FDR just to see if I could get them to eat more, but they didn't. I made some wet turkey/rabbit FDR and they both ate some. If I can get them to eat the soup once a day it's progress at least.
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Post by raynebc on Sept 21, 2014 15:25:54 GMT -5
The wet FDR I left out for them was all eaten as usual, so I put a large portion of the chicken pudding in their pen. Reska ate a couple bites and I even got Copper to take a couple licks so when they're hungry enough I think they'll eat some.
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Post by raynebc on Sept 21, 2014 22:18:19 GMT -5
I got them to each eat one or two tsp of the raw pudding and a couple hours later they hadn't eaten any more so I discarded the bit that was left and made some turkey/rabbit FDR, which they both started eating right away. I'll leave them more FDR this evening and then return their dry food for while I'm at work.
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Post by raynebc on Sept 22, 2014 12:58:24 GMT -5
I went through a lot of FDR this weekend since they had nothing but re-hydrated FDR and raw pudding (soup). I have enough of the pudding left for another 3 portions or so then I'll have to make more. I was looking through the forum and it looks like several mentors post a raw soup recipe indicating skinless chicken thigh, so just to confirm, it's OK for me to leave the skin out then so it doesn't destroy my new blender?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2014 18:21:25 GMT -5
Fat equals energy for ferrets. What I do is stand there very patiently (and I'm not particularly patient) and cut the skin into tiny pieces. Then it's fine in my Magic Bullet. Usually when I'm cutting the skin off, mine are begging for pieces of the skin. They really love it.
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Post by raynebc on Sept 22, 2014 18:41:45 GMT -5
Is the raw soup recipe cited to use skinless chicken just for the sake of convenience then, if not for nutritional or cost reasons? Based on what I've read before, if ferrets eat until they get enough fat in their digestive system, they may possibly be prone to eat less of the soup before feeling "full". Would this cause issues with them not eating enough of the soup to get the needed amounts of heart, liver and calcium in their diet?
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