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Post by Celene on Mar 30, 2015 17:22:26 GMT -5
Shawna, You don't even need to THINK about bones until they're eating bigger chunks, so don't worry too much about that yet. For chicken, necks and wings are the cheapest/most common bone-in sources. Thighs are a little too hard for most ferrets, although some have no trouble crunching through them. Smaller birds such as cornish game hen, quail, pheasant, partridge etc. Have smaller/softer bones and are ever better! Other bone-in options include rabbit and frogs legs. Some people also feed whole prey (feeder mice, guinea pigs, etc.) which have all the bones and organs all in one! So far I'm too squeamish to feed anything that still "looks" like an animal
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Post by Desiree on Mar 30, 2015 17:26:26 GMT -5
For now, start off with boneless chicken thighs. Chicken wing tips are a great way to start off with bone, or CGH wings (you can buy the whole thing and carve it up and save the bigger pieces for later) since they are so similar as proteins it won't be a shock for them to change. Quail is my favorite but sometimes getting them to eat a new protein is just has hard as switching them in the first. Thighs are probably too big. Remember "bone in" is the non weight bearing bones of an animal the size of a chicken or smaller. A small duck can be used (ribs and wings) and I use turkey neck as well. CGH, Quail and Pheasant, the whole thing can be used.
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Post by katt on Mar 31, 2015 2:33:20 GMT -5
BTW Sams Club and CostCo sell biiig freezer bags of frozen chicken thighs for cheap. They are already taking the soup in just one try (or did I miss some of the earlier thread)? (dance) That is super awesome progress. Watch to make sure that they are eating enough. Once they are taking the soup well, toss the kibble (or donate!) and start adding tiny slivers. Start with a few at a time and gradually increase them first in number, then in size.
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Shawna
Junior Member
Posts: 111
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Post by Shawna on Mar 31, 2015 16:12:08 GMT -5
Zim eats the soups like a champ. Dexter on the other hand, leaves a little left then surfs in the litterbox.
Zim is always more than happy to clean up Dex's leftovers
Dex is bigger than Zim in size & weight & appears to be eating slightly less than Zim.
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Shawna
Junior Member
Posts: 111
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Post by Shawna on Apr 1, 2015 17:26:46 GMT -5
Grrrr arrg! I gave both the boys their morning breakfast & again Zim eats it like a champ but Dexter on the other hand only eats maybe about half of it. I put it back in the fridge & gave it to him again a few hours later. But.. snort I take him out of the cage & leave Zim behind. I closed my door & when I came back both of them were out (zim managed to get out of the cage.. my little sneak!) So I have no idea who finished off the food I saved for Dex... I'm gonna attempt to give some little pieces later on today w the soup & see what they think. Zim will most likely wolf it down.
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Post by katt on Apr 1, 2015 19:34:15 GMT -5
Are you hand feeding? How are you giving it to them?
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Shawna
Junior Member
Posts: 111
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Post by Shawna on Apr 1, 2015 21:18:32 GMT -5
Zim chowing down Dexter eating from his bowl. Didn't eat as much as Zim again. I'll give him a break then sit him in my lap & help him. Or maybe I should scruff him? Thaw a soupie & mix 'em together? Between the 2 of them they ate a portion of 1oz chicken meat 1 heart 1 liver a sprinkle of bone meal & a few drops of olive oil & there is still some left. I'll save it & give it to them again in a couple hours
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Post by Celene on Apr 1, 2015 21:34:17 GMT -5
If he is eating it, I wouldn't scruff him. The "scruff 'n' stuff" technique is usually used to get ferrets to try something new to prove it isn't poison I would recommend lap-feeding him. Maybe they just like the attention, but they tend to eat more that way. Here's an image of me spoon-feeding Mocha to give you an idea of the "set up" I use. A towel of some sort is always necessary as they like to be messy, and have somewhere to wipe their chins afterward
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Post by Celene on Apr 1, 2015 22:53:44 GMT -5
That's what I meant - because if you don't have a towel, they'll wipe their faces on your pants.
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Post by katt on Apr 2, 2015 2:58:26 GMT -5
Sometimes whether you have a towel or not they prefer wiping their faces on your carpet..... (I'm looking at you Kenai!)
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Post by Celene on Apr 2, 2015 8:51:11 GMT -5
Oh yeah. We got rid of all our carpet a LOOOONG time ago. It was basically just one giant ferret napkin.
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Post by katt on Apr 2, 2015 11:19:40 GMT -5
Don't forget ferret TP! It's hard to rip up the carpet in a rental though. I mean, Koda doesn't think so and he tries to excavate ours for us regularly....but I somehow don't think that the landlord would really appreciate us removing it.
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Shawna
Junior Member
Posts: 111
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Post by Shawna on Apr 2, 2015 14:43:46 GMT -5
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Post by Celene on Apr 2, 2015 14:57:03 GMT -5
What! Mocha totally started doing that too. She had NEVER chewed anything before in her life, and then one day I noticed something neon blue in her poop and realized it was a piece of a stuffy! After that I pulled her out of a den with a toy that was all soggy, so I looked around and realized a lot of the toys had dried saliva and chew marks. I had to remove ALL plush/soft toys (which she really didn't like) and I'd even catch her trying to chew on her hammocks and beds. I tried to give her jerky / a "safe" chewing replacement, but she was too fussy and refused it. When she got really obsessive chewing something I'd give her supervised time with an n-bone (I know they aren't healthy, but every time she'd chew off a chunk I'd garbage it before she could swallow, and I figured it was still safer than a blockage). Once she got to eating larger chunks of meat and bone regularly she stopped. I don't actually know why she did it, but I thought it was just her and not a "common" ferret behaviour. Maybe katt knows.
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