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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2015 20:01:48 GMT -5
Sorry one more question ha...for their soup do we leave it and just it no other food or both? I'm so confused
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Post by Celene on Jul 17, 2015 22:47:54 GMT -5
You can dab on their gums 3-4 times within a couple minutes (use your judgement, they WILL freak out, but you also don't want this to be traumatizing). Then you can do this every couple hours, or whenever they seem calmer. Give lots and lots of cuddles and encouragement each time! They will come around, it just takes a bit of persistence. You will find that this whole process has a lot to do with out-stubborning ferrets, which is not easy to do! Don't remove their kibble entirely until you're at the point where they will eat at least a spoonful of soup each at a time. As for the ferret lax, feel free to use it (sparingly) in order to get them eating soup, but throw it in the garbage immediately after they're all eating soup on their own! Ferret lax is basically sugar paste, and sugar is more or less the direct cause of insulinoma. Grains, fruits and veggies are all pretty bad (which is why kibble is not an ideal ferret diet) but plain sugar is close to poison Healthy and tasty alternatives are salmon oil and eggs. Egg yolk is actually a natural (and super effective) lax supplement as the lecithin in it helps break up and prevent hairballs!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2015 2:38:40 GMT -5
That'll be easy to do then! I always give our ferrets lots of love (Devan gives Mia insane affection as if she was his own kin but then again we do that with all 4 of them ) We tried with salmon oil and blended it but did not really work...Rumi is also the only one who likes eggs as well...fml (...for my loss.) Hmm gotta think of other things we can add they like that isn't too...unhealthy ; I'll pull out the frozen soup weigh it and try again tonight. Thank you!
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Post by Celene on Jul 18, 2015 11:15:01 GMT -5
You can continue to leave soup out all the time, you might be surprised that one will go up and sniff it, and decide to eat it all on their own! Just keep trying to encourage them to eat it for a few days and hopefully they'll come around
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2015 23:50:53 GMT -5
Will do! Should I keep updating every night btw the reaction was the same again of course. But we will keep trying.
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Post by Celene on Jul 18, 2015 23:59:21 GMT -5
Yes, do keep trying, and give me updates!
If they continue to refuse it, you can water the soup down further. This will dilute the taste and smell a bit. Sometimes it helps if you put it on a spoon and hold it up to your ferrets mouth or nose (depending on the angle of their head).
If there is no improvement in their reaction tomorrow, there is another trick you can try:
1. Make a kibble soup by soaking the kibble in warm water and mashing/blending it into a puree. 2. Feed them kibble soup (should be easier since they are used to the smell and taste, if not the texture). 3. Slowly start mixing in raw soup, and increasing the raw/kibble ratio each time until it's 100% raw soup!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2015 21:12:51 GMT -5
Great news! Noa licked it off my finger by choice! Twice! Emil still isn't happy, Mia is iffy currently, and Rumi still don't care. I'm impressed in all honesty I thought however like Emil she would be against it like crazy shows how much we know our little Nowi-No.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2015 21:14:10 GMT -5
Isn't raw meat with kibble cause diarrhea?...
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2015 6:18:23 GMT -5
Got some amazing news from Raven while at work Celene! =D Noa is drinking out of the bowl and Mia is now licking off the soup from her finger as well! (I kinda figured our little fluffpuff Mia would be one of the easiest to convert.) I love my little Mia so much <3 Emil is doing the whole hate the taste so we will try the kibble soup with him and Rumi doesn't wanna stand still. But still those are some huge jumps in just two days ; (Least for two of them. Sorry getting too excited its going smoothly for at least two of them.)
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Post by Celene on Jul 20, 2015 9:13:15 GMT -5
Great to hear your progress so far!
There are different theories on the kibble/raw mix. A lot of people think it's the dry food mixed with the raw which is moist which causes the issues. I talked with Katt who is a senior mentor and has been around the forum for YEARS and she says she actually does most of her switches with a kibble/raw soup and has never encountered any issues.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 21, 2015 12:39:00 GMT -5
Noa is drinking more of the soup (from the bowl infact) and did four whole finger licks. Mia kinda put up a fight but mainly because she wanted to sleep. Emil still fights. Rumi is now putting up less of a fight and is starting to get used to the soup. Trying the kibble/soup mix tonight.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 21, 2015 13:27:14 GMT -5
Just tried the kibble soup (sadly it was more kibble then raw) Mia drank quite a amount, Rumi drank profusely, Emil we made drink some ran again....we'll try again a bit later.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 21, 2015 17:08:56 GMT -5
We don't know if Mia thought it was water or not she walked up to the bowl of soup and drank quite a bit of it.
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Post by Celene on Jul 21, 2015 17:27:07 GMT -5
Yay! I'm glad they're starting to come around. As soon as Emil starts eating it and the soup is thick enough to provide sustenance you can remove the kibble entirely and start working up the percentage of raw in the soup.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 21, 2015 20:34:49 GMT -5
I have a feeling Emil will be a long try...lol
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