|
Post by gnarlysalamander on Feb 10, 2011 22:47:47 GMT -5
i wasn't sure if this should go here, or in the newbie section, even though it's not really a question. i just wanted to document the switching process and get some advice as time goes on, as needed... so feel free to move if in the wrong place!
to start, i have 5 furkids. sammy and bandit are both about 4 years old, jayjay[little fuzz] is going to be 2 the end of next month, frankie is going to be 6 months on saturday, and jaydon [baby fuzz] is 11 and a half weeks.
so far, sammy and the baby have eaten everything i've given to them, frankie and bandit will at least sniff and lick most things, but little fuzz is the one i'm having an issue with. nothing goes down that throat unless i'm scruffing and stuffing, with the exception of his regular kibble and n-bones. as for the kibble, they get a mixture of evo, the OLD zupreem ["no corn"] and the NEW zupreem ["no grains"]. the zupreem was because when we fed just evo, their digestion never quite caught up. i mix the two types together because i was afraid they'd be difficult switching to the new type alone with the evo, so i just wanted to be safe.
as far as what RAW they've gotten: chicken soupie [kibble, chicken breast, egg yolks, some ferrettone, water], ground beef soupie [same as above, only without chicken. the blender broke, so this was actually pretty chunky, made with a hand mixer. in fact, the kibble was still whole, just soggy]. jayjay is the only one who will not eat the soup. today we tried the freeze dried AFS chicken [not the patties, the kibble looking stuff.. idk if it's different stuff] but i cut it up smaller and soaked it in water to soften. i wanted them to get the texture of chicken, but be able to take the taste of that in case of ever having to hospitalize or have someone else feed for me. sammy ate a nice big chunk of it, and i "persuaded" jayjay to have some. actually, a few of the smaller, wetter pieces he ate out of my hand, but a few less moist ones i had to shove in his mouth. after the last time i tried feeding raw, i'm honestly shocked and proud of him for eating anything without me forcing the issue. i got frankie to swallow a few bits... he was less than impressed. bandit was about the same. i tried to get jaydon to eat a piece, but after about 20 minutes of spitting it out we gave up. i sprinkled some kibble dust on top and when i looked over a second later, he was chowing down ;D
i'm going to try the beef AFS tomorrow. they seem to like their beef soup better than the chicken, so hopefully they like this beef too.
how long can re-hydrated meat be left out for? the same as soup??
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2011 23:01:52 GMT -5
For my freeze-dried, it lasts about 8-12 hours. By then, my girls usually want nothing to do with it. If it's not browned, I throw it in the blender with some fresh stuff and they usually will eat it.
|
|
|
Post by gnarlysalamander on Feb 10, 2011 23:02:58 GMT -5
is it safe after that long? i mean im not worried about the initial 8-12, but then if say, you made it into soup with other meat, and left it out an additional 6-8 hours, wouldn't that be too much?
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2011 23:58:52 GMT -5
It never lasts much longer than 1-2 hours after it's well blended, so I don't exactly know =)
Ferret tummys can handle quite a bit, and are known to eat older meat (stuff a couple days old). I would say, if the ferret eats it, it's probably not bad. Ferrets usually won't eat bad meat.
|
|
|
Post by Sherry on Feb 11, 2011 0:45:29 GMT -5
If you are uncomfortable, toss it after around 8 hours and put out new. But no, they won't eat bad meat.
|
|
|
Post by gnarlysalamander on Feb 11, 2011 12:51:32 GMT -5
if they won't eat the bad stuff, then i'm no longer concerned ;] i'm about to leave for work, so the freeze dried, re-hydrated, beef soup mush won't be until i get home tonight.
i've been thinking lately about how to go about this. i had 4 of my kids in my fn, and then jaydon in his own smaller cage in my room so i could keep a closer eye on him when he first came to me [wasn't looking 100%] and to hopefully convince him litter boxes are great things. they had about a week of free roam when my stepfather took the "wolves" to a dogsled race, and when they came home i felt bad leaving him by himself again so i've had sammy staying with him in the smaller cage. they're both on about the same page when it comes to eating this stuff. would it make sense to keep them together, since they're ahead of the pack, so i can make sure they can make progress at their pace, and everyone else can move along at their own pace? i was thinking of keeping those two together, and then if/when someone catches up to them, swap them + the third into the fn and then move the other two kids into the smaller cage.
the only reason i'm questioning this is because i'm leaving tonight [well, 2am] to spend about 10 days in florida. i've given my mom a very detailed form of how to take care of/feed them, but i don't know how much out of cage time they're going to have. the smaller cage is big enough for both of them, but sammy is very bonded to bandit. it hasn't been a problem because although she sleeps in my room, they've been getting a lot of time out of the cage. would it be ok for them to be separated for up to 10 days without stressing them too much? bandit never seems to mind anything and loves everyone, and sammy gets along fine with jaydon, but i'm worried my parents are going to SAY they let the ferrets out for xhours, but not really do it. at the same time, i think it would be even worse if she did this, and i left jaydon by himself, not even in the same room as the others for that long since he's awake and trying to play 2x as much as anyone else.
alright, gotta leave for work. i'll fill everyone in tonight about how the feeding went. i'm thinking instead of just the re-hydrated i may try to put some of it broken up into the beef soupie. hopefully they'll take to that easier than the chicken last night.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2011 13:31:34 GMT -5
I think Jaydon should be housed with a buddy. 10 days is a long time to be by themselves.
|
|
|
Post by gnarlysalamander on Feb 11, 2011 22:05:30 GMT -5
i agree. i don't want to move him to the big cage quite yet, until he's more reliable with the potty. in the small cage, he does 100% because it's basically food, blankets, hammock, and litter box. the big cage has a lot more space without blankets and things like that. i've only ever seen him use the box out of the cage other than the first few days, but every now and again i find a rouge poop and ya never know who it's from. frankie does... meh, about 95% in the cage, so it could be him, but i want to make cleanup as easy as possible for my parents while i'm gone.
everyone [minus jayjay] ate their soupie tonight. i'm stressed trying to make sure i have everything for the trip, so i forgot about adding in the AFS, but no one had problems with the chunky beef in the soup so it's still a success for the evening.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2011 22:14:29 GMT -5
Yay! Glad they did well with the soup!
|
|
|
Post by Sherry on Feb 11, 2011 23:10:33 GMT -5
One thing to keep in mind. With transitioning ferrets, it's frequently a case of "monkey see, monkey do". So- he could be a really good influence on the others where diet is concerned.
|
|
|
Post by gnarlysalamander on Feb 11, 2011 23:17:57 GMT -5
i think that's what happened with bandit and frankie. although frankie's young, he didn't ever give it more than a sniff until he saw sammy and jaydon digging in. bandit always watched sammy eat, but never did himself before jaydon came along.
i bet i could get jaydon to eat a chicken wing. i can just see it with him more than the others by the way he scarfs down whatever's in front of him. i'll have to rearrange my freezer when i get home. there's tons of stuff that needs to be thrown away... unfortunately, nothing that the fuzzies could eat.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2011 23:27:18 GMT -5
My freezer at the moment is dedicated to the fuzzies!
|
|
|
Post by gnarlysalamander on Feb 23, 2011 20:54:41 GMT -5
i'm finally back from vacation! it was a wonderful trip but most of the time i wondered how my babies were doing anywho, last night the kids got 2 cubes worth of the beef mush mixed with tiny pieces of the AFS beef. the last time i tried with the chicken they didn't care much for it, so i broke this up, about 4-5 pieces worth, into itty bitty pieces and mixed it with the mush with a little extra water and put a few pieces of kibble on top, pressed in so when jayjay was finally hungry enough to go hunting he'd be forced to try it with the mix on it. i'll admit, i fell asleep so i didn't see who ate it other than baby fuzz right when i put the plate down. BUT, when i woke up this morning it was ALL gone with the pieces of kibble still on the plate! wooo. i imagine sammy and the baby ate most of it, but i know bandit and frankie probably didn't go the whole night without eating. jay jay's the only one who may have possibly went on a hunger strike; but when i put them away this morning before work he didn't go straight to the food dish, so i doubt he was starving at that point. tomorrow i'm going to try to up the amount of freeze dried. i'm happy they [mostly] like the much/soup but i'll feel better the faster i can get them off the kibbles. i'm going to stick with re-hydrating the AFS for now so they can get used to the texture. i don't mind buying it, and i like the option of being able to feed it dry and let it sit out, but it's just not realistic long term to buy food that expensive to feed daily. i've got a few lbs of assorted freeze dried, and about 12 lbs left of kibble. i'm hoping to get them on raw before i run out of that, but we'll see how cooperative jayjay is. i'm ok with taking away their kibble for a few hours before giving them the other stuff so they're more likely to eat it, but somewhere on the old forum i read if you take away everything but the raw eventually they'll eat it so they don't starve to death. is that true? i don't want to be that extreme, but if it's true i may try to out-wit him and wait longer before i give in and hand over the kibble. i thought i had seen somewhere regarding ferrets in california, that they wouldn't go feral because they wouldn't know what to eat if they were past the imprinting stage. but if they'd eventually eat the raw, i dont see why they wouldn't eventually at least try to eat a mouse or something. oh, off topic. i noticed jaydon has been using sammy's ear as a pacifier... i think it's adorable and sammy seems to put up with it about 75% of the time. could it turn into a problem? is it ok to let him do that?
|
|
|
Post by Sherry on Feb 23, 2011 22:57:47 GMT -5
Just to make you aware- some ferrets will go without. One of mine I thought was doing reasonably well wound up losing almost 1/2 her body weight very quickly. Simply because I was under the impression she was doing well with the raw mince. I wound up moving her back into a separate cage with a raw eating friend during the day for influence. She got her kibbles back at night when she was by herself. Took her a while before she willingly accepted the raw as food. Which is why it's SO important to know who's eating what.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2011 0:34:25 GMT -5
I'd be weary of feeding the freeze dried dry. It can really dehydrate the fuzzies
|
|