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Post by gnarlysalamander on Mar 1, 2011 0:09:23 GMT -5
they really do like the beef better than chicken... EVERYONE ate the beef soup mixed with a broken up stella and chewy's beef patty. jaydon, sammy, and bandit ate the most, but frankie ate on his own once i showed him it wasn't poison, and jayjay actually ate some big chunks that needed to be chewed [out of my hand, but i'm still happy at the size of the chunks]. sammy and jaydon both make it obvious that they'd rather have their new foods instead of the kibbles, i didn't even take the kibble out of the cage today and they still picked the beef. jaydon didn't eat with quite as much gusto as he did with the chicken, but he didn't complain, and sammy dug right in and keeps going back for more.
i'm off from work on wednesday, so that will be the day for the asian market and shopping for more on-sale goodies. i'm probably going to go with turkey as the third protein so i can get them used to three things i know i'd always be able to get.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2011 1:24:24 GMT -5
Awesome news! Good to introduce variety of proteins while they are trying new stuff. Just watch their stools to make sure no bad reactions. Beef is a strongly flavored meat in comparison to chicken, so that's a good sign!
For other meats, you can try:
CGH, turkey, lamb (supposed to be really gentle on tummies) pork. I can usually find all those all the time at my local grocery store.
Have you considered any whole prey?
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Post by gnarlysalamander on Mar 2, 2011 11:04:16 GMT -5
my dog killed a mouse in my basement last night and i strongly considered seeing what they'd do with it.. the only problem i have with whole prey is all these horror stories i hear about them shaking the guts out across the room. it's not that it grosses me out, so much as the cage i use to feed them this stuff is in my bedroom with a carpet and my mother would absolutely lose her mind. especially if they were to stash something. i don't want her to think the basement mouse problem has moved to the second floor...
my mom had a little bit of ground turkey left over from a chili she made and i mixed a spoonful of it in with their beef last night [it wouldn't all fit in the ice cube tray]. jayjay liked it! he ate more on his own than anything else, even more than when i'd sit there for 20 minutes and force feed him.
someone has been having... funny poop. it's one of the downstairs boys [bandit, frankie, or jayjay]. i'm thinking probably bandit or frankie because jayjay has never really ate enough for me to notice a difference... at least not when he's out playing. it only seems to happen when they get chicken.. so far anyway. it looks like it's not being digested. the poop is almost white/pink and even has small chunks of meat still in it. i haven't been concerned because i've only found one yesterday, and one a few weeks ago.
my goal today is to go out and find hearts, plus any other organ goodies they may have. ill probably get some turkey that's not ground to mix in with what i have since jayjay actually LIKED it. i had decent results with pork in the past, so i may get some of that too.
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Post by gnarlysalamander on Mar 2, 2011 11:05:51 GMT -5
oh... now that i'm thinking of it... they had beef the day before yesterday so that would have to be what caused that last weird poop. the one a few weeks ago was definitely chicken but i had them all in my room overnight so it could have been any of them.
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Post by Sherry on Mar 2, 2011 20:24:49 GMT -5
Ferrets will get odd stools from time to time. If it's only occasional, I'd not worry just yet.
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Post by gnarlysalamander on Mar 2, 2011 23:51:07 GMT -5
we got all kinds of goodies today! for dinner the kids got cut up steak chunks with two cut up hearts on top. sammy, bandit, and jaydon filled their bellies on their own. jayjay ate, but i had to hold him. once i let go he'd try to run off. frankie was a little monster. he seems to be switching places with jayjay. on more than one occasion during our scruff and stuff session, he latched on to various parts of my hands. he is also impossible to scruff. i dont know what it is, but it doesn't work for him. he is totally un-phased by being held that way. everyone else lies limp like they should but he thrashes around and goes crazy. its frustrating because i don't want him to think he can get away by doing this but it's a pain in the butt. one thing's for sure, he does NOT like chicken hearts right now. the beef chunks i could eventually get into him if i stuck to the smaller ones, but the heart didn't happen. at one point he yawned and i threw it in there and he shut his mouth for almost a full 5 minutes and when he finally opened it again it was to spit it out, still in the same condition it went in. little brat. tomorrow we're gonna try pork chops
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Post by Sherry on Mar 3, 2011 0:48:54 GMT -5
First- congrats to sammy, bandit, and jaydon!!! Yay With jayjay, if he feels more secure in eating this new food because you are holding him(or that's the only way his attention span can handle it ), then that's fine. He'll start on his own soon enough. As you've found out, some ferret do NOT do well with being scruffed. Like Frankie. With him, you'll have to try something else, because all that is doing now is making him too angry to even think about eating it. Get some in a small dish(plate or bowl doesn't matter), hold him on your lap, under the front legs/belly, with all four of his legs resting on your lap. Have the dish there as well. Should warn you- use a towel under both ferret and dish, as they can be messy eaters! Using your finger, offer it to him in this position instead of the scruff. If you keep your finger there, right in front of his nose and mouth, no matter which way he tries to move it, he should lick it off. The reason for the hand under the legs/belly is to prevent him from backing up too far. When he's taken a few licks from your finger, start using a tablespoon, and do the same thing with that. Just keep it in front of his nose and mouth til he starts licking it. I really think you'll have to get him willingly eating the soup again before attempting the chunks, if he's fighting it this much. You want him to learn that this is good stuff. And there is nothing wrong with having to take a couple of steps back if you've gone to fast for that particular ferret to be comfortable with.
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Post by gnarlysalamander on Mar 4, 2011 1:17:16 GMT -5
today we did pork chops with chicken heart on top. i finally figured out how to cut all this stuff up without losing a finger... i got a cheap $1.88 pair of scissors and they cut everything up fantastically. much less time consuming than using the crappy old knives we have lying around.
jaydon ate well, not that it's much of a surprise. sammy seemed like she remembered eating it before, but was a little hesitant. bandit kept picking up pieces, chewing them to much, and then spitting them out for more. i don't know how much he actually ate, but he went up and tried it on his own. jaydon ate a couple of pieces. i didn't even have to hold him, just sit him on my lap and hold the dish to his face... although he did NOT eat any of the heart. i made him taste it, but kept going back to the pork so he wouldn't get angry and stop eating altogether. i made sure we ended on a good note.
i made soup for frankie. of course, as soon as i set the dish down it got swarmed by everyone else. i got him to eat off of the spoon and a few licks from the bowl, but the one who ate the most soup was jayjay! he chowed down like it was the most delicious thing he's ever eaten. sammy and bandit also ate a good bit, but jaydon stuck to his chunks... probably because he didn't have to push anyone out of the way to eat it.
overall they were a little hesitant with the pork, but i'm still glad because they ate willingly [for the most part] and this was the first time anyone's had it in over a year, AND this was the first time i tried something drastically new with them that wasn't laced with ferretone.
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Post by Sherry on Mar 4, 2011 2:07:19 GMT -5
Sounds like you've had some pretty good success stories there That's fantastic!!! If you want to feed one without the others swarming you, give them something, then take chosen ferret to a chair. Put the towel on your lap, put bowl/plate there, as well as chosen ferret, and feed them while the others are busy with theirs. That particular ferret(in this case, Frankie) will also bond that much more strongly with you through this type of feeding. And even though Sammy and Bandit were acting a bit odd with their eating habits, they'll get the hang of it quickly enough Since Frankie is having more problems than the others, can you try just one protein for now with him that he will accept easily? Use that one til he will eat it on his own when you put him up to the dish(since he's soupies, feed him away from the others). When he does that, then you can start introducing new meats again. To do that, puree a bit of the new meat, and mix maybe 10% new meat, 90% old meat, well blended. Increase the new/old ratio by about 10% daily til he's eating the new one. At the same time, start adding small slivers(maybe fingernail size bits) to give him some texture. Either meat will do fine for this. You will only add a few to begin with, slowly increasing the amount over time.
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Post by gnarlysalamander on Mar 4, 2011 10:09:25 GMT -5
i just realized where i said jaydon ate a few pieces on his own but not the heart... it was supposed to say jayjay. i'm going to see how frankie will do with the beef soup today. i used up the last of the chicken last night, and i'm still without blender. my other option is to crush the freeze dries to powder and try to make a soup with that. actually, he may eat that because he likes to take the nuggets and stash them i dont think anyone eats them whole/dry though. it's funny, jayjay's been doing so well i missed frankie taking his spot
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Post by gnarlysalamander on Mar 4, 2011 23:40:41 GMT -5
everyone's definitely got their favorites. jaydon likes chicken, sammy likes beef, and bandit likes turkey! i decided to give sammy/jaydon a turkey thigh to see what they'd do with it, and when i checked a few hours later it didn't look like they were interested. i cut a bunch off the bone and stuck it in the dish with the rest and they seemed to like that better. frankie ate ONE chunk on his own, then ran off like i didn't see it happen. bandit likes the turkey. jayjay wasn't too interseted, but i'll try again in a bit because when i took him out of his cage he was in the middle of crunchin' on some kibble.
frankie's such a little brat. i ended up making the chicken mush with the freeze dried and as i'm in the middle of making it, i hear some squishy noises so i look over and he's stuffing his face with the pork chunks! i guess he finally just got hungry enough.
i'm going to make more soup in a little bit. i've been giving them raw overnight while i'm sleeping since they all stay in my room, and kibble while i'm not home. sammy and jaydon will get both because they're upstairs... the other kids are in the part of the house with a mouse issue and my mom wasn't too keen on having any extra food down there [not that the mice aren't already eating the kibble].
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Post by Sherry on Mar 5, 2011 1:39:43 GMT -5
I can't remember if this was mentioned to you or not. As long as all your ferrets are healthy, take the kibble out overnight(or during the day), for up to 12 hours. THEN offer them the raw. It makes a major difference in how they perceive the raw when they've actually got an appetite
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Post by gnarlysalamander on Mar 6, 2011 0:42:12 GMT -5
i'll have to try that. if i fasted them for 12 hours before giving them the raw, how much longer do i give them to break down and eat it before giving the kibble back? i'm a little nervous because they're starting to lose a tad of their winter weight and i don't want to mistake that weight loss with loss from not eating... they already have their raw for the night out, so no kibbles. i'm off tomorrow so i have plenty of time to make a raw breakfast as well. the way frankie acts i feel like he's just being a spoiled brat, and that he'll eat if he gets hungry enough... like a kid demanding ice cream before dinner jayjay on the other hand i think would refuse eating altogether. jaydon and sammy chowed down on some chicken heart for dinner. bandit ate a few pieces but abandoned it for the soup i left out for frankie and jayjay. jayjay ate a bit of soup really quickly like he wanted it, but the quantity wasn't that impressive. maybe a teaspoon or two. frankie had me flip the bowl over on myself, so i got frustrated and just made more to leave out in the cage. nothing like a post-shower dousing of raw meat
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Post by Sherry on Mar 6, 2011 13:12:06 GMT -5
Once you know they realize it's food, even if they are very reluctant about eating on their own, leave the kibble out of cage either over night(appetites are normally most active in the mornings), or all day. Put it back in for the opposite of when you've taken it out. So- kibble out of cage for up to 12 hours, and back in for the other 12. At this point, however, you will wind up doing a lot of hand feeding. So if you don't have the time to do that, best to only leave the kibble out overnight, feed them a raw meal, and put the kibbles back in after they go back up in the cage for the day. Again, remove kibble a couple hours before they come out for evening play, feed the raw, and give kibble back for an hour or so before going to bed, when you'll remove it again for the night. Clear as mud? ;D
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Post by gnarlysalamander on Mar 6, 2011 13:42:44 GMT -5
i think i kinda get it... "clear as mud" was right lol. i dont know if i'm just reading it wrong.. but what i wanted to know was, if i take away the kibble for 12 hours BEFORE giving them the raw, how long should i leave them with the raw to figure it out before hand feeding? i took away the kibbles overnight and made up the raw a short while ago. sammy ate, not a surprise, but the others have been sleeping. i didn't want to wake them up just to shove chunks in their mouths, so once they wake up and see that it's there, if they still refuse to eat how long should i give them before i assist? i think that makes sense?
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