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Post by fearless on Apr 22, 2011 22:04:10 GMT -5
He skipped the chunks and went right for the meat on the bone I HAD to get pictures stay tuned!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2011 22:18:33 GMT -5
Oh yayyyyy! This makes the switch so much easier. He is a natural. So let me know how much he actual eats, and how well he handles the bone. I think this will go rather fast, so let's start thinking about what other proteins you want to feed. Minimum of three, more s better. He'll probably need 2-3 meals a daysrpending on how much extra you give o hold him over to the next meal. Going by 2 meals a day He needs 8-9 bone in meals a week 4-5 boneless meals (1 of which is an all heart meal) 1 organ day of 5% liver 5% other If you can't find heart, you'll have to use a taurine supplement. If you can't find another organ, up the liver to 10%. The more animal sources, the better. Good bone in meats are whole chickens (really cheap ) Cornish game hen, turkey wing tips and necks, small pork ribs, rabbit, quail, duck, etc. Small prey and small birds. Boneless meats include any meat! Unaltered like you know. Pork is a fav, beef, lamb, goat, turkey, etc. Whatever you can find really He needs 8-9 meals bone in
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Post by fearless on Apr 22, 2011 22:27:08 GMT -5
Alright well right now he has one whole thigh in there. It's the first time he's touched it and he's ate about... a fourth give or take. Hard to tell cause I don't remember how much I cubed up earlier. I would say one thigh is going to take him till about lunch time tomorrow. Judging on how much of the ground beef he ate that is. One day he ate about half a pound of ground beef.
I got some hearts with the gizzards (it was packaged together) but I already froze it with the gizzards, I'd have to unthaw all the little packaged bags and pick them out. I made sure every bag had two hearts, this was before I started this so I didn't know it had to be a separate heart meal.
I will have to look for organ, since you said gizzard is muscle. I'm not sure what's at Walmart but I'm hoping that soon I can do whole prey and not have to worry about that.
Is taurine the main ingredient in ferretvite? Some reason I remember reading that. Not that I'm going to replace the hearts with it, just something fuzzy sticking out in my mind about the taurine.
Wednesday is shopping day, so till then I gotta make whatever I got last. But I will definitely be shopping Tuesday.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2011 22:33:29 GMT -5
You can space the meals out however you'd like, just make sure he gets the equivalent of 1 entire serving of heart a week. Same with the organ. Not sure on the ferretvite. Te one I have doesn't list taurine in it, so I don't know. I use a powdered human supplement and just sprinkle a bit onto pumpkin or on meat. You can't really overdo it, because taurine doesn't build up to become toxic in the system. I know my walmart had beef or calf liver, chicken liver, gizzard packs with heart. Are you interested in all whole prey? Or whole prey + raw meats? If you have a petco near by, or a reptile place, try to get a couple small mice (hopper size). Introducing the prey young make it easier to accept I'm off to bed, so I'll check in on you in the AM give Jude a hug for me
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Post by fearless on Apr 22, 2011 22:43:34 GMT -5
I do want to do whole prey, if I'm going to do the raw and whole prey I'm not sure. I guess it depends on the costs of the two and how well he does. Secondly, my husband doesn't want it in our freezer, so I'd have to get a small amount to start and eventually invest in a small freezer to put somewhere for his food.
Our Walmart seemed to have a bit of meat, I just didn't have a lot of time to check everything they had, so I'll browse more when I'm there.
Where do you get the Taurine supplement?
No Petco near, or any pet supply other than a western store and a feed store (I might call just to call sometime after this weekend) to see if they do carry feeder mice. Otherwise I think I'll stick to frozen/freshly killed shipped from a few websites I looked into.
I'll be sure to give him a hug for you. Thanks for all the help.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2011 23:33:05 GMT -5
I ordered it online from amazon. www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004MBRRFO/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/179-7859544-7173931It lasts a long time and it handy to have in case you can't find any heart. There are a couple places to order whole prey from. Rodent pro, Hare today, american rodent supply come to my head first. Shipping is usually the killer as far as costs go. It is too expensive for me to do, but one day Check CL for frozen mice/live mice (if you don't mind feeding live). Might be someone getting rid of some. Introducing them now will ensure a smoother transition
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Post by fearless on Apr 23, 2011 11:34:57 GMT -5
Oh neat I'll have to look around for some and get some on next payday. Yikes the shipping on that stuff is ridiculous! Maybe I'll have to just make a special trip every once in awhile and treat him to it, cause I surely can't afford $90 for a 100 piece bag of pinkies! Yikes. I will definetely keep my eyes on CL for live or frozen mice. Secondly I woke up this morning, all the cubes were gone, he must have ate them last cause he was gnawing on the thigh when I went to bed, he still has a bit of meat on the bone, should I leave it or give him fresh meat? I think today is beef or pork chops. I can't remember which is thawing in the fridge at this moment. I'm waiting for Hubby to go to work so he doesn't freak that I gave him a whole beef/pork chop ha!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 23, 2011 11:42:21 GMT -5
Yeah that is the ONLY thing stopping me from doing it as a full diet. If you know anyone close to you who needs whole prey, you can usually share a box and split the shipping.
Hope you find some whole prey there - CL is sometimes a huge hit or miss .
That is GREAT! Those cubes were very large. If you're giving chunks for a day, 1 in squared is about as big as you go, so he is already there! A ferret won't eat something that's bad, so if you leave it with him you don't have to worry about him eating spoiled meat. I'd leave it in and see what he does with it. He might not be hungry, or he might be tired out from all the chewing ;D
Sounds tastey! Before I cook anything, I cut all the fat (with a bit of meat) off the meat for us and give it to the fuzzies for dinner. Hope Jude enjoys his dinner as much as he enjoyed the chicken.
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Post by fearless on Apr 23, 2011 18:47:27 GMT -5
Silly boy, I gave him a long strip about an inch cubed but three inches long. He gnawed on the end and played with it, but he just wasn't getting anything off. So I cubed it up this afternoon, still nothing... so I gave in and put it in the food processor, he finally ate, he was starting to worry me since he hadn't ate anything all day till about an hour ago. Anyways just wanted to give you a quick update. He seemed to like the chicken on the bone, but he didn't care for beef cubed or strips.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 23, 2011 18:55:18 GMT -5
Could be the taste. Some have a preference for certain meats. Beef is a strong flavor, and he is still getting used to chewing. Pork usually goes over well, as does turkey
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Post by fearless on Apr 23, 2011 22:33:48 GMT -5
I'll invest in those Tuesday.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 23, 2011 23:19:15 GMT -5
Sounds good
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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2011 23:59:06 GMT -5
Update me in the AM
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Post by fearless on Apr 25, 2011 11:25:31 GMT -5
Well Jude ate most of the chicken I left out. He didn't seem that interested in the meat on the bone, I'm going to leave it in there and in about two hours or so add some fresh meat. Shopping is tomorrow, so no new meat here. So far he LOVES ground beef. He likes his steak also ground, he didn't seem that interested in it in larger pieces. Chicken however, he tends to like in larger pieces as he won't eat the small pieces till after he's chewed on the thigh piece. This afternoon I'm going to try pork I think. I believe I still have a package of chops in the freezer. If not it's gizzard again.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2011 11:54:01 GMT -5
You could try smashing the bone to get him interested. The thigh bones might be to dense for him Wings, necks, ribs, and backs are really good bone in sources. We buy whole chickens and portion it out. Keep the breast for ourselves and the rest goes to the fuzzys
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