|
Post by jeshimikah on Dec 25, 2017 22:21:17 GMT -5
Tomorrow, I’ll be starting my four Ferrets on the soupie mixture everyone talks about! I already tested out frozen mice, and Sebastian ate it up, Vladimir ate 2 feet and the tail, and Meeka and Thomas were disinterested. I have a feeling that swapping Sibs and Vlad will be easy, it’s the other 2 I’m anxious about. I am thawing the chicken hearts and chicken livers overnight, as well as the eggshells, and picking up fresh chicken breast tomorrow to make the soupie. I’m maknly making this thread to keep track of their progress and also learn from anyone who has advice to give!
|
|
|
Post by jeshimikah on Dec 26, 2017 19:07:32 GMT -5
Day 1 with the soupie went way better than we anticipated! Sebastian went to it immediately and started eating it, as we expected he would. Vladimir went straight for it, had a lick, then proceeded to back away. Though, he did consistently try it out. Both Meeka and Thomas were the two I was worried about, however, I found that if I hold them in my lap, I dab my finger into the mixture, and hold it in front of their faces, they’ll both lick it off my finger, and if I get more, they’ll continue eating it. They then showed interest in the dish, but not enough to eat much.
So I’d say it was a success, given how easy it was to get all 4 of our fuzzbutts to show even a bit of interest on our first try! We’ll be trying again tomorrow, I’ll continue to post here to keep track of everything.
Side note: I will be away from the 27th-29th of December, and Nick will be keeping me updated on how they do with the soupie. Which I will then be sharing here!
|
|
|
Post by abbeytheferret6 on Dec 27, 2017 6:22:48 GMT -5
they’ll both lick it off my finger, and if I get more, they’ll continue eating it. They then showed interest in the dish, but not enough to eat much. Read more: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/23947/soupie-start#ixzz52SWhILuYU can try spoon feeding for a few seconds then lay spoon in a saucer. Some prefer the spoon before going to the saucer. I have not figured out why. But since they are eating some off the plate,u may not have to do anything I thought I would just tell you about the spoon. If you have problem with organs later on--- after they have switched to bone and chunks, you can just serve them as soupies. May have to finger feed these to start out with too.
|
|
|
Post by Sherry on Dec 27, 2017 8:12:36 GMT -5
Fantastic start! And yes, for the two you are finger feeding either try a spoon, or while licking from your finger move your finger to the dish so they hopefully start licking from the dish intend
|
|
|
Post by jeshimikah on Dec 29, 2017 10:37:16 GMT -5
I have bad news. I’ve been away from the 27th-29th, and I told Nick to wait on feeding the soupie, which is frozen in ice cube trays, because I really wanted to be a part of this transition. So the 26th is the last day the ferrets had the soupie, and Sebastian is the one that took too it immediately. Well, today, Nick called me saying Sibs is throwing up something pink and foamy, that looks like the soupie, but it’s been 4 days. I’m not going to be home until 4-5pm tonight, and now Sibs is sleeping. I looked into it, and switching their diet can cause them to become sick, and I’m thinking because we began the transition, then put it on hold, his stomach became upset. But we’re really worried, maybe raw feeding isn’t such a great idea... I’m afraid if I try again, he’ll become sick again. I really want to follow through with it, but I don’t know what made him sick...
|
|
|
Post by jeshimikah on Dec 29, 2017 11:35:30 GMT -5
Update on Sebastian: He’s doing well, he napped after getting sick, and woke up feeling much better! We don’t know what caused him to have an upset stomach, but we will continue to monitor him, and will continue moving forward with the raw fed diet plans we had initially. If anything further happens, I’ll be right on here for advice and most likely discontuing changing their diet. Hopefully things move forward smoothly.
|
|
|
Post by mfouche89 on Dec 29, 2017 14:00:04 GMT -5
Update on Sebastian: He’s doing well, he napped after getting sick, and woke up feeling much better! We don’t know what caused him to have an upset stomach, but we will continue to monitor him, and will continue moving forward with the raw fed diet plans we had initially. If anything further happens, I’ll be right on here for advice and most likely discontuing changing their diet. Hopefully things move forward smoothly. Was your husband following the 3 hour fasting time between kibble and raw? I've had Beaker vomit more recently, and it was foam. It was one of the things that freaked me out and made me almost quit after 2+months of eating nothing but raw. Our problem was that we had some chicken sliver thieves stashing under the nasty couch in the carpet and he got some foreign bodies in his tummy so it upset him. There aren't any chunks in it yet, right?
|
|
|
Post by jeshimikah on Dec 30, 2017 0:47:30 GMT -5
Nick wasn’t feeding the ferrets anything but kibble for the few days I was away. I am home now, and all of our fuzzbutts are doing great! I fed them the soupie today, Sebastian, Vladimir, AND Thomas all went for it and loved it! I fed a bit to Meeks on a spoon, and slowly moved the spoon to the dish, and she ate a bit, I then put her in her cage with the dish and she continued to eat it! I have so much of the frozen soupie in ice cube trays, am I to just slice pieces of chicken breast and add them in? Or pieces of heart, liver, etc...? I don’t want to overdo anything. How much soupie should each ferret get per day? Right now I’m splitting 2 cubes between the 4 of them, once per day.
|
|
|
Post by mfouche89 on Dec 30, 2017 15:30:56 GMT -5
Nick wasn’t feeding the ferrets anything but kibble for the few days I was away. I am home now, and all of our fuzzbutts are doing great! I fed them the soupie today, Sebastian, Vladimir, AND Thomas all went for it and loved it! I fed a bit to Meeks on a spoon, and slowly moved the spoon to the dish, and she ate a bit, I then put her in her cage with the dish and she continued to eat it! I have so much of the frozen soupie in ice cube trays, am I to just slice pieces of chicken breast and add them in? Or pieces of heart, liver, etc...? I don’t want to overdo anything. How much soupie should each ferret get per day? Right now I’m splitting 2 cubes between the 4 of them, once per day. Personally I only did a few a day because they were eating kibble still most of the time. Till they increase the amount and start begging for more I would just stick to the small amounts till they eat it all and then up it a cube or so from there till everyone is eating about half their daily requirements (most males eat 3-7oz a day and females 1-3oz from the charts I've seen on here.) I waited till mine were eating at least 2-3 cubes each and then only worried about proper portion sizes till they were on all day raw. You want them to grow the appetite to eat what they need through the day when you finally switch to all raw so that's why I did it this way. The slivers thing is really up to you. I would say try a small sliver that's more long than wide. So like a 3rd of your pinky width and to the knuckle in length. What I did was sliced some and added it to the top of the cubes so when they thaw out you have a few small pieces in there for them to try. Slowly increase it. Don't worry about it till they are eating all their food though. It took me about 2 months to get them on slivers big enough to make them have to learn to chew. When they do it's awesome to watch. Just be aware they will run away with them sometimes at the end of feeding if there are any on the dish leftover so they can stash it. It's natural and all, but it has caused a few problems here. I alleviated some of it by having an old 12-pack soda box nearby so they try to stash it in that. But be prepared to catch at least one sly stasher in the act. They usually slink when they carry meat in their mouths, so you can tell even from behind if you see it.
|
|
|
Post by jeshimikah on Dec 30, 2017 23:38:57 GMT -5
Today was another successful day! Sebastian, I’m going to try on just slivers of chicken breast tomorrow, maybe a bit of heart and liver too, skipping the soupie completely since he’s taking to it so well! Vladimir, I will try slivers of chicken too, and then if that doesn’t work, I’ll add a few to the soupie for him. Meeka and Thomas both went to the dish themselves after I fed them some from a spoon. They seem to like it, but be unsure about it. But I’ll probably give them a sliver or 2 of chicken as well just to see how they take to it! I’m so proud of them for trying it, and being so willing and relatively easy in the beginning of their transition to raw!
|
|
|
Post by Sherry on Dec 31, 2017 9:12:53 GMT -5
If he is doing well and you can skip the soup do so Let us know what he thinks of slivers instead!
|
|
|
Post by jeshimikah on Dec 31, 2017 22:53:00 GMT -5
I may have been too certain about Sebastian. He prefers the soupie over the chicken, though he did try to chew it, he ended up stashing it. Vladimir loves the soupie and also chewed the chicken a lot, he also stashed some. Thomas is really beginning to take to the soupie well, he’s almost as eager as Sibs and Vlad now! Thomas even ate most of the chicken, which surprised the heck out of me since he won’t eat freeze dried chicken, and refuses pretty much every treat we offer him. Meeka is still a bit of challenge. She’ll eat some of the soupie if we guide her to the dish from the spoon. And she has no problem eating it from the spoon! Thomas seems to be looking for more to eat, and I want to try introducing him to a heart or some liver, so I may post again in a bit once I’ve tried that out too!
|
|
|
Post by jeshimikah on Dec 31, 2017 23:21:39 GMT -5
Okay, so I brought out some heart and gizzards. Meeka wanted nothing to do with any of it. Vladimir enjoyed chewing and stashing the hearts. Sebastian chewed on the gizzards for a long time before calling it quits and stashing it to move onto the hearts, which he wasn’t as interested in. Thomas ate half a heart and a small bit of gizzards!
Go figure the ferret I had the most concern for is suddenly taking such a strong interest in the raw diet in comparison to our other fuzzbutts!
Side note: Sebastian has been very tired over the last 2 days, mostly wanting to sleep during playtime. Could that be due to the switch in his diet? He is our skinniest ferret, though he eats a lot of kibble. We do take away the kibble for several hours before and after they have the soupie...could that be what’s causing his lethargy?
|
|
|
Post by Sherry on Jan 1, 2018 7:46:43 GMT -5
The sleepiness could also be just due to winter. What size are you making the slivers?
|
|
|
Post by birdyyy on Jan 1, 2018 12:40:56 GMT -5
I'm so impressed by that progress. Our two two-year-olds want nothing to do with raw (Yet!). Congratulations on your achievements with these finicky little creatures!
|
|