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Post by LindaM on Apr 1, 2018 14:48:13 GMT -5
I'm glad she is eating, please keep working with her so we can get her onto raw as well. I would actually like you to try something.. she might just not be a super big chicken fan. I say this because when I tried switching my cat he refused chicken, he eats raw now, but still refuses chicken.. I used pork which is another mild meat to switch him. So maybe make a soupie for her using pork as your muscle meat, I just grab tenderloin, butt roast or whatever is on special. Who knows, she might like the change of taste and eat better on that. We can only try.
For the other two, did they eat the heart and liver slivers okay when mixed with the chicken? If so, you can start trying to do the weekly Frankenprey Menu. You can look at where I linked it above, there's 14 meals in the week, an AM meal and a PM meal each day. You'll have 1 meal of hearts only, 1 meal of organs only, and 1 meal mixed of half heart and half organs, OR you can do 3 meals of half heart and half organ. You'll have 2 (for now) meals of muscle, and 9 meals of bone-in (we'll do the bonemeal powder with these ones for now).
Generally, the FP menu does 2-4 muscle meals, and 7-9 bone-in. Kits need the full bone level, and some ferrets fare better on the higher amount too, but keep an eye on stools so we can see if we need to lower to either 8 or 7 bone-in. Chalky, dry poops are usually a sign of too much bone content in the diet.
Get yourself a journal or a calendar or planner and plot out which type of meal you want to do on which days and write down also what protein you offered. The FP Menu in that link up in the thread is a good example of how to lay out the menu as well. If you get stuck though, I'll be happy to explain it piece by piece.
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Post by jamien18 on Apr 1, 2018 15:23:50 GMT -5
I'm glad she is eating, please keep working with her so we can get her onto raw as well. I would actually like you to try something.. she might just not be a super big chicken fan. I say this because when I tried switching my cat he refused chicken, he eats raw now, but still refuses chicken.. I used pork which is another mild meat to switch him. So maybe make a soupie for her using pork as your muscle meat, I just grab tenderloin, butt roast or whatever is on special. Who knows, she might like the change of taste and eat better on that. We can only try. For the other two, did they eat the heart and liver slivers okay when mixed with the chicken? If so, you can start trying to do the weekly Frankenprey Menu. You can look at where I linked it above, there's 14 meals in the week, an AM meal and a PM meal each day. You'll have 1 meal of hearts only, 1 meal of organs only, and 1 meal mixed of half heart and half organs, OR you can do 3 meals of half heart and half organ. You'll have 2 (for now) meals of muscle, and 9 meals of bone-in (we'll do the bonemeal powder with these ones for now). Generally, the FP menu does 2-4 muscle meals, and 7-9 bone-in. Kits need the full bone level, and some ferrets fare better on the higher amount too, but keep an eye on stools so we can see if we need to lower to either 8 or 7 bone-in. Chalky, dry poops are usually a sign of too much bone content in the diet. Get yourself a journal or a calendar or planner and plot out which type of meal you want to do on which days and write down also what protein you offered. The FP Menu in that link up in the thread is a good example of how to lay out the menu as well. If you get stuck though, I'll be happy to explain it piece by piece. I'll get some pork for her to see if that'll work, and I'm still a little confused on how to measure everything, they use to eat alot with thw soup but with the slivers they take alittlw while longer to eat, but they're eating it fine. And with the slivers. Do I just make them bigger and bigger and then try actual bone in meats? Or until they do, do I just use a muscle meat with bone meal powder?
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Post by LindaM on Apr 1, 2018 19:21:33 GMT -5
You should continue to weigh their food before and after when putting out the next meal, to get an idea of what they're eating on average. For now, with the bone-in meals, we'll add some bonemeal powder in with the muscle meat until we can get them eating large chunks of muscle/or small pieces of bone-in and work to increase the size. If you have something like chicken wings, smash up the bones and cut them into some large slivers, not small enough to swallow whole but not too big to put them off. See if they're interested in trying those. Here's the video on how to smash up bone for beginner ferrets: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/18359/smashing-bone-beginner-ferrets
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Post by jamien18 on Apr 1, 2018 20:35:45 GMT -5
You should continue to weigh their food before and after when putting out the next meal, to get an idea of what they're eating on average. For now, with the bone-in meals, we'll add some bonemeal powder in with the muscle meat until we can get them eating large chunks of muscle/or small pieces of bone-in and work to increase the size. If you have something like chicken wings, smash up the bones and cut them into some large slivers, not small enough to swallow whole but not too big to put them off. See if they're interested in trying those. Here's the video on how to smash up bone for beginner ferrets: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/18359/smashing-bone-beginner-ferretsI knew how much they'd eat with the soup but I'm not sure with just the slivers yet. How many hours for the am and pm do they have to eat? Also how much bone meal powder should I be using ?
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Post by LindaM on Apr 1, 2018 22:48:53 GMT -5
Generally, you'll be keeping a journal of their averages at several points in time, at the change of seasons it can help so you don't freak out that they are suddenly scarfing down food or seem like they're hardly eating, as well as aging from kits into adults and thus slowing down their eating, and the same goes as they move onto bigger pieces of meat, they will slow down and eat less.
I have about 12 hours between my AM and PM meals. I free-feed though, meaning I don't remove their bowls after a specific time passes, I put out enough food that there will just be a bite or so left by the time I change their meal for the next one. So for our home, I put out the AM meal and 12 hours later, usually when we are going to bed, I put out the PM meal which stays out again until the change of the AM meal the next morning.
Same amount as the soup recipe used, 1/2tsp to 3/4tsp per 10oz of meat. Remember to keep an eye on poops!
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Post by jamien18 on Apr 2, 2018 4:21:04 GMT -5
Generally, you'll be keeping a journal of their averages at several points in time, at the change of seasons it can help so you don't freak out that they are suddenly scarfing down food or seem like they're hardly eating, as well as aging from kits into adults and thus slowing down their eating, and the same goes as they move onto bigger pieces of meat, they will slow down and eat less. I have about 12 hours between my AM and PM meals. I free-feed though, meaning I don't remove their bowls after a specific time passes, I put out enough food that there will just be a bite or so left by the time I change their meal for the next one. So for our home, I put out the AM meal and 12 hours later, usually when we are going to bed, I put out the PM meal which stays out again until the change of the AM meal the next morning. Same amount as the soup recipe used, 1/2tsp to 3/4tsp per 10oz of meat. Remember to keep an eye on poops! Do I use the powder on all they're meals? Even when they just get organ or hearts?
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Post by LindaM on Apr 2, 2018 14:08:31 GMT -5
No, as I explained above, you only do that with the bone-in meals during the week, following the Basic Frankenprey Menu that's been linked earlier in this thread. And we'll only be doing that until we can get them onto bone-in pieces.
Have you tried my suggestion with the chicken wings?
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Post by jamien18 on Apr 2, 2018 17:59:07 GMT -5
No, as I explained above, you only do that with the bone-in meals during the week, following the Basic Frankenprey Menu that's been linked earlier in this thread. And we'll only be doing that until we can get them onto bone-in pieces. Have you tried my suggestion with the chicken wings? Not yet I was going to go get some today. By chicken wing do you mean like the flats or the drum sticks?
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Post by LindaM on Apr 2, 2018 18:50:55 GMT -5
The package should say "chicken wings", usually it's the entire wing, which has three sections: wingtip, wingette, and drumette. Below is a picture of a full chicken wing, as well as it cut into those three sections. Drumsticks are from the leg, not the wing. Some packages may say "Fryer Wings", which is usually just the wingette piece if I recall correctly. If you can only get those, that's okay too.
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Post by jamien18 on Apr 3, 2018 12:59:12 GMT -5
I may have some trouble getting a hold of different organs. I can get liver. My local butcher had thymus and that's about it, they said they could get me anything but it would have to be a 30 or 40 lb box
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Post by LindaM on Apr 3, 2018 14:18:24 GMT -5
Have you looked for a local Asian market or other Ethnic store nearby? Those should easily provide you with what you need. Also go to different grocery stores, Smith's for us, which is Kroger elsewhere sells kidney as well. You never know where something is going to pop up. You also have the option of ordering raw online, but that one can be a bit costly, so it's better to try the other stores first.
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Post by jamien18 on Apr 4, 2018 0:20:52 GMT -5
They ate 5.3 oz of bone in meal cut up I'm 12 hours
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Post by jamien18 on Apr 4, 2018 0:45:08 GMT -5
Also my girl kanga is having darker poops.
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Post by jakeparrot on Apr 4, 2018 3:10:45 GMT -5
My little guy Maui ate some raw chicken heart today and played with a wing tip. I made a mix of smashed up chicken heart, chicken meat, wing tip with the bones crushed, and chicken liver with some water. I put the mix I made in the fridge after he fell asleep but I'm going to give it back to him in a little bit.
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Post by LindaM on Apr 4, 2018 14:29:16 GMT -5
How long has it been since you started switching the other two? Detox poops often run 4-6 weeks, and they can have all sorts of colors and consistencies. If you fed a meal of hearts or organs very recently, that can also cause dark colored poops, almost like a runny tar. For that reason, we always suggest to follow up a heart or organ meal with a bone-in meal next.
Do you have a photo to show how big your slivers are currently?
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