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Post by Leah S. on Apr 19, 2018 10:45:24 GMT -5
I never mentioned this and I’m not sure if it has anything to do with her being so difficult to eat the freeze dried raw. But Haven is 100% deaf. I didn’t know this prior to getting her. But she is a blaze ferret and I’m not sure if she has Waardenburg syndrome. All I know for sure is that she cannot hear.
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Post by LindaM on Apr 19, 2018 15:51:52 GMT -5
Apollo is my deafie and also has Neural Crest/Waardenburg Syndrome, he has no issues with his food at all. The only thing we do special for him sometimes is to start each meal for him by dipping a spoon and dab his mouth or smear a meat chunk against his mouth, but if he's really very hungry he will also start by himself. Again, as I said before, you can TOTALLY do a commercial raw. It is a legit option for raw feeding, a wee bit pricey for some, but entirely doable as a form of raw. Kick the kibble and offer a commercial raw, if you can. Stella & Chewys does do frozen grinds, which kinda looks like different colored mush patties/nibblets in a bag, and that's all anyone will see in the freezer. Heck I could even take a photo for you of how it looks in out freezer if you'd like to see. Okay, so I need some specifics on how you've been doing Grab'n'Dab. You said you've tried for months, but how many hours a day did you try? How many days lapsed between each time you tried? Did you switch proteins around a lot instead of sticking to one for several days? She can have some of the FDR dry, after all, we give FDR treats as-is, since they aren't very big. I've used the method of crumbling a little dry FDR in with a known food plenty of times to introduce a new protein or brand of FDR. So yeah, you can actually do that. You can also make some rehydrated FDR and squirt some salmon oil on it and start spooning with that since she does accept salmon oil as a treat. It's an incentive method, even a wee big of egg yolk mixed with it or drizzled on top can be used in the same way.
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Post by Leah S. on Apr 24, 2018 11:06:42 GMT -5
Apollo is my deafie and also has Neural Crest/Waardenburg Syndrome, he has no issues with his food at all. The only thing we do special for him sometimes is to start each meal for him by dipping a spoon and dab his mouth or smear a meat chunk against his mouth, but if he's really very hungry he will also start by himself. Again, as I said before, you can TOTALLY do a commercial raw. It is a legit option for raw feeding, a wee bit pricey for some, but entirely doable as a form of raw. Kick the kibble and offer a commercial raw, if you can. Stella & Chewys does do frozen grinds, which kinda looks like different colored mush patties/nibblets in a bag, and that's all anyone will see in the freezer. Heck I could even take a photo for you of how it looks in out freezer if you'd like to see. Okay, so I need some specifics on how you've been doing Grab'n'Dab. You said you've tried for months, but how many hours a day did you try? How many days lapsed between each time you tried? Did you switch proteins around a lot instead of sticking to one for several days? She can have some of the FDR dry, after all, we give FDR treats as-is, since they aren't very big. I've used the method of crumbling a little dry FDR in with a known food plenty of times to introduce a new protein or brand of FDR. So yeah, you can actually do that. You can also make some rehydrated FDR and squirt some salmon oil on it and start spooning with that since she does accept salmon oil as a treat. It's an incentive method, even a wee big of egg yolk mixed with it or drizzled on top can be used in the same way. Linda- thank you so much for all the help. Sorry for the late reply, the day I read this I tried drizzling a 1/4 tsp salmon oil over some crushed up duck duck goose, (she loves salmon oil) and there was only a tiny bit of FDR, and she still wouldn’t touch it. I guess different things work for different people and while I was using the grab and dab method and holding her on my lap and dabbing some onto her mouth, she hated it, and would squirm and go running. Just a couple days ago I got her to take her first lick by herself, (I was SO happy). While she was laying in bed still sleepy and just waking up, I dabbed some of the rehydrated freeze dried raw liquid onto her mouth. She licked it off, then I got her to lick my finger. Yesterday I was able to get her to lick some up off of the spoon. She’s not to the point of eating the chunks yet but hopefully we will get there. Fingers crossed but I’m so happy we’re making progress after all of this time. She still wants nothing to do with the Wysong ferret archetype rabbit formula. So once I can get her to accept more of this duck duck goose I want to introduce her to more Stella and chewys proteins. As for the frozen patties are you talking about the ones for dogs? Those are all I could find, are the meat content / taurine in those high enough? I’d like to know some more info about the frozen patties I can’t seem to find too much on the internet about feeding them to ferrets and which kinds. Thank you so much again.
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Post by LindaM on Apr 24, 2018 12:23:35 GMT -5
If she's licking the juices from your fingers, then you are already making great steps towards real progress. Well done. Just keep at it with that girlie. Soon, she'll be gobbling that FDR like she's been doing it all her life. I know it can sometimes be very frustrating, especially if you see and hear about other ferrants who get their fuzzies switched faster, but no fuzzy is the same. There are general methods that do work for most, but at times we need to dig deeper into other methods, or even do odd stuff to get the same things to work on certain fuzzies. As you work with your ferrets, and try out all the different methods, you will find which work for you, sometimes the methods that seem like they won't and don't work just need a bit more time as well. I've used both the feline and canine S&C for my ferrets. It's much better and easier if you can get the frozen feline product, I think they're little meat niblets, not sure if they do small patties actually, but they are 98% meat-based which is great and have sufficient taurine. The canine version does small and large patties, but there's 2 things to keep in mind when using the dog product, A) there can be a higher veggie content, stick to 95% meat-based and no lower, and B) the dog versions do not have sufficient levels of taurine for ferrets. To fix the lower taurine problem, I mix in some extra pureed hearts when using a canine version, as it is very that ferrets get enough taurine through their diet since their bodies cannot create it like a dog can.
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Post by Leah S. on Apr 24, 2018 13:21:41 GMT -5
If she's licking the juices from your fingers, then you are already making great steps towards real progress. Well done. Just keep at it with that girlie. Soon, she'll be gobbling that FDR like she's been doing it all her life. I know it can sometimes be very frustrating, especially if you see and hear about other ferrants who get their fuzzies switched faster, but no fuzzy is the same. There are general methods that do work for most, but at times we need to dig deeper into other methods, or even do odd stuff to get the same things to work on certain fuzzies. As you work with your ferrets, and try out all the different methods, you will find which work for you, sometimes the methods that seem like they won't and don't work just need a bit more time as well. I've used both the feline and canine S&C for my ferrets. It's much better and easier if you can get the frozen feline product, I think they're little meat niblets, not sure if they do small patties actually, but they are 98% meat-based which is great and have sufficient taurine. The canine version does small and large patties, but there's 2 things to keep in mind when using the dog product, A) there can be a higher veggie content, stick to 95% meat-based and no lower, and B) the dog versions do not have sufficient levels of taurine for ferrets. To fix the lower taurine problem, I mix in some extra pureed hearts when using a canine version, as it is very that ferrets get enough taurine through their diet since their bodies cannot create it like a dog can. Does Stella and chewys make any form of feline freeze dried that’s red meat? I’ve only seen it in the dog version, which is still 95% meat.
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Post by LindaM on Apr 24, 2018 13:32:54 GMT -5
I honestly don't think they do one in the Feline, I think they used to do one, but don't anymore. I'd simply grab a bag of either Lamb, Beef, or Venison (I think all 3 of those are 95%s) from the S&C Canine and just add a little extra pureed hearts to it, and feed it around twice a week. Since it is a small minority in the diet, I think it would be okay to add a little Taurine Powder instead if you can't mix in some actual hearts. Actual hearts are obviously better, and Taurine Powder is only ever a temporary solution. You'd add 250mg of powder to that meal for each ferret when doing the Taurine Powder.
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Post by Leah S. on Apr 24, 2018 17:50:16 GMT -5
I honestly don't think they do one in the Feline, I think they used to do one, but don't anymore. I'd simply grab a bag of either Lamb, Beef, or Venison (I think all 3 of those are 95%s) from the S&C Canine and just add a little extra pureed hearts to it, and feed it around twice a week. Since it is a small minority in the diet, I think it would be okay to add a little Taurine Powder instead if you can't mix in some actual hearts. Actual hearts are obviously better, and Taurine Powder is only ever a temporary solution. You'd add 250mg of powder to that meal for each ferret when doing the Taurine Powder. Can I ask you how long the freeze dried raw can be left out for rehydrated before it goes bad? I eventually wanna figure out how much to give them based on how much is left over but approximately how long can it be sitting before it needs to be thrown away?
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Post by LindaM on Apr 24, 2018 19:34:15 GMT -5
I like to go by a mix of the soups and grinds timelime, but I have left some out for 12 hours too. Keep in mind, if your home is very hot or humid, those times do definitely decrease. Personally, we keep our home never higher than 72F. Sometimes it may start scabbing up a little as it dries out in spots, this is still okay and most ferrets will still snack at it like that, though you might get a fussypants who doesn't want to touch it once it starts doing that. Also, if it doesn't smell off and there's a bit of it remaining, feel free to mix it in again with the fresh meal. HOW LONG TO LEAVE RAW OUT FOR: Soups: 6-8 hours Grinds: 8-12 hours Chunks: 10-24 hours (depending on size eg. the bigger the chunks are, the longer they'll last) Bone-in Meats: 12-24 hours (again, depending on size) Whole Prey: up to 48 hours
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