How to get him to eat bones

[lightningkarma]

I've got 2 boys:
Barry is on a raw diet, while Bruce is on kibble for health reasons-this works out great since Barry hates kibble and Bruce won't touch the raw.

Anyways, my problem with Barry is that he doesn't eat the bones. Any kind of bones- rabbit, chicken, beef etc. I've tried different animals, different sizes and shapes of bones but nothing. He strips the bones of their meat, but won't eat the bone itself; I don't think he knows he can. To make up for this, I have to give him bone powder until he figures out how to eat the bones. This is obviously not ideal. He eats every other part of raw just fine. How do I teach him that the bones themselves are edible?

[abbeytheferret6]

Have you try pounding with a hammer?
I would put in a baggie or cover with a cloth so things do not get too messy.
Have you tried quail?
Pretty hard to skip eating bones with that it would seem( found at Asian stores ---frozen)

What about chicks?
While not a good bone source and just considered a snack---he would have to do some gnawing.

You can also give mice which have soft bones.
I had to get my Phoebe first to like salmon oil, which i used to coat mouse at first.
I had to go thru steps for mine to like mice.

1. Skinned, gutted, cut up, and pretty good bit of salmon oil.
2. Not skinned, but gutted, and cut up  with salmon oil.
3. Just gutted and no salmon oil--- this is how i feed mine mice to this day.

I make a horizontal snip with scissors below rib cage of mouse.
Once I get my scissors in, I cut down all the way, so I can open up abdomen.
With scissor tips, grab guts and throw away. Some people do not gut, but I am used to doing it and ferrets are used to eating this way.
  mouse cut up with salmon oil not skinned

[lightningkarma]

Thank you for the great ideas! I think I forgot to mention I do frankenprey, but I will definitely try what you said with the mouse to get him to understand the chewing and cruching action of eating bones. He licks them and I think he nibbles on them because I sometimes see bite marks, but he never does a full bite that would cause him to break/eat the bone. Maybe I should start doing some whole prey like mice and chicks just until he gets it.