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Post by Sherry on Feb 12, 2011 0:15:49 GMT -5
That is fantastic! How are you feeling about your switch so far, and your own abilities with adapting whatever you may need to adapt according to a given ferret's needs? Or even just about creating a balanced diet? Do you understand what can be swapped for what with various meats? And have you been able to check who is eating what with the liver? I gather eveyone is doing well with bone now?
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Post by goingpostal on Feb 12, 2011 9:01:12 GMT -5
I'm feeling pretty good, still a tad confused on how much organ they should be getting with a half whole prey diet rather than all raw, and how to make sure they are getting enough organs and calcium. When I'm feeding just meat or bone in whatever, should I always give some organs along with it to make it more complete?
I gave them a chunk of chicken thigh, plus a couple chicken gizzards and chopped pork liver today, I sat and watched them for a while and Craven was eating liver really well, I offered some to Pandora and she turned her nose up, Koda was eating the gizzards and Pip working on the chicken. I left some liver in the fridge and will put it into a soup tomorrow so they all have to eat some. Also there was nothing but feathers left of that quail from yesterday!
I am going to go ahead and try feeding most of my whole prey items this week, although I don't have any mice to feed off right now and won't for a few weeks so I guess we'll replace that day with something else for now. If they take to all my whole prey I think I'll be pretty well set switching which would be amazing, I think.
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Post by Sherry on Feb 12, 2011 17:15:56 GMT -5
One good rule of thumb. If their diet is half whole prey, then only give half the organ meat and half the bone they'd have otherwise. So, if out of 14 possible meals they are getting whole prey for, say, 8 of them, that leaves 6 meals to divide up into proper proportion. Of those 6 meals, 3-4 would be bone, 1-2 would be straight meat, one meal 1/2 their normal organ meat, with the rest made up with either bone or muscle meat. Does that help make it a bit clearer than mud ;D ?
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Post by goingpostal on Feb 13, 2011 10:58:35 GMT -5
That does help, is it ok to make an entire meal just organs? Once I have more organs to work with that will be fine, right now all I have is the liver. I gave them turkey gizzards this morning, didn't chop into them at all, they got fed about an hour later than the rest of this week and man did they let me know! They were making a racket around normal feeding time and Pip and Pandora attacked the food as soon as I got in there. I gave some more plain chopped pork liver and both Craven and Koda ate some. Still haven't seen the other two actually eating liver, but they do eat whole prey so they must be somewhat. I took out a medium guinea pig for tomorrow, but might need to grab something else too, it's only 170 grams and they usually eat more than that in a day.
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Post by Sherry on Feb 13, 2011 11:08:38 GMT -5
Yes, they certainly can have just the liver for a meal I always had trouble getting other organs into mine, so most of the time, that's what they had. I slipped in some kidney when and where I could Just be aware- straight organ stools will be black, tarry, and somewhat loose.
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Post by goingpostal on Feb 13, 2011 19:36:09 GMT -5
Yeah, we've seen liver poo. They had cleared out most of the gizzards already so I will give some more tonight, I fed the cat a couple sardines and gave the ferrets some to try, last time I did that they got ignored almost completely. I put some fish oil on them and Craven licked it off but didn't really eat any, Pandora ate a little off my finger, and now I stink like fish. Great. With fish, I know some people buy minnows or whatever at bait shops, is there anything to worry, watch out for with that? I suppose I could get worms there too. My grocery store doesn't sell any whole fish that I have found, just fillets. I know smaller fish are best, are bluegills considered small enough? I know I could get those easily if I find someone to take me fishing this summer. Gotta love my b/f, he's ok with feeding them raw, but he saw me taking out the guinea pig and looking for a place to stick it in the fridge and goes "you aren't putting that by our food, are you?" But he has been checking out freezers at his work in case we need more space.
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Post by Sherry on Feb 13, 2011 22:36:04 GMT -5
Not all ferrets will take to fish. Only a couple of mine actually like them. A good for the b/f! That's fantastic that he's doing that
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Post by goingpostal on Feb 13, 2011 22:56:48 GMT -5
They investigated the fish a bit more, but no real eating, I left maybe half a sardine in there and gave the rest to the cat, she was pretty distraught the ferrets got any as she adores them. Oh well, I suppose I have enough proteins that if fish aren't a hit it isn't the end of the world. I may try some live feeder fish one day and see what they think of those, they enjoy playing in water and digging for stuff in it.
Hoping to hear from the meat guys tomorrow, the grocery store has pork pieces for really cheap so maybe I can pick up some good stuff!
Tomorrow will be the real test, larger whole prey, something they've never had before, gonna give it whole first and see how that goes. There is only one gizzard left from today and they have all been eating it so no more chopping those, which is nice because they are hard to get through!
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Post by goingpostal on Feb 14, 2011 10:13:30 GMT -5
Give ferrets an entire guinea pig=hilarity ensues. Pip checked it out closely, like what is this thing mom? Then started chowing on a leg no problem. Craven tried to drag it away, Pandora dragged it back, Koda grabbed the whole thing and brought it to his paper bag, Pandora stole it and tried bringing it into the tunnels. So as much as I didn't want to stick a clip through a whole GP, I did (wasn't too bad) and Pandora and Pip were eating well, I think the other two will as well once it's more started. The sardine from last night disappeared as well, hopefully it was eaten and not stashed.
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Post by Sherry on Feb 14, 2011 10:35:59 GMT -5
Don't you love how excited they are about their food now That's fantastic that you didn't have to even cut it up for them! Could you write me up a menu plan for what they are now eating? Base it on the Mon. they get this, Tues. they get that, etc?
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Post by goingpostal on Feb 14, 2011 11:14:28 GMT -5
We'll so far it's been all over the place, now that the whole prey is here I was planning this week to be
Mon-guinea pig tues-was going to give chicken wings wed-rats thurs-pork loin boneless and pork liver fri-quail sat-maybe the other turkey wing, or chicken thigh sun-chicken or turkey liver, hopefully my other organs if the come in, and either chicks or gizzards for the 2nd meal, hadn't decided yet
I was going to start a notebook or something so I can keep track of what they are eating, to make sure they are getting a age/size variety with the whole prey, and so I remember to vary my other cuts and kind of grocery store meat. In probably one or two weeks they will back to getting one meal to one day of mice as well. My oldest litter is around 2 weeks old now.
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Post by Sherry on Feb 14, 2011 11:41:11 GMT -5
That looks pretty good. How do you feel about graduating?
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Post by goingpostal on Feb 14, 2011 11:47:36 GMT -5
Do I get a little hat with a tassel? ;D
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Post by Sherry on Feb 14, 2011 22:22:02 GMT -5
No, with ferrets, it's more likely to be one of those little cone affairs Just to clarify, you are still supplementing with taurine powder right now?
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Post by Heather on Feb 14, 2011 22:57:08 GMT -5
You've done it....Congratulations I understand that you're ready to graduate....no little tassles for you though but some very happy fuzzes Congratulations...your journey to get your little ones to eat raw is complete...a new journey is now yours because when feeding raw the journey is never over but you can now go forward and know that you have the knowledge and the knowhow to properly feed your little ones. Even though you've graduated you're never alone. Your mentor is always available, she's just a pm away. You also have access to the whole forum if you find that you're stumped for a solution. I will leave this thread open for a few days so that your mentor can come in and congratulate you, then I will lock up this thread. You can review it at any time you desire, you just will no longer be able to post to it. ciao
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