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Post by Sherry on Mar 19, 2012 10:03:33 GMT -5
Don't forget- you've now removed the carbs from her diet Carb elimination means weight loss. Not to worry as long as she's eating and acting normally. It will soon come back on in muscle
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2012 12:34:24 GMT -5
It's also getting to be the time of year when they would probably lose some weight anyway (unless their seasons are backwards).
My boy Finn has been gradually losing weight since February (even before he got sick). Fenton and Fiona have been gaining weight, because they have their seasons backwards, their bodies think it's fall right now ;D
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2012 14:08:43 GMT -5
She gained 4 grams today, so yay! They were hissing at each other last night over dinner. LOL It was funny to watch them snatch up a piece of their food and run with it. And omg, Cooper gained 37 grams today....
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Post by Sherry on Mar 19, 2012 14:50:50 GMT -5
Just keep feeding them ;D cooper will grow by leaps and bounds now that he has the proper nutrition!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2012 14:52:27 GMT -5
Mice... definitely the nastiest things I've ever put in a blender. LOL I used pinkies and fuzzies last night for their dinner, and today I used adults. They seem to be enjoying them. Now to get them to eat them without be having to stick 'em in the blender, haha.
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Post by Sherry on Mar 19, 2012 15:07:31 GMT -5
What worked for mine was to make a slit in the abdomen and squirt in their favourite oil. But before that, try mixing whole pinkies in with their meat and when they eat those give them plain. After that, move up to fuzzies, etc up the size and age. They may balk at hoppers because of the fur, and that's where the oil comes in. By cutting them open they can smell good food, and the oil lures them into trying it
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2012 2:59:26 GMT -5
Great news! I took two adult mice, split open their abdomens an drizzled some chicken juice on them. It was a hit! They were fighting over them and everything. Haha. One mouse is completely gone and the other one is half gone. Whoot! Not going to lie, I think it's a little gross they eat the head too. LOL
On a side note, I'm tempted to feed my boyfriend to them. He gets mad at me because I don't do anything about them 'fighting' over food. They just hiss and snatch food if the other one comes close. He thinks they're going to seriously injure one another. I think the competition is good, ESPECIALLY for Alice, who is just now kind of getting on board with the whole idea of raw.
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Post by Sherry on Mar 20, 2012 9:22:27 GMT -5
That's fantastic they've gotten past the fur issue so well Food fights are normal ;D In the 4 years of feeding raw/whole prey, I've never had an injury of any kind. Tell him to consider it a verbal argument as to who's going to get the best tidbits
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2012 17:52:11 GMT -5
Gave them a rat this morning. I didn't put any juices or cut it open or anything. Well, here's how that went. You can definitely see how much healthier he looks! Especially compared to his 'crybaby' video.
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Post by Sherry on Mar 20, 2012 18:21:24 GMT -5
I love how he keeps "killing" it over, and over, and over again ;D
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2012 22:19:52 GMT -5
Okay, so now I have everything necessary for frankenprey, what would be a decent menu?
How much in organs, how much bone, how much this, how much that.... I also have raw medallions and will feed whole prey regularly, so I think if I do screw up, that'll fix 'em up and balance it back out. lol
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2012 22:45:26 GMT -5
Okay, so now I have everything necessary for frankenprey, what would be a decent menu? How much in organs, how much bone, how much this, how much that.... I also have raw medallions and will feed whole prey regularly, so I think if I do screw up, that'll fix 'em up and balance it back out. lol Here is the basic rule of thumb, from this thread: holisticferret60.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=meat&action=display&thread=55#ixzz1pidWzFyZOf the roughly 10% organ meat, half of that should be liver, and half should be something else like kidney, brain, spleen, etc. Another good rule of thumb is, assuming you feed 2 meals per day, you could have 1 meal of liver per week, and 1 meal of "other" organs per week. That would cover the organ requirement. Heart and gizzard count as muscle meat, not organ. I think with a growing fuzz like your baby boy Cooper, you will want to feed at least a couple of heart meals per week. Heart (and gizzard to a lesser degree) are also rich in taurine and blood, both things that a growing ferret can really use! Edible bone would typically be bone from any animal small enough that a ferret could take it down, for example rabbit bones, mouse bones, cornish game hen bones. All of the bones in a chicken are also fair game, except possibly the thigh bones, which MAY possibly be too thick, but if smashed with a hammer, would probably be doable. As for roughage, this is typically fur, feathers, stomach contents, etc. In our case, if we're doing frankeyprey, we often use canned pumpkin (pure pumkin, not pie mix) to provide the rougage. A little bit of pumpkin can be smeared on their meals. This is especially helpful for organ meals, as it will also firm up the stools. Anal prolapse is a really common problem for ferrets, and having constantly loose poops cause this. Loose poops are generally the result of not having enough roughage. That's why a little pumpkin on a regular basis could save your ferret's bum, literally On top of all that, you want at least 3 different protein sources. Hope that information is helpful to at least start thinking about how to organize a menu that covers the bases
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2012 22:52:02 GMT -5
Thank you! Right now I'm kind of experimenting and seeing exactly how much they eat per day/per meal. I just put 5 oz. total in there for their dinner, so I think once I figure that out, I'll be on the road to raw!
Dang it, I thought heart was an organ! Guess I have to go back to the Asian market and get some pig uterus. (Ewww). What do giblets count as?
I think it's kind of funny. Both of them prefer the meat they have to use their teeth to cut and tear into over the medallions. Haha.
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Post by Sherry on Mar 20, 2012 23:33:58 GMT -5
Heart and gizzard are both muscle
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2012 5:17:11 GMT -5
Okay, so I think I've come to the conclusion that 5 oz. per meal is a little bit too much, at least for right now. They left about an oz., so I'll start doing my calculations now, and adjust as needed.
If I do 4 oz. per meal, that means they'll need 3 oz of muscle meat, .4 oz of edible bone, .4 oz of organs, and .2 oz of roughage. (I know it doesn't need to be perfect every meal, but I'd rather start out with doing this than mess up by trying to balance it out over the course of several days).
How do I figure out how much bone I'm feeding? For example, the frog legs would be muscle meat, but how much of that weight would be bone? Would I need to do all the figuring and calculating if I make prey a meal, or is that pretty much balanced by itself?
I'm working on a menu right now.
Here are some 'meals' I've worked up.... Would these work? I figured I'd post my 'test run' meals before I spend a ton of time coming up with a bunch of different meal options if I'm not doing it right, haha.
First meal: 2 oz. chicken breast 1.5 oz chicken wings .4 oz liver .1 oz pumpkin
Second meal: 3.5 oz frog legs (bone in) .4 oz spleen .1 oz pumpkin
Third meal: 1 oz chicken heart 2.6 oz duck neck .3 oz pig uterus .1 oz pumpkin
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