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Post by Sherry on Jan 25, 2013 14:33:42 GMT -5
Sounds good And I just want you to know how much I admire your perseverance, and tell you that you are a great ferret mom We WILL get them there
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2013 14:30:03 GMT -5
Thank you So I just wanted to do a quick post-in to mention something interesting. So Mischief has REALLy been holding out these past couple of days - like eating only a little over an ounce a day holding out the BRAT. HOWEVER, in the past 2 feedings we tried something a bit different just to see what would happen - while he was begging for his meal we put down a bowl of JUST small chunks to tide him over until the 'soup' was on and HE ATE THEM!!! Mind you, he ate a max of .5oz on one occassion and only a little the other, but he didn't require soup or warmth for it. This is just strange. But the little bugger won't eat his chunks in the soup, go figure. But of course he LOVES his soup plain.
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Post by Sherry on Jan 26, 2013 17:59:03 GMT -5
That's an amazing step! Keep doing that with him and increase the amount of chunk, decrease the soup. It's quite possible you can get him up to larger pieces with minimal effort. Also, try just leaving some in their normal eating area and see how he does. If we can get a breakthrough with one, the others likely won't be too far behind
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2013 11:42:31 GMT -5
So we have 2 now that will eat the chunks plain while waiting for the rest of their meal to be prepared Both Mischief and Tak eat chunks readily. The catch is that Mischief eats a MAX of .5oz and Tak usually only eats around .25oz or so, and when we add the rest of their chunks in with a little soup they typically won't eat much more. Mischief will eat til he is full (but that usually leaves most of the rest of his meal including the rest of the chunks) and Tak eats ALL of the soup then grazes on the chunks at his leisure. Bandit, oddly enough, has reverted a bit. He was my best eater but now he isn't eating as much to include his chunks. He also requires us to hand-feed him for at least half of his meal or he won't finish eating. Pogo is still being Pogo - he still GAGS and spits when we try to feed him whole rabbit slivers/chunks and even though he will chew a bit when it comes to his soup, he DEFINITELY doesn't like the 'ground' consistency of the soup that he has been getting and he has been eating a bit under 2oz a day because of it. I just don't know how we are going to get him switched - HECK I don't know how we ever got him on raw soup in the first place. He is just so stubborn! As for the weights - my BF did get them but at the moment I can't find them, but I do know that none of them have really gained or lost any weight since they were weighed 2 weeks ago, so that is good. So where do we go from here? With Tak and Mischief I will start making the chunks larger and larger. I'll be doing the same with Bandit, but how do we get him to stop making us hand-feed him - or is this OK to do? As for Pogo, I'm really at a loss here.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2013 11:52:26 GMT -5
Oh, I forgot to mention a few things: Poopies - They are starting to firm up with the bonemeal. However, Bandit is still having cycles of his poopie woes - for a day or two he has been having frequent light-colored mucousy, gassy poopies. I know it has to be uncomfortable. I just don't know what to do for him. Organ soup - I went to make this days ago but due to work issues and things not being thawed in time (thank you Derrick ) it didn't happen, and I have been working A LOT since. Soooo, I will be making the organ soupy and giving that a whirl. I figure I can add some pumpkin to the mix. As for the cream, do I just add regular store bought heavy cream? I thought ferts couldn't have milk like products - my Emmett threw up A LOT when he accidentally drank some milk remnants once. Activeness - Morning plays have started getting better lately (I guess Momma has just been getting up too late some days when they are ready to play because when I get up earlier they all come flying out of the cage and start playing together). I LOVE LOVE LOVE to see them all play, especially Bandit. Just this morning they all went WILD together
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Post by Sherry on Jan 31, 2013 20:11:51 GMT -5
For the chunks, leave them out for the day if they don't finish all of them right away, see how they do. By doing that, there's a good chance Bandit will go back to it as well. With Pogo, keep giving the consistency he's getting right now. He will get used to it Stubborn boy ;D The heavy cream is low in lactose, so won't affect them the same way milk does. Glad to see the bone meal is helping with the stools! With how stubborn these boys are, you are going to have to keep using it for a while. Which is the reason for the heart/organ soup as well.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2013 13:24:36 GMT -5
so I went to make the organ soup and realized that I don't know how much heart and liver to add. I know 1/2 tsp of heavy cream per ferret but how much heart and liver do I add for 1 batch?
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Post by Sherry on Feb 2, 2013 14:30:23 GMT -5
Make it as though they were eating a full meal. You can always freeze. They likely aren't going to take a lot at first, even hand fed, but keep at it.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2013 1:16:00 GMT -5
So as per the norm I have good and bad update news. I'll start with the good first: Tak is taking to the meat eating world like a champ! He has been GORGING on rabbit chunks. He does still like his soup and he knows that if he is a good boy and eats the most of his chunks first, and if he waits patiently after, he will get a little soup. Granted, he is a master at cleaning the soup off of the chunks, but he eventually finishes his meal within a couple of hours. Mischief is finally starting to get better about chunks. He also will eat the majority of his chunks first and wait for the soup, but with him he won't eat any more chunks once the soup goes down. But at least he is eating chunks plain! We have also been making the chunks bigger gradually and he is keeping up fine. THE BAD: Pogo STILL won't touch anything other than the soup. Scruff-and-stuff also doesn't work with him AT ALL. Bandit, oh Bandit. For the past few days he REFUSES to eat anything other than soup. I'm honestly at a loss here as he was my BEST eater slurping up the chunks like a champ long before the others would touch them. I will admit that I have been giving him a bit more soup since he began refusing the chunks but it is because at first I was beginning to think he was getting sick again - he wouldn't wake up, all he wanted to do was sleep, and he was just acting odd. But for the past day or so he seems to be fine EXCEPT that he is grinding his teeth a lot when he eats now. So now I'm wondering if something is wrong with his mouth or his teeth. I tried looking in there tonight but he REFUSED to let me look so I'll have to wait until tomorrow when his Dad is home to help me. He is also starting to shed. The problem is that in his refusal to eat chunks he has gone from eating 3-4oz of total meat to less than 2 and some days only around 1oz. This is why I'm concerned. Also, I tried the organ soupy. I mixed 2:1 liver to heart plus heavy cream and pumpkin (with a little water). Tak LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOVES the stuff! Mischief likes it pretty well. Bandit will lick at it but prefers not to eat any. And Pogo absolutely REFUSES it like anything new I froze a bunch in ice cube trays and will try some with this every day until I get them eating it. How often should I let them eat this soup mix? I understand that liver can make stools get nasty, so I assume there needs to be a limit on this stuff.
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Post by Sherry on Feb 7, 2013 10:25:37 GMT -5
Generally the limit is 2oz liver, 2oz other organ per ferret. For hearts mine have, for some reason, decided they will no longer eat them So I'm doing a heart soup and giving it a few times a week Normally they'd have gotten one full heart meal a week. Alright- with Tak especially start introducing bone in meats to him. He should have no problem with the rabbit rib bones. Same for Mischief. Out of curiosity are they eating anything other than rabbit right now? Since your soup is balanced just stick with giving Pogo that for now. Is it possible Bandit has some form of ulcer? The teeth grinding is what's making me wonder. If it's not lower down in the digestive tract he won't have the typical tarry stools. Something that *might* help if it is would be colloidal silver. You'd give it to Bandit by spraying about 4 sprays on top of a spoon of soup.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2013 13:16:28 GMT -5
hehehe...sounds like we all have some picky brats ;D
I'll try the rabbit ribs and let you know how it goes.
My boys are ONLY eating rabbit meat right now (but they do eat pork organs). Because they were so picky we decided to stick to one meat and work up to chunks at least before we tried any new items. Also, I'm wary about doing the normal chicken as Bandit does have bad allergies to it when it is in kibble and treat form (my boys haven't gotten any store bought treats in nearly 2 years now because of this). I'm OK with trying something like turkey though as a start. Bandit also got REALLY sick when we first tried to switch them to soup and then we were trying to use Beef. He threw up A TON after eating the beef. Granted, he had also had 4 kibbles after eating the beef soup, but it was literally only 4 little kibbles so I don't think it was the kibble that caused it. Just an FYI. Were you wanting us to try different meats now? If so, what would you recommend?
As for Bandit and his mouth, I'll let you know what we find when my BF gets home and helps me look.
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Post by Sherry on Feb 7, 2013 13:46:12 GMT -5
I'd tend to leave beef out of it then. Frodo also has a severe allergy to it. Bloody vomiting and diarrhea within 20m of eating it. Stay away from bison as well, just in case. And yes, I think it's a good idea to start trying other proteins now. Since they are getting pork organs, let's try that first! It's a favourite here For those who eat chunks you may have to start by mixing in some pork slivers with the rabbit. For Bandit puree or grind some and mix the tiniest bit into the soup base. Same for Pogo.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2013 16:49:42 GMT -5
OK, so this post is going to only be about Bandit. I just posted a thread on him on the forum about how our vet thinks he might have lymphoma I know he hasn't been feeling well lately, and I've written in about how he has been refusing his chunks. However, he readily eats soupie. My question is, because he is obviously sick do you think he has been refusing his chunks because he is nauseas (sp?) ? We are going to be taking Bandit in for a biopsy surgery in a week or two. All this being said, should I just allow him to eat soupie for now or should we still really push the chunks? Also, considering he has been on soupie now almost 6 months should we consider CG to maybe help get a bit more balance into him, or is the soupie balanced enough to prevent nutritional imbalance?
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Post by Sherry on Feb 13, 2013 16:52:21 GMT -5
If he will easily transition to the commercial raw, do so. If he fights it too much I'd not worry until you get biopsy results back.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2013 1:30:04 GMT -5
So we opted to not try the CG for now as we are having a hard enough time simply getting Bandit to eat. He is doing better with the buprenex, but it isn't as sedating for him as the vet led me to believe - he is actually awake a lot more than I expected. He doesn't appear to be in too much pain though, but he still isn't able to eat more than 1oz at a time, and he won't eat this often. He has been averaging about 1.4oz of actual meat a day. I'm actually a little worried with this. He has been at this rate for almost 1 week now. He has lost some weight. Do you think I should be concerned? THe only issue is that I don't want to force him to eat more than he is willing too as I think it upsets his tummy. Pogo is in the same place. He is interested in what Mischief and Tak are eating, but not enough to actually try it. He is STILL gagging and spitting when we try to scruff and stuff rabbit meat Mischief is still going strong, but he occassionally will revert back to eating less chunks sometimes and begging for soup. He kinda likes the organ soup, but he won't eat much of it. Tak, on the other hand, is doing AWESOME! He will actually eat organ slivers, and he LOVES organ soup I must admit, between my being REALLY sick over the past few weeks, and now Bandit being sick, I have been a bit lazier than normal. I do have some pork to try with the boys but I haven't done it yet. I am sorry. It's just been a really tough couple of weeks. I also have rabbit ribs set aside, but I wanted to have a full day to watch the boys to make sure they were OK with the bones (sorry, but I am WAY OCD and a worrier, so I need this for me). I am going to be home for a few days later this week after Bandit goes into surgery to watch him so I'll try these things then. Thank you for being patient with me these past few crazy weeks.
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