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Post by bitbyter on Oct 7, 2012 16:01:36 GMT -5
You know you are a raw feeder when...you find three packages of Gizzards and Hearts at the grocery store that are 100% hearts!! I now have 1.8 kg of hearts in the freezer!
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Post by Sherry on Oct 7, 2012 17:00:27 GMT -5
Fantastic find!!! They used to get a wee bit perturbed with me when I'd clear the freezer of hearts shortly after they'd put them out ;D That's why I started ordering them by the case!
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Post by bitbyter on Oct 9, 2012 9:51:39 GMT -5
Finely mincing the liver and hearts seems to be working for Wilma. If I mix the minced organs with their regular bone in chunks then she can't avoid the organs and is eating them. Going to try them on a mouse / rat / chicken organ meal tonight.
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Post by bitbyter on Oct 10, 2012 8:06:57 GMT -5
So this morning was a mix of large chunks of Rat Pup, minced liver and heart, 3 pinches of eggshell and a 1.5 tsp of pumpkin. A combo plate of all their least favourite meats and boy did I get the stink eye!! ;D We'll see how much is eaten when I get home. Hopefully they eat something.
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Post by Sherry on Oct 10, 2012 9:12:09 GMT -5
Fingers crossed and let me know how it goes ;D
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Post by bitbyter on Oct 11, 2012 9:27:10 GMT -5
Well, it didn't go so well but they did eat all the organs. It looks like this is their current order of preference:
Quail -> Chicken / Cornish Game Hen / Turkey -> Organs -> Rodents
I think I am going to have to make up a bit of rodent soup to dab on their noses and get them used to it. Maybe include a percentage of poultry in it an then slowly decrease it over time.
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Post by Sherry on Oct 11, 2012 11:09:11 GMT -5
Hey- that's great that they ate all the organs!!! As for the rodents, try that. Or something else that *might* work is what I had to do with mine. I started with chopped up pinkies mixed in with their favourite meat. Then when they ate all of that, whole pinkies. Then up the size range until we got to fur. Had to cut those ones open and squirt lots of their favourite oil inside. Once they ate the hoppers we were off to the proverbial races ;D
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Post by bitbyter on Oct 11, 2012 16:53:09 GMT -5
I forgot to mention this morning that Wilma's prolapse is back . Not like it was recently but still it has poked out again. I'm going to keep an eye on it tonight and see if it takes care of itself. I think she just went to litterbox so that's why it could be acting up now (I always check her when I get home from work). I'm guessing it's been aggravated from their last meal since they only ate the liver and heart yesterday, avoiding the rat pups which had the bone in them.
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Post by Sherry on Oct 11, 2012 20:40:43 GMT -5
Yeah, the liver and heart might trigger that Since she has a problem already, maybe sprinkle eggshell powder or add pumpkin to every liver/heart meal.
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Post by bitbyter on Oct 11, 2012 21:00:33 GMT -5
Tonight I gave them half a chopped up quail and some turkey neck pieces. We'll see how they do with the neck as it's the first time they've had that (though they've had ground turkey before).
I just checked Wilma again and her bum is back to normal (for her). Once the medication is done I'm going to take her into the vet for re-assessment as I really think this isn't an issue that is going to be fixed by medication. I think it is going to need something more long term to prevent it getting worse in the future.
I'm starting to think I may purchase an Ardunio and some weight sensors so that I can get an alert on my phone as to when one of them is using the litterbox. Then I can match poop to ferret to keep a closer eye on their health.
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Post by Sherry on Oct 11, 2012 21:45:45 GMT -5
Let me know how they do with the turkey neck. My brats have to have it chopped up before they'll eat it As for the box monitor- good luck!
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Post by bitbyter on Oct 11, 2012 21:54:24 GMT -5
It's just a murmur in my head at the moment but shouldn't be too expensive to throw together (with a brief look it should be under $100). I think the hardest part would be running the wires from the litterbox sensors to the Ardunio in such a way that the beasties couldn't get at them.
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Post by bitbyter on Oct 13, 2012 10:50:04 GMT -5
Well the stashing has started. When I started the raw switch and they had accepted it, they would usually chow down immediately when I brought the fresh stuff in the morning and evening. If there was anything left in the food den at these times I would remove it.
Now it seems they have either realized that food will be coming regularly and they can stash stuff and eat it when they want to or they got miffed at me for removing the "aged" stuff from the feeding den.
When I brought them their new stuff this morning, Wilma immediately started grabbing the leftovers from the feeding den and carried it out of the cage and made a dash for the tunnels. Luckily I caught her in time. I know for a fact they have some stuff in the tunnels as I can hear them chewing on it but I don't want them building up to much of a stash or leaving it to long and getting sick off of it. Any advise to prevent this behaviour (if it is even possible)?
Also, today I got my first broken skin bite! I was cleaning up some poop from an accident and I guess the movement of my hand and the paper towel startled Socks because she bit my hand hard enough to break the skin. She let good right away and she went into the sin bin for a few minutes but I think it was more my fault than hers.
They seems to do ok with the Turkey neck but I can't really know if they have been eat or just stashed for later. I'll do a weigh in later today and post their weights.
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Post by Sherry on Oct 13, 2012 12:07:25 GMT -5
Maybe try leaving a piece or two of the older stuff for them ;D Also, you can keep the cage closed when they are out and about. That will also help in reducing the stashing. Except for when they climb the cages and hook the pieces out through the bars
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Post by bitbyter on Oct 14, 2012 23:20:49 GMT -5
So I caged them most if the day today so that they wouldn't stash their meal outside of the cage. When I let them out this evening I found what I think is vomit all over one level of the cage and in the main tunnel between levels. It was white and contained what looked like bits of fat in it.
Do ferrets instinctively avoid meat that would be unsafe for them (spoiled) or is it a learned behavior? Not sure who did it as they both seem to be acting normally at the moment.
P.S. They seem to be crunching up the bones from the turkey necks without issue.
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