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Post by Heather on Nov 30, 2012 0:18:49 GMT -5
Name: Liz HF Forum Username: Sherholms
1. The internet; this forum especially was a wealth of information. I began looking at “before & after” pics of ferrets that had transitioned and decided I wanted that for my boys.
2. I would like to feed raw, I believe it is called frakenprey. A nice, healthy mix of meats, bones, and organs. I would not be opposed to feeding the occasional frozen mouse. With my current living conditions (renting – no yard), I can’t feed live. When I purchase my first home in about seven months, I’d love to look into live feeding (in the backyard so less mess).
3. I want them to be healthy and happy. I’d love to see an increase in energy and a decrease in possible health issues. My one rescue, Dexter, came from a terrible situation (fed Walmart brand kibble and living in his own filth) and I’d love for him to be able have a better, more natural way of life. He deserves it, such a sweetie!
4. Absolutely!
5. Two. Dexter (Dex) and Loki. Dex is probably about one and a half. I would actually love to get a "professional" opinion on his age - my vet isn't very good with ferret teeth aging. I’ve had him since late August (a rescue from Craiglist) and his owner approximated him being a year old. Loki was born February 2012 (so he is 9 months old) and I purchased him in late April 2012. Loki is a Marshall’s Farms ferret.
Dexter is “supposed” to be a Marshalls as well but he does not have tattoos. No health problems and both are up to date on vaccines. My vet insists that they are very healthy boys.
Dexter is a little chunky. He was very overweight when I got him (he was never let out of his tiny cage). I would say both boys are about “normal” now with Dex having a little more “winter fluff”.
6. I had been feeding Wellness Core Cat Kibble. I also give them bi-weekly raw eggs (Loki LOVES licking these up. He can down an egg in ten seconds flat). Recently (past three weeks), I’ve begun giving them raw chicken liver mixed into their kibble. They enjoyed this (would just eat the liver and leave the kibble), so I made the Soupie (outlined below) and they are eating it like mad. They love it so far! They’re been on soupie mixed with a little kibble (to entice) for about a week.
7. Yes, I suppose I’ve already started. They have been munching up the raw soupie for the past week. They seem to really love it so far (if I mix a teeny tiny bit of kibble into it). They also enjoy raw eggs and raw chicken liver (plain).
8. I’m about to graduate from Uni and start my big-girl job in less than a year! I’m incredibly excited and can’t wait to have a real “ferret room” (You KNOW that is a priority for my first house!).
9. How often during the week do you have access to a computer?
Every day!
10. Please post a picture of each of your ferrets (if possible).
Attached.
1. a scale for weighing your ferret- preferably in grams.
I have a postal scale for ebay sales. It can do grams.
2. All the makings for a puree soup. This includes chicken(or other meat), liver, heart, and eggshell powder. This you get by rinsing out eggshells, drying them, and then pulverizing them with either a mortar and pestle or a coffee grinder(clean, of course)
Check! Already made and in progress.
3. Initial picture of ferret before starting switch.
Check!
Hi and welcome to the mentoring program. In a little while your mentor (Yurei Avalon), our newest mentor, will introduce herself and you can get started on a new adventure in natural ferret care and diets. Please remember to post regularly (daily or as per arranged with your mentor) so that your mentor can assist you move along safely in this adventure. If you experience computer difficulties or are going to be away, please notify your mentor and most of all relax and have fun . Your mentor is here to help you on this journey. ciao
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2012 9:08:52 GMT -5
Hi Liz my name is Bethany and I'll be helping you switch your ferrets Dexter and Loki to raw with any luck! If you have any questions or have a problem and need an answer quickly you can email me at darkmoonnh@gmail.com or pm me.
I'll post my into below so you can skip it or read it as you chose. For right now I'd like to know what your feeding schedule is with your two boys, what you have on hand available for meat for them. It sounds like you are using a home made soup blend. Do they still get the small bit of kibble in it to entice? If they like raw egg as you have mentioned, you could try mixing some into the soup instead of kibble to entice them to snack on it.
Name: Bethany HF Screen Name: Yurei Avalon Location: NH, USA
About Me: I’m 25; Someday I hope to run my own business as well as a nonprofit ferret rescue and education program. I currently live with my boyfriend Matt in a condo, which we hope to upgrade to a larger house in a few years. Once we build an appropriate house we intend to make the most excellent ferret habitat possible and look into getting privately bred ferrets, living as natural a life as possible.
My favorite color is..... Silver My favorite food is.... Chocolate, followed by spicy things My favorite holiday is.... Halloween My favorite hobby is... Reading I like to listen to... Pretty much anything but rap and country. I collect... Ferrets! Model kits, Mounts/pets in WoW and MtG cards Something about me you might be surprised to know... When I was a sophomore in high school I won my town’s fall chili cook-off contest with the recipe my high school culinary program gave to me. It got me $100, a story in the local newspaper and to this day, that chili recipe makes everyone who tries it a believer. (Turkey Cilantro for those inquiring minds.) I became a mentor because... I switched my own ferrets using information and tips I found on this site and from other places on the internet. I know from painful experience what a poor or inappropriate diet can do to a pet and I don’t want anyone to have to see their animal suffer like I watched mine suffer growing up. I’ve also made mistakes in pet care in the past, and I feel that the best way to atone for them is to learn everything I can to make myself the best pet parent I can be so that it never happens again. And if I can help other people do the same, so much the better!
About My Ferrets: I currently have 9 ferrets with no desire to have more for now as I feel I am at the limit at which I can handle caring for them all appropriately. I have 6 hobs and 3 jills, all of which are Marshall Farm ferrets and are all young. Most of my ferrets were eating kibble for several months and then were switched to raw. The three newest went straight to raw the day they came home from the store. My ferrets are very spoiled- they have 4 triple unit ferret nation cages and a couple of hundred feet of tunnel connecting them to each other as well as a ferret playroom.
1. Murder – Male, sable. One of our oldest two ferrets, he is our alpha and a bit over a year old now. 2. Mayhem – Female, sable. One of our oldest two ferrets, she is still stuck on the soupy stage and is a bit over a year old now. 3. Artemis – Male, albino. My only “rescue”, purchased off of CL. He’s believed to be about a year old now. 4. Chell – Female, silver panda. A sweet, deaf wardy girl who is about 8 months old now. 5. Glad0s – Female, silver. An 8 month old, tiny jill who can out eat the hobs and is a tunneling expert. 6. Zar’thun – Male, dark sable. A well behaved, 7 month old hob with an excellent nature. 7. Stormageddon – Male, polecat. A clever 5 month old hob who believes he will one day rule the world. 8. Sigma – Male, dark sable. A 4 month old hob with a temperament as sweet as the Ood’s song. A real cuddle bug. 9. Wheatley – Male, silver panda. A 9 month old hob who may be a few sandwiches short of a picnic but he’s as affectionate as any other ferret. Currently still stuck at the soup stage.
About My Natural Feeding Experience:
Type of Mentor: I have fed kibble so I have experience judging quality of kibbles. I mainly feed commercial raw products right now and I also use raw, meaty bones and muscle meat. I am trying to secure myself a local raw meat supplier so I can begin to transition my group to a full frakenprey, non commercial, homemade diet. I also use freeze dried and jerkied meats.
My Specialty: I would have to say that I seem to find creative ways of getting ferrets to try new things when the normal process just isn’t working for a stubborn ferret. I’ve never fed whole prey, but I could certainly come up with ideas to help others who wanted to try get there.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2012 21:06:03 GMT -5
They are no longer getting kibble mixed in - just straight soup mix. They stopped eating the kibble all together about a week ago and kept leaving it in the bowl (eating around it) so I figured it was time to take it out of the equation. Their soup right now is a mix of: Chicken Livers, Chicken Hearts, Chicken, Pork, Powdered Eggshells, and Egg Yolks. I would say its about equal parts each ingredient (except the eggs and shells), give or take. I forgot to look at the weights on the packaging last time I made some. I will next time to alter the proportions if needed. I make a TON (Well, about two-ish/three-ish weeks worth) at a time then freeze into separate ice cubes. I've also saved the chicken leg bones and pork bones (still have some meat/fat on them) but they haven't seemed interested in them when given them. I'll be feeding a chicken leg bone tonight on top of their soup so I'll see if they've gotten the hang of it yet. They get a raw egg every two days which they gobble up instantly. They last had one yesterday. Their weight has been fairly constant over the last week. Dex is today at 2.4lbs; Loki is at 2.5lbs. They are up to 9oz of food per day. I tried feeding morning and night but they just weren't having the morning feeding (they'd let it all spoil) so I've just started feeding at night before "bed". Edit: Also, I add no water to the soup. It's just straight up what my food processor can chop. So fairly thick with some chunks of skin, hearts, etc.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2012 22:32:31 GMT -5
Awesome! It sounds like they are making good progress. I think you could try and start getting them on slivered meat now. Either let your soup be extra chunky with less chopping in the blender or hand chop some meat up small. You could try adding in some bones this way too- a chicken or turkey neck minced up as small as you can. (But not in the blender- it'll kill it!)
You may end up having to try offering it from your fingers to get them started if it doesn't work in the soup.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2012 11:44:29 GMT -5
The bones I kept have LOTS of meat on them still, I'll pull some off and make slivers for this evening. Hopefully that will go well! They haven't touched the chicken leg bone (that has meat on it) yet that I gave them. Of course, they seem to really like jerky so maybe it will get eaten before this afternoon. ;D Dexter found a large chunk of chicken skin in the soup that he ate last night (it was quite comical since he didn't really seem to know how to use his fangs for ripping). They were out "roaming" the upstairs of the house from 5:00pm to 11:45 pm last night. Not sure exactly how much they stayed out (as when I went to sleep they had kenneled themselves in their cage for bed already) but when I was consistently up in the room with them (for about an hour or two) their energy levels were great.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2012 18:12:58 GMT -5
Chicken leg bones are pretty large, mine have only just worked up to chewing on them and they have been doing raw for about 4 months now. Some of mine will chew the ends off of the leg bone and gnaw on the bone, but they don't have the jaw strength to do much more than suck the marrow out of the end. You may want to try some smaller bones to get them eating them- chicken wings are a great starter chopped up. As are the back and rib portion, necks, pork tails chopped up or pork necks chopped up. CGH or rabbit or any smaller critters work well for starter bones too. They may enjoy their meat as jerky mine certainly do. Just be warned that it'll start to stink after a couple of days. As for having issue tearing at the meat, you could try pinning it up or hanging it in a feeding den or in the cage. Mine have a hard time eating chicken halves or the entire leg portion. It seems to intimidate them.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2012 19:17:49 GMT -5
Chicken leg bones are pretty large, mine have only just worked up to chewing on them and they have been doing raw for about 4 months now. Some of mine will chew the ends off of the leg bone and gnaw on the bone, but they don't have the jaw strength to do much more than suck the marrow out of the end. You may want to try some smaller bones to get them eating them- chicken wings are a great starter chopped up. As are the back and rib portion, necks, pork tails chopped up or pork necks chopped up. CGH or rabbit or any smaller critters work well for starter bones too. They may enjoy their meat as jerky mine certainly do. Just be warned that it'll start to stink after a couple of days. As for having issue tearing at the meat, you could try pinning it up or hanging it in a feeding den or in the cage. Mine have a hard time eating chicken halves or the entire leg portion. It seems to intimidate them. Oh, I know about the stinky jerky effect! Each night I comb through their bedding and remove anything they were "saving" before I feed again. Any opinion on chicken feet? I keep seeing it in the meet department and I'm partially intrigued.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2012 19:44:38 GMT -5
Go for it if it's not too expensive! I bought some at an Asian market for my group to try and a bunch of the hobs enjoyed them. They nibbled at them over the course of a couple of days, eating the toes first and then slowly the big part of the foot leaving only a small center piece. Looked sooo weird! ;D
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2012 18:38:40 GMT -5
Weights are still the same today. Yesterday they got about 6 hours to be out total.
They ate most of the slivers, though they still left some (5/10 pieces) around the cage "for later". Obviously, if they aren't gone be next feeding they're getting tossed.
I forgot to mention, Dexter took an interest in the chicken leg. He didn't do much in the bone-gnawing department but he at least carried it around the cage, ate some meat off it, and such.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2012 13:31:08 GMT -5
That's great! Them wanting to stash/play with it or nibble on it means they will come around to eating it sooner or later. Of my group, the only two who don't eat meat chunks or bone are the ones who won't even touch the pieces, like they don't know what to do with it. The fastest switchers would play with the bones/pieces, stash them and nibble on them as they got the idea in their head they were meant to eat it. Don't be surprised if you find stuff stashed in the litter or dig boxes either. One of mine is terrible for this, but even if it's covered in rice or wood pellets he'd still eat it. I'll rinse the piece of meat off and pat dry and put it back in an appropriate spot if it looks savable, if not I chuck it. He really enjoys his meat seasoned well. I'd keep offering them a few slivers each day and gradually up the size on them if they keep eating it. I also wouldn't be afraid to not put out soupy for a good while to encourage them to clean out stashes.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2012 13:35:51 GMT -5
I see people feeding pumpkin and oils (olive, salmon, etc). Should I be doing this? If so, how much per fuzz?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2012 13:58:55 GMT -5
I don't feed pumpkin as a regular thing, but during shedding seasons I'll put maybe a teaspoon per ferret into their soup 2-3 meals a week to keep them going regular and prevent a hairball build up. The rest of the year we get it maybe once a week mixed in as a treat and build up preventative in case we ate something we shouldn't have. (Looking at you Mr. Wheatley!) How often you use it is up to you, some people try not to use it too often due to it having natural sugars in it. There hasn't really been any kind of study as far as I know to link using it occasionally to higher insuloma risks. I personally believe it's fine and way better than the amount of carbs/sugar found in kibbles.
As for oil, I have some grizzly salmon oil I try and remember to put in their food once a day or every other day as it is winter here and very dry, so extra itchy skin/coats are becoming a problem. I put like 2 pumps for 9 weasels in each bowl since there are some who don't like the fishy taste, so I go for smaller doses more often. I have others who will lap it off of a spoon. They don't need a lot of it to have nice, shiny coats. If mine get a hold of too much (stealing someone else's portion) they stink like fish for two days and their coats feel extra oily. Two teaspoons per ferret per week is probably enough. If they are oily/fishy cut back, if they seem to have rough, dry/itchy fur you can add some more.
You can also use extra virgin olive oil, cod oil, krill oil or any other kind of marine oil you can find. You will probably want to check the label on anything you do buy to watch for preservatives and any additives. Some people use the capsules and pop a hole in them, some use a pump bottle of the liquid. As far as the marine oils go, it pays to stick with a bit more expensive brand that is food grade and promises to filter out any heavy metals or contaminants that may be in the fish.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2012 13:58:03 GMT -5
Tomorrow is New-Food making day! I'll be sure to record the percentages of each ingredient in my mix. Also going to try and find some necks and some chicken feet for snackies. My goal is to chop it up less and have lots of slivers. I might decide to just use a knife on the weaker meats. Also going to try and find salmon oil. If I can't I'll grab some EVOO for the time being. Thank you so much for your help so far! I'll be back later this evening with some weights.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2012 17:48:16 GMT -5
Awesome! Keep me posted on how it goes.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2012 22:22:59 GMT -5
Weights are still good. Though Loki is getting much more "yellower" in color growing his winter coat. Not sure why.
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