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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2011 9:34:31 GMT -5
Okay, I will try to tomorrow!
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Post by katt on Feb 15, 2011 5:07:38 GMT -5
Let me know how it goes!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2011 22:09:33 GMT -5
Girls pigged out today. They've eaten close to 6 oz and I think they're still hungry!
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Post by katt on Feb 16, 2011 22:30:55 GMT -5
Yay! That is funny they are eating so much with it being Spring Shed and all. But most people do notice that when switching to raw their ferrets wille at more for a while to mke up for the nutrients/protein they weren't getting before . Maybe your girls are having a delayed reaction? Have you been able to find any beef organs/heart at all? If so, I would try them on that next to get a little organ variety in their diet. Also, what about game hen? I think I remembered before that you looked for it but it was out, or seasoned or something like that? If you can get your hands on some pinkies try cutting them in half and mixing them into the meat chunks. Now here is something to think about/a little review. Right now you have a fair variety, and we will work on adding a little more. You are feeding meat, bones, and organs. You re doing GREAT. I want you to get a few more protein sources, and hopefully get them up to eating some whole prey/whole wings and such. It all depends on where you want to go with their diet. BUT to graduate, you are going to have to present a full week's menu demonstrting the proper balance of meat:bone:organ, and variety of protein/organ sources. I want you to start thinking about that and maybe get a working menu, and an updated list of ALL of the foods that you feed right now. -+ Koda wnted to say "-+" apprently. He ran across the keyboard. Anyways, I just want to get you starting to think in terms of a menu of the basics. Like MW bones and organs, TR bones and meat, Sat M W R whole prey, etc. And we can try to get some more variety and maybe a little whole prey incorporated whenever you re ready and can get some too.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2011 12:43:54 GMT -5
Okay, so a couple things.
The only chunks the girls will eat right now is chicken wing chunks (fairly large) and small pork chunks. I'm trying to get them to eat beef and heart chunks now, as well as other chicken parts and liver.
So yesterday they had a thick heart/beef/pork mush. They seemed to like it alright. Today I gave a pulverized turkey neck, so well see how they do with that. I'm might be picking up a second FN tomorrow so I might get some mice/rats next weekend. Until then I'm working on the chunks.
I'm also going to the vet today to get some flea / heartworm stuff.
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Post by katt on Feb 18, 2011 14:30:01 GMT -5
Okay, so a couple things. The only chunks the girls will eat right now is chicken wing chunks (fairly large) and small pork chunks. I'm trying to get them to eat beef and heart chunks now, as well as other chicken parts and liver. So yesterday they had a thick heart/beef/pork mush. They seemed to like it alright. Today I gave a pulverized turkey neck, so well see how they do with that. I'm might be picking up a second FN tomorrow so I might get some mice/rats next weekend. Until then I'm working on the chunks. I'm also going to the vet today to get some flea / heartworm stuff. Ok, so get some beef meat, and cut it into tiny chunks and start mixing it into the beef mush. Just like with the chicken. Start small, get them to accept that, and then push them to bigger and bigger pieces decreasing the soup slowly. Same with the pork. Give the chunks they will eat, but start to make them a little bigger each time. With the turkey neck, you might need to get them eating turkey chunks before they will eat the turkey neck, but then you might not. Keep it up, they will get there!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2011 20:07:34 GMT -5
How many oz of heart should they get a week?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2011 13:13:27 GMT -5
Okay so the girls are both eating the beef chunks! Trixie was gobbling them up, and then Pixie was acting like she was hungry. So I added some more and covered them with freeze dried sprinkles and she decided the beef was yummy! Next step is heart chunks, and chicken chunks other than wing.
They both did well on the pulverized turkey neck. It was similar in consistency to the ground turkey.
I'm picking up the new cage in a couple hours! So excited!!!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2011 13:25:22 GMT -5
So here's what I'm thinking about for variety. Chicken, beef, pork, CGH, turkey. Then whole prey rats and mice. I'd like add more whole prey, but that means ordering them which is pricey, so it'll have to wait a bit. So with those proteins, I could feed one protein a day.
Goal schedule (until I can add more whole prey)
Mon: mice day Tuesday: Beef chunks Wednesday: CGH/chicken quarters Thursday: pork chunks Friday: rat day Saturday: ground turkey Sunday: chicken wing/neck/organs
That's 2 days whole prey, 2 days bone in, and 3 days muscle meats.
I'm a bit confused how many oz of liver they should have with the whole prey. They would have 2 days (4 meals) whole prey. How much extra liver should I been giving if a followed a schedule like that? Same with heart?
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Post by katt on Feb 19, 2011 13:44:43 GMT -5
So here's what I'm thinking about for variety. Chicken, beef, pork, CGH, turkey. Then whole prey rats and mice. I'd like add more whole prey, but that means ordering them which is pricey, so it'll have to wait a bit. So with those proteins, I could feed one protein a day. Goal schedule (until I can add more whole prey) Mon: mice day Tuesday: Beef chunks Wednesday: CGH/chicken quarters Thursday: pork chunks Friday: rat day Saturday: ground turkey Sunday: chicken wing/neck/organs That's 2 days whole prey, 2 days bone in, and 3 days muscle meats. I'm a bit confused how many oz of liver they should have with the whole prey. They would have 2 days (4 meals) whole prey. How much extra liver should I been giving if a followed a schedule like that? Same with heart? I am looking into the heart for you because honestly, I never really thought about it. The liver should be 10% of their non-whole prey diet. (or 5% plus 5% kidney/spleen if you can find it). I would recommend looking into the beef liver and heart as well to mix in on beef days, as a bit of variety in the organ meat is good. The whole prey will help with that too - but with variety more is always better. For ground turkey days, have you tried any turkey whole meat yet other than necks? It is worth a poop so that you can give them turkey meat instead of ground some weeks, and I would suggest giving turkey necks with say one meal on turkey days, at least a few weeks. Again, the more variety the better and this will give hem a different bone source. Even with whole prey, all of the non-whole prey meat should still have the 80:10:10 ratio of meat:bone:organ. You have a pretty good schedule going there, we can tweak it a bit and you can add in other proteins here and there for even more variety if you want. I find that it keeps my boys excited about their food to get "new" things every now and then. You have a very good variety there though so you wouldn't necessarily need to do this. I just find it a nice way to keep them thinking about their food, and add in a little different protein here and there. Also something to consider if you can find it is chicken feet. Makes a good chewy toy/bone source. I don't know if your girls are chewers at all, but if they are they might like the chicken feet. You could rotate between neck and feet on the chicken days. Just offering suggestions to think about. How are they doing on their chunks?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2011 13:55:15 GMT -5
Okay, sounds great!
The girls are doing really good with the chunks. I'll try some turkey chunks sometime this week. Tomorrow I'm trying chicken quarters.
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Post by katt on Feb 19, 2011 14:35:24 GMT -5
Ok so I asked Sherry and here is what she had to say:
If you add the turkey neck to the turkey days like I suggested, that would cover another bone-in meal. Also, if you can find beef heart, then you can have beef heart on beef days, and chicken heart on chicken days.
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Post by katt on Feb 19, 2011 14:35:52 GMT -5
The comment on taurine supplements reminds me *sigh* I have to find some supplements for poor Koda.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2011 16:30:49 GMT -5
Right now I have chicken liver and pork heart. I can add more bone in easily. Thanks for finding that out for me
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2011 20:31:37 GMT -5
I also use a supplement with taurine. I figure adding a bit can't hurt I bought mine online at amazon. I use the Now brand powder.
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