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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2013 14:19:07 GMT -5
I went on a scavenger hunt last night at the different stores, and ended up finding a large package of beef heart, and beef kidney! So I spent about 2 hours last night cutting up their chicken (meat, hearts, livers, gizzards) and the beef (kidney, heart) in to their packages.
Last night I introduced them to the beef kidney and heart my putting a few chunks in to the bowl with a mix of chicken meat, gizzards and hearts.
This morning I did an "about" equal mix of chicken meat, heart, gizzard, beef heart and kidney. I'm still cutting it in to small chunks for them, but I just found Sherlock scarfing down his bowl of food during his snack time (between naps) so it looks like he is taking to them well.
Mo has a habit (I am finding out) of hiding bits of the food if they are "too big" and letting them dry out in some of her hiding places. Once they turn to jerky (after a few days) she brings them out and treats herself to a snack occasionally.
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Post by Sherry on Mar 9, 2013 14:24:48 GMT -5
Excellent! Glad they are taking to them so well With Mo she is likely a bit intimidated by the larger sizes just yet. It takes a bit of time sometimes. Just very gradually make the pieces larger for her. Even for mine, I only cut the meat to about the size of a large adult mouse. They won't touch anything larger
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2013 19:52:37 GMT -5
Something else to add - He has always been more vocal than her. She doesn't dook very often, and only squeaks if she wants him to stop when they are play fighting, and she normally doesn't want to give him the pleasure of letting him know it hurts. The first few months after we brought them home, the only way to get him to dook was to slide him on the tile. Since the diet change his eenrgy levels are a lot higher, and he seems more playful with her. He would get a few bursts of energy on the kibble per play time, but then he would relax. Now he dooks often (almost chirp sounding with the rapidity in which he dooks) and he has gotten a lot faster, and longer play spurts compared to before the change to meat. Very thankful we made the decision to come here and get help with this. It has helped them both, but especially our little guy, who was pretty lazy for the most part. Thank you so much for you help so far.
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Post by Sherry on Mar 10, 2013 10:15:26 GMT -5
Not a problem, and I'm glad to hear about the changes you are seeing in them!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2013 10:05:58 GMT -5
Good morning. Sorry I haven't been on here much, Matt has been doing most of the blogging. I recently started working hard, haha, and my business is growing and I've been exhausted. Anywho, I've been home sick since last Wednesday with an upper respiratory infection, so I've had lots of time with the goofballs.
Sherlock is now able to climb onto the couch without any assistance and without first latching on to a blanket. Our couch is leather, so there is nothing for him to grip there. Mo is still a daredevil and has now taken to climbing atop bits of furniture and then sugar-gliding to another piece of furniture. Needless to say they are keeping us even more on our toes.
This morning Sherlock was able to move the barrier to the kitchen in about 3 minutes. He is so strong!
I cleaned out their cage this morning. I removed the dirty towels and put in clean ones, I cleaned out the litter pans (I do this most mornings ), and I swept up any bits of litter I found outside of the boxes; I then put fresh water and food in their bowls. Sherlock climbed into the cage almost immediately and started eating, or so I thought, while I played with Mo outside the cage. When I looked in on Sherlock I saw that he was actually moving the food from his bowl to the litter box. Is this normal?
He is still hesitant to go to the upper level where the feeding den is, Mo has no issue with this and often takes her food up there, though when I cleaned the cage I did see some food in the upper level litter box.
Matt wanted me to let you know that he hasn't yet started hanging food in the den. This is one of his projects for this next weekend.
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Post by Sherry on Mar 11, 2013 19:53:10 GMT -5
Stashing food in the litter boxes is perfectly normal ;D Just be glad yours aren't actually pooping on the stashed meat One of ours, when she was tiny, used to do this regularly. I just found yesterday one of our newer ones had done this They do this to prevent other ferrets from "finding" their stash
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2013 16:57:22 GMT -5
Off-topic question: Matt and I are entertaining the idea of adopting a 3rd ferret. Is it too early to introduce another? If we did get a 3rd, and they are currently on kibble, could we begin weaning the day we brought him/her home?
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Post by Sherry on Mar 12, 2013 19:17:59 GMT -5
I always start the switch the day they come in the door And when you do get another- I NEED to see pics ;D
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2013 15:39:11 GMT -5
Sounds good! We have a vet trip tomorrow afternoon. We wanted to get the furballs in while they're healthy for a prelim check. Matthew bought their travel cage today and he's at home with them right now letting them sniff it and play with it. Hopefully the trip will be uneventful, but it is an hour and a half drive one way, so we'll see.
Matt took a great pic of them yesterday afternoon/evening. I had them out for 2.5 hours when he got home and Sherlock had put himself in the cage and fallen asleep but Mo wanted to keep nosing around. When Matt got home Sherlock came out of the cage to say hi and then, while we were in the kitchen with the barricade up, the both laid on the floor facing us and staring in. It is super cute. I'll ask him to post it.
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Post by Sherry on Mar 13, 2013 15:52:20 GMT -5
They are really good at giving you "that" look, aren't they ;D
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2013 16:08:52 GMT -5
Here they are all worn out. Sherlock on the right, is already in the process of falling asleep. He was fighting to keep his eyes open.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2013 16:13:30 GMT -5
Yes, they are great at "that" look! ;D
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2013 18:04:23 GMT -5
Their messes have been consistent since just a few days after the full change to raw - until just a minute ago. Mo's mess looked like the dark liquid color we expect but this had lots of little light off-white little dots in the end of the mess (probably 1/5 of the whole thing). I looked at it closely because my first thought was worms, but they were just little dots (can post a pic if needed). In the center of the beef kidney I got the other day was a huge core of fat (pretty sure it was fat). Would them having access to more fat, and pieces of it to chew through cause this change?
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Post by Sherry on Mar 13, 2013 18:23:07 GMT -5
The dots you are seeing are what we mean by "seedy" stools. Since you see actual fat in the stool, odds are that's what the seeds are as well.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2013 18:25:17 GMT -5
Is this OK, or does this mean I've been putting too much fat in to their food mix?
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