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Post by katt on Jun 6, 2013 1:21:10 GMT -5
Updates?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2013 17:27:09 GMT -5
Have you tried organ soup with her? Soup that is MOSTLY organ, but has some muscle meat to tone it down? Sometimes ferrets just prefer organs in soup form. That is GREAT that Steve is doing better with the ground meat! (dance) Keep it up! When you get your Hare Today order start to try different varieties and see how he takes to the organ grinds. He is definitely making progress. Will he eat plain ground meat yet, or does he have to have some soup mixed in still? You are still mixing calcium in, correct? ( If he still needs soup in his ground meat, work on decreasing the soup until he will eat straight ground meat. If he is eating the ground straight with no soup, you can work on mixing teeny slivers in and see how he does with that. The same process will apply of slowly but surely increasing the slivers both in size and quantity until he will eat them reliably. Hang in there, it is slow and steady with these guys (esp little Steve hehe) but you are definitely making progress. Thank you! Yes, we've tried the organ soup with sahara and that's really the only way we can get her to eat them. I'll try a more organ based soup to see if she'd take it. Steve is still slow and steady on the ground / mixed with soup. He honestly hasn't really gone up or down, still eating the same ratios as it is. Yes to also answer the calcium we are still adding, all bowls look fine. Steve will NOT eat just ground still...we offer, he runs away and drops it ( after force feeding him mind you.. ) Keeping it all up though, thank you so much~
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Post by katt on Jun 8, 2013 1:31:10 GMT -5
How are you force feeding him? You shouldn't be force feeding.Force feeding and Scruff and Stuff are very different. If you are Force Feeding it is very possible that you are stressing him out, and causing him to associate the raw with stressful force feeding... Could you describe your feeding method?
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Post by Sherry on Jun 8, 2013 14:07:35 GMT -5
Hi Cakes Katt is going to be busy for the next while, so I'm stepping in to help you with your switch. Give me a couple days to look over everything and get up to speed It would help if you could list what proteins you are feeding now, as well as who is taking what.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2013 20:11:36 GMT -5
How are you force feeding him? You shouldn't be force feeding.Force feeding and Scruff and Stuff are very different. If you are Force Feeding it is very possible that you are stressing him out, and causing him to associate the raw with stressful force feeding... Could you describe your feeding method? Oh woops, no no no...theres no "force feeding" I guess....to me even though I know the scruff doesn't hurt them to me.by taking them and putting food for them to take by scruffing them is kinda force feeding because I want them to eat that thus its kinda using a force upon them....so sorry I missused the words, trust is Steve is not stressed... And we will definatly update you, awaiting our order from hare Tom. So well have some goodies to add to the protein list.. But honestly there should be a lost somewhere in the posts of everything we have had or have access too at any point. Thank you both very much and I hope all goes well Katt, had no idea that you had things going on!
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Post by Sherry on Jun 9, 2013 21:14:29 GMT -5
Okay- as soon as you get your order in can you let me know what you are feeding or planning to feed? Thanks
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2013 19:19:16 GMT -5
Hi, sorry to be short today and the delay...
Our order is listed in page 10 and as of now they're on the whole ground rabbit for last night and tonight were going with the whole ground chicken
all poops and behavior is normal and all good! Thank you!
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Post by Sherry on Jun 14, 2013 19:45:18 GMT -5
All right Sounds good! So- are you going to stay with grinds, or are you interested in taking the plunge to meat, bone, and organ How are they taking to the rabbit? It is a favorite here
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Post by Deleted on Jun 17, 2013 19:46:50 GMT -5
Well, I think the idea was simply to go all the way to whole prey. So yes we've been trying slowly to introduce chunks to Steve, again not sure where you caught up too in the thread but the only thing Sahara isn't eating whole right now is organ. She readily takes bone in meats as well as chunks of heart and regular muscle meats, all from different species as well. The ONLY reason we went the ground route was because Steve wasn't eating his chunks or anything for that matter...so we slowly have been introducing chunks into his already lumpy gravy as I call it. We went the whole ground for him to assure he's getting balance in his diet.
So yes, to answer in short though we're working on steve eating his whole chunks, and sahara we feed chunks prior to steve's feeding.
Rabbit is also a HUGE favorite here, we fed it alot during Meeko's health decline as the protein is very stable, so they were kind of used to it already, having it all in a nice ground is just the best.
Thanks again!~
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Post by Sherry on Jun 17, 2013 21:31:21 GMT -5
Wow! MUCH further along than I'd been expecting (dance) . Sorry- haven't been able to go through it all yet. Been sick as h*ll since last Thursday. Still not really able to talk(which my hubby informs me isn't really all that bad ) Okay then. Keep working with Steve, and why not pick up some mice for the others then? You can try them with adults thawed out off the bat- just cut the newly open and squirt in some oil to get them tasting it. Once they realize their are goodies under the fur some take to it right away. It seems with most of mine I had to start with chopped up pinkies mixed into their meat and work from there. Let me know what you'd like to try as well as how it went
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Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2013 10:57:27 GMT -5
We have noticed in the past week that Steve's tail is slowly losing fur. Which we believe to be from adrenal kicking in. There is still fur you can just see right through to see his bare tail.
We are still working on getting Steve to take just ground, he seemed to be interested slightly.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2013 20:27:39 GMT -5
Hello again, for Sahara I just wanted to make sure a frozen mid adult.mouse would work to try at first? And if she doesn't take I like the pinkies idea, so well go that route.
And I hope you feel better!! Gotta just drink lots of hot totties, they're great in times of throat issues or general malaise.
Also, to elaborate on Steve a little, he's a Marshalls ferret going on 4 y.o and he's just now been losing some fur on his tail, and as you remeber we've been through all this with poor meeko, so just curious if des. Is the next step?
Thank you!!
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Post by katt on Jun 24, 2013 1:59:42 GMT -5
It does sound as if adrenal is probably kicking in. He's about that age, and that is one of the classic symptoms. I would talk to your vet about getting him on Des. At the very least you could do the 3 month trial of Lupron and see if that helps. As for the mice, you can certainly start with an adult mouse. I suggest thawing it out first and cutting it open. Then you can put a little salmon oil or ferretone in the belly. Once they figure out there's tasty meat insise all of that fur they will often go for it. You can also try mixing the mouse in with some of her normal meat so that the other meat's flavors get on the mouse and "disguise" it a bit. Sometimes you have to resort to cutting the mouse up and mixing it into the other meat chunks and then gradually increasing in size, but I would try the first two methods first. Why go through all of the mess if you can skip those steps?
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Post by Sherry on Jun 24, 2013 8:36:30 GMT -5
^^ I second all the above,
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2013 16:21:07 GMT -5
Great, thank you both very much. Are you back in action Kat? Didn't know anything was going on. Were also in the midst of a move, 3 weeks away now before we drive down to Florida and stay for good. So I hope all is better with you.
As for Steve and his adrenal, yes we figured 100% such and with all the nonsense we were put through with meeko and the vets we planned on just straight demanding it, period. ( lupron or des that is... )
And I grabbed some.frozen hoppers and pinkies yesterday so by tonight should be all thawed and ready to go...sahara doesn't like oil or tone or any treats really, she just loves and begs at your feet for meat, so im hoping shell just take right to them!!!
thank you both!
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