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Post by Sherry on Apr 9, 2013 23:37:32 GMT -5
Commercial raw should have more than liver for organ meat. And they really should have other organs whenever possible for the varied nutrients. If you are giving commercial raw for 7 meals a week(mornings) then the other 7 need to be balanced accordingly. Can you let me know how many meals(if any) will be taken up with Ziwipeak or freeze dried?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2013 23:56:13 GMT -5
Not really any sort of full meal.. They get two real meals a day, i just leave something dry in the cage just in case they are extra hungry, or something happens to any leftover raw. I would say maximum only a tablespoon of dried food is eaten when I come home from work, sometimes none at all! Hmm i'll look into the organ thing. Otherwise I guess i'll look into finding some other organs plain somewhere.. Kidney, lung, intestines?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2013 0:00:58 GMT -5
Yeah so the three best commercial raws ive found, 3P, natural instincts, and red dig blue kat only have liver and heart. Natures Variety as well, but my guys arent fans of that stuff anyways.
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Post by Sherry on Apr 10, 2013 9:28:19 GMT -5
Okay, so the dry stuff is just for nibblies I was just looking at those products and was quite surprised to see so few with kidney included. Beef and elk are the only two in Natural Instincts, and the Wild Boar in RDBK has spleen. Now, they will do well with just liver, but for optimal health really should have other organs added in. What you could look for in organs- kidney, lung, intestine, brain, spleen, thymus, reproductive organs will likely be the most you can find.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2013 11:17:55 GMT -5
Well I definitely can get other rabbit organs, because im starting to get whole rabbit from a local supplier. I can probably find chicken organs.. and then their other protein sources can come through in the commercial breakfast meal. So if 7 meals are my commercial packages, should I have 4 bone meals, 2 muscle/heart meals, and 1 other organ meal per week?
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Post by Sherry on Apr 10, 2013 13:25:39 GMT -5
When working with commercial raw, always keep in mind that with half the diet being CR, the other 7 meals should balance it out. Since you already have 7 bone in meals, you only need to add one or two more. Again, CR having liver, you'd only need one ounce extra added. You can add a full portion of kidney, or whatever you find. Even easier would be simply grinding the other organs up and adding them to the CR. A full meal of heart is always good, and then the rest muscle meats
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2013 18:33:24 GMT -5
okay, so maybe a better idea would be to stick to CR for both meals of the day, but mix in some extra organ chunks some meals, and some extra bones some meals ( to clean their teeth). Im going to look for some straight up organ meat this week, and then write up a new menu, and weigh them. Where do you buy your kidneys/lungs/hearts etc? im having a little trouble finding them.
About the Spring shed.. im definitely seeing some mucuous covered hair poops that you mentioned, but at least one of my gang (Sebastian for sure, but im thinking maybe one other as well) is having straight up diarrhea. Is that normal for spring as well? At what point do I start worrying that its something else.. other than the poops everyone seems to be doing well though.
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Post by Sherry on Apr 14, 2013 9:30:44 GMT -5
The diarhhea could be because he's getting a hairball. Start giving him a tbsp pumpkin, followed an hour later by 1/2 tsp vaseline, followed and hour later by the tbsp pumpkin, etc until he has nice big formed orange poops. Better safe than sorry. And it's easy to balance out meals when feeding CR for one meal a day. Here's my present menu: All mornings are commercial grind(chicken and bone). I grind liver/heart/kidney to add in. Evenings: Mon-turkey necks Tues-pork chunks Wed-goat chunks Thurs- turkey hearts Fri- quail Sat- 1oz each turkey liver/pork kidney Sun- pork chunks If something like this is doable for you, great. If not and you prefer to stick mainly with commercial raw you can just do a couple meals a week of chicken necks or wings without really throwing off the balance.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2013 23:53:22 GMT -5
so here is my tentative menu for the week: Tuesday: Turkey CR in the morning, Turkey CR in the evening with little chunks of pork kidney Wednesday: Rabbit CR in the morning, Rabbit CR at night Thursday: Pheasant CR in the morning, Pheasant CR at night with chunks of chicken necks Friday: Chicken CR in the morning, Chicken CR at night with chunks of rabbit meat Saturday: Turkey CR in the morning, Turkey CR at night with chicken hearts Sunday: Rabbit CR in the morning, Rabbit CR at night with chunks of chicken necks eventually I would like to phase out the CR at night, and just have one meal of kidney/lung, one meal of hearts, two meals of meaty bones, and three meals of meat, but first they have to get used to all this weird stuff which is why Im integrating bits and pieces of bones/organs into their evening meals. Also, the proteins might switch up later on as I find new sources/get them liking new meats. Does this seem like an okay meal plan? Here are the updated weights!! Felix seems to be gaining quite a bit, and Jasper is losing. I think Jasper might be doing the Spring thing? If so, he is the only one losing any weight right now! Sebastian: 3 pounds, 3 ounces Annabelle: 1 pound, 12 ounces Lucy: 2 pounds, 1 ounce Jasper: 2 pounds, 10 ounces Felix: 3 pounds, 8 ounces Tomorrow will be interesting, I get to try and introduce our new baby Simon (not actually a baby ) to raw food. We shall see how that goes!
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Post by Sherry on Apr 16, 2013 1:00:32 GMT -5
So far so good! You might also want to start introducing chunks of pork meat, or even beef chunks off and on to see how well they accept them. Just pick the cheapest cut
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2013 22:00:53 GMT -5
when a ferret isn going through spring weightloss, should I be especting a big drop in appetite as well? Jasper seems way less interested in raw right now. He is still eating, but I have to put it on my finger, and then he chomps away happily. I just think he is eating way less than normal
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Post by Sherry on Apr 17, 2013 9:20:09 GMT -5
Spring/summer appetites are far less than in the winter. To give you an idea in winter time I go through 2 8oz patties, with 1.6oz liver/organ, and another 2 oz hearts mixed in for a total of almost 20 oz for 9 ferrets for breakfast. Right now, I use 1 8oz patty, .8oz liver/organ and 1oz heart for them. And there is some left over at times. So their appetites have literally cut in half and then some. Weigh them now and record it. Next year they will likely be about the same
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Post by Sherry on Apr 24, 2013 9:18:53 GMT -5
Updates?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2013 22:37:34 GMT -5
sorry for not posting sooner! Things have been a bit hectic with the new boy Simon. After a day of not eating ANYTHING he started eating his kibble. I wanted to switch as fast as possible because the stuff the SPCA sent me home with was extra crap kibble, Kaytee I think. It was tough for a couple days because I know kibble eaters need lots of access to their food, but piggy Jasper would totally go for it if he could. I didn't want to separate the cage all day while I was at work, because I wanted them all to bond. Also usually the whole bottom of the three level FN is a litter box, so logistics weren't great. Lucky for me it only took a couple days before I was getting him to eat off the spoon, and two days ago he started eating off the plate!! I still have to put him in front of it at mealtimes, but then he goes for it. So YAY! I had to take a bit of a step backwards with everyone though, normally I just add a touch of water to their CR to loosen it up, and add chunks of whatever. I made it a bit more liquid this past week so it was easier for Simon. I still had chunks of rabbit meat and bones in it though, because I am still trying so hard to get everyone on board with eating straight up meat and meaty bones. I introduced some pork kidney, which Annabelle liked, and most of them seen keen on the rabbit bits. Next week I am going to half and half it, because I would like to start following your example by feeding CR in the morning, and then balanced bones or organs or meat meals in the evening.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2013 21:28:29 GMT -5
I did a weigh in today, first time weighing Simon. Sebastian= 3 pounds, 12 ounces. I feel like I did something wrong, because if this is accurate he gained 9 ounces in 2 weeks. so either he had one foot off the scale last time, or he is porking on the pounds. I am a little worried he is overweight. his melatonin implant did make him gain weight (common side effect, apparently) and also he has a nice healthy appetite, im glad he isn't LOSING weight anymore like he was in the fall, but how much is too much?? He pretty much does not exercise at all, so im not sure what to do about it, or if I need to do anything about it. Felix = 3 pounds, 6 ounces. Jasper = 2 pounds, 12 ounces. He seems to have gotten over his sudden aversion to raw food, and is eating away like everyone else! I spritz a little salmon oil on their raw grind which I think helped. Lucy = 2 pounds, 2 ounces. Annabelle = 1 pound, 13 ounces Simon = 2 pounds, 8 ounces. I'm really happy about this, because although I don't actually know his original weight, he was pretty darn skinny two weeks ago when we got him, and I really think all of his gorging on raw has filled him out nicely I'm picking up some more chicken necks tomorrow, now that Simon eats raw all on his own (only took a week!) so that I can start everyone gnawing on bones again. Their teeth don't look awesome, so I need to make this a top priority. This week I started mixing meats they don't like ( like venison) in with their favorites, to give them some variety, and I am still putting in tiny slivers or pork kidneys a couple days a week!
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