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Post by katt on Jul 19, 2013 15:51:54 GMT -5
I've just been Trying raw chicken, and I also Tryed some beef liver. gizmo did try the beef liver, but only a little. Rascal is eating a chunk of chicken as I type this! Yay!!!! Yay! That is great! Big steps for both of them! If Rascal will eat the chunks, as soon as he is eating them consistently you can do away with the kibble soup. Keep hand feeding liver to Gizmo. For Rascal, if he won't take plain liver blend some chicken breast (or other meat) with some liver and feed it for one meal a day to start. (Chunks for the other meal, don't forget to keep up the eggshell until they get to bones). Slowly increase the amount of liver in the soup and decrease the meat. When you get to half liver soup, decrease the soup to 4 meals a week. When you get to 2/3 or more liver soup, decrease to 2 meals. Work on mixing in liver chunks and decreasing the soup until they will eat plain liver (you can do the same for heart btw). When they will eat plain liver, decrease to 1.5 meals a week. Same for heart. For the chunks, keep feeding those! Let Rascal get used to the chicken chunks for a few more meals and then start trying out new meats. Turkey is usually an easy one to go to from chicken, as it is very similar. I also usually recommend tryin pork next as it is a new non-poultry protein and still fairly mildly flavored. Beef is a good one to feed but it more strongly flavored so be prepared for a little resistance. Great work! Keep it up, and keep me posted! I'll try to check in again later tonight.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2013 1:55:40 GMT -5
Yeah, he will just eat chicken. I will try picking up some turkey tommorrow, so I will try that! Thanks for the help!
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Post by katt on Jul 21, 2013 1:20:41 GMT -5
Let me know how it goes. How is Rascal doing with chunks? Keep feeding him soup also until he is absolutely comfortable eating chunks.
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Post by katt on Jul 23, 2013 0:16:49 GMT -5
Checking for updates.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2013 9:44:33 GMT -5
Oh yes sorry, I couldn't update earlier because their wasn't really anything different. I did pick up some turkey, and gizmo licked it right away, but rascal took a little more time to try it. Now he will eat it fine. It seems like now he is eating some chunks, but still the raw soup/ kibble soup. Gizmmo is now only eating the chunks (YAY!!!!!).
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Post by katt on Jul 23, 2013 23:03:23 GMT -5
Yay for Gizmo! haha I would decrease the kibble in the soup - will he eat raw only soup? If he is eating chunks he shouldn't have a problem eating raw-only soup. How well, often, and roughly how much is he eating the chunks?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2013 6:36:06 GMT -5
Hard to say, but he is eating them a few times a day (3 times), and will eat a few little chunks each time. Ok I'll decrease the amount, like does 4/5 raw to 1/5 kibble sound good? I think thats what I'll do.
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Post by katt on Jul 24, 2013 16:00:11 GMT -5
Try just raw first. If he doesn't like it, add in a little kibble.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2013 4:36:43 GMT -5
ya sure! Lets hope that he likes it! *fingers crossed*
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Post by katt on Jul 25, 2013 20:37:27 GMT -5
Let me know how it goes!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2013 21:09:24 GMT -5
So I tried it today, rascal not really sure if he would eat it at first, so I hand fed it to him. He is now eating it without a problem! No more kibble!!!!
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Post by katt on Jul 26, 2013 2:07:06 GMT -5
Yay! Good boy! (dance) Give him a congratulatory smooch. Keep an eye out to make sure he keeps eating it but I think he will do fine. After a few meals of the soup, you can start adding small chunks into the soup to encourage him to eat those. Normally I'd start with slivers, but since he is already trying out the chunks I think just small sized chunks should work. If not you can always step back to slivers. We also need to start working on getting them to eat liver and heart on their own in addition to the muscle meat chunks. I'd give Rascal about 2 days to get fully used to the soup as it is. Then I would start making one batch of soup a day that has More liver and heart. Start with about twice what you currently add. You may need to hand feed it to them once a day. Once they accept that, we can move from there.
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Post by katt on Jul 27, 2013 5:23:33 GMT -5
Just popping in for an update. I might not check back in until Sunday night or Monday as I'll be at a wedding tomorrow and on a Train all day Sunday. If you have any urgent questions though just PM Sherry or one of the other mods. I'll try to check in tomorrow after the wedding if I can.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2013 14:16:21 GMT -5
Ya sure thats fine! I will start adding in some chunks to the soup. This isn't that urgent, but how much should rascal and gizmo be eating? I just want to make sure their eating enough. One more thing, their poop, looks a lot different from what it used to look like when I fed kibble. Is that normal?
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Post by katt on Jul 28, 2013 9:43:19 GMT -5
Ya sure thats fine! I will start adding in some chunks to the soup. This isn't that urgent, but how much should rascal and gizmo be eating? I just want to make sure their eating enough. One more thing, their poop, looks a lot different from what it used to look like when I fed kibble. Is that normal? It varies from ferret to ferret, and varies by age and by gender, but I believe the average is usually around 2-4oz per day. The best way to make sure they are eating enough is to closely monitor their weights honestly. If they experience any significant weight loss, they are probably not eating enough. Yes, poops do change - poop is just a product of what you eat. Raw poops will be much smaller, and less frequent. You will also find that where kibble poops all look the same, raw poops look very different depending on what they ate. For example beef poops tend to be much darker, organ and heart poops are very dark - almost black - and soft due to the high blood content. Soup poops tend to be a bit softer. You can tell a lot from their poops, often even what they need. If they are having many soft poops for example, they probably need more calcium. Soup poops tend to be a bit softer than solid food poops. Also, during the switch their GI tracts have to adjust to the new diet, so it is very normal for their poops to look strange for a little bit initially, but it will normalize as they get used to eating raw.
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