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Post by Deleted on Sept 24, 2013 16:14:19 GMT -5
I'm having trouble reliably getting the right kinds of meat and preparing it all. I'm interested in supplementing the diet with commercial options to make less work for myself. That will probably increase the cost, but this is getting exhausting! I know bulk purchasing would be better in terms of cost in the long run me but I don't have the short term funds to do that or the short term time or energy to process it (cut it up, measure it out, bag it up). What do you think? I'm gonna see if I can do some reading on that but that's how I'm feeling right now.
I picked up about 10 pounds of chicken necks today so I'm going to go back to putting that in as soon as it thaws out and I can separate them.
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Post by Sherry on Sept 24, 2013 22:23:59 GMT -5
Nothing wrong with supplementing with commercial raw I do that myself since I've got a couple who will avoid bone when possible. I feed morning meals of CFR, and balance out the evenings. If you would prefer to do this let me know
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2013 16:28:02 GMT -5
So I did kinda swing the pendulum back from too much bone to almost no bone (though I did have chicken backs until I ran out). I saw someone mentioning that they do bone,bone, double bone and alternate. In theory new menu could be: Monday AM:neck/bone, PM:tongue/muscle Tuesday AM: neck/bone, PM: neck/bone Wednesday AM: neck, PM: tongue/muscle Thursday AM: neck/bone, PM: neck/bone Friday AM: neck, PM: tongue/muscle Saturday AM: heart, PM: bone (neck/back etc) Sunday AM:liver/kidney, PM: bone (neck/back/etc) Since they're only eating 1-2 ounces per meal sometimes it's hard to divvy up and I don't always get to feed on an AM/PM schedule it might be once a day. If I had the correct ratio in a meal wouldn't it be ok to have say 2 chicken necks and a couple pieces of muscle meat in one meal? Or maybe the whole week's ratio is more important? I was checking with my local Global Pet Foods and they sell K9 Choice, Pets 4 Life, Spring Meadows, and Nature's Variety instinct. The first 3 are Canadian! The Pets 4 Life 'cat/ferret' diets have kinda sketchy ingredients lists. For example the duck lists "Ingredients: Duck (Contains Duck and Duck Bones), Duck Giblets (contains Duck Heart and Duck Liver), Kale, Green Beans, Alfalfa Sprouts, Papaya, Cranberry, Sunflower Seeds, Ground Almonds, Grapefruit Seed Extract." I think I should probably stay away from those I don't know how they can advertise that as ferret food! I e-mailed Spring Meadows because they didn't list ingredients in detail. They told me their product is 70% meat, 20% bone and 10% organs. K9 Choice sells llama and buffalo meat mixes which is kinda cool. Not sure about their ratios yet but it seems like they mostly incorporate offal and bone. Once I figure out pricing I will decide if I want to incorporate one or two of these into their diets. I can't wait until I have more money and can start feeding my dogs this cool looking things! They are still on kibble
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2013 21:02:15 GMT -5
Zuko ate a piece that he actually had to chew the other day! I had to kind of force it on him but he did chew and swallow. Progress. Today I saw him eat some stringy bits. I will check in again tomorrow.
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Post by Sherry on Sept 30, 2013 8:47:33 GMT -5
This is a good thing! Sorry I missed responding to your last post (shy) Your basic menu is good. Now to get some variety!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2013 23:05:48 GMT -5
Oh the time slips by I almost didn't post this woops! I'm not sure where I left off last time. 1. Ferret's name: Aang 2. Ferret's weight: 1.37 3. Eating 1-2 oz per meal 4. Has been having smaller jelly stools 5. Activity levels: good 1. Ferret's name: Sokka 2. Ferret's weight: 1.14 3. Eats 1-2 oz 4. not sure?! 5. Activity levels: good 1. Ferret's name: Zuko 2. Ferret's weight: 1.06 3. 1/2 oz per meal 4. getting really liquified poops 5. Activity levels: lazy/bored Zuko's menu: Monday (the 16th) ate about 1oz of soup over two meals Tuesday ate 1 oz over two meals Wednesday less then 1oz over two meals Thursday 2.5 oz over 2 meals Friday 1.5 oz over 2 meals Saturday 2 oz over 2 meals Sunday (the 29th) 1.5 oz over 2 meals Made the soup thicker with 'slivers' in it. He didn't seem to like it much. I had him eating a few tiny pieces, and he chewed on some larger ones then spat them out. As of yesterday I made a new batch with chicken breast, chicken heart, pig liver, egg shell, cat milk, olive oil, water, and slivers of tongue and plain sardine. He didn't like it at first so I put ferretone on top to get him licking. He ate more today so he's warming up to it. He seems to eat better when it's not at thick paté. It's hard to get my blender to blend things any thicker things get kinda clogged up. Any suggestions to deal with that? Aang and Sokka's menu: Monday 4 oz mix of tongue/kidney Tuesday 2 oz of tongue (now doing 1 to 2" chunks) Wednesday 3 oz of neck Thursday 2 oz of tongue Friday 1 oz of neck and 2 oz of tongue Saturday 2 oz of tongue and 2 oz of neck Sunday 1 oz of tongue, 1 oz of neck, about 1 oz of plain sardine (packed in water) as an experiment. Sokka liked it and Aang loved the juice but not the flesh. I'm going to try to get myself more organized and put up a general feeding schedule/menu so I follow the plan better! I'm wondering, Zuko still doesn't seem used to eating his 'soup' or paste or whatever. Any suggestions on getting him to enjoy it more and progress better? He seems to be losing weight and I'm worried that he'll starve himself out of spite
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Post by Sherry on Oct 1, 2013 0:54:03 GMT -5
Losing weight consistently is not a good thing. For now try hand feeding at least once a day for Zuko. Help get him back on track. With the others- how much actual bone are they eating now?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2013 9:09:28 GMT -5
How would I measure that? They are getting either chicken necks or chicken backs. Giving them around 8 meals of bone-in meats per week.
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Post by Sherry on Oct 2, 2013 9:58:01 GMT -5
For bone in, they need about 8-9 meals of it a week each, as much as they will eat. Right now, according to the menu for Aang and Sokka they appear to be getting maybe 5. For muscle meats try some variety instead of just tongue. The more cuts they get the better. I use stewing pork, (used to use beef but have one with an allergy), also can use duck, goose, or whatever you can find on sale. With fish you can also give fresh raw as an alternative. Try to stick with the smaller fresh water variety. A good basic menu would be(am and pm): Mon- bone/bone Tues- muscle/bone Wed- heart/bone Thurs- bone/bone Fri- muscle/bone Sat-muscle/bone Sun- liver/organ/bone Actually, in this thread: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/146/meat-bone-organ-weekly-menuprint out the first post with the menu and the various protein sources and see what all you can find from that list. Then decide what you can afford. Bring the list of what you can use regularly as well as something you think you could do one meal a week as it would be a bit more expensive. We can sit down and work out a balanced menu plan for you from that.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2013 20:05:36 GMT -5
Those other meats are not really something I can really find but I will have to keep my eye out. What about frozen raw fish? I don't think any fresh water fish are available in PEI really. Zuko is doing better with the soup he seems to have gotten used to it. It didn't quite thaw and he was licking around the frozen part last night so he must have been pretty hungry!
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Post by Sherry on Oct 4, 2013 21:09:15 GMT -5
Which meats- the duck/goose or everything else in the list?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2013 19:33:31 GMT -5
Umm anything that isn't chicken, beef, or pork pretty much! I did find some ground turkey and I talked to a lamb farmer who gives away lamb offal for free and a turkey farmer who will sell turkey necks to me possibly. Still working on getting other stuff gathered up. I just need to buy it in bulk when I find it I guess.
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Post by Sherry on Oct 6, 2013 20:42:04 GMT -5
I find that works best. So for the interim until you can access some of the rest let's work with beef pork chicken and turkey mince then.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2013 15:21:05 GMT -5
I did go into Global Pet Foods here and ordered some lamb/rabbit mix, turkey, and alpaca (just for fun) it should arrive in a couple weeks. 1 4lb bag of 8 - 8oz patties for each kind. This will be to supplement. Someone mentioned that I should ask my hunter friend if they will sell stuff to me. Going all kinds of routes here! I never put this much effort into finding my own food haha.
I have the meal schedule up on my fridge with the list of meat/bone/organ examples. So so long as I have the stuff I am trying to follow it. Sometimes they do not eat the stuff from the previous meal or they take a long time to eat it. That could be throwing off the balance too. Do you ever take stuff away to feed later? Not sure if that would cause a bacterial problem.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2013 21:58:18 GMT -5
Ferret's name: Aang 2. Ferret's weight: 1.36 3. Eating 1-1.5 oz per meal 4. when I feed muscle he seems to have smaller dark stools, when it's bone he has kinda chunky seedy poops 5. Activity levels: good
1. Ferret's name: Sokka 2. Ferret's weight: 1.07 3. Eats 1-1.5 oz 4. seem smaller and softish but better than before 5. Activity levels: good
1. Ferret's name: Zuko 2. Ferret's weight: 1.08 (higher) 3. 1/2-1 oz per meal 4. more solid again 5. Activity levels: normal
Zuko's menu: Monday (the 30th) ate 1.5 oz over 2 meals Tuesday 2.5 oz over 2 meals Wednesday 3 oz over 2 meals Thursday 2oz over 2 meals Friday 1 oz over 2 meals Saturday 2 oz over 2 meals Sunday (the 6th) 1.5 oz over 2 meals
Aang and Sokka's menu: Monday (the 30th) ate tongue/neck/heart Tuesday leftover/neck Wednesday sardine/leftover Thursday neck/neck Friday tongue/tongue Saturday tongue/neck Sunday (the 6th) heart/neck
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