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Post by Sherry on Oct 8, 2013 9:27:30 GMT -5
So far so good, lol! And I know what you mean about hunting things out for them. NEVER thought I'd find myself going to markets, ethnic stalls, last day sales in grocery stores, and raw feeding pet stores for food for 2lb animals Just so you are aware, the "seediness" you seem to be seeing in Aang's stools on bone days are most likely tiny bone shards Perfectly normal as he adapts to a raw diet Others adapt faster, some slower. I just noticed- I don't see any liver or other organ in Aang and Sokka's menu?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2013 12:32:28 GMT -5
Ah yes a little bit of pig liver was in the tongue packs I had made up before. I am phasing those out since as you pointed out I was giving too much. Now I have organized my meats after rooting through my freezer. I have a bag for organs with 2-3 oz packs of chicken hearts, chicken livers, I have a bag for muscle meats with 2-4 oz packs of ground turkey, pig tongue, beef chunks, and a bag for bone, right now I have 3-4 oz packs of chicken wing tips (the fell to the bottom of the freezer forgot I even had them!) and chicken necks. I'll keep adding to these to get more variety. Instead of doing a mix bag I have divided things into smaller portions so I can do a muscle meal in the am, a bone meal pm, or organ am, bone pm and so on. Hopefully being better organized (pardon the pun) will help me out. I had my portions too big before so now I know they eat more like 1-2oz each per meal I have a better idea of what to take out.
When I get my commercial raw in I'll be dividing the patties into 2 oz portions for feeding. Hopefully I can keeping adding things to my freezer collection to have a steady supply and variety. (fingers crossed)
Keeping up with Zuko's mash has not been good either I need to be better at that. I made a huge batch today with chicken breast, turkey ground, beef chunks, and then ground liver/heart from pig/cow, egg shell, and a little bit of cat milk. I managed to not make it so soupy probably helped that the liver/heart was pre-ground so it's nice and thing and you can see visible chunks of meat. He took a bit of olive oil coaxing to eat it but a bit less than an ounce of that today.
I am unemployed for at least a few weeks so I am finally catching up on getting these durn things organized!
For muscle meats I realized the schedule only has about 3 meals a week. If I keep rotating between turkey, beef, pork, and chicken with other things offered occasionally I should be alright? As 'other' is the hard to find stuff?
I need to work on getting more bone-in variety. I have chicken necks/wing tips, possibly getting turkey necks, definitely can't find ox tail other than in commercial stuff, so I guess pork rib ends are my other option?
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Post by Sherry on Oct 8, 2013 18:32:30 GMT -5
Yes, you were doing too much liver earlier. However- they do still need SOME every week 2 oz liver/2 oz other organ per ferret per week if possible. Also approx 2 oz heart each. I just do a full meal one week, 2 full meals the next week of heart. Have you considered adding fish a couple times a week? Fresh water would be better, but smaller salt water would work. That is also another good option for bone. It may take some coaxing to get them to eat it, but it will give you one more source. I realize you have sardine in there, but unsure right now if it's raw or canned? And yes- pork rib ends are excellent as well With Zuko, I think while you have time, NOW is the time to start pushing him. When you feed, also start mixing in tiny slivers to what he eats. No more than 3-4 slivers about the size of the crescent on your pinkie nail. Keep doing that until he accepts them, then increase the number. You also have 5 muscle meat meals 2 of heart, and 3 of tongue. Starting to switch out from the tongue all the time is a better idea. For the things you can only get occasionally, feed them when you get them That's fine.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2013 18:53:50 GMT -5
I'm still looking into fish. Sokka and Aang did try sardines once and I did add sardines to Zuko's soup last batch. They were canned plain. Raw salt water like cod, haddock, salmon, pollock, and shellfish are easy. I'm not sure what would be considered a small fish :S
New menu they are getting liver or other organ once a week and then heart/organ once a week.
Heard back from my hunter friend. He can give me moose, rabbit, teal duck. He even offered fox, raccoon, and musk rat! Would those be any good? Since they'd be wild my concern would be parasites :/
Edit: made a typo then realized I misread your post.
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Post by Sherry on Oct 9, 2013 1:12:44 GMT -5
All VERY good!!! The only thing I'd avoid are the carnivore livers. They may be a bit TOO high in vit A. But anything else is fair game Just be certain to deep freeze any fresh caught for a minimum of two weeks to kill off any potential parasites. The meat is safe to feed then. Small fish? Think trout sized or smaller. Although I'll be honest I have NO idea how large a haddock is! We only get them filleted here
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Post by Sherry on Oct 9, 2013 1:13:17 GMT -5
Carnivore liver would be fox. No idea how large a pollock is either I once mentored a young woman from Japan. Needless to say, the bulk of her ferret's diet was heavy in fish. They treat fish like we do chicken. Her guy appeared to thrive.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2013 12:27:16 GMT -5
Happy thanks giving! I think we had a bit of a break through with Zuko. He has been eating more of his mash if I splash some warm water into it. No more need of oil on top. Also he will lick around the slivers and pieces of meat so I tried putting some of the powdered kibble I had from when we tried the breading. He then ate the pieces! I did that once and he ate them, the second time he kinda chewed on them and ate a little bit but it's better than nothing! I'm going to keep trying that for a while I think if he leaves any bits behind.
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Post by Sherry on Oct 14, 2013 10:16:05 GMT -5
That's why we say there are as many methods of switching as there are ferrets Keep going with BOTH methods for him for now
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2013 21:36:47 GMT -5
Ferret's name: Aang 2. Ferret's weight: 1.33 3. Eating 1-1.5 oz per meal 4. Some good solid ones but last week a couple times he had really tarry poop. That was after eating beef chunks. 5. Activity levels: good
1. Ferret's name: Sokka 2. Ferret's weight: 1.07 3. Eats 1-1.5 oz 4. no change 5. Activity levels: good
1. Ferret's name: Zuko 2. Ferret's weight: 1.11 (higher still) 3. .5-2 oz per meal 4. had some weird liquid ones 5. Activity levels: normal
Zuko's menu: Monday (the 7th) 1.5 oz over 2 meals Tuesday 1.5oz over 2 meals Wednesday 3.5oz over 2 meals! Thursday 3oz over 2 meals Friday 4oz over 2 meals! Saturday 4oz over 2 meals Sunday (the 13th) 3.5 oz over 2 meals
Aang and Sokka's menu: Monday (the 7th) neck am/pm Tuesday beef chunks am/neck pm, small amount of cooked puree squash Wednesday wing am/liver pm Thursday wing am/pm Friday beef am/pm (forgot to thaw out bone oops) Saturday heart am/beef pm (fed heart by mistake and forgot to thaw out bone. dope) Sunday (the 13th) heart am/wing/neck pm
Aang and Sokka are doing fine. They are chewing up the wings great crunching up the bones. Very little debris is left behind and I am taking care to feed them in their cage so have not seen any stashing.
Zuko is warming up to his mash quite a bit. He is eating more of it than before and quite eagerly. As I had mentioned as he licks away the mash sometimes larger pieces are left behind, he ate those when they were 'breaded.' I tried introducing slivers today to the mash and he would not eat them so I tried breaded and he would not eat them. Then I did the scruff and sample and he ate a few from my hand. I added some more slivers to his mash for tomorrow to try again. If he refuses them that way I will try the process again.
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Post by Sherry on Oct 15, 2013 8:16:23 GMT -5
With Zuko just keep on pushing him. Persistence is what seems to pay off best for this stubborn boy With Aang and Sokka the menu balance looks good. Now start getting more proteins in there.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2013 21:10:47 GMT -5
Zuko has been eating some slivers that are mixed into his food. Any left behind he eats some more with kibble powder on top, very little gets left behind now and he is learning that this mystery stuff that tastes like kibble needs to be chewed a bit!
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Post by Sherry on Oct 18, 2013 0:54:45 GMT -5
That is excellent!!! You go Zuko (dance)
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2013 14:19:25 GMT -5
So my commercial raw came in. I got 8-8oz lamb patties, 8-8oz turkey/rabbit patties, and 32-1oz turkey medallions. The turkey medallions I just sort of grabbed as a replacement for the alpaca that didn't come in. Do you think that I can feed these to Zuko? I can't remember if I told you already but Spring Meadows confirmed their patties are 70% meat, 20% bone and 10% organs which include the green tripe.
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Post by Sherry on Oct 19, 2013 15:25:48 GMT -5
I was just reading through their sites. Sound good! And yes by all means use them for Zuko as well
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2013 23:02:39 GMT -5
Ferret's name: Aang 2. Ferret's weight: 1.33 3. Eating 1-1.5 oz per meal 4. good solid formed stool 5. Activity levels: good
1. Ferret's name: Sokka 2. Ferret's weight: 1.09 3. Eats 1-1.5 oz 4. more formed stool 5. Activity levels: good
1. Ferret's name: Zuko 2. Ferret's weight: 1.09 (higher) 3. 1/2-1 oz per meal 4. went through some seedy/liquidy poops last week but they are more formed now 5. Activity levels: seems a bit less active than the other two
Zuko is adjusting to the commercial raw all over again. It has taken some coaxing again with a splash of warm water and some oil on top. There are bits of bone and slivers in it he is eating those up fine, it is not a 'soup' or paste so much as like coarse hamburger ground consistency I think? Not sure how much of the bone he actually eats since I see pieces left behind.
Zuko's menu: Monday (the 14th) 2oz over 2 meals, ate breaded slivers Tuesday 2.5 oz over 2 meals, liquid/seedy poop! Wednesday 2.5oz over 2 meals Thursday 2.5 oz over 2 meals Friday 2.5 oz over 2 meals Saturday 3 oz over 2 meals Sunday (the 20th) 2oz over 2 meals, started commercial raw lamb
Aang and Sokka's menu: Monday (the 14th) wing/neck Tuesday turkey ground/ chicken neck&wing Wednesday liver/wing Thursday wing/wing Friday breast/neck Saturday tongue/wing Sunday (the 20th) heart/wing&neck
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