Lynn @Ferret B&B's Switching Thread/Carpetsharks37

[Heather]

Name:
Lynn @ Ferret B&B

1. Where did you first learn about natural diets for ferrets?

AFA Facebook group

2. Please describe the type of diet you would like assistance in switching your ferret(s) to. Be sure to include if you are interested in feeding whole prey (live or frozen-thawed) and if you are wanting to FULLY switch to a natural diet or PARTIALLY. If you are unsure what kind of diet you want to put your ferrets on, please express that and we can help you find the best type of natural diet for your ferret.

Frankenprey

3. Why are you interested in switching your ferrets to a natural diet?

We are tired of losing ferrets to diseases that are caused or exacerbated by poor diet. Our cat eats mostly "raw" during the summer (she eats bunnies in our yard) and when she's doing this, she drops weight and gets glossy. Her teeth never need to be cleaned.

We want our ferrets to have the same health.

Also, this fall we'll be getting a kit from a private breeder (Linda Gurule in New Mexico), and we'd like to start him off right.

We'll be switching our cat to raw at the same time.

4. Do you understand that switching your ferret to a natural diet can be a lengthy, arduous process? Its not an overnight switch. It can be a commitment of several weeks or even months. Your HF Mentor will be more then happy to assist you in switchng your ferret(s) to a natural diet, but you need to be equally as commited. If you aren't willing to tough out a potentially lengthy switching process, or if you have major life changes approaching (baby on the way, moving, starting school, getting married/divorced, etc) then it might be a better idea to wait on switching your ferret's diet until you have more time. Are you willing to make the commitment?

Yes

5. How many ferrets do you currently have? What are their names? Ages? Genders? Do they have any health problems? Are they overweight? Underweight? How long have you had each ferret for?

Daisy, about 6 1/2, Female. Adrenal disease, treated with Des (2/2013). Normal weight (muscle-y)
Teddy, about 4 1/2, Male. No health issues. Normal weight.
Bunny, about 2 1/2, Female. No health issues. Sturdy (she's heavy but not squishy)

6. What diet do you currently feed your ferrets? (Please include all treats, supplements, etc)

Home made soup:
1.5 c Totally Ferret Turkey, Lamb & Venison
1.5 c Wysong Epigen
Water
4 jars Beechnut chicken or turkey babyfood
2 TB Ferretvite
2 TB Ferrettone

2 ice cubes per day per ferret

In the cage: a mix of Totally Ferret TLV and Epigen

Occasional Ferretone, Bandit treats, N-bones, extra baby food for treats


7. Have you ever tried to switch your ferrets to a natural diet in the past? If yes, what happened?

No. Bunny has eaten cooked fish and chicken (she'll be the easy one). Teddy at a moth once--does that count?

8. What additional information about yourself or your ferrets would you like to share?

We run a ferret sitting service in our home called the Ferret B&B. We've already been able to convert many clients to better food using the good kibble / bad kibble chart.

We live a mile away from a huge asian supermarket and a halal butcher. So, good stuff should be easy to find.

9. How often during the week do you have access to a computer?

Daily

10. Please post a picture of each of your ferrets (if possible).


Hi and welcome to the mentoring program (wave). In a little while your mentor (Carpetsharks37) will introduce herself and you can get started on a new adventure in natural ferret care and diets. Please remember to post regularly (daily or as per arranged with your mentor) so that your mentor can assist you move along safely in this adventure. Also note there may have been some changes in the application and how you should post so please review these before proceeding. If you have any questions feel free to either ask your mentor or any of the admins. If you experience computer difficulties or are going to be away, please notify your mentor and most of all relax and have fun (dance) . Your mentor is here to help you on this journey.
ciao

[Deleted]

Hey Lynn,
Welcome to the mentoring program! My name is Steph and I will be your mentor for the duration of your switch

A bit about me...

I am a 23 year old university student, just graduated with Bachelor of Science in Psychology and will be starting my Master's of Counselling this fall. I hope to become a registered psychologist (counsellor) and specialize in animal assisted therapy I am also a part-time preschool teacher, elementary-jr. High tutor and am just finishing up my training as a balloon artist for a company that makes fancy balloon animals at parties and restaurants.

I currently have 3 ferrets of my own, two 2.5 year old girls named Olivia (champagne) and Sophie (sable) and a 1 year old boy named Mikey (dark sable mitt). I also have a Siamese cross names Marbles and a purple Betta fish named Splish (his counterpart is my boyfriend's blue Betta Splash).

I have successfully switched 5 of my own ferrets over to raw food from kibble over the course of my ferret ownership and have experience with Frankenprey (regular raw), commercial raw (the hamburger patties) and freeze-dried raw.

I look forward to mentoring you and your ferrets.

[Deleted]

Before we get started, do you have all of the supplies?

-Food/ferret scale
-meat cutting device (scissors/cleaver/knife/etc)
-ingredients for soup (chicken, liver, heart, egg shell)
-blender/food processor

If you could also post a picture of how all of your ferrets look from a top view (eagle's eye view) and full out the following information for each of them:

-Name, age, weight
-Weekly menu (what they currently eat)
-stool size/consistency
-activity level

Thank you!

[Deleted]

*bump* please reply

[Deleted]

Hi there, sorry for the delay. I need to figure out how to set up notifications.

First, I have everything but chicken heart! I've checked with every butcher, asian market, halal market within 10 miles. I can get lamb heart. Is that OK? I can order chicken heart by the case--40 pounds! I can't imagine how long that would take to go through, even with 3 ferrets and a cat, let alone how I'd store it.

Other than that I have everything on hand. I'll take photos of our 3 this evening when they're out again and post them here.

Current diet:

In cage: a mix of Orijen, Wellness Core, Nature's Instinct rabbit and Epigen.

Twice daily: Our "soup"--

1 cup of kibble mix
4 jars of Beechnut baby food (turkey and chicken)
water

This makes about 45 cubes. We feed 4 cubes 2x daily for the whole crew.

[Deleted]

Hey, no worries, I will check with the other admins and see if there is a way to turn notifications on. Do you use the proboards app?

Holy moly that would be a lot of chicken hearts! If you have a deep freeze you could definitely freeze them and keep them in there, but if you would rather not get that much, Lamb heart would definitely work fine

Thanks for getting those pics!

Just let me know once you have the lamb heart and we will move forward

[Deleted]

Great, I can get lamb heart this afternoon, and I'll take those photos today too. We're full with guests and the morning got away from me--but you have a lot of ferrets so you know it's a lot of poop.

[Deleted]

Score! Chicken hearts at the Asian market that told me yesterday they had none. I did a 4x batch of soup. We still have enough of our kibble-based soup for 2 days--we usually do 4 cubes in the am and pm. So I think in the morning I'll do 3 of the old stuff + 1 new--maybe for a day, then 2/2, then 1/3, then 0/4.

What do you think?

Bunny already will eat raw and cooked chicken if it's small enough. Teddy will take some coaxing but I think he'll come around. It took me about 4 meals of hand/spoon feeding Daisy to get her to take to our new formula (only 1/3 of the kibble and without Ferretone and FerretVite). I have no idea if she'll take to this at all.


I got zero photos of them tonight. I need a hand, and Steve's working tonight.

Do you have any experience in switching cats?

[Deleted]

No worries, I completely understand that. I'm in the middle of moving so I might be a touch slow to reply as well but I will still check in once a day. That's awesome that you found the chicken heart!

Definitely go ahead and make up a batch:
-8oz chicken meat
-1 oz hearts (I think that's usually 2-3 chicken hearts depending on size)
-1 chicken liver
-1/2 tsp crushed egg shell (dry it then crush it)

You can definitely gradually transition them over... However... Raw and cooked digest at different rates so you can't feed them together or else you will get upset tummies.

To avoid this always leave 30 minutes between raw and cooked. So you can feed the normal food (slightly less like you mentioned) but then remove it and wait 30 minutes before trying the raw.

The best way to start is to dab a little bit on your finger and rub it on the ferret's lips to give them a taste of it. If they like it, give them more. If not, don't worry this is perfectly normal. Just keep making them try it as many times as you can in one day.

Let me know how the first time goes and then based on how they do I will give you some more tips!

Also, just wanted to double check - everyone is healthy? No concerns about insulinoma at all?

Thanks!

[Deleted]

Also I checked for you - no such thing as notifications of messages with proboards unfortunately.

[Deleted]

Raw only feed Day 1:

2.5 ounces of soup for 3 ferrets, slightly warmed

Daisy would not have any part of it, and in fact ran away with a puffed tail and hid behind the dryer.

Teddy ate about 2 teaspoons (as in the kind you stir tea with, not the measurement)

Bunny chowed down on the rest, probably ate 2 of the 2.5 ounces and wanted more. If she had the jaw strength, she'd probably eat a whole mouse all by herself already.

We have some dark runny poops, but I read that's normal as the other crap goes out of their system, right?

I'm going to have to lace Daisy's with some Ferretone I think.

Daisy and Teddy ate 3 cubes of our soup 30 minutes afterward.

Interesting aside: I put some soup on the plate for 2 of our guests, and they both immediately chowed down on it. I'll tell their ferrents.

[Deleted]

That's awesome for Bunny and Teddy! You will probably have a fairly easy time with those two. Since Bunny will eat it on her own, let her eat as much as she wants. The more raw she fills up on, the less kibble and your soup she will eat.

For Teddy, you can probably try spoon feeding. Here is a link with directions:

holisticferret60.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=57&action=display&thread=4344

As for daisy, you are going to have to employ a technique called scruff and stuff. Here are two posts that explain it really well:

holisticferret60.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=57&action=display&thread=4340

holisticferret60.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=57&action=display&thread=4343

The idea is to encourage her to eat it but not to stress her out. So if you think she is getting too worked up, take a break.

Give those a try and let me know how tomorrow goes!

[Deleted]

Any updates?

I do need you to check in once a day if you can at this point in the switch, as its important to making your ferrets are doing okay.

[Deleted]

Sorry, I thought it was every 3 days. And weird, are you seeing my post with starting weights and photos? I don't see it here.

Weights last night:

Bunny 2 lbs 9 oz (-.5 oz)
Teddy 2 lbs 8 oz (-1.5 oz)
Daisy 1 lb 13 oz (-.5 oz)

Last night:

Bunny ate 3.5 oz of soup all by herself. She's so excited that she shivers and puffs her tail. Can she eat too much? She was a starving stray when we got her from a shelter, and she's doubled her weight. She's a butterball.

Daisy tolerated about 3 fingerfuls of soup.

Teddy ate about 3 tsp total.

This morning: I laced 4 oz of the soup with about 1/4 tsp of Ferretone.

Daisy ate 5 spoonfuls of it, then licked the edge of the plate.
Teddy ate 3 spoonfuls and had a few licks at the plate.
Bunny ate the rest.

My cat is so happy she's purring when she eats. I should have time later this week to get a meat grinder for my Cuisinart stand mixer so I can make a big grind for her.

Poops are still a bit dark and goopy. We still have kibble in their cage, and they seem to be eating about the same amount.

[Deleted]

No worries I can see where you got confused, it's every 3 days once they are eating slivers and bigger, but every 2 days during the soup stage.

You are required to post every second day during the "soup" stage of the transition. From the "sliver" stage, through to large chunks, you will be required to post a minimum of every 3 days. Once you hit the large chunks, once a week will be acceptable.

I do ask my mentees to post once a day if possible just during the first week or two as this is where the most difficulties occur. If you can only do every second day though that's fine too

I don't see a post with pics and weight either... Proboards has been very glitchy lately. Do you think you could repost the pics if its not too much trouble?

That is awesome progress on the soup. Let them eat as much as they want right now they will eat a TON at the beginning but don't worry this will gradually decrease.

You can actually start removing the kibble for a couple hours before trying the soup now. Try 2 hours to start. So remove the kibble for 2 hours, then offer as much soup as they want, then replace kibble 30 minutes after they eat raw.

This will encourage those who aren't eating as much raw to be a bit hungrier and eat more soup

Let me know how that goes! And post those pics if you can