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Post by Deleted on Sept 24, 2013 10:22:18 GMT -5
My husband is going to take over updating. He's the one who does the feeding and weighing, so I have to wait for him to update me before I update you. Because I have a job and a business and a kid, sometimes we don't remember to talk about it until I'm walking out the door for work in the morning. Thus, he's now in charge.
I am logged to FB on my phone. However, the PB app does not work 95% of the time so I have to wait to be on an actual computer, which usually is every-other day or so.
There is no change. Teddy won't eat the soup on his own regardless of anything we do. Bunny eats half the plate and has no problems chewing the small pieces that are in there. Daisy will eat around the pieces but freaks out when she has to chew, but still eats around them. Rocco eats almost as much as Bunny, but isn't in love with chewing.
We're making a new batch of food using my new meat grinder attachment this morning to see if that consistency, rather than the "torn" pieces that come from using a food processor, will be more appealing to Teddy.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 24, 2013 12:45:55 GMT -5
That sounds like a good plan to me. Regular updates will definitely help move the switch along. Now when you say that Teddy won't eat it on his own... Does that mean he currently WILL eat if he is fed? How are you feeding him - finger feeding or spoon feeding? Or will he not eat the soup at all? Give the ground meat a try. That will give it a consistency similar to commercial raw, and a lot of ferrets do prefer that. Some ferrets really don't like the texture though so don't be surprised if some of them won't touch it. I would add some water to it to start and make it more soupy. Once I know exactly where Teddy is at I can give some recommendations. So if you could provide a detailed description of what he does when you offer him raw, how much soup he consumes in a day, in what method you feed him (finger vs spoon), and how much kibble he is eating. Thanks
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Post by Deleted on Sept 24, 2013 16:52:12 GMT -5
Hi! This is Lynn's husband Steve. As chief chow maker and cage cleaner, it was decided (I was informed) that I will be the point of contact.Here is the deal;
Bunny:(Blaze)moves right along with little issue. I have watched her chew on small pieces of meat. Rocco:(Sable, adrenal)moves right along.I have watched him chew on small pieces of meat. Daisy:(Silver mitt)doing fairly well. When she encounters a chunk, she makes an attempt but drags it out of the bowl and goes for the smaller stuff.
Teddy:(Sable) Most laid back ferret ever. Just a big noodle who wants to play as much as any 5 year old and sleep a lot. He loved the old soup I used to make and with kibble he throws as much as he eats. Some just gotta dig down to see if another piece is fresher or something.
Teddy is the problem. He has lost 4oz. in the past few weeks though is back up 1oz. as of this morning. I have to finger feed most of them for a moment to remind them that they like this stuff, but Ted only eats if I sit on the floor and finger/ spoon feed. I can USUALLY get him to continue eating from the communal plate but even then, he is the first to be done and that was not the case with the old soup. I know I wasn't supposed to, but I started adding ferretone or ferretvite to Ted's meal in hopes of building a new normal for him and then backing it off. I'm trying the same deal now with fish oil. It works, just not as well and yes, I know the other stuff is not so good, just building a new norm.
The oz. that he put back on is in large part to having kibble in the cage again. The others seem to have stopped eating it, just Ted. I wonder sometimes if this is more stressful for him than the potential benefit. I am really looking forward to not making this soup stuff anymore and move them on to the next phase.
What information do you want me to give you? Thanks for your help! -Steve-
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2013 14:38:35 GMT -5
Hi Steve, Nice to meet you The info you gave me is perfect actually! It sounds like Bunny and Rocco are doing great, so keep feeding them as is. What we are going to focus on is catching Daisy and Teddy up to them, so that we can move all of them forward from the soup stage, at the same time. For Daisy, I am not sure how big you are making the pieces of meat in the soup right now, but since she has an aversion to chewing them, I want you to make them even smaller. I believe Lynn mentioned something about a meat grinder? Tiny pieces of ground chicken meat would be perfect. Also with the pieces of meat, try hand feeding her the pieces. I know she is eating the soup on her own, but not the pieces, so you wanted to start by offering the tiny pieces by hand, use a bit of oil on them to entice her. Let me know how that goes. With Teddy, I am going to recommend bringing him back a step, kind of starting over in a sense, especially because of the weight drop. Yes the raw Will absolutely be worth the struggle of the switch, especially health wise. With Teddy we just need to do it a little different and more gradually. Teddy instructions : -leave the kibble in the cage for him, the others aren't touching it anyways so this is good. -remove the kibble 4 hours before feeding him, so that he builds up an appetite. Replace the kibble 30 minutes After hand feeding him the raw soup. New raw soup recipe for JUST Teddy: -since teddy liked the cooked soup so much before (and since its way easier than what I normally recommend at this point, which is making mushy water downed kibble) I will have you use that. -make up a batch of cooked soup for Teddy and offer that to him. You probably won't really need to even use the oil since he likes it. -the second time you offer it, give him a combination of cooked and raw soup. 75% cooked soup, 25% raw soup. See how he does with that and let me know. -If he eats that no problem for a few meals, change it to a 50/50 mix of raw and cooked soup. Try that for a few meals. -again, if that goes well, we will move onto 75% raw soup, 25% cooked. Keep me updated the entire time though so I can monitor and make suggestions when necessary. Be forewarned... This may cause some tummy upset and icky stools for Teddy. Mixing raw and cooked does cause this for some ferrets, but because Teddy is being otherwise difficult, this is the next best thing to try. Please keep me updated on his stool, and if they do get yucky I can recommend some things to add. Sound good?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2013 12:51:37 GMT -5
I put a couple of pictures on the B & B Facebook page yesterday showing the consistency of the latest batch of raw meal. I put everything through a new grinder. The plate picture shows how I watered it down a bit and moved food to the 4 corners for each ferret and to monitor how much each is eating.
I'll be honest here; I mixed some ferretVite into Teddy's portion to get him to eat it. My thought here is that it was part of the recipe for the old version of daily soup that they were on for years. I know I need to get away from this but I'm thinking that 'get teddy to become comfortable with this and then back the ferretVite off until it is no longer part of the mix.
He is stubborn and hates any changes to food or even his location which is why we stopped taking him to monthly group meet-ups as he would just be miserable and want to be held instead of socialize. This is evident in the 4oz. weight loss. It started coming back up when I put the kibble back in the cage. He is the only one that still eats kibble.
The others will eat the new raw, but it needs to be watered down a bit and Lynn added an egg this morning to get the others to eat.
-Steven-
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2013 1:10:00 GMT -5
I just checked out the pictures on Facebook, totally understandable that you had to water that down. That is some thick ground raw! Ferrevite is really terrible for them. You know the insulinoma that Rocco is currently suffering from? That's from being fed crap like ferrevite. Trust me, it's not worth it. Not worth it one little bit. Mix the raw soup with some cooked soup or just plain baby food. Skip the ferrevite. Heck, I would prefer you give ferretone if you have to. Ferretone has the cancer causing BHT but at least it's first ingredient isn't malt syrup (SUGAR). You might as well be feeding your ferret a death sentence. As you can tell, I don't like ferrevite or anything with sugar in it for ferrets. I can post you a heartbreaking video of a ferret seizing because of insulinoma to show you why. But I will spare you the heartbreak. Just stop it
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2013 17:15:24 GMT -5
Any updates?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2013 10:18:17 GMT -5
Updates please
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2013 10:34:32 GMT -5
Please note, I do still need you posting every 2nd day (3 times a week) because the ferrets are still in the soup stage.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2013 13:32:45 GMT -5
Hi, we have decided to abandon this switch. It's one step forward and 10 steps back. As soon as we get Teddy eating, everyone else stops.
We appreciate your help. We'll go back to our Epigen mix/soup and maybe try again in the future.
Lynn & Steve.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2013 0:05:03 GMT -5
Alright, this thread will be vaulted. Thanks.
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