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Post by Heather on Oct 9, 2013 22:16:49 GMT -5
Name: Jasmin HF Forum Username: jasmindreger 1) In class I learnt about feeding raw to cats and dogs, it made me realize that if they can why can’t my ferrets be fed raw. 2) I currently am thinking of switching to a commercial raw diet until they become happy with that then switch to a frankenprey once I also become more familiar and confident with everything, I’m mostly really scared I’m going to mess up and not provide them with the nutrients they need which is why I want to try commercial first. 3) I became interested in my nutrition class while learning about the raw option and became determined to make the switch after we learnt the truth about kibble. I am also done with having to deal with recalls as well as brushing their teeth. I am terrible for that so I would like to get them accustom to eating bone as well so their oral health doesn’t have to rely on a process that not only myself hates but they also hate. 4) Totally, another reason why I want to switch to the commercial diet to start is because I still am in school and will be until December. I feel if I start with the commercial I just have to work on them eating the defrosted “patty” so to speak instead of the organs, muscle and bones. 5) I currently have two ferrets. Stitch, male is currently 2. I have had him for just over a year now. My other Molly is his older sister and I believe she is 4 but I am sure her birthday is coming up soon. I have had her for about eight months. She was just weighed at 740grams. I currently don’t have the exact weight for Stitch but he is at a healthy weight. Currently, no health problems. 6) I currently feed them a mix of ferret evo, orijin and sometimes I put blue buffalo wilderness in there. They get ferretvite after ear cleanings and I am currently trying to switch from ferretone to salmon oil for nail trims. 7) No I haven’t 8) I currently possess everything to make a soup if needed except heart. For some reason I am having a really hard time finding it. I don’t know if it does help but I currently am soaking their kibble and feeding them twice a day to get them used to the wet texture. I have also given them some wet food (taste of the wild) with the kibble but that sort of freaked me out because it doesn’t nearly have enough protein or fat content. I know Molly did eat the kibble and wet but I am not sure about Stitch. Stitch is much more picky then Molly. 9) Everyday as well as my phone which is usually what I use. 10) Hope this is okay to just post a link holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/13149/me-famjam11) I have everything but hearts. Thank you! Edit - now have the hearts 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
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2013 17:57:50 GMT -5
Hi Jasmin, I'm Steph, your new mentor Before we get started here's a little bit about me: I am a 23 year old university student, completing my Master's counselling. I have my Bachelor's of science in psychology. I hope to become a registered psychologist (counsellor) and specialize in animal assisted therapy I work as a part time preschool teacher and as a balloon twisting artist at restaurants and birthday parties. Right now I 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 my boyfriend and I have Betta fishes, named Splish and Splash. I currently feed my ferrets commercial raw, but have done Frankenprey diets in the past. And that's about it!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2013 18:02:26 GMT -5
Okay so I just noticed you already started your guys on the switch.
So if you could give me an update of exactly what they are eating and what point they are at in the switch, that would be great!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2013 19:49:57 GMT -5
Hi Steph! Nice to meet you Balloon twisting artist sounds pretty awesome not going to lie! I guess I should add a bit about me. I'm 20 currently going to school to be a veterinary assistant. I plan on becoming a technician after working a few years so I can save up a decent amount of money. Right now they are eating soup with some slivers of chicken breast. I feed them their soup either once or twice a day depending when my classes are. For example today, I only had one class that started at noon so they were fed before I went to school and will be fed at about 7pm as I just got home. I put their kibble back in their cage an hour after they have eaten. Once I get over the cold I have I plan on waking up early enough on the days I have more than one class to feed them. Before I added the slivers they were eating about 1tbsp of soup each, each meal. Now that I've added the slivers I've noticed that they aren't eating as much of the soup which seems to make sense in my mind. Molly will eat right from the bowl and search for the slivers while Stitch I still have to put my finger on his nose and then to the bowl before he will start at the bowl but he goes for the slivers as well Today they played like normal and had good looking poops. Molly weighs 765g and Stitch is at 1006g. I should add that the days I feed them two soup meals they sometimes won't finish their dinner at 7 so I put it in the fridge and give it to them at 10ish before bed time
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2013 20:02:39 GMT -5
I'm wondering, should I be adding different types of meat yet for the slivers or should I be keeping it to chicken so far? I use chicken hearts and beef liver for the soup
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2013 10:02:55 GMT -5
Nice to meet you too It sounds like you are off to a wonderful start! I would suggest keeping it as chicken for now, until we work them up to bigger pieces (1 inch pieces) then we will move onto other proteins. It's a bit easier that way, because they you can just offer pieces of the new protein with a bit of the chicken soup on top as a gravy. How big are the slivers you are putting in the soup right now? The next step is to 1) slowly increase the size of the slivers and 2) slowly increase how thick the soup is (by adding less water each time you make it). The other thing to work on is slowly weaning them off of their kibble as well. Since it is still taking some finger feeding to get started on the soup, I won't have you remove the kibble completely just yet. However, what you can do, on say a weekend day when you are home most of the day, is this: -Remove the kibble first thing in the morning and don't replace it until bed time. -Feed raw soup throughout the day. The soup can be left in the cage for usually 6 hours until it starts to dry up a bit. It actually stays fresh for about 8, but they tend to not eat it as it dries out. -You will probably have to pop in and get them started on eating the soup a few times. Now, on your initial application it says that you wanted to switch onto commercial raw first and then Frankenprey later... Is that still something you want to do? Let me know if you have any questions
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2013 17:24:10 GMT -5
The size of the slivers at the moment are about the size of my pinky nail. The soup is as thick as I can get it while keeping it mostly blended. When I make my next batch should I kind of use a spoon to mix it around to get it blended a bit, keeping it chunky? I'd say it's a bit thicker then apple sauce at the moment. How often should I pop in and get them eating the soup? I am confident Molly will eat without my help but Stitch is stubborn. Is every 2-3 hours a good time frame? Also I think I could just go to Frankenprey if thats alright
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2013 17:41:50 GMT -5
Actually I would say the slivers are about the size of my ring or middle finger nail, some as big as my thumb nail. Probably shouldn't cut up chicken while watching tv
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2013 19:47:37 GMT -5
It sounds like the slivers are a fairly decent size then, and that the soup is quite thick!
I would say go ahead and Try increasing the pieces of the slivers a little bit and making the soup more of a chunky mush like you described.
Popping in every 3-4 hours to feed the soup is probably good during the day. Ferrets tend to stay fuller longer off of raw and don't need to eat it quite as constantly as they do kibble.
When you can get both ferrets eating on their own without prompting, you can move the kibble entirely. But for now try to get as much soup into them during the day as they will eat. That way they get their needs met by the soup and only have to graze on the kibble overnight.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2013 19:53:06 GMT -5
I also wanted to add, that since both your ferrets are healthy, I'm not overly worried about insulinoma / them going too long without eating. Molly is the older one, but since she is eating the raw soup well, she's not a big concern. And stitch isn't really either since he's 2 years old and healthy otherwise. That being said, I would say you would probably be safe giving them raw soup during the daytime on the days that you have school too, given that you only have a couple classes. If you can make sure that Stitch eats a decent amount of soup before you leave for class, then even if you are leaving the raw soup in the cage for 4-6 hours, and he doesn't touch it, if you feed him again when you get home, he won't go hungry. If you wanna wait until he's eating it more on his own first, that's completely fine too. I just wanted to give you the option of pushing them ahead since they are both doing well And perfect Frankenprey is actually pretty easy to switch onto. Our next protein source will be Pork meat, if you want to start scoping out where to get the best prices. You can even pick some up and freeze it. Just meat, no bones. I'm thinking we will have them trying out pork in the next couple weeks for sure, since they are going at a good rate
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2013 13:37:49 GMT -5
Sounds good Ill probably pick up some pork this week then, avoid the thanksgiving rush this weekend haha. Last night I fed them before I went to bed which was about 1030ish. Long story short I didn't end up sleeping but just playing games on my phone so I fed them at 1am since no one had touched the kibble and I was up anyways so might as well. I decided to leave the rest of some soup in our room as I was waking up at 630 anyways with the plan of just feeding Stitch or both depending if it had been touched or not. I heard someone eating around 6am but was too lazy to get up and check it out. When I ended up getting up basically all the soup was gone (there was enough for both of them) and when I went to feed Stitch he was acting like he was full! I'm thinking that he may have ate some while I was sleeping but when I went to feed them at 930 he still needed the first lick from the finger so who knows, maybe Molly just pigged out. I'm going to feed them again at 1230/1 and have some play time around the house. How often do you want me weighing them and what not? Also Molly took a poop today that was a little weird but now since I started typing this I have no way to explain it. If she has another like that I'll figure out a way to describe it because now its in the garbage. Just a weird colour of brown I guess
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2013 14:47:02 GMT -5
That's awesome it's definitely possible that Stitch is eating on his own. It could be that Stitch just doesn't go for it right away like Molly does, but does eat it on her own eventually. I only need their weights once a week, so maybe every Sunday let's say. That will be our weekly report day, so every Sunday if you could give me the following: -their weights -their activity levels -their poop reports lol As for Molly's poop, don't worry if her or Stitch's poops look funky at all during this initial part of the switch. She is eating a lot more soup than kibble now so she will start having raw poops. They are a lot looser and different colours and sometimes they are icky and gross when they first switch onto raw because their bodies are going through kind of a kibble detox. Feel free to post a picture if it happens again and you are worried, I don't mind examining poop pics haha. Other than that, keep up the great work! If we can work towards getting Stitch to eat enough during the day, you can try a night without kibble and just soup and see how that goes.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2013 2:19:13 GMT -5
Totally thought the two small containers I had left would last me till about lunch tomorrow until Stitch decided he wanted a whole one to himself before bed hahah I also tried to put some egg maybe 2tsp or so as I don't really eat it and I need some eggshell tomorrow morning. Stitch loved it! I'm thinking the rest of the soup should last me through the night and I'm hoping my prepared baggie is defrosted by the morning! They decided randomly about dinner time they weren't a fan of the chunks anymore but I'll just make the soup chunkier tomorrow and trick them plus I'm out of defrosted chicken slivers anyways hehe Should add Molly liked the egg as well. After Stitch ate, Molly finished up the rest. She seemed like she wanted more so I opened up the last container added another tsp of egg and she ate a bit more. Instead of keeping it in the cage I'm just going to wrap the rest up and stick it in the fridge. I'll take it out around 4ish. Hopefully that will be enough to keep them happy till I can make more in the morning!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2013 22:17:19 GMT -5
Molly weighs 835g Stitch weighs 1155g Play time was good and poops are looking a little runny but other then that fine A little bit of a step back with the ticker soup. Molly is not a fan of the bits in it and I've had to feed her from my lap again. Whenever she gets a thicker piece she pretends she doesn't know how to chew If I continue to hold her and not let her spit it out she does chew it up and swollow it unless its a decent size shes never had before. Then she spits it out no matter what Stitch is still the same he just needs the first lick on my finger then he will eat from the bowl. I felt when I fed them at 8 that they weren`t eating enough, mostly him because her entire meal was from my hand. I fed him a bit on my lap as well a bit. He will actually take the larger pieces if they are on my finger and chew them up. I may have to put kibble in tonight as I don`t trust her to eat the thicker stuff alone and I have to be up and out of the house early tomorrow. A good run of 50ish hours without kibble anyways. Ill take the kibble away again when I get back home about noonish!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2013 13:39:06 GMT -5
Thanks for the updates! That's an awesome step forward with Stitch eating so much! That's great that they like the eggs too. We actually recommend that you give 1 egg per ferret per week. This prevents them from getting hairballs, especially during shed seasons. Since you have two ferrets, you can have them share 2 eggs over a week. I would give them an egg to share every 3 days As for the chunks, don't worry, it's pretty normal to take 2 steps forward, and 1 step back with the switch. Just keep on them, you may have to spoon feed for a little bit each time you increase the thickness / chunk sizes. They are building up their jaw strength too so sometimes they get a little lazy with the bigger pieces cause it takes them more effort
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