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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2013 21:05:11 GMT -5
Wow. Thats so helpful. Whrn I go. Shopping this week I'll print this out and get as much as I can. In about 2 months I I'll hopfully be having baby rabbits ready for the fuzzie since I live on a farm and raise rabbits hopefully the'll like it. I'm trying to convince my mom into letting me raise feeder mice. I think ones she see's It'll be less expensive them buing meat maybe she'll let me. Update: fuzzies just finished eating. They ate almost all there chicken, and some small bones. I left the half eaten bone in there to see if they'll munch on it.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2013 23:50:10 GMT -5
Great news! My female finally tried the large bones. I took this picture 5 minutes ago and she's still crunchin down as we speak
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Post by katt on Oct 25, 2013 12:41:54 GMT -5
Do you have a way to kill the rabbits before feeding them? Prey larger than mice should never be fed live. Feeding whole rabbits and rodents would be fantastic. Whole prey is really the best thing for them. Good job on the bones! Keep it up!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2013 13:11:28 GMT -5
Defiantly. I don't even know if I will be feeding live mice. My ferrets have actually been with my rabbits and they just cuddled together
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Post by katt on Oct 25, 2013 13:27:08 GMT -5
Careful though, even if your ferrets weren't hunting the rabbits accidents happen, and when they do they happen Fast. We have had a few members of the forum who lost "prey" pets to their ferrets, or last ferrets to their dogs. All it takes is them trying to play a little too rough or getting overexcited or suddenly realizing that the rabbits smell yummy (Esp once you start feeding rabbit meat). Generally it is best to keep prey and predator pets well separated. Too many heartbreaking accidents have happened.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2013 19:27:02 GMT -5
Yeah, at the time, they had never eaten meat, and the rabbits were both 15 lbs. now they don't see any meat pets, just a precaution. The dogs love the ferrets but the ferrets are on leashes. Both are eating bones now crunching away. They love it!
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Post by katt on Oct 25, 2013 22:17:35 GMT -5
Great! Keep it up. Have you picked up some additional proteins yet? Let me know when you do.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2013 8:06:08 GMT -5
Not yet. This weekend were going shoppingg (today or tomorrow) Great news! while at my grandma's visiting, she asked if I could feed the ferrets pork that she's had in the freezer since last year, and needs to clean it out now for a pig butchering we'll be having in about 3 weeks I'm getting a large slab of pork. Now I don't need any more pork for quite a while.
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Post by katt on Oct 26, 2013 12:19:14 GMT -5
Not yet. This weekend were going shoppingg (today or tomorrow) Great news! while at my grandma's visiting, she asked if I could feed the ferrets pork that she's had in the freezer since last year, and needs to clean it out now for a pig butchering we'll be having in about 3 weeks I'm getting a large slab of pork. Now I don't need any more pork for quite a while. I am super jealous. I want to live on a farm. Haha It's my dream to one day have a small ranch. One day maybe... For introducing the pork, cut some up into slivers and hand feed a few slivers. If they like it right off the bat, great. If not, mix the pork bits into some chicken chunks to disguise the taste and then slowly increase the pork while decreasing the chicken over a few meals. Let me know how it goes!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2013 13:18:19 GMT -5
haha yes, living on a farm has mayjor advantages now that I need this much meat. I cut it up into little slivers and I thought they were going to bite my fingers off so I threw a bunch of chunks in and almost everything is gone.
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Post by katt on Oct 26, 2013 13:23:11 GMT -5
Little fiends! That is fantastic. I would work it into the regular rotation then. Next if you can I would suggest trying beef and turkey. Cornish Game Hens are a great bone source too.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2013 13:41:35 GMT -5
lol, I know, there addicted to the meat diet. I'm so astonished at how good they look. The first picture I took from above is so much different from now, my female is a little chunky girl. Much more then my male. I can already tell the difference between when I first started till now. Me female is so much heavier now her coat that was so stiff and scraggily is now soft and rich in color. She changed from a grayish on the top, and cream on the bottom. Now she is a dark grey with a yellow undercoat. The male has gotten bigger, not as much as the female but he has always been small. His coat is a bit darker, and much softer.
When I go shopping tomorrow I'll be getting as much as I can find. Hopefully I can find some heart and liver since last time I didn't find any, luckily I had some on hand, where do you usually find your organs?
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Post by katt on Oct 26, 2013 14:59:32 GMT -5
I get most of my organs from the local Asian Market. I get pork liver, kidney, uterus, and brain there. Every now and then I see pork heart there but I haven't found any in a while. Then I get chicken liver and heart from my regular grocery store. I'm very lucky too because my boyfriend's family does a lot of hunting so I have a ton of Caribou liver and heart stocked up as well. I can find beef heart and liver at the local grocery store and the Asian market, but Koda is allergic so we don't buy any. When your family butchers the pigs, ask them to hold on to the organs! Same for any other livestock that you or your friends/neighbors butcher. Extra meat scraps from the trimmings are great too - especially because the trimmings are usually nice and fatty since us humans don't want to eat the fat. The fat is super good for the ferrets though.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2013 16:06:37 GMT -5
Great I found an asian market about 30 minuets away. Hopefully I can stop there.
Hunting is a great source! I wouldn't breed my own rabbits if I knew for sure the wild rabbits around here didn't have diseases (there are tons of wild rabbits, if I wanted to I could go out and kill one every night for each meal) but I don't want to risk it. I gave them a lot of the fat off of the chicken I bought and fed it to them. They had a hard time chewing it, but they did go for that first, so I assume they like it.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2013 19:04:54 GMT -5
So I got my meat I got more chicken, chicken heart & liver, more beef then pork. I followed your weekly guide, and I now have 2 weeks worth of meat. Hopefully the fuzzies like the pork & steak, since I really stocked up on that.
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