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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2014 9:55:42 GMT -5
I will have to hang ½ quail in the food den and see how they do. I think the biggest problem is that I cater to them to much. Cater probably isn’t the right word, the right one is SPOIL them. This is the grind I am going to order, the fine grind. Quail, mutton and beef with the bone and stuff in. When we have those meats George will have the grind and the others will have wing tips for bones. That will leave the lamb and pork for the boneless meals. They have more fat in them. I also am going to order lamb hearts. That way George will have heart and the other one can still eat the chicken heart. They didn’t like the beef heart to much; I think the flavor was to strong. When you said I will have to add an extra heart meal did you mean 2 meals a week? George is doing so much better without the chicken meat. Granted he doesn’t run and play like the other younger ones. He doesn’t just eat and go to bed anymore as much and he does have his favorite toys he carries away.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2014 12:30:21 GMT -5
Well I got the pork bone grind cause the beef had tripe in and that stinks....
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Post by goingpostal on Apr 16, 2014 20:04:09 GMT -5
That ordering plan looks good, you could probably try duck hearts if you wanted too, that should be far enough from chicken to not cause an issue and well accepted usually. Pork hearts mine eat too but they also won't really touch much of beef heart. Heads up if you do switch your dog over you can get pork hearts in bulk for a better price most likely. They are a little more expensive than beefheart for me but all my animals will eat it, only the dogs will eat the beef.
I think the mutton grind might have tripe in it too but most ferrets don't mind it, some do. I've bought a pound of just about everything on there trying to see what my cat and ferrets will eat and for exotic proteins. I even bought pheasant once which is crazy priced, they liked it but not getting it on a regular basis lol. I get the tripe/spleen grind for my dogs and it doesn't really smell that bad surprisingly. Not nearly as bad as I've heard it should.
Heart we usually recommend 1.5 meals weekly, with the grinds having heart in them you could get away with one meal just fine.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2014 13:23:20 GMT -5
I hung a chicken leg in by Coco, Emmett and Mikah. Wow I was really impressed with them. The others I only put it in the cage for a little while. George is doing great without chicken and my luck he would decide to chew on it. I did have one in the feeding den for them guys. Miko did chew on it, Penelope tried to run away with and couldn't so she gave up. Of course Lulu wanted nothing to do with it.
I can't wait to get the meat orders. I think they will be so good for George. And a lot easier then chopping it all up by hand.
Zelda is happy also now that she is getting raw. She isn't even begging half as much any more, except when I am getting ferrets meals ready. I just have to make sure she is getting the right amounts. I did join a few groups on FB, just haven't had the time to really sit down and read the files yet.
Have a HAPPY EASTER!!!
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Post by goingpostal on Apr 18, 2014 20:46:30 GMT -5
Great, so those ones did go to town on the chicken leg? Great to hear they weren't deterred by size increase. The others will come around sooner or later. Heads up those chubs leak most of the time so watch that, you might have to figure out a way to chop them up and refreeze depending on how much George eats per day, unless you are planning to give the excess to the others. I would caution that, it can be really difficult to keep them chewing real raw if they know there's another option. I've had a terrible time weaning Hannibal off the soup and freezedried raw Pandora was getting and getting him to eat chunks again, it's like crack and he's a really lazy eater. You can pretty much let him eat however much he wants as long as he doesn't get overweight, then you would have to control portions a little.
If you can feed a ferret raw you can handle a dog no problem, main thing is they don't need as much bone and more poop watching to figure out what they can handle for boneless and organ meat at once.
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Post by goingpostal on Apr 20, 2014 20:43:46 GMT -5
Saw your quail video-they look great, did Lulu end up eating some? Miko was going to town, he's got no problem there. Anybody else try it?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2014 22:00:38 GMT -5
No Lulu didn't munch on the big piece. She is doing good on the bones, even the chicken wings tips ends. I am cutting her pieces bigger slowly and she is getting there. She takes her sweet time but will get there with the bigger ones. The rest are doing great too. George was bullheaded for a day or 2 with eating. UGH,I just hate when he does that. So of course his glucose level went down. Saturday morning I checked it and it was low. After he ate he perked up. By night it was up to his normal. According to my meter he hangs around 60. (I did a comparison with my vets meter a while back and that's a good number on mine.) He's been eating not quite 2 oz a meal most of the time. So when I get the grind I plan on cutting them up in 2 - 3 oz hunks. Then I will have some extra for medicine time too. I'm not planning on feeding the others any grind. Lulu probably will get it for med time too.
Do you give soupies ever for a complete meal? I saw a while back that some do. Have a good night.
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Post by goingpostal on Apr 21, 2014 22:06:41 GMT -5
Well yes and no on the soupies at my place, I've had insulinomics or other ill ones for most of the past 3 years and hate leaving the others out so I usually had a little soup for everyone, just the basic raw soup or freezedried. I also used it to mix eggs in since only some of mine were willing eaters of egg. Organ is a hit at my place so not ever used it for that but many do. Now with just Hannibal, I've still got about 4 bags of SC fdr so I've been giving him 3/4 patty every day-that's a meal for him and then leaving in whole prey or frankenprey for the rest of the time. If you feed soup as a meal just remember they will eat a ton so plan on a light meal following.
If George is being picky it's ok to indulge him a bit, a lot of times if their blood sugar drops then they don't feel much like eating so it's a vicious cycle. Have to kind of take what you can get with insulinomics.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 23, 2014 16:20:47 GMT -5
George does get his way pretty much... He's been doing good again with the eating. When he doesn't want to I have found if I give him a little salmon oil on his food and he eats it. And the little EVOO Queen Lulu I caught eating from the plate of food in the cage without EVOO on it.
Their menu is messed up this week. That ordeal I had with the Rubber Glove Gang messed me up on the rest of the food. Coco, Emmett and Mikah are not happy they are still getting pumpkin & soupies till Thursday. They will sure pig out Friday then.
Got the meats today....What in the heck was I thinking when I ordered 15 pounds of lamb heart I'll never know. I think George will do good on the grinds and I know he will be getting what he needs.
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Post by goingpostal on Apr 23, 2014 21:14:36 GMT -5
Eh, meats good frozen for a long time and you can always feed it to the dog if it doesn't go over hot with the ferrets. Your other crew will probably be so happy to get a regular meal again, poor little brats, I've had a few blockage scares and it sucks! So stressful! Just keep a close eye on them in case it's still floating around in one of them but hopefully it had all passed and you won't have a problem. Glad Lulu is trying some non enhanced meat, that's a really good sign.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2014 17:04:08 GMT -5
What is your opinion on this? I thought George was maybe missing the soup on his food, so I tried to make some out of ground chuck and lamb heart. (It didn’t work out the way I thought it would, some of the fat stuck to the side of the processor.) I gave him some and he ate it like he hadn’t eaten for a week. That is how he was before he had his teeth done and I gave him the really chopped up stuff. He would eat sometimes 6 oz a day. Could he still have it in his head that it would hurt like before and not want to chew? I sure hope he hasn’t been going hungry. I doubt I will have any problems with him not eating grind. That could also be why he eats the liver so good - it's soft. Should I give him a limited amount so he doesn't gorged? That could also be why his BG would drop too I think.
Tomorrow "The Rubber Glove Gang are going to get the regular food. It's been since Tuesday morning that they have been getting soup for meals and 1 teaspoon of pumpkin in the morning.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2014 17:04:59 GMT -5
What is your opinion on this? I thought George was maybe missing the soup on his food, so I tried to make some out of ground chuck and lamb heart. (It didn’t work out the way I thought it would, some of the fat stuck to the side of the processor.) I gave him some and he ate it like he hadn’t eaten for a week. That is how he was before he had his teeth done and I gave him the really chopped up stuff. He would eat sometimes 6 oz a day. Could he still have it in his head that it would hurt like before and not want to chew? I sure hope he hasn’t been going hungry. I doubt I will have any problems with him not eating grind. That could also be why he eats the liver so good - it's soft. Should I give him a limited amount so he doesn't gorged? That could also be why his BG would drop too I think.
Tomorrow "The Rubber Glove Gang are going to get the regular food. It's been since Tuesday morning that they have been getting soup for meals and 1 teaspoon of pumpkin in the morning.
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Post by goingpostal on Apr 25, 2014 20:42:36 GMT -5
Hard to say, I found with mine that if I offered soup they would easily eat up to 4x normal portions, most would level off within a few days, one would eat and eat and eat and stayed lean, one would gorge nonstop and was quite fat. How does he look? My boy is being a picky brat as usual, I have a lot of FDR but don't want to feed him nothing but that and then try to get him back on "real" raw so he's getting 3/4 patty every 2-3 days, depending on how he eats his other food. Normal day he would only eat 2-3oz of meat, but he'll sit there and eat that at one meal if it's FDR.
With him, I can wait him out, if there's food in the room I won't offer anything but with an insulinomic it's not so much an option. What you need to watch is him, if gorging means he skips the next meal, starts getting overweight and sleeps all day, then you might have to look at managing portions. In which case I would figure out how much he is eating at once and try to cut it by 25%, see how that goes. I think if he were missing needed food on normal raw it would be fairly noticeable, he would be looking for food, losing weight, weak.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2014 8:27:05 GMT -5
George does not skip meals, he eats everything that is offered. I have been weighing his portion at 2.5 oz, but been giving it to him 2 times per meal. When he gets up and before he goes to bed, otherwise he just eats it all at once. Plus a little meal for both him and Lulu at medicine time. I'm going to have to take him outside to get him moving a little more. He might be bored with the same old routine.
They were thrown off with the routine too with all that was going on here. Till all that crap settles down I think they will get back to eating better. They are eating fine but not as much. I have been keeping food in the cages for them in case they need to munch.
I tried lamb heart last night and this morning. None were real thrilled...except George. For him being the oldest, I thought he would be the hardest to get to eat new meats.
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2014 16:52:43 GMT -5
I was reading when we started the switch, specially with George and how he did. I think his being lazy and stuff is just him. From the older posts he did fine with chicken. So I think I am going to give him chicken again. It seems he gets a few days of being lazier and then he is up and about for a few.
Is it normal for them to cut back on the amount of eating this time of year? I noticed some aren't eating as much or being fussy.
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