MissDuzell's Switching Thread/ HurricaneKatt

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TEST POST

[Deleted]

sorry for some reason i was writing to you and every time i tried to send it.. it would say i was logged out. i guess i took to long writing or something. i had to write on a noate pad and copy/paest it so i didnt have to retype again 3 times is enough for me...

i am sorry it took so long to get back to you about all this. its been insain... rehoming animals that wonder into our yard... doing things for my grandma. and by the time i have been home i am just so tired i sit down and pass out.. today we rehomed some ducks.. its like everyone dumps animals at my moms house... thank goodness i know how to network and help rehome things at rescues and all... maybe i should open a rescue and stuff lol

so i am still up here in GA. will be for a while i guess. my moving plans fell threw cuz of a bad truck ball joint i guess.. but once i find out when i am leaving i will let you know.

i do not have a feeding den. its almost like they will eat the slivers but if they are to big just kinda strow them to the side. but i will have to look into that if it will help keep them from leaving food all over the bottom of the cage.

sadie is eating fine still i have her on the chicken and the pork with no soup. still working on making her slivers more chunky. today i gave her some liver (blended into a liquid) and she loved it. should i try giving her hearts and then taking her off the woup all together if she will eat the puree? well off it except when i feed new meats?? or is it to soon and me pushing to fast?

angel and gizzmo also been doing good. if i cut the slivers up to small itty size they do not drag it around. i do need to start feeding them by hand again in the morningd so i can get them to eat them better. i just been so busy. i have not been able to start cutting back the soup yet. but am working twords it with these two. they keep flipp floppgin on who wants to be a bigger pain to get to eat. i also gave them some liver. they loved it. (angel will eat anything soupy though)

i was wondering how you felt about pro-biotics and oils for the fuzzies.i have read and herd of ferrets getting oils to often and causing issues... just wanted to be carefull.

the eggs are chicken eggs. i am looking for quail. but cant seem to find them anywhere... my moms mentor said chicken egg whites are to much for them. though if they can have it all i would love to just give them the egg... its so messy trying to just get the yoke. and i do save the shell. i have a coffee grinder i use to powder the shell. what is the best way to store it? do they like go bad or something?

[katt]

Wrote a really long reply and it all got deleted. I'm really mad. I'll have to come back and respond later, sorry.

[katt]

sorry for some reason i was writing to you and every time i tried to send it.. it would say i was logged out. i guess i took to long writing or something. i had to write on a noate pad and copy/paest it so i didnt have to retype again 3 times is enough for me...
It's okay, I knew you would potentially be out. If you are having forum issues you need to PM Sherry either on the forum or on FB - it should not be timing you out like that. Sorry for MY late reply - this week and the next few weeks we are being slammed by tests.

i do not have a feeding den. its almost like they will eat the slivers but if they are to big just kinda strow them to the side. but i will have to look into that if it will help keep them from leaving food all over the bottom of the cage.

A feeding den is easy to make and will help limit stashing (but won't eliminate it). Get a rubbermaid bin and a can of peaches (they come in the larger, 4" diameter cans). Empty and rinse the peach can and remove the paper label. Put the can open side down on a hot stove burner and let it get hot - takes about 30sec to a few min. USE AN OVEN MITT!!!! Take the hot can and Quickly put it on the rubbermaid bin and push/rotate the can. It will melt a perfectly ferret sized hole in the bin. Voila! Feeding den! Also, the peach can method makes holes the perfect size for ferret tunnel attachments - I use a bin with an elbow tunnel piece in the opening for my litter box. Works great to keep litter from tracking AS much.

sadie is eating fine still i have her on the chicken and the pork with no soup. still working on making her slivers more chunky. today i gave her some liver (blended into a liquid) and she loved it. should i try giving her hearts and then taking her off the woup all together if she will eat the puree? well off it except when i feed new meats?? or is it to soon and me pushing to fast?
Great! Most ferrets take longer on organs. Work on adding chunks to her liver soup. Give her the soup for 1.5 meals a week. Same for hearts. Work on getting her to eat heart chunks and liver chunks. She needs 1.5 meals a week of heart and 1.5 meals a week of liver. You can do this easily by giving 1 weekly meal organs, 1 weekly meal heart, and 1 weekly meal that is half heart and half organ. Keep working her up to bigger chunks. How is she doing on bones?

angel and gizzmo also been doing good. if i cut the slivers up to small itty size they do not drag it around. i do need to start feeding them by hand again in the morningd so i can get them to eat them better. i just been so busy. i have not been able to start cutting back the soup yet. but am working twords it with these two. they keep flipp floppgin on who wants to be a bigger pain to get to eat. i also gave them some liver. they loved it. (angel will eat anything soupy though)
Slow and steady wins the race! Keep it up. See above for liver and heart - same routine for them As for the slivers, first work on increasing the NUMBER of slivers, then the size while decreasing soup.

i was wondering how you felt about pro-biotics and oils for the fuzzies.i have read and herd of ferrets getting oils to often and causing issues... just wanted to be carefull.

Salmon oil is fantastic. Fish oil is also great. Extra virgin olive oil is very good too, but not quite as good as the fish oils. Oil is really good for their coats and skin. Giving too much will give them runny poops though. Rule of thumb is no more than 1tsp per ferret every 3 days. You know you are giving too much if they get super runny poops.

Probios aren't really needed unless you have a sick fuzz, an IBD fuzz, or they just got a round of antibiotics. They are very good to give after antibiotics to help reset the gut flora. Kefir works great for that.

[katt]

the eggs are chicken eggs. i am looking for quail. but cant seem to find them anywhere... my moms mentor said chicken egg whites are to much for them. though if they can have it all i would love to just give them the egg... its so messy trying to just get the yoke. and i do save the shell. i have a coffee grinder i use to powder the shell. what is the best way to store it? do they like go bad or something?

Eggs. This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. I think what was communicated to your mom was either communicated or interpreted poorly. Ferrets can and SHOULD eat the ENTIRE egg.
First - quail eggs. Quail eggs are fantastic, super high in nutrients. But truly - they are just a fad. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with chicken eggs.

Now, egg whites. Egg whites contain a molecule called Avidin, that binds a nutrient called Biotin so the body cannot use it. Biotin is super important in the body, so if the Biotin is all being bound up, it causes a Biotin deficiency that can be a real issue.
HOWEVER!!!!
It would technically take a lot of raw egg whites, over a long period of time before a ferret developed a deficiency. BUT unfortunately many people would see that and think "oh, egg whites must be fine then!" and feed their ferrets too much egg white - that would be very bad. So as a rule, we tell people to never feed RAW egg whites ALONE.

Now HERE is the important part. Egg yolks are one of nature's richest sources of biotin. They have SO much Biotin, that they effectively NEGATE the avidin in the egg whites. Does that make sense? Thus if you feed the WHOLE EGG you do NOT need to be concerned about a biotin deficiency.

Egg whites have a lot of really good proteins and nutrients in them. Yolks do as well. If you do not feed the whole egg, you are really doing your ferrets a disservice in my opinion. Whole raw eggs are a very complete and nutritious protein. Think about what an egg does...Eggs are designed to grow an entire baby animal from scratch inside of them, providing all of the necessary nutrients for healthy growth. At the same time, there's no poop-hole in an egg, so the egg must be equally efficient at eliminating any waste produced by the growing animal. As a result, eggs are a very unique and incredibly nutritious food. IF. FED. WHOLE. IF you do not feed the whole egg, you are missing out on a huge chunk of important nutrients.

Think of it this way - if a wild ferret or pole cat comes across a nest of eggs in the wild, do you think they are just going to suck out the egg yolks and leave the whites? Absolutely not! They would eat the whole thing!

I will answer a few common questions....
1.) A chicken egg white is NOT too much egg white for a ferret, as long as the ENTIRE egg (white and yolk) is fed
2.) Feeding the ENTIRE egg (white and yolk) effectively eliminates any avidin/biotin issues
3.) There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with chicken eggs.
4.) NO - do NOT feed plain whites - you MUST include the Yolk. However, whites should Not be excluded.
5.) Raw eggs are absolutely, unequivocally best fed WHOLE - egg and yolk together


Feed the whole egg. Rule of thumb is no more than 1 egg per ferret every 3 days, though more can be offered if they are shedding but be careful to not give too much or they will have really bad poops.
I store my dried and ground egg shells in a baby food jar. A ziplock bag works well too. Any airtight container should be just fine. As long as you rinse the eggs well and dry them completely before grinding, they really shouldn't spoil. I suppose they might get "stale" given enough time, but all it really is is calcium. It should last quite some time. Worst case if you are ever concerned, empty what you have and make a fresh batch. We save egg shells from breakfast when I need a new batch of powder.

[Deleted]

the feeding den sounds easy to make. is there any special way to achor the feeding den down so they do not take it and move it around? gizzmo and sadie both have this weird thing about moving stuff around in their cage.. its cute but can get on my nerves sometimes.. i recently had to get some now water bowls that attached to the cage so they were not moving it. same with the litter boxes.

sadie i have started this week on getting her use to cornish game hen. i was going to do quail but realised i didnt have any chopped up lol. she is eating good sized chunks now. i only use soup for gravey on new meats. tomorrow i am going to try some heart (had to blend some up for her) i didnt know they would eat chunks of heart and liver.. my mom graduated and just bends it for them. though she is vegan and squeemish. it really dosent bother me as much. i think its cool that they eat stuff like that and like to watch them eat. she is doing pretty good with bone today i walked in on her munching away at some bone chunks in the cornish game hen. she seems to like the middle of the bone more then the outer part but she will eat it all. its like all of a sudden she just liked the bone alot. i was hving trouble with her eating it up untill then but i am proud of her she is been insainly easy threw out this whole switch!!! (dance)

gizzmo and angel are doing good. they are starting to eat alot more. which is good i am always worried about their weight. andgels more then gizzmos. cuz they are old. i did increase the number of slivers tonight. i will see how they did in the morning. if they do goood tomorrow with the amount of slivers i will increase in size and hopefully can take some of the soup back away. should i wait to see if they will do heart till after i get them off the soup and on to just meat and stuff or would it be ok to try it with them when i try it with sadie?

my mom dose pro bitoics once a week. i guess she has kefir. i should try and give my girls some though they did just get done with those antibiotics today.
i will let my mom know about that too. cuz i thought it was odd she gave it so often and on days she feeds it she gets some weird looking poop.

ah yeah that makes alot more sense! i think my mom just misunderstood i guess she had sherry as a mentor.... i couldnt figure out why the egg whites were so bad. the only thing i could think of was that the chicken eggs are big. but thats great. is there any special way of getting them to eat a whole egg shell and all? is it like the meat thing were i will have to build up to it? is it super messy? like and outdoor thing lol. i have the eggshell stored in a little air proof jar in the fridge. my mom seems to think it will help them keep longer. i am not to worried about them going bad. i wash them really good and its not like the shell is parishable like regular food.

i know i said this befor lol but i will weigh my babies tomorrow and let you know how they are doing. i have a stick note on the fridge so i remember.

i am concerned about gizzmo and angels weight. sadie is fattening up so nice. and it seems the other two are not. i know they are older then her but i dont think that it would effect their weight much really. i am planning on taking them to the vet next week. what i thought was kibble nose on gizzmo turns out to not be kibble nose... it grew up her nose and when not kept washed turns brown (was orange) and now she has these weird spots on her were she is oeange when cleaned brown when not and flakey skin. little black dots here and there.. on her side.. and now her left front foot is swollen.. and losing fur. and i checked out angel she has the spots on her back not as bad.. and not on her nose and no hair loss or foot swelling... all this weirdness started when i had all 3 together.. but i looked at sadie and she dosent seem to have anything wrong with her. i have the 2 quarentiend right now. i have to give them an oatmeal bath tomorrow... i could show u pics if u wanna see... i have no clue what it is.. my moms ferret rescue friend seems to think its some sort of mite that older ferrets are prone to. its got me all worried and has me wondering if it is effecting their weight. though they act normal... and the earliest appointment i can get is next week SO LAME. oh well ill let you know if i figure out what it is.

[katt]

the feeding den sounds easy to make. is there any special way to achor the feeding den down so they do not take it and move it around? gizzmo and sadie both have this weird thing about moving stuff around in their cage.. its cute but can get on my nerves sometimes.. i recently had to get some now water bowls that attached to the cage so they were not moving it. same with the litter boxes.

Oh yes! Sorry, forgot to add that. Just drill 2 holes and push a shower curtain hook through them and hook it to the side of the cage! Super easy.

sadie i have started this week on getting her use to cornish game hen. i was going to do quail but realised i didnt have any chopped up lol. she is eating good sized chunks now. i only use soup for gravey on new meats. tomorrow i am going to try some heart (had to blend some up for her) i didnt know they would eat chunks of heart and liver.. my mom graduated and just bends it for them. though she is vegan and squeemish. it really dosent bother me as much. i think its cool that they eat stuff like that and like to watch them eat. she is doing pretty good with bone today i walked in on her munching away at some bone chunks in the cornish game hen. she seems to like the middle of the bone more then the outer part but she will eat it all. its like all of a sudden she just liked the bone alot. i was hving trouble with her eating it up untill then but i am proud of her she is been insainly easy threw out this whole switch!!! (dance)
Good girl! She is doing great,and using some soup to intro new meats is perfectly fine. Glad to hear she is chomping on bones well - the inner marrow is more nutrient dense and tastier, so they do tend to like it best. It's like nutritious candy. What meats is she eating now? How are liver and heart going?

gizzmo and angel are doing good. they are starting to eat alot more. which is good i am always worried about their weight. andgels more then gizzmos. cuz they are old. i did increase the number of slivers tonight. i will see how they did in the morning. if they do goood tomorrow with the amount of slivers i will increase in size and hopefully can take some of the soup back away. should i wait to see if they will do heart till after i get them off the soup and on to just meat and stuff or would it be ok to try it with them when i try it with sadie?
Only increase them as fast as they will allow you. You may find you have to increase, increase - then stop for a few days to let them adjust, then increase again...etc. Definitely get a weight on them, they should be weighed weekly so you can track it.

my mom dose pro bitoics once a week. i guess she has kefir. i should try and give my girls some though they did just get done with those antibiotics today.
i will let my mom know about that too. cuz i thought it was odd she gave it so often and on days she feeds it she gets some weird looking poop.

You should really think of most supplements as medication - you don't want to use them unless they are needed. Oils are good because we feed a lot of very lean meats (such as chicken and turkey) so it helps replace some of the missing fats. But stuff like Kefir etc I generally do not recommend feeding on a regular basis unless you have a Reason. Post antibiotics, ferrets with illnesses, IBD, stomach upset, etc etc.

ah yeah that makes alot more sense! i think my mom just misunderstood i guess she had sherry as a mentor.... i couldnt figure out why the egg whites were so bad. the only thing i could think of was that the chicken eggs are big. but thats great. is there any special way of getting them to eat a whole egg shell and all? is it like the meat thing were i will have to build up to it? is it super messy? like and outdoor thing lol. i have the eggshell stored in a little air proof jar in the fridge. my mom seems to think it will help them keep longer. i am not to worried about them going bad. i wash them really good and its not like the shell is parishable like regular food.

Meh, it certainly doesn't hurt to refrigerate eggshells. I don't bother, but it can't hurt and might help - so why not?
As for how to get them to eat it, I haven't convinced mine to eat a whole egg - they tend to ignore it if it isn't cracked open in a bowl. lol A few things you can try: crack the egg partially and put it in a bowl. If they go for it, crack it less and less. Many ferrets like to play with the egg (makes a mess!) and will eat it when it cracks open. I crack the egg into a bowl and scramble it up with a fork. Mine don't eat the eggshell if it's in there, and it you try to put powdered eggshell into it it will just sink to the bottom. The insides are the important part, the calcium they will get from bones anyways. You can add a little oil that they like, or ferretone (less healthy than oil) to entice them to try the egg if they aren't sure at first. Be prepared though, it will make for super messy poops! Be sure to feed a bone-heavy meal afterwards if you mix in any oil. Or a little extra eggshell in their soups.

i know i said this befor lol but i will weigh my babies tomorrow and let you know how they are doing. i have a stick note on the fridge so i remember.

Yep, definitely need weights.

i am concerned about gizzmo and angels weight. sadie is fattening up so nice. and it seems the other two are not. i know they are older then her but i dont think that it would effect their weight much really. i am planning on taking them to the vet next week. what i thought was kibble nose on gizzmo turns out to not be kibble nose... it grew up her nose and when not kept washed turns brown (was orange) and now she has these weird spots on her were she is oeange when cleaned brown when not and flakey skin. little black dots here and there.. on her side.. and now her left front foot is swollen.. and losing fur. and i checked out angel she has the spots on her back not as bad.. and not on her nose and no hair loss or foot swelling... all this weirdness started when i had all 3 together.. but i looked at sadie and she dosent seem to have anything wrong with her. i have the 2 quarentiend right now. i have to give them an oatmeal bath tomorrow... i could show u pics if u wanna see... i have no clue what it is.. my moms ferret rescue friend seems to think its some sort of mite that older ferrets are prone to. its got me all worried and has me wondering if it is effecting their weight. though they act normal... and the earliest appointment i can get is next week [img src="http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h352/JW_2012/Emoticons/.png" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h352/JW_2012/Emoticons/.png"].png[/IMG] SO LAME. oh well ill let you know if i figure out what it is.[/b]

I saw (and commented on) your post on the FB page. I agree it does look like ringworm, and considering your mom has it it's almost certain. They definitely need to see a vet and get prescription medication. All three of them, regardless of whether Sadie has it yet or not. It is very contagious and fungus reproduces by spores - so if it gets on her or you or both you may not notice growths until later, and then you are looking at repeating the treatment for the whole house all over again. Better to cover them all the first time.


We need to start working on a menu, especially since Sadie is eating whole meats. Please post a weekly menu based off of the meats that you are currently feeding.

Also, what organs aside from liver do you have access to?

[Deleted]

sorry it took so long. things got a little crazy last night and today but are settled down now.,..

wow that sounds so easy. i will have to look into getting stuff. even though sadie dose not drag her food around i really want to make one for her. for some reason my cat stanley thinks its ok tp try and steal meat. normally this results on sadie nipping at his paws.

which reminds me.. how knowlageable are you on agressive ferrets twords other ferrets or cats?

Sadie-
her weight is 1.89
she is eating chicken, pork, and cornish game hen. me and my mom just chopped up some quail so i was thinking i would try that this week. so i can get her on that and i am going to go out and get some beef. but i thought i would work on quail this week. though it did not even take a full week to get her on cornish game hen with no soup. i have only given the liver and hearts that one time. i need to go get some more hearts in order to chunk it. but tomorrow will chop up some liver chunks. she loved the heart so im sure putting some chunks in it will not be an issue.

Angel & Gizzmo-
Gizzmo weight is 1.53

Angel weight is 1.25

i tried the heart on them as well they ate it. i am concerned about angel... after being sick she has really dropped weight. and i think gizzmo has been being a hog [img src="http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h352/JW_2012/Emoticons/.png" src="http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h352/JW_2012/Emoticons/.png" style="max-width:100%;"] so i have started feeding them by hand. 1 oz 3 times a day while also leaving food in cage. she is eating alot now so i am hoping she gains it back fast. i did chop more slivers today and increased size. other then my worry about the weight they are both progressing nicely now.

good to know and they do love their oils. i have not done probiotics yet but now that they are off the amoxi i should prob give them a little huh?

ok. i will try it next time. have you ever heard of a ferret being allergic to the egg whites? my mom mixed an egg (yoke and white) in with her heart meal. and her ferret pixi threw everything back up like an hr later.

i have an appointment on tuesday to take them all in. i sent an email. the vet told me somethings i could use untill the apointment. and told me to shave down the infected area.

how do i make a menue?? lets see i think my mom has pigs brain up here but in FL i can get liver brain kidney and all kinds of stuff.

[katt]

wow that sounds so easy. i will have to look into getting stuff. even though sadie dose not drag her food around i really want to make one for her. for some reason my cat stanley thinks its ok tp try and steal meat. normally this results on sadie nipping at his paws.
Feeding dens really cut down the mess, and make for a more natural feeding experience. I definitely recommend them.

which reminds me.. how knowlageable are you on agressive ferrets twords other ferrets or cats?
Some ferrets and cats will just never get along. Ferrets though can usually be convinced but it takes a lot of time. There are several tricks you can try - I would recommend making a thread on the main boards asking for integration help.

Sadie-
her weight is 1.89
she is eating chicken, pork, and cornish game hen. me and my mom just chopped up some quail so i was thinking i would try that this week. so i can get her on that and i am going to go out and get some beef. but i thought i would work on quail this week. though it did not even take a full week to get her on cornish game hen with no soup. i have only given the liver and hearts that one time. i need to go get some more hearts in order to chunk it. but tomorrow will chop up some liver chunks. she loved the heart so im sure putting some chunks in it will not be an issue.

Great! Make sure you are keeping up with the heart and organs - it is super important they get a meal and a half of each Every week.

Angel & Gizzmo-
Gizzmo weight is 1.53

Angel weight is 1.25

i tried the heart on them as well they ate it. i am concerned about angel... after being sick she has really dropped weight. and i think gizzmo has been being a hog so i have started feeding them by hand. 1 oz 3 times a day while also leaving food in cage. she is eating alot now so i am hoping she gains it back fast. i did chop more slivers today and increased size. other then my worry about the weight they are both progressing nicely now.

Great. Keep up the hand feeding for a while to make sure she is eating enough. As long as she is eating she should hopefully start putting that weight back on. If it means taking it a little slower with introducing slivers for the sake of making sure she eats and puts the weight back on, then so be it. It sounds like she is doing great though, so I wouldn't worry too much just yet. Keep monitoring her intake and energy levels, and getting a weight on her 1-2 times a week so you can monitor her. If Gizmo is eating all of the food and not leaving enough for Angel, you need to feed them more food. They should slow down after a while. Their bodies are trying to make up for lost nutrients, and it's still winter time. Once they've been on raw a while they tend to slow down their eating, and of course come Spring time they always cut back.

good to know and they do love their oils. i have not done probiotics yet but now that they are off the amoxi i should prob give them a little huh?
It would probably be a good idea since they just had antibiotics. Probios can help get things rebalanced and settled in their GI tract.

ok. i will try it next time. have you ever heard of a ferret being allergic to the egg whites? my mom mixed an egg (yoke and white) in with her heart meal. and her ferret pixi threw everything back up like an hr later.

Interesting. If it was an allergy the ferret wouldn't be able to eat the yolk either, and generally allergic reactions that severe happen pretty fast - not an hour later. It could be that something else upset her stomach, that it was too much egg for her (most ferrets do well with one egg, but like humans every ferret is different and egg is rich), that she had some hair in her throat and panicked and threw up because of that, etc. I'll ask the other mods if they've ever heard of a ferret throwing up egg. My initial thought was she ate it too fast, but then same thing as the allergy applies - she would have vomited earlier, not an hour later. I'll ask around and let you know if I hear anything. I wouldn't say allergy though because if she was allergic to egg, especially a severe enough allergy to cause vomiting, she'd be having issues with the yolk as well.


i have an appointment on tuesday to take them all in. i sent an email. the vet told me somethings i could use untill the apointment. and told me to shave down the infected area.

Oh no! Your poor bald babies! I haven't heard of shaving the spots... Then again, we don't have much ring worm up here so I'm not super familiar with the treatment. Poor things, ferret fur takes forever to grow back and it's important for them to thermoregulate. Considering how many infected spots they seemed to have from your pics on FB I would consider asking the vet if that's really necessary. If (s)he says yes then of course follow the instructions, but I would just double check - it really does take them a long time to grow their fur back. :/

how do i make a menue?? lets see i think my mom has pigs brain up here but in FL i can get liver brain kidney and all kinds of stuff.

Okay, so you need to get your hands on some of that brain, kidney, etc and start introducing it. Their organ meals should be half liver, half other organs. As for a menu, you need to fill out what you feed for each meal, and demonstrate balance and variety.

Sunday:
am:
pm:

Monday:
am:
pm:

Tuesday:
am:
pm:

Wednesday:
am:
pm:

Thursday:
am:
pm:

Friday:
am:
pm:

Saturday:
am:
pm:

[Deleted]

i did give some heart today with probiotics today for everyone. they liked it but gizzmo and angel did not like the arteries that did not grind in the blender.

sadie-
today i started her on working with the quail. the quail had no meat gravy on it and she ate it all up. she is now on big meat chunks now too. tomorrow i am cooking ground beef for my brother and his daughter. i will try and see if i can get her to try a little to see if there is an allergy so i know if i should buy some on tuesday.

Angel & Gizzmo-
i have been leaving slivers in the soup in the cage and just feeding soup one on one. i need to chop more slivers. i will start taking their weight twice a week so i know who is gaining. i have been checking their food dish once an hr. to make sure they always have food. someones eating the slivers nicely.


is this right?
Weekly Ferret Feeding Menu

Sunday
Bone In- Quail
Muscle Meats - Turkey Hearts 1 oz
Bone In- Quail

Monday
Muscle Meats - Pork Chunks
Muscle Meats - Pork Chunks

Tuesday
Organ - Liver 1 oz.
Bone In- Chicken
Organ - Liver 1 oz.

Wednesday
Muscle Meats - Ground Turkey
Muscle Meats - Ground Turkey

Thursday
Bone In- Cornish Game Hen
Muscle Meats - Turkey Hearts 1 oz
Bone In- Cornish Game Hen

Friday
Organ - Pig Brain 1 oz.
Bone In- Chicken
Organ - Pig Brain 1 oz.

Saturday
Muscle Meats - Pork Chunks
Bone In- Cornish Game Hen

(I want to change out sat if I get them on beef to that..)

[katt]

I did give some heart today with probiotics today for everyone. they liked it but gizzmo and angel did not like the arteries that did not grind in the blender.

Great! They'll get used to that as they get more used to chunks.

sadie-
today i started her on working with the quail. the quail had no meat gravy on it and she ate it all up. she is now on big meat chunks now too. tomorrow i am cooking ground beef for my brother and his daughter. i will try and see if i can get her to try a little to see if there is an allergy so i know if i should buy some on tuesday.

Sadie is doing fantastic. I would like to move towards getting her on a completed menu. (more below)

Angel & Gizzmo-
i have been leaving slivers in the soup in the cage and just feeding soup one on one. i need to chop more slivers. i will start taking their weight twice a week so i know who is gaining. i have been checking their food dish once an hr. to make sure they always have food. someones eating the slivers nicely.

Feed slivers when you do one on one feedings too. You need to push them a bit or they won't progress. You also need to make sure that both of them are eating the slivers at this stage before moving forward or you may end up with one who is just eating around them and one who is eating the slivers - then when you reduce the soup suddenly one won't be eating enough. Make sense? Every food they get should have slivers in it right now.

is this right?
Weekly Ferret Feeding Menu

Sunday
Bone In- Quail
Muscle Meats - Turkey Hearts 1 oz
Bone In- Quail

Monday
Muscle Meats - Pork Chunks
Muscle Meats - Pork Chunks

Tuesday
Organ - Liver 1 oz.
Bone In- Chicken
Organ - Liver 1 oz.

Wednesday
Muscle Meats - Ground Turkey
Muscle Meats - Ground Turkey

Thursday
Bone In- Cornish Game Hen
Muscle Meats - Turkey Hearts 1 oz
Bone In- Cornish Game Hen

Friday
Organ - Pig Brain 1 oz.
Bone In- Chicken
Organ - Pig Brain 1 oz.

Saturday
Muscle Meats - Pork Chunks
Bone In- Cornish Game Hen


Good start, but not quite. Think of each day as being broken up into two "meals." Each Meal is whatever food they eat in a 12 hour period. So the am meal (breakfast) is all food they eat during the day. The pm meal (dinner) is all food they eat in the evening and overnight. Make sense? The way you have it listed, I have no way of telling how much of each thing they are getting. Sunday you have Quail Heart Quail. So are they getting 1 meal of quail and 1 meal of heart? half a meal of heart? 1/3 meal of heart and 2/3 meal quail? one meal quail, one meal half quail half heart? See what I mean?
You need to start breaking it down in am/pm meals. so:
am: turkey heart
pm: bone-in quail

Also, you are looking a little light on bone (though still possibly in the ok range, depending on the meal thing)and heavy on organs.

Here is the thing about heart and organs... right now you are going off of weights it appears, which is a common thing to do, but not the best way to go about it. It drives me batty seeing people rely so heavily on "2 ounces a week" for liver. That is a general, average rule of thumb and DOES NOT apply to all ferrets. Ferrets should get approximately 10% organ (at least half liver), and 10% heart. Feeding 2 meals a day (a meal being food they eat in 12 hours as described above) gives you 14 meals in one week. To get their 10% in, you need to give 1.5 (one and a half!) meals each week.
1.5 meals = 10%
If you feed by WEIGHT instead of by meals, you end up with an imbalance in the diet. Let me explain with an example...

So say you have 2 ferrets, a small female that eats 1oz of food a day on average, and a large male that eats 4oz of food a day on average. They EACH need 10% organ every week.
So you feed 2 ounces of liver a week...what does that mean?
Well the female eats 1oz day = 7oz a week. So 2oz of liver = 29% of her diet!!!! That is almost 3 times the amount of organs she needs for the week!
Now the male eats 4oz a day, so that means 28oz in a week. So 2oz of liver for the male = 7% of his diet. Now he isn't getting enough organ!
And that's not taking into account seasonal changes in appetite, or other ferrets in the business...

This is why it is best to measure things in "meals." If they eat 14 meals a week, one and a half meals (1.5) is almost exactly 10% of their total diet. They will fluctuate in the amounts they eat meal to meal, day to day, season to season, and will be very different between ferrets. If you always give them one and a half meals of organ, it will inevitably always AVERAGE OUT to be ~10% of their total diet. Does that make sense? This is why it's really a pet peeve of mine that people get so hung up on numbers and weighing meats. You really can't depend on that because what each ferret eats is SO different.

OF that 10% organ, it should be roughly one half liver, and one half other organs (brain, kidney, etc).

To give you an idea of what this would look like:
Day 1:
am: liver
pm: heart

Day 2:
am: half heart, half other organs
pm: chicken wings


OR

Day 1:
am: half liver, half other organs
pm: heart

Day 2:
am: half heart, half liver
pm: chicken wings


Of course you will probably want to space the organ and heart meals out more for poop reasons, but that's a basic layout (2 slightly different variations) of 4 meals that will satisfy their weekly organ and heart needs. Then you need, 7-9 bone-in meals (bone-in meaning containing a significant amount of edible bone) total, and the rest are all boneless meats.

Hope that all makes sense! Please ask if you want me to re-explain or clarify anything. This is THE most important part of balancing their diet, so it is critical that you understand.



(I want to change out sat if I get them on beef to that..)

Keep in mind that the menus you are and will be creating are simply a guideline and a tool. They are for you to practice creating balance week to week, and for me to see whether or not you understand and are providing proper balance. What you feed each week is not going to be exactly the same, the key is that you know what elements must be there (10% heart, 10% organ, 7-9 bone-in meals) and how to make substitutions. (e.g. you could substitute brains for kidneys one week, but NOT substitute brains for heart because they are different nutrient-meals).

[katt]

Just popping in for updates.

[Deleted]

sorry things have been insain this week. I have not been able to log into the probord... or read anything. I will make a new menue tomorrow. and just wanted to stop and let you know everyone is doing great on the meals. I will elaborate tomorrow

[katt]

I'll check tomorrow then.

[Deleted]

i am so sorry things have been just crazy this week.

i have not cut the chunks into liver and hearts yet. i will try and get on that this week.my mom is weirded out a lil that i think its cool for them to eat a liver or heart that is not ground. lol

sadie- she is eating lager chunks now. bone and all. i tried to mix a little beef in some chicken i gave her to hide it and she like refused to eat it. next time I get more i will have to just hand feed i think. i am unsure why she wont eat it... could it be cuz it is ground? i find she dose not really like the ground turkey ither now that she is on chunks... i have to mix that in with chunks to get her to eat it anymore and the past couple times i have if i add what she thinks is to much she will refuse. i think i might just go and try turkey legs instead seeing as she seems to like the chunk-a-chunk instead of the ground. but the beef.. any secret to getting them to like ground better? or should i just get like chunk? she really just dose not seem to be into ground anything anymore >.>

gizzmo and angel- they are both eating slivers. i need to cut more and will increase size again. they seem to not take to new foods too well but love the chicken. so i dont know what to do there. do i increase size of chicken and other slivers but add less slivers in the new meats? make the new meat slivers smaller and build up? they also do not like the ground turkey...i can add it to soup and with soupy chicken slivers but like sadie they will not eat it if it is what they consider too much. and trying to hand feed turkey is like trying to pull teeth

oh and the ringworm is going away!! foot swelling going down and sadie has been cleared as to having none. THANK GOD. i also had my dog n cat looked at cuz i was worried they would get it and cause the infection to happen again and they are clear.. so i guess in 2 months i get them checked again to see if they are not carriers anymore then they can not be quarantined any more.

BLAH... i based my menue off my moms lol cuz i was kinda confused on how to make one. to tell you the truth i just used hers and changed meats around.

i do think i have the organ part down like say in a 7 day period i put

Monday
Am:Liver
Pm:heart

Tuesday
Am:Pork (muscle)
Pm:pork (muscle)

Wednesday
Am:quail (bone)
PM:quail (bone)

Thursday
Am: Chicken (bone)
Pm: Chicken (bone)

Friday
Am: Cornish Game Hen (bone)
Pm: Cornish Game hen (bone)

Saturday
Am: Turkey (muscle)
PM: Turkey (muscle)

Sunday
Am: Half Liver, Half Pigs Brain
Pm: quail (bone)

kinda like that? and just let them eat as much as they are willing to eat in the AM and PM? i only ask cuz my moms ferret pixi pukes on her liver.. something about her mentor saying they do that sometimes cuz it is so rich.
dose bone meals not also count as muscle meals kinda?
going off them needing 1.5 meals of heart and organs. is it safe for me to assume that they need 1.5 liver 1.5 heart and 1.5 another organ? or if i understand correctly from your example i can do the 1.5 heart and 1.5 organ as a mix of liver and another organ like i did above?