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Post by bitbyter on Mar 8, 2014 8:06:14 GMT -5
With the soup just add enough water so that it doesn't burn out your blender / food processor. You can always add more water to meal portions but you can't take it out If they are trying to bite the spoon you could always try them on some small slivers of meat and see what they do with them. Maybe even add a few to the soup. Start really small though, like half the size of a finger nail.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2014 18:55:11 GMT -5
Okay, makes sense! Today I tried to make it with less water but my blender struggled quite a bit with it so I ended up having to add a bit. It was still thick though but I don't think I can get the pate consistency with this blender. Are there any other tools I can use to do this? I'm just using a baby bullet right now but I don't mind getting a better blender/tool to do this better, like maybe a meat grinder or something?
I did try to give them some tiny pieces of chicken breast today (half the size of a fingernail as you mentioned). They did okay with it. I mixed it into their soup and they were a bit skeptical when they got a piece of the meat but they still kept eating.
And for Cooper, these are the weights for his food from yesterday and today (what it started as and what was left over)
Friday AM: 2.5oz beef ox tail, leftover was 1.4oz Friday PM: 2.0oz chicken wing, 0.6oz leftover
Saturday AM: 2.3oz turkey gizzard, leftover was 0.3oz Saturday PM: He didn't eat this meal yet lol whoops
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Post by bitbyter on Mar 8, 2014 22:15:21 GMT -5
Just make it as thick as you can without damaging your equipment. Whatever that is will be fine. No need to buy extra equipment if you don't need to. Soup is just a stage so it's not really worth spending the money.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2014 8:10:11 GMT -5
Finley 1250g/1220g He is eating about 1.5-2oz per meal. In general he has some very loose stools. Activity levels seem normal. Soup 2x a day.
Oliver 1360g/1330g 1.5-2oz per meal. Also has very loose stools. Activity levels seem normal. I noticed he is chewing on things a lot more and I don't think he was really a chewer before. I'm assuming it's because he wants to bite something since the soup can't really be bitten and what not. Soup 2x a day.
Cooper 737g/822g On average he is eating about 1.8oz per meal. I calculated this by the amounts I've been tracking for what he is eating and taking the average of those numbers. Loose, dark stools like the others. This week he had a lot that weren't dark, loose and brown. Normal activity levels.
Cooper's meal plan for this past week:
Monday am: chicken wing Monday pm: chicken drumstick Tuesday am: pork neck Tuesday pm: turkey gizzard Wednesday am: chicken wing Wednesday pm: 3 chicken hearts Thursday am: beef ox tail Thursday pm: pork shoulder Friday am: chicken wing Friday pm: turkey breast meat Saturday am: beef bone Saturday pm: ground pork Sunday am: chicken thigh Sunday pm: 2oz chicken liver, 2oz pork kidney
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Post by bitbyter on Mar 9, 2014 10:33:57 GMT -5
The loose stools are not abnormal for those on soup and for Cooper it should depend on whether he had organs the meal before or not. For those still on soup you could try increasing the bone meal / eggshell content of the soup as that can help. I'd start pushing the chunks / slivers of meat in their soup as it is starting to sound like at least one of them is ready to move on to the next stage.
Each day keep trying hand feeding some slivers of meat and see how they do. Vary the size a bit (half finger nail, full finger nail, a bit larger) and see how they take to it.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2014 12:17:26 GMT -5
Woohoo, I tried putting slivers of chicken breast and heart in the soup and they ate it right up. If anything it seemed like they were licking through it searching for the pieces of meat so I think it went well. I just mixed the pieces in and fed them. Still having a hard time getting them to eat off the plate. They're still only recognizing it's meal time when I pick them up and feed them lol. But I'm so glad they took the pieces of meat so well. I think they are wanting to chew on something and the meat did the trick!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2014 12:18:45 GMT -5
And I also added a bit more eggshell powder to the soup for them to solidify the stools a bit lol. Thanks
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2014 18:03:00 GMT -5
I also altered his meal plan just a bit (changed pork kidney to beef kidney, ground pork on Saturday to ground turkey). Also, I picked up a Cornish game hen today. I have never eaten one of these and probably haven't ever seen one before lol. Do I just serve it whole or does it need to be broken up or sectioned or anything? It's mostly for Cooper but I'm hoping the others will try some lol.
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Post by bitbyter on Mar 10, 2014 18:19:02 GMT -5
Cut it into whatever size he is used to. They are actually quite delicious. Pick one up for yourself next time. I used to steal the girls quail all the time when I was still feeding quail.
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Post by bitbyter on Mar 11, 2014 14:25:51 GMT -5
BTW, if cooper is eating bone in meats, there really is no need to feed him ground meats. You can just do chunks of boneless meat on non-bone days. Also, have you tried eggs with any of them? Eggs are especially important at this time of year (spring shed) as they help hair pass through their systems. During shedding season they should get eggs a few times a week. www.ferretharmony.net/2013/04/27/hairballs-eat-an-egg/
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2014 17:24:38 GMT -5
Wow, I was just going to ask you about eggs lol. I hear people mentioning eggs a lot. Is this like regular eggs, just the yokes, or some other kind of egg? And how much egg per ferret? Does it count as a meal or is part of a meal/a snack? Thanks Lol it's like one day goes really well here and then the next day the ferts all seem less spirited about the switch lol. Yesterday/today Finley and Oliver haven't seemed to want to eat as much. I only got Oliver to eat maybe half an ounce at his last feeding, and probably about 1oz for Finley. I'm not sure if I'm not properly spacing their meals out so they're just not hungry or what it is but they never seem genuinely hungry when it's meal time, whereas Cooper, for example, runs to the fridge and sniffs all around (i.e. you can tell he's hungry and ready to eat). I mixed slivers of meat into the soup and they seem to be doing okay with them, but they definitely still won't take pieces of meat out of my hand or anything. It seems like nothing gets their attention lol/sparks their interest. And thank you for the tip about the ground meats. Do ground meats have all the parts in them or just certain things? I was actually wondering this. I will probably just do chunks of meat now.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2014 17:31:25 GMT -5
Also, today I noticed a couple of mucousy poops. One I know for sure was from Oliver but the other I'm not sure about. Light colored mucousy. I checked the chart and it says it could be stress or some kind of stomach upset. Should I be considered about this? I got some canned pumpkin last night but haven't used any yet. Should I go ahead and just give it to all of them? As I'm not sure which poops belong to who? I also kind of want to give them the pumpkin because they've been chewing on things a lot more lately (not sure if that's from stress or night) and I noticed a few fabric toys missing little bits here and there. I've seen a bit in their poo a couple of times but I'm getting paranoid.
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Post by bitbyter on Mar 11, 2014 21:36:21 GMT -5
Ok, one question at a time here 1. Ground meat is just ground muscle meat. There is nothing else in it unless you are buying commercial raw ground pet food and it says it has other things in it (bone, organs, etc). Ground meat you get from the grocery store is just muscle meat. 2. For eggs, either feed just the yolk or the yolk and white together (mix them up with a fork like you were going to make an omelette). You can use as a treat, mix with their food, etc. They are important during shedding season but most people feed them once or twice a week just as a normal part of their menu. 3. Poops...raw poops are not like kibble poops. Like I said before this is a big adjustment for a lot of ferrents. With kibble, as soon as a poop looks "off" it is cause for worry. With raw fed ferrets just keep and eye on it and if the poops look the same or "off" in the same way for a few days, that's when you start to worry. Poops should vary with whatever they are eating whereas with kibble they are pretty much the same all the time. If you suspect something is off and have multiple ferrets, all you can do is clean a litterbox in the cage and isolate that one ferret their for a day or so. That's really they only way you can determine who's poop is who's without catching them in the act. 4. Variability on how much they are eating. We are coming into spring now so as long as their seasons are correct (they can be backwards) they are probably going to start eating less. I have already noticed a drop in how much Socks is eating. Wilma is my backwards baby so she is starting to eat more. Hope that answers all your questions. Let me know if I missed anything.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2014 10:51:32 GMT -5
LOL sorry about all the questions, but thank you for answering them. Today Oliver ate a ton of chunks of chicken breast. I did a little bit of soup since he's familiar with it and did a bunch of chunks and he eat everything, even seemed to like it a little bit this time lol. Last night Oliver came out of his cage and I forgot the cat's kibble was out (same kibble he was on before) and he ran over to it so fast and almost started eating it, but he seemed so hungry. I took it away obviously but I felt bad for him the way he ran over to it lol. Thanks for all the information.
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Post by bitbyter on Mar 12, 2014 12:33:57 GMT -5
I was joking! Nothing wrong with asking lots of questions. It's why I'm here.
It's the carbs and sugars he's missing. Eventually when he rounds the corner to raw he'll totally ignore the kibble.
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