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Post by katt on Apr 19, 2014 22:53:59 GMT -5
Understood: No more Boneless for Mika. :thumbsup: I'll post more tomorrow. We just got home from seeing Divergent, and I wanted to pop in and say that we really liked the movie. They stayed pretty true to the book. The actress who played Tris was perfect for the role. It was fun seeing the different factions, and I really liked the actor who played Four. He's quite cute. :wave2: Did you know that the actress who plays Tris is actually the author of the book? Only reason I know that is Shane's mom was watching the Today Show or Morning Show, whatever it is called, and they were doing a special on it. I heard "Divergent" and immediately looked up to see what they were talking about. haha I guess she was already an actress when she wrote the books. How is Mika doing on bones when hand fed?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2014 16:04:41 GMT -5
Happy Easter and Good Afternoon. (wave)
Mika is being a problem child, when it comes to bones. She will accept the bones and then she jumps off my lap and runs away. I follow, pick her up and try again. She happily accepts any soup, and will eat some small pieces of meat. If they get a little big bigger than a fingernail crescent, she runs off.
Everyone else eats fine and accepts bones. The big problem is Wynstan insists on stashing everything that has bones. He will eat some pieces and then runs back to get the rest. I pick it up, but he gets up, in the night to stash anything left out. Roamy and Juliet happily eat anything. Juliet is very fond of soup and fills up. I think she has her seasons backwards, and looks like she is putting weight on. Her coat is getting fluffy. When Juliet arrived last July, her coat was insanely soft (she was kibble fed) and I didn't know that they could have their seasons mixed up.
We had beef puree with egg for breakfast, dinner will be chicken wings. Next week, the menu will have bones in the morning and muscle meats/soupies at night, per your instructions.
About Divergent: Veronica Roth wrote the books. She had a part in the movie as a dauntless initiate, but Shailene Woodley played Tris. I hope your Easter is nice and relaxing. We're just watching movies and eating...and eating...and eating.
:thankyou:
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Post by katt on Apr 20, 2014 17:47:23 GMT -5
Wooah okay backup a second....Mika isn't eating chunks? I thought you said they were ALL eating the chunks fine, it was just bone she was being stubborn about. Okay...well THAT is the problem right there! Generally ferrets will not accept bone until they are eating decent sized chunks. This actually makes things easier - and harder at the same time. Now that I know what's going on we can replan. So...NEW plan! (dance) We are going to separate Mika's meals from the others. This will be a challenge in itself, but I think it will be really good. For the not-so-troublesome Trio, we will work on increasing chunk AND bone size. THEIR food will be what gets left out - maybe a little Peer Pressure will help push Mika forwards. I'll get to her meals in a second. For the others, start cutting the chunks a little bit less each meal so they gradually increase in size. When they start to resist at a certain size, then stay at that size for a few meals until they get more comfortable, and then start increasing again. Make sense? Now little Miss Mika...we are going to go back several steps with her. Slivers in gravy. Use the absolute MINIMUM amount of soup-gravy she needs to eat the slivers. None at all is preferable, but a little bit is fine. Start with slivers and work on increasing the slivers in size a little bit each meal (and decreasing soup a little each meal). Same process as the others - increase the size and number of chunks until you get to a "Sticky" spot, then stay there a few meals, then push forward again. HER food should not be left out after meal times, or the others will eat it instead of their own bigger chunks. Ferrets are lazy little buggers who will always take the easy route if they can. If she gets hungry, she can munch on the others' food. Peer pressure and hunger pressure - they are both good motivators. She is young enough that you don't need to worry about insu crashes if she goes a few hours without eating between meals, and since they are relatively used to meal times she should be eating a fair amount (for her) each meal anyways. There will probably be a fair amount of hand feeding for her for a while until she gets caught up with the others. The hand feeding will be Partly to push her, Partly to make sure she is eating enough, and Partly to make sure SHE is eating her food and not the others. Whatever she doesn't eat for a meal, put in a bowl in the fridge. If she begs for food between meals, she can have some of that. Think "you don't get anything else to eat until you finish your dinner from earlier." (No treats ) haha A note on Mika's meals. Since you said they are ALL eating the plain organ soups (I'm assuming this includes her), don't put the organs in her gravy soup, let her eat the organ and heart meals right along with the others. DO put calcium (bonemeal or eggshell, whichever you are using) in her soup though. For the others, they shouldn't need calcium in any of their soups since they should be getting 7-9 bone meals a week. Let me know if everything makes sense or you need clarification on something or have Q's, and let me know if you are ok with the new plan. I think this will be really good actually. It will let the others move forward and give Mika time to catch up.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2014 9:22:32 GMT -5
Little Miss Princess Mika is a puzzle. When she came home to us in August, she went straight to raw and FDR. She was only about 6 weeks old and never had kibble. I would always put a chicken wing in with her at night. She ate every bite, and even chewed on the bone. She isn't even a year old yet, so I just don't understand her attitude. I did think that she was eating chunks, but yesterday I found alot of pieces behind the bookcase in the laundry room. She would take a chunk and run off. I thought she was eating it, instead she would stash it. Then she would come back for more. So, I thought we were making progress. I will follow your instructions on her meat soup and keep her plain organ soup (which she does eat) on the same plan as the others have.
Last night, I chopped up the four chicken wings and put half upstairs and half downstairs. The downstairs plate was empty, this morning. The upstairs plate was more than half gone.
For breakfast this morning, I cut up the cornish game hen. I put out the wing and drumstick (chopped). Roamy, Juliet and Wynstan ate most of it. Everyone crunched the bones. I cut a breast in half and then cut the other half of the breast into tiny pieces and larger pieces. I pureed the breast half into soup (with eggshell powder) and poured the soup over it. That will be Mika's breakfast, when she gets up.
This sounds like a good plan. I can make sure that Mika is eating adequately and as you said, move the others forward. Wynstan is doing so well. I'm going to try again, to build him an eating den. I think he might stop stashing so much, if he feels secure eating.
Well, its Monday again. I hope your week goes well.
:thankyou:
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2014 10:50:18 GMT -5
Mika finally got up. She ate four spoons of soup covered CGH. When she got to the first chunk, it was about this size: ### ### ### She took the chunk and ran into the laundry room, but she ate it. Then I picked her up and gave her another piece. She took that and ran into the laundry room and ate it. I picked her up again and gave her another piece. This time, I had a box ready and put her in that. She ate the piece and then ran away. I picked her up and offered the spoon again. She didn't want it and ran away.
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Post by katt on Apr 21, 2014 12:30:24 GMT -5
lol Well it's a start. As for her being pickier than she used to, that is really not surprising. Unfortunately kibble is very addictive. It is not unusual for ferrets who used to eat a full raw diet to "forget" how to eat raw after being on kibble for a while. Same goes for FDR as well, which is why I've encouraged you to not use it as treats during the switch because ferrets will hold out for their precious kibble or FDR. Most ferrets are also inherently lazy and if they can get away with only eating the soup and not bothering to chew, they will. lol This is why I want to get her eating chunks without soup sooner rather than later, the soup should ideally just be a light coating here within the next few meals. Keep increasing the size a little bit at a time. BTW, next time you cut up some wings, try leaving a bigger piece with a decent chunk of bone. Give it to Mika and see what she does. If she stashes it, try giving it to the others and maybe the others will eat it. If they don't you can always smash it up a little more for the others to eat. I'm curious to see how they all react...it never hurts to skip steps if they will eat a bigger piece too. lol Meanwhile, keep smashing stuff less and less each meal for the main crew. And give Mika a smooch from me! Rotten little beastie! I'm rather fond of the troublesome ones...
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2014 13:07:53 GMT -5
So, I was cleaning our bedroom and getting ready to run the carpet cleaner. Mika and Wynstan were helping me and Roamy and Juliet tucked themselves into bed. I had picked up Mika's soup, and there was a plate of CGH upstairs, next to their bed. I saw a little tail sticking out from under the dresser, and it was Mika. She was eating from the plate of CGH. So, she was eating pieces of meat with mixed in bone. Maybe she is eating more than I thought. I know that alot of food is eaten at night, when they get up and wander around. I thought it was Wynstan, maybe Mika is eating more than I thought.
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Post by katt on Apr 21, 2014 13:29:52 GMT -5
LOL Sneaky girl! Well in that case...if you want to stick to the original new plan (though now that I know she is being sneaky and lazy more than anything LOL I will push you to push her a lot harder), let me know. But you might just tough-love her and only give her what the others get...
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2014 13:58:42 GMT -5
Let's stick to the new plan. At least, I will know that she has something in her tummy. I need to think about leaving food out at night. I want to leave food out and know they can eat when they need to, but it makes it harder to know for sure, who is eating what.
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Post by katt on Apr 21, 2014 14:05:17 GMT -5
That's part of having a group of multiple ferrets unfortunately. And why monitoring weights is helpful and important. They need to have access to food...
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Post by katt on Apr 21, 2014 14:08:57 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2014 14:09:38 GMT -5
Good, I really would rather leave food out. You also reminded me, I will weigh everyone after their afternoon nap.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2014 14:11:04 GMT -5
LOL, yep...feeding and food issues are the bane of my existence.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2014 12:49:02 GMT -5
Good Morning (wave)
The CGH was almost all gone, this morning. They ate about half of it yesterday, and the remainder in the middle of the night.
We had a rather sleepless night. All four were wild and crazy. Since I had shampooed the bedroom carpet, all the furniture was moved around. Paul and I slept in the other bedroom and this completely threw the little guys. All night long, I had ferrets jumping up and down on the bed. Juliet was the most upset and spent a good amount of time, attacking us under the covers. Everyone thought it would be a good idea to get up and play with us. Mika was super snuggley and kept climbing into bed and giving kisses. They were also very displeased to find the closet doors shut. Wynstan laid on his back and scratched and scratched at the doors.
I do have a question. Do we need to have two different proteins in one day? The reason that I ask is, they will eat breakfast and then come back to snack. When I put out their dinner, they seem to prefer the morning protein. If the morning meal is the same meal in the evening, they actually eat better. I was thinking on the days with organ soup, I could put out chicken or other bone in meats in the evening. That way, we continue to push bones and on bone-in days, I can offer just the one protein. Would that be okay? I'll post the weeks menu, after you decide.
:thankyou:
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Post by katt on Apr 22, 2014 22:37:37 GMT -5
Will post more later, but there is nothing wrong with the same protein multiple meals in a row, even a few days in a row. As long as they get 3 over the week.
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