Killes's Switching Thread/ Wildferret

[Heather]

Name: Karina
HF Forum Username: Killes

1. Where did you first learn about natural diets for ferrets?

From Steph on the Ferretworld youtube channel.

2. Please describe the type of diet you would like assistance in switching your ferret(s) to. Be sure to include if you are interested in feeding whole prey (live or frozen-thawed) and if you are wanting to FULLY switch to a natural diet or PARTIALLY. If you are unsure what kind of diet you want to put your ferrets on, please express that and we can help you find the best type of natural diet for your ferret.

I am interested in fully switching to a natural raw diet. I want to get him accustomed to eating chucks of raw meat/bone. I am not interested in feeding whole prey just yet, but I am willing to do a bit of occasional live feeding.

3. Why are you interested in switching your ferrets to a natural diet?

I have noticed that St. Luc’s coat has gotten a bit rough and I now know that it is because of his diet. His kibble contained a bunch of terrible ingredients and I want to switch ASAP. I want to make sure his diet is the best so that he lives a long and healthy life.

4. Do you understand that switching your ferret to a natural diet can be a lengthy, arduous process? Its not an overnight switch. It can be a commitment of several weeks or even months. Your HF Mentor will be more then happy to assist you in switchng your ferret(s) to a natural diet, but you need to be equally as commited. If you aren't willing to tough out a potentially lengthy switching process, or if you have major life changes approaching (baby on the way, moving, starting school, getting married/divorced, etc) then it might be a better idea to wait on switching your ferret's diet until you have more time. Are you willing to make the commitment?

Absolutely.

5. How many ferrets do you currently have? What are their names? Ages? Genders? Do they have any health problems? Are they overweight? Underweight? How long have you had each ferret for?

I have one ferret
Name: Jean Pierre St. Luc Carignan
Age: turned 1 on Feb, 13.
Gender: Male
Health Problems: no
He is a little over 2 lbs
I’v had him for 11 months.

6. What diet do you currently feed your ferrets? (Please include all treats, supplements, etc) Do they already eat some form of soup?

He is on currently eating junk kibble called ferret diet and he has marshall ferret treats. I have not started him on soup, but am looking to start that process this week.

7. Have you ever tried to switch your ferrets to a natural diet in the past? If yes, what happened?
No

8. What additional information about yourself or your ferrets would you like to share?

Jean Pierre is very energetic and friendly, but he is also very picky so I think this is going to be a long process. As mentioned earlier I really want to get him on this diet to ensure his health is on track and to get his coat back to normal. His back teeth have also developed a bit of tartar from the kibble and I want to prevent any more of that from happening.

9. How often during the week do you have access to a computer?
Always

10. Please post a picture of each of your ferrets (if possible).

Hi and welcome to the mentoring program (wave). In a little while your mentor (Wildferret), will introduce himself and you can get started on a new adventure in natural ferret care and diets. Please remember to post regularly (daily or as per arranged with your mentor) so that your mentor can assist you move along safely in this adventure. If you experience computer difficulties or are going to be away, please notify your mentor and most of all relax and have fun (dance) Your mentor is here to help you on this journey.
ciao

[Deleted]

Hi Killes. I'm Wildferret and I'll be mentoring your switch. I'm a great believer in species appropriate diet. I'm owned by seven ferrets. We'll start out with raw soupies. You'll need eight ounces of chicken thigh, approximately two ounces of chicken liver, one ounce of chicken or other heart, and one half teaspoon of human grade bone meal powder or finely crushed egg shell. Blend well. When you're ready to feed him, you want to scuff him in your lap, get some soup in a spoon and put some on your finger. Stick it in his mouth or pat it on his nose about once every fifteen minutes for about an hour. Never mind if he shows his little butt. Their all dramatic. lol. I'll check in with you tomorrow.

[Deleted]

You want it to be about the same consistency as yogurt, also get some salmon oil. Health food stores carry it and so does Walmart.

[Deleted]

Hello wildferrert!

I have already started the raw soup with my little one, Jean Pierre. He's been on it for about a week now and he really likes it, eating about 3 cubes of soup in the morning and at night. I have been giving him 8 oz of chicken thigh, 1 chicken liver, 2 chicken hearts and 1/2 tsp of eggshell, but I switched it this morning to 8 oz thigh, 1/2 chicken liver 1/2 tsp eggshell and 1 chicken heart ( I think the heart/liver come out to a little over half an ounce separatley) because the place that I buy them from does not have that many hearts when I go to buy them so I'm trying to be conservative. Would you recommend that I up the liver to a whole one instead of half of one?

He doesn't really touch his kibble anyone, only at night when I am sleeping, but I am trying to get him off of it completely and am thinking about leaving raw soup in the cage over night in case he gets hungry. What do you think?

His poop has been runny but still has form to it and I think I can see the eggshell sprinkles in it, if that is of any importance.
Also, his coat was very rough, I believe it is because the kibble I was feeding him is very bad for him (headwall). Even though it has only been a week I have noticed that the top of his coat seems soft again, but the bottom fur near his skin is still a bit rough. I think he's also put on some weight. He looks and feels heavier than when I first started him on soup.

Since he has been doing so well with eating the soup during the past week I have tried to add slivers of meat to the batch that I made today. I did half of the recipe blended with a bit of water and cut the other half into pinky nail sized chunks (I think I over did it). It was kinda far from yogurt, more like thick yogurt with the frozen fruit in it . Unlike with the full soup recipe where I could just leave a bowl out and he would eat it, this time I had to coax him to eat his food. I held him & fed him with a spoon in order for him to eat and I think he tried to swallow the chunks instead of chewing them. He didn't finish all of dinner so I am leaving it in his cage for the night and hoping it is eaten by morning. Is that okay to do?

I've been meaning to pick up some salmon oil for his hairballs, but are you suggesting I get it to add to the recipe?

Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you!

[Deleted]

You're doing well! He needs two ounces of chicken liver a week so yes, give him a whole one. Keep on with the slivers and bump his heart up to one ounce. Take away the kibble and leave the soup in the cage overnight. Continue feeding with the spoon. Place the bowl where you can reach it when you feed. As he's eating from the spoon, ease the spoon over to the bowl and set it in the food. We want to get him eating from it again. Yes, drizzle a little salmon oil on the soup to entice him. Mine love it! His poops are gonna look different for a while, don't worry about it. If you want to prevent hairballs, give him a raw egg yolk with a little salmon oil on it. But be prepared, it's gonna come out looking a lot like it did when it went in. lol. Keep on feeding him like this and trying to get him eating out of the bowl until he's doing it on his own, You're doing GREAT! I'll be checking in on this thread every day in case you have questions.

[Deleted]

Thanks! I just checked the cage and it doesn't look like he ate from the bowl at night. Should I throw away the meat that was in there or is it safe to put back in the fridge (I don't know too much about handling raw meat)?

[Deleted]

If it's been sitting out all night, go ahead and dump it. About six to eight hours is the limit on soupies.

[Deleted]

Thanks. I smelled it and nearly passed out so I knew he wasn't going to even consider eating it.

Around 10 am I fed him my really chunky soup and he ate it! I even saw him chewing and not trying to swallow it like he was doing last night. He didn't finish all of the food in his bowl so I put it back in the fridge and waited until 4 to feed him two more cubes on top of what he didn't eat at breakfast (which wasn't too much). I spoon fed him for a bit and then he decided he wanted to play instead of eat. Once I left home for a work meeting I put him in his cage and faced him in front of his bowl and when I came home it was all gone!

Tonight I am leaving a little bit of kibble in his cage because I don't think he is too comfortable eating the chunky soup on his own right now and I don't want to waste his yummy food.

So i guess I have three questions:

1- Do you recommend that I leave his kibble out two hours after he has eaten his soup during the day? I read that throughout the forum, but should I still be doing this since he's eating his soup pretty well when I'm around?

2- What do you think about me leaving the kibble out at night until he becomes more comfortable with his chunky soup?

3- Can salmon oil be used for hairballs too? I ask because I thought I had read that Sherry uses it for that purpose.

Merci!

[Deleted]

Since he's eating the chunky soup so well, I don't see any point in giving him anymore kibble. If you incorporated the liver and heart in his soup, there is no reason to. As long as he's eating two to three times a day. Salmon oil won't do much for hairballs. For that you need egg yolk. Just drizzle a little salmon oil on it to entice him. Add a little more meat to his soupies and see how he handles it. You can use a little salmon oil for that also.

[Deleted]

Okay great! I had put some pretty big chunks of meat in his soup.... about the size of my thumbs finger nail and he handled it well. He picked it out of the soup went to a corner and started eating and then came back for more soup. So everything seems to be going well. His poop is starting to smell rancid though. I know poop is not supposed to smell pleasant, but It smells a lot worse than It did when he was on kibble. It is so potent to the point that it makes me dizzy when I'm near it. Is that common when ferrets are switching?

OHHHH! I was just informed that I have a "surprise" coming for me tomorrow and I am 99.9% positive that this surprise is a baby ferret (lots of hints have been dropped). If it is a baby ferret could I start it on soup right away as well?

[Deleted]

Start the little one on it also. Make sure it's balanced as I told you. The poops are gonna be rough for a while as he detoxes. No worries, it will subside.

[Deleted]

I was right, HAHAH! He's the cutest little things and loves the soup. I gave it to him just like I give it to JP and he was more than happy to chomp away at the meat! He enjoyed it so much he stole the bowl away from JP.

Do you recommend I feed them in separate bowls so one doesn't steal the others food? You said you had multiple ferrets, how did you handle the situation?

On another note, I am confused by Jp. He chomps at the chunks of meat sometimes and other times it seems like he is just swallowing. Does it matter as long as he's eating it? I don't want him to choke on his food.


Lastly, I was at the pet store looking for salmon oil and they had it for cats and dogs, but I didn't buy it because I didn't know if it is safe for ferrets. It had other supplements for those animals. So can I assume regular human salmon oil is okay? Sorry for all of the questions about oil, I feel so daft, but I just want to make sure I'm doing everything correctly.

[Deleted]

JP just puke his soup!

I put a bowl in the cage with him and I spoon fed the baby on the floor. I wasn't watching JP eat, but when I turned my head to check on him I see him going near his litter pan and he looked like he was choking, I'm pretty sure he was. He looked like he was trying to get something out of his throat and it lasted about 20 seconds of him doing this chocking/gagging noise. I panicked and didn't know what to do, so I went over by him and watched him finally puke up the soup. It came out pink and there wasn't very much of it. Is there anything I could have done during that situation? And what could have made him puke?

[Deleted]

Also, after he threw up he went right back to eating...

[Deleted]

He spit up again this morning (it was white with bubbles so it looked more like spit than meat, but he did make that nasty gag/throw up sound) and today after he ate the bigger pieces he just stood there for a while white his eyes closed as if he's trying to figure out if he had to throw up or not.

Also, Sherry recommended that I start giving the baby whole pieces of meat, like chicken wings. How would I start this and make sure his meal is balanced?

Thanks again.