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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2014 12:46:01 GMT -5
If he is ready to move on from soup, then the process we would take would be to get him on slivers with bone/eggshell meal until he accepts bone slivers and work on getting him used to eating a single meal of organ soup and a whole meal of hearts alone. This will be a bit of a process I imagine, and we will likely need to start with the normal soup recipe and slowly increase the amount of organs in it until it's a 100% organ soup.
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2014 13:21:30 GMT -5
My problem with that is a can't get heart which is why I use Taurine capsules the only place I have been able to find heart at all was at Market Basket and it was a package with mostly gizzards and like 3-4 hearts so it is not worth it to keep buying as I will have to throw out most of the gizzards in order to buy enough heart for a while. The only other thing I was able to find was beef tongue and that was $20 for like 5 pounds which I can't afford.
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2014 13:46:57 GMT -5
If you can't find heart, then taurine is a fine supplement for it. You can go about as I had described, just instead of a heart meal, you can mix your taurine per meal, or a week's worth in with the organs.
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2014 14:40:04 GMT -5
How about much should I be feeding him of just slivers? And what kind of organs the only thing I feed him now is liver.
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2014 14:52:15 GMT -5
Mister 2lb 10oz Two ice cubes worth of soup twice a day Stool has seemed a little soft Very active Saturday-Thursday Soup made with chicken Friday Morning Chicken breast slivers
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2014 15:21:57 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2014 21:53:52 GMT -5
He ate most of the first batch I gave him and I just gave him some more for the night. Do you think I should stop feeding soup or soup for one meal to make sure he is eating enough? I also really need to know how much I should be giving him of chunks per a meal to make sure he is eating enough.
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2014 10:49:00 GMT -5
It's hard to tell you how much exactly he should be getting daily. Ferrets, unlike other animals, don't really have a formula to figure out how much they need to eat. You just need to feed them as much as they'll take, especially during the switching process. When they first start eating raw is generally when they will have the biggest appetite. I would feed a little more than you do (if he's been eating it all), and keep increasing the amount until you notice he's leaving bits behind. The same goes for how much slivers, if he's eating them all then keep increase the slivers to soup ratio until he's eating all slivers. Also, I don't remember if I mentioned this, but make sure you are using chicken thighs as chicken breasts are just way too lean for ferrets.
As for organs, this thread will be useful throughout the switch to help you identify which animal parts are considered what meal-source as well as it tells you how many meals per week you'll need once you get from the soup stage to the frankenprey stage.
Taurine is found in all muscles, the more the muscle is used by an animal and the more blood that flows through the muscle daily, the denser the taurine content would be. Which is why heart and beef tongue (specifically beef) are so taurine rich. They're constantly used by animals. If you can find either of those at any point (check ethnic markets if you have any), then that would be a lot more beneficial than using supplements. That said, here's some information about taurine and supplementing: "Taurine in whole food form, found in muscle tissues, hearts, brains and other animal tissues, is in any case the ideal for any raw diet – and not a difficult nutrient to maintain proper levels of if offering the right variety. Supplementation of factory-synthesized taurine is a possibility in extreme cases but be sure to choose a supplement of human-grade quality, from a trusted company and source. I know many people use the NOW brand of taurine powder. Do you need to suuplement 500mg per day? No, definitely not, not unless your ferret has a diagnosed heart condition that may benefit from higher than usual taurine levels. Aim for over a period of a week to give about 1400mg – which is 200mg per day if you want to balance it daily – but in reality, having it balanced with every meal is probably overkill." -http://holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/15089/information-taurine Keep in mind, it is very difficult to overdose on taurine, but a deficiency is very dangerous.
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2014 12:34:13 GMT -5
Did you look at the picture of what I gave him for his meals yesterday? He ate chunks of chicken breast fine without any soup. I was told chicken breast was fine thighs just had more taurine in them I normally give him thighs in his soup but I had some breast that I bought for myself but didn't use. Like I previously stated the heart I can find is not worth it because it is mostly gizzards and I can find tongue but it is to expensive. The taurine capsules I use are human supplements there Swanson brand. He ate all but one of the chunks I gave him fine last night.
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2014 15:41:27 GMT -5
Since he seemed to be eating chunks fine yesterday I gave him even bigger chunks today most of them were thumb nail sized or bigger so far he has eaten 3-4 of them sprinkled with eggshell powder And he started eating them without any hesitation.
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2014 17:57:23 GMT -5
Yes, I did look at the picture. It looks fine. As long as he's still eating everything, keep increasing the size of the chunks. Once he stops accepting them, then take a step back until he catches up again. If you want to test him without wasting meat, give him one much larger piece among smaller ones and see how he acts with it. If he leaves it behind, then he's not ready for it, if he eats it up, then you can add a few more large pieces in the following meals.
Chicken thighs are recommended for more than just the taurine. Thighs are fattier than breasts, and since fat is where ferrets get their energy, they need a lot of it. Breasts are fine on occasion, but they should not be a very big part of the diet unless you're adding more fat to those meals.
Have you tried giving him a wing before? If not, whenever you feel like he might be getting used to adventurous menus you can get a wing or two and chop them into small pieces and see how he takes to them.
Also, as I had said, taurine supplements are perfectly fine, I wasn't saying they're bad at all. I just wanted to let you know that if you can and do suddenly come across a good supplier of hearts or tongue, definitely go for it! Same if you find lungs, kidneys, brains, etc.
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2014 21:25:56 GMT -5
He had a weird poop earlier today that made me nervous here is a picture He ate all of the chunks I gave him earlier which there was like 10 or 11 pieces. I am thawing out a chicken wing to try to see if he will eat tonight.
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2014 16:41:08 GMT -5
I think he ate some of the small bones but I am not sure he just pushed the larger pieces of bone off of the plate. I gave him even larger chunks if chicken this morning and he ate them fine. Is the different color of his poop from the change in his food? When, how, and how much should I be feeding him his liver the last time he had liver was I few days ago with the last time he had soup.
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2014 1:08:20 GMT -5
Have you changed proteins at all? Or has it all been chicken? Was the poop after a chicken breast meal, or a chicken thigh? A weekly dose of liver is .5 of a normal-sized meal. The other .5 should be a secondary organ when you can find them. If you can't find a secondary organ yet, then just try .5 liver and .5 soup. Defrost half of however many cubes he's been eating lately and blend it will an equal amount of liver. See how he takes to that, if he doesn't like it, then you might have to dilute the liver flavor by adding more soup and less liver and feeding that mix twice a week until you can wean him onto the half/half soup. For his next meal, I'd recommend trying half larger chicken chunks, with half small/smashed chicken wing. Stir them together so he doesn't have an easy time picking them apart.
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2014 12:11:48 GMT -5
I just gave him two very large pieces of bonesless chicken for his morning meal since I didn't want to wait to feed him till the chicken wing defrosted I will do the mixing thing for his meal tonight. We will see if he will eat the large pieces of chicken. The yellow poop was after a meal of chicken breast. I have only been feeding chicken I was waiting till I got a mentor to stop feeding him soup and try feeding him another type of protien to make sure he was getting everything he needed.
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