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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2014 16:51:22 GMT -5
So today Pumpkin was a bit more interested in her soup but not much haha...I don't know if it's a good method...probably not...but I poured what was left over her kibble and she devoured it! My picky stubborn little Boo! Lol! I thought maybe it would help her get the taste of it more and ween out the kibble. Let us know if that's a horrible method!
Also I found beef clear bones at one of my stores...is that the same thing as the marrow bones?
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2014 23:56:59 GMT -5
Any small, bait species are good. My guys are personally fond of eels & Shoreline Mullet, but I've also used sardines, small mackerel, whiting, bone fish, small river garfish, anchovies, most fresh water species. Avoid any big predator types like tuna, marlin, shark, king fish, etc, as they have a very high mercury content. Many people try either sardines, wild salmon or pilchards to start. Ferrets will also eat shrimp (and the little buggers will eat small sand crabs if you take them to the beach). If you are really struggling with her getting the soup, adding her kibble into it is another method sometimes used. However, usually transitions need to be pushed very hard as the kibble creates a suitable format for bacteria & it lowers the stomachs acidity levels, so bacteria can grow a bit faster. Ferrets still have a few fast digestion rate, so it isn't always an issue, but it is not unknown for them to develop bacterial build ups from this & get a little unwell. If you want to use this method & feel you can really push her on it, we can go this route. If not, try remaking the soup but leave out the liver or even offer her some plain chicken thigh, well sliced up. Sometimes the liver is unappealing & turns new transitions off. I know it didn't work with 3 of my oldies when I got them, so I went different methods for them. Let me know if you want to try something else with Pumpkin, I would rather we keep to the soup for a bit longer, but I'm quite happy to modify a bit for her until we find the right method, but you do need to be able to push her also & have faith in yourself to succeed
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2014 20:12:01 GMT -5
Otis didn't do as well as we had hoped with the chicken wing...he ate the tip and some flesh off of the next section...left the drumette...he may have eaten more but he somehow figured out a way to drag it INTO our recliner lol! We had to do surgery to the lining in order to get it out haha!!! Next time we have shrimp or salmon I'll give him a little! Pumpkin had her usual half oz. of soup (the original mixture). I had to add warm water - BUT instead of going for the liquid like she usually does she only ate the chucks! The strange thing is she only eats it out of my hand! I wonder if she is becoming accustomed to eating that way...like "feed me like the princess I am" sort of attitude haha. Also she LOVES egg yolk. Tomorrow she gets one and lately I've been able to mix some soup in there and she eats it fine. She will get there eventually! She's just a stubborn little monster haha
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2014 20:15:23 GMT -5
Oh and Otis did eat his liver...but you can tell it's not one of his favorites! He ate all the chicken neck first and only ate the liver when that was gone because the tubster wasn't going to leave anything behind! He is starting t get used to being fed only twice a day which is nice...no more midnight feedings!
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2014 4:41:05 GMT -5
Excellent work with Otis, though the chicken wing isn't what I expected lol Trying smashing it a bit with a cleaver or mallet, just to start. You could mix 1/2 egg yolk into her soup each day if you want. It'll cause a runny stool, but she'll have that anyway with the soup. Try getting her used to eating from a spoon, it'll be easier as eventually you'll need to get her eating from a bowl
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2014 11:49:22 GMT -5
Smashing the wing did the trick with Otis! he devoured the whole thing yeterday! He has 5 oz. of pork for breakfast today. Pumpkin did really surprisingly well with her soup last night...3/4 of an oz. but hand fed lol! what a princess!! Today a bit more reluctant...I'll mix in a little egg tonight since we didn't yesterday. Going to the store that sometimes has rabbit today...fingers crossed!!
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2014 19:45:01 GMT -5
Good job When she does take the soup, is it cold or warm? Does she seem to have a preference for either? Or is an egg yolk the only encouragement she responds to?
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2014 22:17:23 GMT -5
She doesn't seem to have a set preference...one day it'll be cold and I'll throw in some warm water and it'll work. The next day I'll put warm water and she won't touch it and I'll try later and she will eat it cold. The last 2 days she wouldn't touch it on her own but out of my hand she did great! She almost plays a game with it. She will eat some with me holding her then dodge my hand until I keep putting it in her face then she will eat another scoop. She will do this until she gets really squirmy and I know she is done. Today somehow I got her to eat 2 cubes...1 oz...in one sitting while playing this game! Since it worked I didn't mix in the egg because I don't want to give her too much.
Today Otis hasn't eaten very much at all...he didn't finish his pork chop this morning which he usually devours. It was 5 oz...so he had it for dinner and just finished it....I've read that they don't eat as much when it's hot...and it was about 90 today. He was still very active. He seemed much more interested in playing with his water today than usual haha! He likes to dig in the bowl in their cage and splash himself (and get water everywhere!!) and snorkel in the big bowl we have in the living room for them and the cats. Today he took a few running jumps and kind of cannon-balled into it lol! I also let him play with an ice cube in case he was hot and he loved it! Tomorrow he will get another chicken wing.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2014 4:50:07 GMT -5
She's a very unique girl, your Pumpkin. Keep pushing the soup with her (not much else you can do really). You're still leaving kibble out for her? Try removing it for a day & feeding her soup, she might be more enthused.
And yep, when they're hot they won't eat as much. Ice is very good enrichment, I find, I usually make blood-pops for The Horde which is just 1/2 water & 1/2 blood, then I mix in pieces of meat, fish & even egg yolks (try not to pop the yolk if doing this) or I freeze whole eggs for them. Frozen meat works too lol Now, I also want to check, but you are following the basic Franken Prey menu laid out on the forum with Mr Otis? Actually picked up a new ferret today, dumpee of sorts, who is being transitioned to raw. He's been fed dog kibble of all things, left him with a bowl of ground chicken & egg in his cage over night, can't say he was much interested in it & had a couple small licks but basically turned his nose up at it lol
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2014 15:47:07 GMT -5
We try to follow what I found...8-9 meals of consumable bone, 3-4 of meat, 1 of heart and 1 of organ. Monday is his heart day (yesterday) and Wednesday is his organ day...which is liver. This morning he had pork chop and tonight he will have chicken neck. He seems to be doing good! Very hyper dooking all the time (which might be in part because he is deaf lol but I'll take it!). His poops are still kind of soft but not liquidy...just not as firm as they were prior to the transition. I guess that's my main concern with him... Pumpkin doesn't get much kibble anymore. I try feeding her soup in the morning and she will usually eat about 1/4 oz. If she being super finicky I will give her some kibble then. We don't leave it in the cage because Otis will eat it! Then at night I'm usually able to get her to eat about 1 oz of soup playing our little game I told you about haha. Today I was able to get her to eat a bit on her own after I fed her most of it. Such a brat Congrats on your new addition!! Poor thing being fed dog food!!!!!!! How old is he? Lol I wonder who will progress quicker...stubborn Pumpkin or your new little guy!!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2014 4:20:15 GMT -5
Good work You can feed a little more heart, it is a muscle meat, 1 meal is just the minimum they need. You do need to give him one other organ type (so 1/2 of his weekly organ content is liver, the other half needs to be another organ, kidney or brain works well). If poop is soft, try giving him a little more bone, some ferrets need much more bone than others. Mine get bone almost daily, they only really have 1 day a week that is bone free. Have you tried Pumpkin with maybe a plain piece of meat? I'm amazed she hasn't progressed a bit more with Otis eating as he does, usually they try what they see their companions eating, but she's just more independent I think. And the new boy was only born in November, so about 7 months old. He ate some chicken mush & lamb slivers tonight so he's well onto transitioning. I'm a bit more hard on them than most people to get them changed over. He's so fat though! Not a healthy fatness either!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2014 21:37:24 GMT -5
Aww! I'm just glad the little fellow found his way into good hands!
Last night Otis didn't touch his liver even though I gave it to him with chicken wing. Last week I mixed it with chicken neck and he ate it...maybe I will have to go the smaller route...I saw turkey wing tips at one of my stores so maybe that will help get more bone in.
Pumpkin made some progress today. I gave her about 4 cubes (2 oz) which she ate about 1.5 oz mixed with an egg yolk over the morning and afternoon. It seems like she will eat more if I feed her throughout the day as opposed to just twice. For dinner I mixed 2 more cubes (another 1 oz) into the remaining yolk along with 1 oz of chicken slivers. She ate about 1-1.5 oz so far but has had no problems with the slivers.
One thing that is slightly concerning me...not about the switch though...is Otis being very rough with Pumpkin. We have had him about a month. He is already so much bigger than Pumpkin. Sometimes it seems like she's trying to run away and he's just chasing her down. Sometimes he will bite/pin her down and shes making those submitting noises but being deaf he doesn't hear her...I'll break it up. I know they saw no blood, no poop, no foul...and when they are in the cage they sleep together which is comforting to me. I just hope he isn't bullying her away from the food in the cage.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2014 5:56:22 GMT -5
Try breaking Otis's liver portion up through the week, as in give him 1/2 portion of liver one day & the other 1/2 a day another day, both with bone items. He might prefer it that way.
Good work on Pumpkin! She happily ate the slivers or just took them along with the soup without consideration?
And Otis is a boy! They are so rough & tumble, especially as young as he is. That first 1-2yrs of life they are just rough as guts! If she can nerve herself to bite back, kudos to her, even when they can hear they don't take notice of any complaints.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2014 20:24:21 GMT -5
That day she seemed to have no problem...it's always one step forward two steps back with her haha. Yesterday she only wanted to run away with the slivers and lick the soup off of them like I wouldn't notice her leaving behind a piece of meat! She was eating from the spoon...but today she wants to eat out of my hand lol...but I got her to eat some steak slivers...Also I went to get turkey wing tips (which they didn't have and always seem to be out of the one particular item I am looking for at that time) and found the marrow bones you told us about! Do I just mix it in the soup? Otis seems to be bored with chicken wings as his main source of bone so today I picked him up more chicken necks, chicken backs, turkey necks and pig tails.......I have him some of the tail tonight and he seems to like it. I'm not 100% positive but he was dragging around a meaty piece ad I saw Pumpkin walking away chewing......MAYBE she got some!!! if so YAY!!!!!!!!!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2014 6:47:31 GMT -5
Excellent! Excellent work with Pumpkin! Keep pushing! And with the marrow, leave them at room temp for about 10 minutes, then use a spoon or butter knife to scoop the content outs & just freeze in 1/2 teaspoon portions. I usually put it in a tiny amount of warm water then just pour over the top of their food. It is REALLY rich, so keep to 1 teaspoon daily max until you fatten her to your preference, then cut back to 1/2 teaspoon. It is my secret weapon for it they're sick too (slight hint to keep on hand). Pork tails are great. Don't limit him to just chicken, rabbit, pheasant, quail, duck, grouse, pigeon & fish are all good bone sources Pork is often a favourite, I find, I haven't got a ferret that'll say no to pork. 27 of my Horde are munching half a pig carcass lol pork heart is also really yummy & tongues are great too (tongue of beef/ox too).
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