Sveta's Switching Thread/ HurricaneKatt

[Deleted]

This evening went rather badly, as Zack got really stressed out about eating in the den, and then even after he was quite stressed when I fed him just on my lap. I'm not sure Where I went wrong, but I think I'll try giving him a less chunky soup and feed him on top of the den and beside it, or in the bathroom like you suggested to get him used more.

There are more posts on the previous page, sorry for separating them all. Today sort of had different news in it throughout. 

[katt]

I try to add some eggshell to all their food so far, because they don't really get any bones and they need the calcium.

Yep, perfect!

I made them a kilo of turkey yesterday, and it should last us about three or four days.
It is half pea sized chunks, and half grind, it also has eggshell and three chicken eggs in it. I added less eggs in it, as usually I would add four or five to such an amount, but only three today. It has a sort of clumpy sticky consistency. It turned out stickier and less soupy than our last one.

The ferrets are not happy with this development. They are not wanting to sit and eat it. Miri and Honey sampled the food but Zack would not eat from the plate. I ended up hand-feeding everyone. I don't mind doing it, but I wanted to ask whether I should continue hand-feeding everyone until they get more comfy with this, or should I make it more soupy so that they eat by themselves?

Wow I didn't realize they were getting so much egg. We definitely want to wean them off of that. If they will eat it being hand fed and you are okay hand feeding then we can push them forwards, but you can always thin the soup out by adding some more water to it if they will eat that better. Keep in mind that from there we will eventually be decreasing the water again though. Right now though it would be better to reduce the eggs first. I'm surprised they aren't having the runs - 5 eggs for 3-4 days between 3 ferrets. Let's say 4 days, that is equal to almost 3 eggs per ferret per week - triple what they should be getting. :/

Another thing is that I put their food in the cage last night, and they turned over the plate, but there was no evidence of any food actually missing. Nasty buggers, and I had to clean it all up.

And the feeding den is more fun to get into and have wrestling fights in. Eating is sort just an excuse to knock the meat over and get scared of it being wet.

Brats! lol


This evening went rather badly, as Zack got really stressed out about eating in the den, and then even after he was quite stressed when I fed him just on my lap. I'm not sure Where I went wrong, but I think I'll try giving him a less chunky soup and feed him on top of the den and beside it, or in the bathroom like you suggested to get him used more.

That is really odd! Definitely try sitting beside it, poor bugger. That bathroom thing may not work as well on him if he hated the den that badly, but it can't hurt to try once and if he freaks out again don't bother doing it anymore. Is there something in particular about it that you think stressed him out the most? How did you go about feeding him in the den?

There are more posts on the previous page, sorry for separating them all. Today sort of had different news in it throughout.

No worries!

[Deleted]

I used to have a thinner soup when we were starting out with lots of water and I calculated it to be about 3-5 eggs per week for all of them together (which ended up being 1-2 per ferret), but now that it is getting denser I was trying to cut them down.

They never got 3-4 eggs per ferret per week, at most they got 2-3 but I started noticing their poops got worse and started trying to add less. We are limiting the eggs to 6 a week for the business during last month(ish)(few weeks?)since we started eating the grinds well.

But they like the eggs so when I make the similar food with less of the egg they notice it right away. They'll have to survive this peril somehow

About Zack and the den. I started out with him in the den and me hand feeding him in there. The top of it was open and I was looking at him there, and the hand that I use to give him the food I put through the entrance so it was at a better angle.

He was rather wiggly so I scruffed him for just a second to put some on his nose/mouth, then I offered him food from my hand and a spoon, he took some from my hand but not the spoon. But after a couple of bites he started freaking out and trying to leave. He tried to jump out as I sort of had my hand in the door. I tried to pet him and to calm him in the den at first, but he just wanted out, I let him out completely.

He wandered off a little (I was thinking maybe he needed to go to the washroom or something, and that was why he was so worked up about getting out). He just wandered about for a minute or so nearby in the room, then I picked him up again and tried feeding him on my lap.

But he was really frightened, he kept wiggling away, and I wasn't even putting the food towards him. He did eat a bit from my hand, but we had to stop a couple of times just to sit and calm down.

I am not sure why he got so freaked. I didn't hurt or yell at him, but I will try the bathroom today and see how it goes.

Another thing I wanted to ask was about the organ meals, they would be set apart every 2 days right? being morning organ meal, evening muscle meat, then one whole day muscle meat, then morning muscle meat, then evening organ meal? or should they be closer together or further apart?

I'll keep adding to this post how Zack behaves today, and how we ate. I'm going to give them organ soup this evening, unless you recommend that it too soon.

[katt]

I used to have a thinner soup when we were starting out with lots of water and I calculated it to be about 3-5 eggs per week for all of them together (which ended up being 1-2 per ferret), but now that it is getting denser I was trying to cut them down.

They never got 3-4 eggs per ferret per week, at most they got 2-3 but I started noticing their poops got worse and started trying to add less. We are limiting the eggs to 6 a week for the business during last month(ish)(few weeks?)since we started eating the grinds well.

Okay, I just punched the numbers based off of this statement: "...a kilo of turkey...should last us about three or four days...has eggshell and three chicken eggs in it...usually I would add four or five to such an amount"

5 eggs for 4 days between 3 ferrets = just under 3 eggs per ferret per week.

That's how I got the number.


But they like the eggs so when I make the similar food with less of the egg they notice it right away. They'll have to survive this peril somehow

Ferrets are brats. They'll survive this new disturbing development. They may not believe you right away, but they will survive. hahaha Work on weaning the egg slowly. As I said you CAN thin the soup with water if you need to (esp as it is so critical for Zack to eat enough), BUT we'll be weaning the water off shortly after anyways so if you can push them through without adding water than that's just one less step for you and them later.


About Zack and the den. I started out with him in the den and me hand feeding him in there. The top of it was open and I was looking at him there, and the hand that I use to give him the food I put through the entrance so it was at a better angle.

He was rather wiggly so I scruffed him for just a second to put some on his nose/mouth, then I offered him food from my hand and a spoon, he took some from my hand but not the spoon. But after a couple of bites he started freaking out and trying to leave. He tried to jump out as I sort of had my hand in the door. I tried to pet him and to calm him in the den at first, but he just wanted out, I let him out completely.

He wandered off a little (I was thinking maybe he needed to go to the washroom or something, and that was why he was so worked up about getting out). He just wandered about for a minute or so nearby in the room, then I picked him up again and tried feeding him on my lap.

But he was really frightened, he kept wiggling away, and I wasn't even putting the food towards him. He did eat a bit from my hand, but we had to stop a couple of times just to sit and calm down.

I am not sure why he got so freaked. I didn't hurt or yell at him, but I will try the bathroom today and see how it goes.

Huh, how odd - maybe he thought it was time out or something? Sherry said her Lucrezia wasn't a fan of the feeding den at first either so I'll ask her what she did. Let me know how the bathroom goes today.

Another thing I wanted to ask was about the organ meals, they would be set apart every 2 days right? being morning organ meal, evening muscle meat, then one whole day muscle meat, then morning muscle meat, then evening organ meal? or should they be closer together or further apart?

It's really up to you, and what works best for them. I generally do my 3 organ and heart meals (1.5 meals of each) on the weekends, but putting them too close together can make for too soft poops. My boys handle that fairly well (unless I give brain meals, those have to be spread out with bone meals) as long as they get a bone meal afterwards. Most people pick 2-3 days scattered through the week, like maybe Monday, Wed, Fri. As long as they aren't having too much soft poop and getting itchy bums and prolapse, it's entirely up to you on how you want to space those 3 meals.

I'll keep adding to this post how Zack behaves today, and how we ate. I'm going to give them organ soup this evening, unless you recommend that it too soon.

Sounds good. See above RE the organ, as long as poops are okay it should be fine. Fingers crossed for little Zack today.

[Deleted]

This morning Zack was better, I think it was just a bad mood. I added more soup to the soup and chunk mixture, and we ate inside the den mostly. He still doesn't like staying there too long, but he seemed calmer enough to eat the food from a spoon.

I think it was because the previous meal was very dense, and that was the main factor in the stressing out.

In the evening Zack is getting used to it slowly. We had chunky soup again this evening because I got in home late, and this one was already made. This evening Zack ate about a third of the time in the den and two thirds out of it with me. Miri keeps going back in for seconds, and eating enough for everyone. Honey eats very distractedly she likes to wrestle in the feeding den, not eat in it. 

I left some in the cage again while I was away during the day, and Miri ate some there too , I saw her while I was leaving No one else seemed interested though. Maybe it is a matter of time.

[Deleted]

Now today we started with organ soup breakfast with half the egg it had last time, so this one had 1 egg for 400g of meat.

(dance) Miri is eating it diligently in the den. I just put the food in, directed her to the entrance, and she ate it all by herself.

Honey also ate it very well, she ate in the den the whole time by herself  Except in the beginning where I invited her to taste it from the spoon, but she went to the bowl immediately after.

With Zack I was happy that we ate in the den at all. He ate about a half of his soup there, but all from me spoon-feeding him. He does not want to eat in the den alone. He ate from the bowl fine when we moved the process over to my lap again  I guess this one will just take some patience and getting used to. But that means that we can try no egg organ soup soon. 

I froze the leftover chunky soup of Turkey and made them chicken thigh and gizzard chunky soup for this evening and until our next organ meal. I think we might have "mystery meat leftover from previous times" meals next week, which have been sitting in the freezer.

[Deleted]

MIri just got some diarreah, and didn't really want to eat this evening. I am looking to see if it gets any better. If she has more in the night I think I will take her to the vet in the morning. 

I also noticed she has a bleedy scab on her back.... looks like it was where they put the deslorin implant in, but that was a while ago. Keeping an eye on that too...  

[katt]

Aug 29, 2014 21:32:49 GMT -5 @sveta said:

MIri just got some diarreah, and didn't really want to eat this evening. I am looking to see if it gets any better. If she has more in the night I think I will take her to the vet in the morning. 

I also noticed she has a bleedy scab on her back.... looks like it was where they put the deslorin implant in, but that was a while ago. Keeping an eye on that too...  

Oh no poor Miri! Have there been any recent changes besides the feeding den? No new proteins right? How is she doing now? Could the scab be a MCT?

It sounds like overall they are really getting used to the feeding den and taking to it well. Zack should come around, especially as he sees the girls using it. They are making good progress with decreasing the egg too so keep that up. Everyone is still taking the slivers okay? Next time you are prepping their soups, try hand feeding them each a few plain slivers before you mix them into the soup and see what they do. In fact really it's a good idea to do the every time you make up a new batch - you never know when they will decide they are ready to skip a step and take to plain slivers.

They are eating full organ+heart soup now, so make sure to cut that down to 3 meals a week if you haven't already and start adding slivers into that soup whenever you are ready to.

[Deleted]

The diarreah is gone, I'm not sure what caused it. The scab is not an mast cell (Mast cell=MCT?). I've seen those before in the shelter ferrets, and Zack recently got one on his side. I'll update you if it is gone. I just got worried when i discovered it at the same time as the nasty poop.

We are eating the full organ soup about every two days or so. I think we might be having some this evening, if all goes well or tomorrow morning. And I will add slivers to the next batch.

[katt]

I'm sure the scab is fine, it should heal quickly. It may well be from her implant if that was done recently.

Fingers crossed everyone does well tonight! Rotten little beasties! (giggle)

[Deleted]

Hello Katt,

I didn't update in a few days. My boyfriend managed to get bronchitis a few days ago, so we have been a bit preoccupied.

The ferrets haven't been eating very well, but it has been explained by the fact that summer decided that now is a great time to arrive. We have 30 degrees and about 90% humidity. So no one is really hungry. And our eating den is currently a pool. Most of this summer was quite cool, so we didn't replace our broken air-conditioner before. And it seems a bit late in the season to go buy another.

We are still eating chunky soup. So we are getting a bit more comfortable with the consistency, but I want them to get a bit better before we move on to chunkier heights.

[Deleted]

Our chunky soup ended yesterday. So we ate some pork grind yesterday and today with 2 eggs for about 600 grams. Still very hot here, but getting better. Their appetites are gradually coming back.

[katt]

Oh no! I hope bf is feeling better! Heat will definitely kill their appetite and their energy. It's supposed to be hot here tomorrow too. Keep up the work with the chunks. How much egg are they down to now?

[Deleted]

The last one I added two eggs for 600 grams of pork grind and we were eating that during the hot days. It was just pork grind with eggshell and the eggs.

This evening we will eat some organ soupie (from last time, so it was made with one egg for 400 grams of organ meat. No slivers in this one yet. I will add them to the next batch.)

[katt]

So it's up to you, they are doing good on decreased egg and we'll still eventually have to get them off of it at some point (by "off" I mean not using it as a crutch - of course they can absolutely still have egg in their diet! ) buuut I think it would be good to change gears a bit as long as they are eating that egg amount okay, and get back on the chunk bandwagon.

Here's what/why I'm thinking... Egg is a bit slimy. We have them decreased so they aren't going to overload so too much on egg, but they still want a little. If we decrease the soup and increase the chunks right now and really push that we can get them to eating chunks without any meat soup on them, but still with some EGG on them. But here's the trick - egg is slimy, meat is slimy. If we can get them eating slivers with just a thin egg coating, then wean off the rest of the egg that will be less of a texture change. I just don't want to stall on the slivers too long as they were making progress.

BTW do you brush their teeth? If not, I would consider starting to brush them 1-2 times a week since it's taking a little while to work them up to bones. Soups and grinds don't do much to clean teeth. As soon as they are eating bigger chunks and bones the tooth brushing won't be necessary at all.

How's the heat today?