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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2015 11:23:01 GMT -5
The dawn dish soap should help. I don't know anything about real rats, except they are cute. Maybe a good soaking. Let me know how it works out. I can always post to the Mentors board for more advice.
Egg would explain it. Eggs and organs are a bit rich. Do you have a small animal flea comb? Or even a regular plastic comb? If you help him a little by combing him, that should reduce some of the excess hair. He is a goofy sweetheart.
There is no perfect answer to introducing another ferret. Some will say to bring Severus with you. I'm not a fan of that idea because I don't like to expose mine to a group of unknown ferrets. I have seen where they get along fine at a new place but once home, there is a little trouble because it's Severus's territory. It usually works out in the end though.
A bonded pair is lovely but then you look at them and think Severus is the odd man out and suddenly you have four.
I think the best thing is to keep looking until you find someone who needs you and that you make a connection with. It might be one or two. You'll know when the right one comes along.
I also think it's much harder to bring a new one into a bonded pair, like my Roamy and Juliet. They were here first and then as I added new ones, Roamy became protective of Juliet and intros took longer. Severus will love having a friend and I don't think he will give you any trouble introducing someone new. Bitbyter use to live where you do, he might know of a shelter or rescue or even a good petstore. You can usually negotiate a price when a ferret has been there awhile and is no longer a baby. Then there is the joy of a baby. They are so cute and so much fun. A baby would need to be quarantined from Sev until chances of ECE are past. That's about two weeks.
So are you now following a regular menu? Can you post it, so that I can see how his meals work thru the week. You have a nice variety of proteins. Are you grinding his food, so that it includes the bones? That's important now. We're coming up on a year and he needs to be balanced in his diet.
You've made very nice progress, be proud of yourself. Hugs to Sevvy. :wave3:
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2015 9:53:10 GMT -5
(I'm dumb and forgetful! Don't hate me!) We're not following a regular schedule persay, but generally his organ meals and hearts are generally the same week in week out, with only occasional deviations from the norm. Tuesday mornings 5am/12pm - heart meal and then whatever else I make through out the day. Wednesday - Morning egg and pork meal, random lunch, night egg and pork meal. Thursday evenings 12am/2am - liver and kidney meal the other meals that day are whatever. Saturdays evenings 12am/2am - heart, liver, and kidney meal. Other meals that day are whatever. My friends from now on are taking either some of my money or myself with them when they go to this asian super market. There's a few things I want to know about in regards to what Sev can eat. Spleen, would this basically replace the kidney in the organ meal? Quail eggs, one in a meal? Two? Duck tongues... I bought some for Sev to try, but I never stopped to think they might not be alright for him to eat. ._. UNFORTUNATELY, this place only has whole duck for sale, no duck meat, and I don't have fridge/freezer space for holding on to a duck. Also, we're moving. Between September to November. As of last night I have found seven or eight places, with in the agreed upon price frame, the required number of bedrooms, the finished basement, and with nice backwards. The back yard is for Sev and I. Also, almost all are hardwood floors and, of course, all are pet friendly. I would like to look at the homes, for various reasons (bedroom sizes, basement size, number of windows, closets, tubs.... I have very particular requirements for homes.), buuuuuut I don't think anyone really gives a poop about what I think, and everyone (except me!) will wait to the last minute to look at housing and we will get screwed over, once again, and it'll suck. FINGERS CROSSED THOUGH!!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2015 12:34:01 GMT -5
You are not dumb. I don't know about forgetful, lol. It's important to know how to build a basic menu. You need to know how to do that to graduate. If you aren't following a regular menu but keeping the organs to the same days, you should be safe. However, you do want to know how the weekly menu works and follow it. That helps avoid any imbalances of nutrients.
Spleen is fine. It is a secreting organ
What Defines a NUTRITIONAL organ meat? This is a very important question, and something that causes a lot of confusion. Many structures that are considered “organs” anatomically are NOT considered Organ Meat nutritionally. Nutritional Organs are Major Hormone-Secreting Tissues: Liver Kidney Spleen Pancreas Gallbladder Brain Major glands (thymus, thyroid, parathyroid) Uterus Testicles
Pork Stomach Lining** (pork stomach is an organ, but it is lower in nutrients than the others listed) Tripe is the stomach of ruminating animals (usually Beef). White tripe has all of the nutrients bleached out of it and should not be fed. Green tripe is high in nutrients but smells horrid and usually ferrets won’t go near it so it’s really not worth the bother. If your ferrets will eat it, more power to you. Chitterlings (pork small intestine): similar to stomach this is an organ but is low in nutrients compared to the others and usually picked out of whole prey so there isn’t much benefit to feeding it.
NON-Organ meats Gizzards – gizzards are comprised of primarily muscle tissue and tendon, nutritionally they are a muscle meat source. Great for cleaning teeth.
Tongue – the tongue is comprised of muscle and mucous/salivary glands. These glands secrete mucous and digestive enzymes but NO hormones. The sublingual tonsils are at the very back of the tongue and are a lymphoid tissue (immune system). These tonsils are way at the back, so IF they are included on your purchased tongue, they are included in the whole tongue piece. Nutritionally tongue is a muscle meat source.
Lungs- lungs do not secrete hormones, they are comprised of connective tissue and endothelium. They are not considered a true “organ” as far as raw diet is concerned. They are however a GREAT part of a raw diet and are very high in Iron and Vitamin B12, as well as other B Vitamins. Definitely a good thing to feed if you have access.
Quail eggs are tiny. You can easily feed Sevvy more than one. Try him out on two to start with. Just keep an eye on his poops, if you give him more than two. If they look okay, then he can have a few more, if you want to feed him more. He'll have eggy poops, so just watch them.
Duck tongue is fine. It's going to be small, less than two inches in length. They're full of fat inside the tongue and I think he will enjoy them.
Moving is so much fun. I love being in a new place. I love packing and unpacking. Stand up for yourself and tell everyone that you want to go see those houses. You can also check online, sites like Realtor.com and Zillow usually have alot of pictures. I would hope the sites include Canada.
Happy Monday :wave3:
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2015 14:30:01 GMT -5
With this new place I'll be able to better track everything since we will be using a big deep freezer thing as well as the freezer on the fridge. Which means more room for food for all of us, and Sev can get little labeled bins for weekday meals. It'll be much better than here. I figured the tongues were more of a muscle meat and was just going to toss them in with a few of his regular meals. Also, after this move we should have more money left over, which means I might spring for a bigger food processor. Making his meals in mine is tedious as heck because it only hold about two cups of stuff. Possible less. :/ Which means I spend forever cutting up and pureeing meat.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2015 16:13:18 GMT -5
You're right the tongue is a muscle meat. It's also full of Taurine.
You have to love more space and less prep time. Food processors have come so far down in price. I think my first one was almost $200. It was a Cuisinart, but that was all that was available. I never used the silly thing back then and gave it away. Now, I have an inexpensive one and it works great. Are all of you moving together, your husband and your roommate?
How is Sevvy's tail looking? Did you have any success washing it?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2015 9:35:36 GMT -5
His tail is muuuuuuuch much much better looking, after the wash, though he's getting it washed again today since not everything cam off, but he was really upset and I didn't want to upset him further. I wish he liked water would give me a weekly activity to do with him in the warm summer months. Though it's be a chilly summer so far, most days you can wear a light sweater. Definitely have to in the evenings. And yes we're getting more roommates. One of them we have lived with before, and the other seems nice enough. I'm not a big fan of living with these guys, but it's stay here and deal with rising rent costs, or move out to some where else, where the rent may be lower. Been real busy with making things lately, for my dad's birthday, and for my in-laws upcoming b-day, as well as my friends. Hopefully I get everything finished up soo, my crafting space (couch) is a disaster. Though Sev's loving the clutter. Let's him make more of a mess with me noticing since it's all fubar anyway, lol. How's your summer going? Did you have a good 4th of July? My friend in Texas sent me a video of him and his family popping fireworks. x3
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2015 10:27:42 GMT -5
I'm glad that his tail is better. It's funny how they will play in water, but don't like getting a bath. Just like little kids.
I need to move to where you are. It's just hot and humid here. We've had tons of rain. I hope the groundhogs can swim. We had rain last night and I didn't hear any fireworks. Paul and I just hung out at home.
I'll bet Sevvy is loving the packing and clutter. The last time that we moved, Ponce helped me pack and I kept checking the boxes to make sure that he hadn't packed himself, lol.
How much longer until you move? Have you found your new place yet?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2015 23:01:29 GMT -5
We won't be moving until September at the earliest. And I've been looking at lots and lots of places. So far though we haven't packed anything. Just starts getting boxes, some of which I set up for Sev to play in. Beside we still have a lot of my stuff packed up because where we live now didn't have the room for it. I have three or more boxes of books that I never got to unpack. And just.. just so so much. And Sev's a little porker once more. He was being real fracking picky, ignoring chicken, pork, beef... (except organs he loves his organs and hearts), so I bought the little butt a package of ground turkey (all the store had) and just... yeah. I'd make him a big bowl of the stuff so he would have some for a snack later, but nope he just went to town. Every freaking turkey meal was like that. Hopefully though he'll accept chicken once more since he ate all the dang turkey. Oh and he loves the duck tongue mixed in with his meals. Makes me feel physically ill every time I mix it in, but he goes gaga for it. Anyway his current weight it 3 lbs 2oz. He fat and squishy and I love it.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2015 8:53:42 GMT -5
He really is eating well now, even if he is picky about certain foods. I love that he is enjoying his duck tongue. Try giving him a whole duck tongue and see how he does with it. He's at a nice weight.
Moving is fun. It's alot of work, but I like moving. Severus must be in heaven with all of those boxes. :banana:
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2015 12:54:07 GMT -5
I tried giving him a non puree piece of tongue and he just looked at me like I was bonkers. Was very not interested. Tried making some more bone in mixes, and yeah, I'm going to have to give up the endeavor till I get a better food processor. I spent nearly 5 full minutes letting the meat and bones grind away and the bone in pieces were still way to big for him, with the occasional splinter. Also, I guess a week of turkey was just what he needed because he no longer snubs any food. Had chicken last night and pork for breakfast, no arguing or fuss. Yeah. We aren't sure if we're getting the basement again (which I am only down for if there is at least a toilet on the same level otherwise that house is a big ol' nope! I also require a closet and window large enough to crawl out of in case of fire, but rushing to the toilet up a flight of stairs is terrible. ) or the master or the one/two bedrooms. Ideally, I would love to not have to even deal with stairs, but that's a pipe dream that will likely never come true. ._. I'm terrible with stairs and since moving into the place I live in currently, have slipped and fallen down the stairs more than 10 times. I'm not clumsy, but my ankles have a tendency to give out randomly and stairs does not mesh well with that.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2015 17:28:34 GMT -5
Mommy is Bonkers! Severus is too cute. Try smashing up the bones first, with a meat hammer or cleaver and then stick it in your food processor. Maybe that will be the key to success with Sevvy. Give him the same meal for a week. It's not long enough for imbalances. We know that once a ferrent figures out the 'magic' way, they like their meals prepared, they eat better. It seems like with Sevvy, familiarity breeds Content, lol. I hope you get most of what is on your wish list. I agree that a toilet on the same floor is nice. So, is an escape route and most importantly a closet. I want a nice closet with plenty of space. I'm a bit of a clothes horse. Hugs to Sevvy, he is really a wonderful little fellow.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2015 16:56:34 GMT -5
Yeeeeah, the thing is, I already do smash the bones into as little pieces as I can possibly get them. And now my food processor may be just about dead. It was screaming yesterday. Like a high pitched mechanical scream. Sigh. Looks like I'll have to get a new one of those. But, hubs is getting paid extra this month, by a lot. So, while some of that is getting saved, and some is getting dumped into my b-day present, I'm to look into a new food processor. :3 Find something nice. Yay
Sev had bone in last night and I think one of the littler pieces may have irritated his throat, well... that or it was a hair. He was coughing and hacking all night, but he's quieted down now. So that's good for now. He just got an egg of wednesday too, so I didn't want to give him another to soothe his throat, since he's just gotten his organ thursday morning. I tried a bit of oil then some ferretone, the only thing that works for him is egg... Should I give him another if he keeps hacking?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2015 18:31:43 GMT -5
What has also worked for me, is to put a few drops of oil in his water. You can put down a plate oil with some water. Mika was hacking alot the other day, enough to worry me. I gave her some Vaseline on a spoon and the hacking stopped.
You can give him another egg, just be prepared for those icky egg poops.
It sounds like you will probably be needing another food processor. Since bones are rough on them, you don't need an expensive one, just a tough one. Try some WD4 on the one that you have.
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Post by Sherry on Jul 11, 2015 14:23:14 GMT -5
Hi Bonnie I'll be taking over this thread for Steph until you graduate I do that with switches that seem like they may be harder or longer than usual, so fairly normal Would you please tell me exactly where they are at right now? What size chunks, or grind, or puree, what proteins etc? Also I need a rough Monday to Sunday menu with everything listed. Thanks
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2015 13:31:57 GMT -5
Well, currently Severus is eating purees some times mixed with chunks, depending on the meal. The chunks are fairly tiny, ranging from 2-3 cm by 2-3 cm, so not really large at all. The proteins I can consistently get are chicken, pork, beef, and turkey if it's for a good price, and recently duck tongues (only the tongues though). His schedule is a little sporadic since there isn't always enough freezer space to keep everything on hand and convienent, however it's roughly as follows:
Mondays- muscle meat (typically chicken or turkey) Tuesday- Heart meal for breakfast and the muscle meat for dinner (again either chicken or turkey.) Wednesday- Pork and half an egg (he will not eat a raw egg alone and not a whole on at a time, so I mix half an egg with breakfast and another with dinner) Thursday- muscle meat (beef or pork) and Organ meal. Friday- muscle meat (beef or pork) Saturday- Heart/organ blend (dinner) and muscle meat (breakfast) Sunday- Muscle meat (whatever I grab)
I would like to keep more meat on hand so I could have a proper schedule, but we share a freezer with others so it's not really possible to do, currently. However we are moving in a few months and there is going to be a large freezer for our use, as well as the fridge freezer, so having more prepared meat on hand will definitely be easier. I am also looking into getting a grinder within the next month so that will help with making bone in grinds.
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