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Post by Heather on Aug 13, 2014 21:45:16 GMT -5
Name: Karla (Raven on Facebook) HF Forum Username: ravnsdaughter 1. Where did you first learn about natural diets for ferrets? I think I saw it in a Facebook group at first, and then started googling and found this forum. 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'd like to switch them to a frankenprey diet. 3. Why are you interested in switching your ferrets to a natural diet? Because they are showing signs of adrenal disease, which I would imagine is at least partly due to their original Whiskas kitten food diet that their former owner fed them, and I know that a raw or natural diet will help this. And because it's the best thing for them and will help them live longer and be healthier. 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? Yes and yes. 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 2 - Draco and Skadi. I don't know their ages but from their teeth I think they're maybe 3-5? Both male, both descented and desexed. I think they're both appropriate weights for their sizes - the vet was fine with them. I've had them for about a year. 6. What diet do you currently feed your ferrets? (Please include all treats, supplements, etc) Do they already eat some form of soup? Evo kibble right now, and trying to switch them to soup to start. 7. Have you ever tried to switch your ferrets to a natural diet in the past? If yes, what happened? I tried it briefly in the spring and they weren't impressed. Life happened and I got off of the trying for a while but now I'm really ready to start working on this. 8. What additional information about yourself or your ferrets would you like to share? can't think of anything 9. How often during the week do you have access to a computer? Almost constantly. 10. Please post a picture of each of your ferrets (if possible). I did in my intro post, and I'm going to make a thread in diet transitions later today and will post a individual, current pic of each of them after I take them this evening. 11. Have you met the requirements for this program? Do you have your scale, a place to access meats, hearts, livers, etc? Yes. Scale is good to go, and I already have all the ingredients in my freezer plus sources of more. Hi and welcome to the mentoring program . In a little while your mentor (Sherry), will introduce herself 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 :boing:. Your mentor is here to help you on this journey. ciao
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Post by Sherry on Aug 15, 2014 9:48:14 GMT -5
Hello there! I'm Sherry, and I'll be your mentor for their switch First, a little about me. I'm 56, and have my own housecleaning business here in Calgary Alberta. I have 4 cats, ranging in age from 11 yrs, to 19(only one would eat raw, unfortunately ). I also have 8 ferrets. Boris and Vincent(rip) came first, two brothers, a sable and albino. Then Sinnead(rip). I got her when she was 4. She passed at almost the age of 8, had adrenal for 3 years, treated with lupron for 2 of those. After that came my first deaf ferret, Lucrezia(adrenal). A marked DEW. Then two foster ferrets, whom we fell in love with and adopted- Zeus(DIP) and Athena(DIP), both two years old at that time. Both were adrenal, and on lupron until they passed from adrenal related lymphomas at the age of 5. After that, a little abused ferret we called Willow. She was the worst fear biter I've had, although now she's become a sweetie. She has also developed insulinoma due to a variety of issues. Then, Emily. 1 month younger than Willow(DIP-pancreatic lymphoma), and those two have bonded strongly. She's the only one Willow wasn't terrified of. Suki is the last one, I swear! She was a little 8 month old darling the pet store was having a hard time selling, so were getting ready to send her back! While transitioning the first four, Boris was my hold out. EVERYTHING I gave him was poison, in his mind . Worst little drama queen I've seen yet . Twisting to get away, gagging, retching- he did all of it! Then one day- he ate it! Every single piece on the plate ! Those four haven't looked back. The next two for transitioning were the fosters. Until we adopted them, I could only supplement with raw. So in order not to cause unnecessary tummy upsets(mixing kibble and raw too closely can cause some problems- more about that later), I'd give them raw one day, and kibble on a different day. So, by the time we adopted, they had no problem with 100% raw diet. With Willow, I brought her home, and she flatly refused to eat the totally ferret kibble, so I went back to the pet store and got her a small bag of the crap they were feeding them there, and brought it home. I tried to give her some, but she just upset the dish. So- I tried her with some chicken breast. She ate it up! Hasn't had kibble since . Emily came to us as a raw fed ferret, so no issues there. Suki was another kibble head, but caging her in the daytime with Miss Emily showed her how to eat raw. And now- we've added Mr. Frodo(DIP-lymphoma), who essentially switched himself second day he was here That's me and mine in a nutshell The reason I started looking a raw feeding was something my vet said to me. I was, at the time, giving them small pieces of fruit for treats. She told me that was VERY bad for them, and in fact, some studies have started to link early feeding of sugars with insulinoma later in life. So- I started thinking. Kibbles are full of carbs. It's all those grains/veg/fruits in them. Those are converted to sugars by the body. To me then, sugar= potential insulinoma. So, I started checking out various diets. I had no idea what an obligate carnivore was at the time. I found out! Not much wonder there was soooo much poop in the box! I may as well have been tossing my money in there. They can't process anything that's not meat based! So I feed meat Their fur is softer, their energy levels are amazing- no mad rushes then crashing. Even my three year old's teeth are amazing. No plaque whatsoever Healing is faster, and if they do get ill, they have more reserves to rely on than when they were just kibble fed! And there is a LOT LESS POOP!!!! Yay! I'm looking forward to helping your little ones get on a much healthier diet, and having fun while we're at it We adopted 4 more from the local rescue just over a year ago, bringing our numbers back up to 9 again 7m old Cody as well as a bonded trio of 2yr old males, Judge(insulinoma), Indie, and Odin(also adrenal). All are also now fully raw fed
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2014 16:19:50 GMT -5
Ok, so an update to my situation just before I get going on the actual attempt to switch this evening...
I now have 3 ferrets. Skadi passed about 6-7 weeks ago (combined insulinoma and adrenal led to him losing use of his back end), and then at the beginning of August I brought home two girls who I have named Eris and Discordia. All three get along great and are in one big ferret nation cage all together. The girls are also Marshalls ferrets, and are about a year and a half old. They're both in great shape as they're still quite young, but were on kibble (a mix of Kirkland cat food (that's Costco's house brand) and Wysong, I think?, when I got them, and I transitioned them to the Evo I use for Draco, but they're now getting the classic loose stools that Evo seems to cause. I want to get all 3 onto raw ASAP so that I can prolong Draco's life as long as possible (his hair loss is getting worse) and then have my girls for as long as possible.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2014 23:23:42 GMT -5
Alrighty, here's the report from my first night of the switch. ErisStarted at 905g I showed her the bowl of food, didn't want anything to do with it but when I drizzled a tiny bit of ferretone on it, she reluctantly tried it. She ate about 2 mouthfuls on her own then tried to turn away. I then hand-fed her and got about 9g into her. DiscordiaStarted at 909g Again wanted nothing to do with it but ferretone convinced her to try it. Ate a tiny bit on her own and then I got her to eat about 6g by hand-feeding. DracoStarted at 949g Started eating on his own without any coaxing but lost interest after about 3g worth. I then held him and hand-fed him and got a total of about 20g into him. Then after I put Draco back in the cage and put the bowl on the top shelf, Discordia and Eris started eating on their own out of the bowl. I started with 3 ice cubes' worth of a fairly thick, goopy soup made from chicken breast, chicken heart, pork liver and crushed eggshell in the proportions listed elsewhere on the forums, and between the 3 of them they've eaten about half so far. I'm going to leave the bowl in there and see if they finish it off by morning. And then I let my boycats lick my fingers off and both of them liked it so much they bit me. LOL
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Post by Sherry on Sept 9, 2014 9:34:42 GMT -5
They have made an EXCELLENT start :goodjob: Okay, for now remove the kibble during the day and offer just the raw with hand feeding. If they eat close to an ounce leave the kibble out for the day and put back in AFTER raw again in the evening if they haven't eaten at least 2 oz during the day time. Leave them with some raw soup(a bit thinner) in the cage during the day(and night if no kibble).
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2014 12:24:55 GMT -5
Really? I was so concerned that it didn't seem like they ate anywhere enough.
The bowl in the cage seemed to have the same amount that was in there when I went to bed last night. But then again they were all huddled in the polar fleece sheet I put in there last night when I cleaned their cage... my house is pretty darn cold right now with the snow we're getting and I haven't turned the heat on yet. I may have to suck it up and turn it on when I get home tonight if this snow doesn't stop.
I was in a rush this morning so I put the kibble back in the cage as I was concerned they would starve, especially with Draco not being in such good health. I will pull it out at lunch time, and then feed them more raw this evening.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2014 23:40:32 GMT -5
I just finished the fuzzies' nighttime feed, and tried just putting the bowl in the cage to see what they'd do. They sniffed it but weren't much interested. So a little while later I pulled the bowl out and went one at a time hand-feeding them again. Started with Draco this time. I put him on my desk in front of the bowl and he went to it on his own, and probably ate about 5g right out of the bowl. Then he lost interest, so I hand fed him at least another 15-20g.
Then I pulled both girls out and tried to get them to eat out of the bowl on my desk. That didn't work either. They were more interested in exploring, so I had to go back to one at a time. They both ate at least 20g each, judging by what was left in the bowl afterwards. Now they're back in the cage with what's left in the bowl.
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Post by Sherry on Sept 10, 2014 8:41:31 GMT -5
They are doing well And yes- amounts on raw aren't much compared to kibble. 2 of my girls eat maybe an ounce each in the summer. 1- 1 1/2 each winter time. On the other hand I have had large boys eat up to 6-7 oz winter appetite Best indicator is energy levels. Although with winter approaching those will be slowing as well. Appetites will also soon go through the roof! Keep doing what you are doing for now. It won't be long before they dig in with relish.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2014 21:32:30 GMT -5
So I just put the bowl of food in the cage to see what would happen. Discordia was already awake and moving around the cage, from hearing me moving around the den and feeding the cats. I put her in front of the dish and then went and woke Eris up and put her in front of it as well. She dug right in and started eating all on her own! She stuck with it for quite a few minutes too! Yay! Discordia still didn't really want much to do with it, so I'm probably going to have to hand feed her. Draco is still asleep in the bottom of the cage so I'll hand-feed him later. So this is sort of an interim update... I was just so excited that Eris ate on her own that I had to post! I still can't win though... the ferrets want kibble, no matter whether it belongs to the cats, the dog, or them. The 8 week old kitten wants adult cat food. The adult cats want kitten food or ferret food. And the darn dog wants MY food. Geez! I'm about ready to put the cats and dog on raw too, so that I just buy a lot of meat and serve them raw and cook mine.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2014 23:03:14 GMT -5
Ok, I've now fed all 3 of them... Discordia ate about 18-20g by hand-feeding, and Eris ate like a champ and probably put away at least 25-28g. I had to wake poor old Draco up to get him to eat, and he probably managed around 15-20g. Altogether they ate a fair bit more than they have in the past 2 days.
I did notice earlier when Discordia woke up when I came in the room, she's got really mushy poop. It looks almost the same texture as what I'm feeding them. I'm not sure about the other two - there's both mushy and normal solid poops in the litterbox - I only saw that one because she went in front of me on the bare platform. Is this normal?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2014 23:04:28 GMT -5
(And now they're running around like maniacs... looks like the "more energy" part has kicked in already )
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Post by Sherry on Sept 11, 2014 9:04:12 GMT -5
yes, they will definitely have softer wetter stools on raw sounds like things are coming along really well!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2014 9:39:29 GMT -5
And I woke up to them having finished off the rest of the food in the bowl overnight! Yay!
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Post by Sherry on Sept 11, 2014 17:24:01 GMT -5
Time to increase amounts as well
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2014 10:47:59 GMT -5
Last night was a bit of a disaster for me personally... I had to be out all evening and came home with just barely enough time to thaw a package of chicken parts and blend it up for another batch of food before I had to get to bed. I tried the bowl in the cage thing, and Eris immediately started digging in. Discordia was more interested in pushing the bowl around than eating. Draco was asleep (as usual) and when I woke him up and showed him the bowl, he wasn't interested and crawled back into the hammock and went back to sleep. I figured I'd just leave the bowl in the cage and see what happens overnight. This morning there was evidence of more being eaten (I'd given them the equivalent of 4 ice cubes worth and at least half was gone) but I don't know which ferrets ate it. Tonight I'll go back to hand feeding to make sure they all get enough.
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