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Post by bitbyter on Dec 24, 2014 10:26:03 GMT -5
BTW, I just saw your most recent post on FB and it reminded me of something I meant to mention to you.
Do your parents handle the ferrets? Due to their age you might want to be especially sure they wash their hands and any places that get "kisses" from the ferrets. It really isn't much of a risk but you want to be especially careful around the elderly when an animal eats a raw diet. Just something to be aware of.
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Post by bitbyter on Dec 28, 2014 15:15:58 GMT -5
How are things progressing?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2014 9:03:13 GMT -5
Sidney is eating me out of house and home. He's consistently eating 3-5 ounces at a meal for the past 5 days. Surely he will put some weight on. He's back to 2.5 lbs so he's gained a couple ounces. But Grizzly gained half a pound eating like Sidney is. I'm still working on fresh liver. They eat the freeze dried, no issues anymore, but I think the iron smell puts them off. I just ordered some salmon oil, since the coconut oil upsets Grizzly's tummy. I'm hoping the salmon oil will help me introduce the turkey necks, squab, fresh liver and gizzards (they are eating duck hearts, freeze dried). So until I get them eating fresh organs my daily routine has been; Mornings: freeze dried whole animal mixed with one of the following; bone in ground, chicken wing, or thigh, or pork, or beef, or rabbit, or.... Prolly missing something. Oh! Just introduced beef (they love hamburger, beginning to add slivers of beef to morning meals, no issues thus far, except Grizzly's rather explosive reaction to the hamburger. I'm not willing to give them anymore hamburger until I grind it myself. Evenings: a dusting of freeze dried chicken on; slightly crush chicken wings (working on tethering the meat, very slow going), long thigh meat pieces, pork pieces, etc. followed by ground meat a little later, since they aren't yet eating enough of the big sized pieces to keep their weight stable. What do you think? Any suggestions? Thoughts or comments? Now that you are the proud papa of 50+ baby mice I have a question. How exactly do you kill the mice before feeding them to your fuzzbutts? The list is full of the end results but I'm too squeamish to ask how that step is accomplished (I'm afraid Pheadra will show me a video ?).
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2014 19:36:49 GMT -5
Received the salmon oil this afternoon. Sid was the only one who said "WTF mom why my dinner smell strange?" Glad I purchased the Unscented variety... Because even tho it's supposedly unscented ... this stuff stinks.
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Post by bitbyter on Jan 2, 2015 23:17:23 GMT -5
I apologize for being absent but I've been sick the last few days and my head hasn't been in the game.
The above looks good. Keep reducing the FD and increasing the frankenprey. You might also try soaking the freeze dried meats / organs you have for an hour or so to make the texture more like the fresh raw and see if that might help.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2015 17:03:55 GMT -5
Dang I have a hard time finding our thread!!! Shows you how dedicated I am. Lol.. Or stupid. Ok couple of questions. With these guys eating ground raw bone from chicken wing and thigh are they getting enough bone? Is it ok to continue to reduce the amount Of freeze dried without supplementing with more calcium? Or should I be adding eggshell? How much salmon oil is appropriate? I'm beginning to won't if these guys will ever be to the point where I can throw them a hunk of meat and bone and be done with it! It's also weird that my 7 year old will eat anything I put in front of her, yet my two youngsters fight me tooth and nail, hee hee he, yup had to go there.
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Post by bitbyter on Jan 3, 2015 17:13:49 GMT -5
Ok, keep in mind you've only been doing this for a while. Still a long way to go yet.
Raw ground bone from chicken wing and thigh? Were are you getting this? Are you feeding them grinds or just wings / thighs smashed up a bit? Either way, if the starting point was a whole wing or thing (whatever the end form) then yes. Nutritional deficiencies take a long time to show up. Not something that really needs to be worried about during the switch unless it is a really long one.
Bookmark it in your browser.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2015 11:36:56 GMT -5
You are a smart man, why didn't I think of that? I am jumping like a looney tune... Snickers ate an entire intact chicken thigh knuckle! He even got it stuck in his pallet and after I dislodged it, he kept on munching away. It was as if he said "thanks Mum, see how I can eat like a big boy!".... ... seven months from the switch... one down... three more to go, LOL. Good thing I am an educator, we have patience, patience, and more patience. Especially us middle school teachers (ages 11-13/14)! How much eggshell should I provide? My husband gets the lovely task of hand grinding (heavy duty grinder) the entire chicken wing tip to thigh shoulder. We have found the most proficient way to do this is for me to smash the bones up a bit before he grinds them through the large holed disk. Every month I say, hoping this will be last time we have to do this. Been saying this for 3 months now . He's a former teacher, loads of patience and extremely accommodating to his nutty wife. Although, last night, I put the kibosh down on my daughters attempt to bring a sugar glider into our menagerie. But mom! They are allergen free. Umm, yeah, that's what she said about the ferrets. So not happening.
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Post by bitbyter on Jan 5, 2015 12:56:31 GMT -5
Ok, a few things.
1. Ground or whole, as long as the bone is there you shouldn't need to add eggshell.
2. This week, at least for Snickers (I think he might be ready for this if he was chewing on a chicken knuckle bone), I want you to ditch the grinds altogether. Take a wing or thigh, put it in a ziplock bag, put a kitchen towel over it and give it a few good whacks with a hammer or the back of a cleaver to break the bones. Then chop it into pieces the size of your thumb and serve. You can also serve him small slivers (about 1/2 the size of your thumb) of muscle meat and organs. If he seems a bit reluctant. Then put a TINY amount of liquidy raw soup over the top. No more that a tbsp.
3. The above is where we want to get the others asap.
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Post by bitbyter on Jan 7, 2015 22:39:47 GMT -5
Any update?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2015 8:54:45 GMT -5
Grizzly lost an ounce this week. I weighed early because he didn't seem to be eating as much. None of them are real happy with this last batch of chicken and pork. They are down to a tablespoon of the FD sprinkled on top of the raw. I've been adding taurine and eggshell, but they didn't seem to mind that at all. Could it be the batch of chicken wings? They hate freeze dried heart, they are ok with cow liver (I'm up to 1 tsp smushed into their raw). I'm stumped. Help!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2015 9:02:07 GMT -5
Your last reply just popped into my account. Wondered why I didn't hear from you. We are still experiencing limited internet access.
What does it mean when I get an error message that says "your internet connection will only allow limited access to some websites?
I will start this with snickers this evening as they just sorta ate.
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Post by bitbyter on Jan 8, 2015 13:23:59 GMT -5
Not sure about that internet error. Not one I've seen before. I'd contact your internet provider.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2015 10:41:33 GMT -5
GRIZZLY ATE A KNUCKLE! Even continued when he gagged up a couple times. He hasn't got the cut the tendon off before I swallow down pat yet. Snickers had no interest in the hooked meat, but gladly munched thigh bones from the crushed plate. Patience. He won't eat unless he feels that mom has completely approves the meal and watches. Yet he will go back later and crunch away (I'm listening to bone crunching as I write this. He's such a mom as boy.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2015 10:43:17 GMT -5
Oh and internet provider says they are diligently working on the problem.
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