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Post by BuffyJo on Dec 5, 2014 14:41:06 GMT -5
He is VERY skinny. I think SO has some before pictures from when we got him last week. Here he is now
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Post by BuffyJo on Dec 5, 2014 14:51:40 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2014 14:54:34 GMT -5
Franco is rather skinny. A good diet should put some weight on him. I'd watch his eating closely and sit with him. Not only will that build a good bond with him, but you can always coax him into a few more bites. I'd also leave food out for him, especially at night.
He's a sweet little thing, with beautiful colors. I hope he gets nice and secure and learns to eat better.
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Post by BuffyJo on Dec 5, 2014 15:39:30 GMT -5
He's doing a lot better about eating. When we got him we had to hold him and feed him. Now he's eating in his cage. We keep the mush dish full, he gets about 3 recipe a day. SO also puts a little dry kibble in a separate dish in the morning, It's usually there most of the day and Loki could be the one eating it. He wasn't drinking much from his water bottle that came with him. He drinks out of the watering dish with the dogs and cats (Loki thinks it's a pool) I turned the food dish that came in his cage into a water dish for when he's caged.
My cousin met him the day we brought him home, she saw him today and thinks he's less boney. He looks like a drowned rat lol His hair his growing back, but it's very coarse. He looks like he's going to be white with black specks down his back. My son calls him Adolf, because his black hair and moustache look like Hitler. SO calls him Charlie (Chaplin), My other 2 boys call him James, and Seamus.He responds to Franco though so we aren't changing his name.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2014 15:48:07 GMT -5
The little guy must have been thru alot. A water bowl is better for hydration that a water bottle. The trick is to find one that they won't tip over. They make heavier water bowls for ferrets. Dry kibble and his wet food will digest at different rates. That might cause stomach upset which can lead to a bacterial overgrowth. Separate the time between the wet food and the dry food by a few hours. His fur can become very soft and full on a raw diet or a really good quality kibble. I love that he responds to Franco, he knows his name and is smart. There is a product called Carnivore Care that some of our ferrents have used for sick ferrets or to help put on weight. I haven't used it, but when I look at the ingredients, they are good and seem to be helpful: www.oxbowanimalhealth.com/vets/products/carnivore_careI'm going to tag gfountain and bitbyter and see what they think of using it.
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Post by gfountain on Dec 5, 2014 15:57:22 GMT -5
I have no experience with Carnivore Care. I've heard pros and cons about using it. Personally, I don't like to feed them things with ingredients I can't read, lol.
I didn't read through the whole thread, just skimmed it, but I saw that you were asking about beef and venison. If the deer are wild, make sure you freeze the meat to kill parasites. I feed a lot of fresh beef organs, heart, and tongue. I tried blending them into a soup but no one would touch it. Mine prefer to chew them, especially the heart.
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Post by BuffyJo on Dec 6, 2014 0:09:52 GMT -5
I found some of the Carnivore Care on Amazon. He needs whatever extra he can get. He's been having some pieces of rehydrated freeze dried chicken and seems to do well with that, so I'm hoping he'll do well with chunks of raw when the time comes. Here is a picture from the day after we brought him home. His ribs were showing and he just felt like a sock full of bones
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Post by Desiree on Dec 6, 2014 1:01:38 GMT -5
Poor baby! He's so tiny. Good on you! He has a new loving home and you are doing wonderfully.
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Post by BuffyJo on Dec 6, 2014 4:49:38 GMT -5
I came across Better in the Raw ferret food linkIt's added to human grade meat to make it acceptable for ferrets? I'm just curious if anyone has tried it..I'm thinking if we ever need a pet sitter it might be an easy substitute?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2014 14:18:09 GMT -5
Goodness, Franco is so thin in that last picture. I looked at the Better, I would worry about the Liver. Too much liver is not good and can build up in their system. We don't know how much liver is in that product, but it's high up on the ingredient list. Whey is a dairy product and dairy is not good. Then you have the kelp and barley grass powder. It's not one that I would feel safe with. One other idea is to find a commercial grind. We are finding that ferrets on commercial grinds gain alot of weight. For an average ferret, that's not good. However, it might be good for Franco. kraesmom was doing some research into grinds. I tagged her and let's see what she has to say.
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Post by BuffyJo on Dec 6, 2014 15:20:39 GMT -5
His weight made me worry about starting raw right away, because he didn't really have much to lose. He really looks so much better in just a week and a half. He is still boney but his ribs are less defined.
We are going shopping tonight so I'm going to pick up some meats for the guys so we can start tonight. Chicken thighs, chicken livers, gizzard and heart?
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Post by BuffyJo on Dec 7, 2014 15:23:27 GMT -5
The boys have both had 2 raw soupy meals so far. Franco didn't take much coaxing, But I had to hold Loli and spoon feed him...he wasn't too sure about it.
I froze the soupy in 2oz containers. It looks more like pudding than soup lol but when I thaw them with water it will be runnier.
I've got 8-2ounce cups and then 10 small bags full of mixed chicken meat(thigh, liver and gizzard) ready to be ground up into soupy. (I just need heart..but I have a deer one coming)
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Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2014 15:33:30 GMT -5
The boys have both had 2 raw soupy meals so far. Franco didn't take much coaxing, But I had to hold Loli and spoon feed him...he wasn't too sure about it. I froze the soupy in 2oz containers. It looks more like pudding than soup lol but when I thaw them with water it will be runnier. I've got 8-2ounce cups and then 10 small bags full of mixed chicken meat(thigh, liver and gizzard) ready to be ground up into soupy. (I just need heart..but I have a deer one coming) I'm glad that Franco is taking to the soup. Loli will follow soon. Just sit him on your lap and spoon feed him. Try to keep to the ratios of the soupie. You don't want to over feed Liver. You can pick up some Taurine Powder if you have to wait for the Heart. The Nutrients in the soup are carefully balanced and so you want to follow those guidelines. Gizzards are great to gnaw on. You can try slicing some thin and leaving some in bigger pieces. They might be perfect for leaving them to chew on at night. The gizzards aren't part of the soupie and you want to do something with them. Just don't leave the raw and kibble out together.
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Post by BuffyJo on Dec 8, 2014 1:31:42 GMT -5
We could only find hearts packaged with gizzards, unless we special order them. There were only 2 hearts in the package so I added the gizzards in the magic bullet with the rest of the meat. I made it 1 thigh (about 6oz) and 2 hunk of gizzard (about 2oz) 2 hearts, 1/2 a liver, and eggshells. The gizzards blended pretty well with the rest but maybe could be what made it a little stringy. Their last meal today both of them like grabbing those pieces out to chew on. I added more water this time too so it was more like gravy than pudding consistency. Loki did a lot better. It was about 2oz of water mixed with 2oz of meat. I still have to spoon feed Loki..he gives me the stink eye for the first couple minutes and then this last time I couldn't spoon it in fast enough. I could probably use a bigger spoon, but we have tiny plastic sample spoons that seem just right for ferrets...and it's cute. Franco doesn't need a spoon at all and will eat right out of the dish. He was pretty curious though while I was holding Loki so he got a couple spoonfulls. Franco is pooping a lot! It isn't loose, but it isn't as solid as Iit normally is and has a little mucous. Loki's still looks normal. I'm not sure how much he's gone though. I was a little worried that he hadn't gone much..but one of the kids must have cleaned his cage before they went to bed because I noticed the bag of litter I bought yesterday had been opened. I'm still going to keep an eye on it though. I just checked his cage again and noticed he has a bowl full of kibble. The kiddos are used to feeding everyone before bed. They are pretty diligent about making sure Loki always has food available. Should I be leaving soup in the cage over night like we did the kibble? Or is it OK for them to go until morning? (About 8 hours between feedings) The ferrets are usually caged from midnight until 5:30. We've been locking the cat room during the day for now so they can't get to the cat food while we are switching to raw. Eventually though they will have access, the cat's food was higher on the list of foods than the Marshalls so we were hoping Iit would be OK if they got ahold of some. We tried putting bowls up higher..but the ferrets can get everywhere the cats can..and Loki likes to push things onto the floor.
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Post by kraesmom on Dec 8, 2014 11:31:06 GMT -5
Commercial Grinds....Well, I have used FDR (Freeze dried raw), such as Primal Turkey or Stella and Chewy's. Wysong makes a good one, though it's even more expensive. I was NOT impressed with offerings from The Honest Kitchen or "I and Love and You" brand holistic foods. Too many vegetables. FDR isn't cheap by any means, but it's good for your ferts to recognize it as food. It can be crumbled and watered down for sickies, it can be kept in a family emergency kit in case of power outages, and it's easy to give to caregivers. As for regular grinds, I have purchased from www.hare-today.com/ and MyPetCarnivore.com (MPC) Both sell items that are "whole animal" grinds..so they gut them and throw them in the grinder with the bones and organs. Basically a completely balanced meal in each serving. I tend to buy from MPC more because they have a delivery route that runs about 20 min away from me, so shipping is only a $10 delivery fee. Also, I made a spreadsheet (don't laugh ) and discovered that for most products, MPC is slightly cheaper per pound. Added up for an entire order, it can make a huge difference in cost. Bravo makes some good frozen grinds as well, but they have so many different types that it can be difficult to figure out what to get. I also purchase ground lamb and duck from Nature's Variety because it's hard to find unusual proteins around here. Incidentally, I cut back on the organ meals during the week, depending on how much ground food my boys get. If they are getting organs in their meat, I don't want to overdo with to many additional organ soup meals (liver...I'm looking at YOU). HTH
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