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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2015 23:07:18 GMT -5
I want to get my ferrets on raw, but with my work schedule/life there's no way I can try and switch 4 at once. I decided I will break them up into pairs. I'm starting with Elwood and Dalia because they are my youngest and likely will be easier.
Dalia just turned 5 months old at the end of December, according to her Marshall papers. Elwood didn't come with any, but I think he is a month younger than her, so 4 months.
No current weights as of yet. Neither has any health issues. Elwood is a deaf Waardie though. I just placed an Amazon order with all the non-food supplies I will need, as well as for bone meal powder (no egg shells available). I have unsuccessfully tried to get them both to eat meat pieces so I will be starting with soup. They are currently eating Origen kibble. I have gotten Dalia to eat wet FDR chicken treats but Elwood will not take them.
I know to get chicken thigh, and to try and get heart and liver of the same protein. I know the recipe says to add as much water as needed to make it a soupy texture, but does anyone have a ballpark as to how much it should be, or how much to start with? I'm afraid I'll put too much right away.
I will take and post body photos of both of them shortly.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2015 23:37:45 GMT -5
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Post by raynebc on Jan 8, 2015 2:10:43 GMT -5
I didn't get into the habit of measuring how much water I added, but I'd guess that I'd used 1/3 to 1/2 cup of water for one standard sized batch of soup (enough so that it would mix well and not destroy the blender).
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2015 6:50:41 GMT -5
Thanks raynebc! I was thinking of adding a full cup, glad I asked. The other thing I'd meant to ask is if they eat it right away (which I'm thinking won't happen, but you never know lol) should I just not give kibble back to them?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2015 12:27:23 GMT -5
My bone meal powder and ice cube trays are getting delivered tomorrow! I will definitely try and get that soup offered to them tomorrow evening depending on how long the meeting I need to attend after work goes. If not then, definitely Saturday morning. I'm also getting a new scale delivered Saturday so I'll be able to weigh them right away as well.
In my neighborhood, there are mostly only chain grocery stores. Is anyone able to find organs (liver/heart for the soup) at these kind of locations? It's currently 0°F (Feels Like -22°F, according to the Weather Channel) at my home right now so I'd like to stay nearby in case anything happens to my car (I hope this lets up soon). I'm going to stop on my way home from work and see if I find anything.
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Post by raynebc on Jan 8, 2015 15:42:30 GMT -5
If the ferrets end up liking the soup and each eat at least an ounce or two, and you can keep enough soup in stock, it's definitely worth trying to switch away from kibble right then and there. Feed them as much of it as they're willing to eat. If they all live together, you want to make sure they are all eating it before taking the kibble away though, to make sure none of them go hungry. That could mean separating the hold outs and feeding them kibble away from the others if necessary.
Where I live, it's very easy to find chicken liver in pretty much any grocery store. Tyson makes mixed packages of chicken hearts and gizzards, but most people find that they usually don't get many hearts per package. I usually go to a particular grocery (Fred Meyers) to get beef heart, but you may just have to visit or call your local stores to see what they have.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2015 16:56:22 GMT -5
My bone meal powder and ice cube trays are getting delivered tomorrow! I will definitely try and get that soup offered to them tomorrow evening depending on how long the meeting I need to attend after work goes. If not then, definitely Saturday morning. I'm also getting a new scale delivered Saturday so I'll be able to weigh them right away as well. In my neighborhood, there are mostly only chain grocery stores. Is anyone able to find organs (liver/heart for the soup) at these kind of locations? It's currently 0°F (Feels Like -22°F, according to the Weather Channel) at my home right now so I'd like to stay nearby in case anything happens to my car (I hope this lets up soon). I'm going to stop on my way home from work and see if I find anything. Oh boy, we get to hear more about Elwood. (dance) All of yours are adorable, but I confess to having a special affection for little Elwood. His coloring is wonderful and I just love his name. Liver is easy to find. Hearts are more difficult in a regular grocery store. Tyson sells a package of gizzards and hearts, but you are lucky to get two or three hearts in the package. You can talk to the store butchers, but they are not usually helpful. It's really best to stick with one protein at a time, so it would be great to find chicken hearts. You want to find a good Asian market. They will have good selections and good prices, plus you are going to need other organs soon. If you need help finding them, pm me your location and I will find a list of stores for you. I know that you are in Chicago, but it's a big place and there are alot of suburbs. If you make the soup without water and then freeze it, you can simply add warm water to thin it. I made mine in a magic bullet and only used maybe a 1/4 cup of water. I also made it the same day as I served it. It just worked for me. With the soupie, sit on the floor and pick Elwood or Dalia up and put them on your lap. Use one hand and gently place it under them. Take your finger and dab it into the soup and wipe it on their mouth. They will have to lick it off. Then use the spoon (I bought some small toddler spoons, they are colorful and plastic). Dip the spoon into the soupie and offer it to them. If they are good and lick it off the spoon, then slowly lower the spoon to the dish and let him or her, lick the soup off the spoon that is on the plate. If they continue to eat, remove the spoon and try to offer the soup to the second one. It may take a few tries, or they may take to it right away. The idea is that once they are eating the soupie, you will add tiny slivers to it. Once they eat the slivers, you decrease the amount of soup and increase the size and amount of the slivers. The average boy eats 3-4 ounces a day, the average girl will eat 2 ounces. During a switch, they may eat quite alot. They are making up for lost nutrients. Young ones may simply eat you out of house and home. Start a weight journal and weigh them weekly. Also, be prepared for some funky poops. One day you may see a strange poop of some color and the next day, the poops may be runny. You will learn to watch their poops and add a little more or less eggshell powder to firm them up or soften them up. Be patient and give them alot of praise. If they are stubborn, just remember that it's not unusual and they will learn that this is food. They will take a few weeks to detox from the kibble, and you will see such soft, fluffy fur. They also will get grapetail. Raw fed ferrets will begin to smell like grape koolaid. Have fun and keep posting. Everyone will offer help and suggestions. Don't hesitate to ask questions. :wave2:
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2015 18:10:43 GMT -5
@poncesmom oh the suburbs are definitely killing me right now. As I'm typing this I'm sitting in bumper to bumper traffic because it's snowing and the suburbs do not proactively send out the plows like we do in the city. What should take 40 min to get home is now at ~2 hours (and probably counting). :-(
I live on the NW side of the city, I do recall seeing 2 Asian market locations within 10-15 min of my house on the list you had found for @deariie in her thread (I lurk a lot lol). One is actually located near Korean town so I'm sure if they don't have anything at that one, they can probably get me to the store that will nearby.
At the rate this commute is going I likely will not be able to stop anywhere today (I have moved 10 feet in 10 minutes). The poor babies are probably confused already because I always get home around 5 and they're usually up waiting for me.
I have a pretty decent regular blender, I am hoping that it'll suffice. I'm excited to get all of this started because we're going through $60 of kibble in a month, it's crazy. That's why I decided that instead of overwhelming myself, I'll do Elwood and Dalia first, and then Dom and Coconut.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2015 19:17:04 GMT -5
@elenners Traffic, yuck. Traffic here means four cars at our four way stop sign. (shy) I know how crazy your traffic can be. Paul use to work for a company that was owned by the Pritzker's. Every year at Christmas, we would come to Chicago for the Christmas party. Their office was in Rolling Meadows, so we made the trek from the city, to see the office. We stayed downtown and I just love Chicago. Boy, is it cold. All of the Florida people didn't quite have the cold weather wear for your kind of cold. But we had fun. Your blender should do fine. Just don't put any gizzards in it. When you get ready to move past soupies, a cleaver will come in handy. I suspect Elwood and Dalia are going to do fine. Leather and Domino will watch and probably want to try the new food too. (dance)
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2015 12:19:34 GMT -5
@poncesmom You know prior to this week, we'd been staying in the 40s all December. I think we hit 50 a couple of times. Hovering around 0 is no fun though! That ridiculous drive home actually helped me out in a way. I ended up taking streets and shortcuts and passed by the Super H Mart that I completely forgot existed. It's like a Walmart for everything Asian so I'm SURE they have to have the organs that I'll need. I'm going to check the grocery by my house tonight and if they don't have the heart or liver, I'll go by Super H tomorrow morning. @deariie I don't know if Niles is a bad drive for you, but I can let you know how their selection is if I go over there.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2015 12:25:59 GMT -5
Ohhh...That's great. If the Super H Mart is good, please create a thread and post about it. We've had several people looking in your area.
You know, now that I think about it. It might be a good idea to have a shopping thread like our vet list. By Country and State. I'll bring that up on the Mentors board. So @elenners, your horrible ride home just might have served several good purposes. :banana:
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2015 12:39:41 GMT -5
Oh, I go to Super H-Mart for chicken hearts and various protein like rabbit, quail, and pork. But I couldn't find any other organs there. It's been really hard trying to find other organs besides liver and kidney.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2015 17:24:08 GMT -5
So I was able to stop at a local chain store called Butera on my way home. They had chicken livers & gizzards but no hearts. They did have pork heart (which I got). They also had pork kidney, liver, tongue, ears, tail, neck. They had turkey neck and back also.
Gizzards were $1.49/lb. Pork heart was $1.19/lb. The chicken livers were $1.49/lb. How are these prices? Good?
I just pulled their food so I can try to feed the soup around 6. We'll see how it goes! Going to make the soup now.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2015 19:06:04 GMT -5
So they seemed to really like it! All I did was dab a bit on their mouths and they readily ate off the spoon. Neither ate off of the plate but Elwood did try to steal the spoon from me a few times. Both ate pieces of skin and small chunks that the blender failed at pureeing. Should I just keep the soup in the cage and not put kibble back? That's what I'm thinking of doing since it went over well. I took some photos! Elwood sniffing Dalia sniffing Eating It got pretty messy All that was left Snorkeling baby cleaning up
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Post by RedSky on Jan 9, 2015 19:51:48 GMT -5
Wow it seems to have gone really well. As for what to do with the kibble, if you can feed again soon (say within 4 hours) then I would leave it out and give them another meal of raw, but if not and they didn't eat it without you spoonfeeding them it might be best to wait an hour or so and put the kibble back in the cage so they have something if they get hungry.
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