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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2015 23:25:05 GMT -5
LOL! Just let me know once you've had a chance to go to the store I'm glad theyre doing better with their chewing!
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Post by Celene on Feb 23, 2015 0:42:49 GMT -5
This might be a (really) dumb question, but is is okay to leave CGH bones (or other bones) in the cage over night? I know dry bones can get brittle and splinter, causing problems... But I'm not sure how "dry" that is. The thought of them choking on bone while I'm not around terrifies me, but I don't want to leave them foodless while I sleep.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2015 0:48:11 GMT -5
Yes its fine honestly as long as the bones are covered in meat they stay soft and mine really love dried up nasty meat
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Post by Celene on Feb 23, 2015 10:14:49 GMT -5
Yeah the second the surface of meat even starts to dry they won't touch it. There were a few bones that weren't covered in meat but that I thought they might like anyway since the marrow was exposed but I don't think they touched it.
Also (because I really have to share this) Mocha has been running around the entire apartment dooking like crazy this morning! I know ferrets are "supposed" to do that, but these girls came to me not really knowing how to play and never ever dooked once for the first couple months. They've occasionally let out one or two excited "dook!"s while playing, but never a string of them and never for this long so I am so incredibly happy.
Poor Nova is so tired but she keeps getting tackled and forced into wrestling. It's okay though because normally it's Nova bullying Mocha to play.
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Post by Celene on Feb 24, 2015 0:06:50 GMT -5
Just wanted to report that they had another good evening of bone-crunching, with only a single hacking/choking event (courtesy of Mocha).
Also their weights:
Mocha Nova 18-Feb-15 1.68 1.57
19-Feb-15 1.78 1.63
21-Feb-15 1.67 1.59
23-Feb-15 1.64 1.57
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2015 1:07:14 GMT -5
See they'll get the hang of it! There's a learning curve they're doing great! I'm so glad that Nova was in a good mood everyone over here was in a good mood today too!! Eris war danced and dooked for me and it was soooo cute!
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Post by Celene on Feb 24, 2015 10:03:28 GMT -5
This morning they are complete opposites. They crawled out of bed for a poop and quick nibble and went straight back to sleep... They're lucky my husband has the day off and will be around to let them out later!
I'm also back to worrying that at least one of them might have a chicken sensitivity - last week when they were on red meat they had "perfect" poops, but now that I've reintroduced poultry I'm getting a lot of seedier ones. I'll keep feeding this week as CGH is their only bone right now, but I was wondering if a sensitivity to chicken (and CGH since it's genetically similar) translates to other poultry, or if it's usually limited to the one specific species?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2015 18:02:42 GMT -5
okay after this week we're probably going to have to find them another bone in meat. I know Bitbyter has a little girl with lots of allergies so ill ask him what kinds of meat he uses. Some ferrets have a sensitivity to just chick (CGH is pretty much just a small chicken), some its all poultry, and some have bad reactions to the hormones in the meat.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2015 18:25:11 GMT -5
So it looks like quail and rabbit will be your best bet for bone in meats that wont cause a reaction.
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Post by Celene on Feb 24, 2015 20:44:36 GMT -5
Yup. We're going to have dinner at my parent's this weekend and there is a giant asian market mega store somewhat on the way.
Our meat in Canada doesn't have hormones btw, it's illegal. A lot of the poultry still gets antibiotics, although the government is phasing in tight restrictions on their usage in meat.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2015 1:37:42 GMT -5
Ugh thats awesome about the meat i wish the states were the same way >.>
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Post by Celene on Feb 25, 2015 10:18:53 GMT -5
Yeah, but because of that meat is SO MUCH cheaper in the US. A lot of people drive across the border because poultry, milk, and cheese (we also have much higher dairy regulations) are less than half the price that they are up here. Although not so much with the current dollar
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Post by Celene on Feb 25, 2015 22:37:04 GMT -5
So when I got home from work I was kind of worried because they had literally not taken a SINGLE bite of their breakfast beef. They definitely made up for it though by pretty much inhaling their bone-in CGH. Is it normal that they actually go out of their way to pick out and eat the bones? Sometimes they will push the smallest piece of bone all around the floor trying to pick it up and eat it even though there is a nice bowl of fresh, plump, meat with bone. The good news is they seem pretty comfortable with the bone - it kind of reminds me of them eating kibble. Mocha did sort of choke once, but all-in-all they did a pretty good job. Nova ate so much her little tummy was bulging out after. So I figure this is a pretty good time to sort of "map out" the rest of the transition journey. My two goals right now are to: - Introduce new bone-in meat sources
- Continue to increase chunk sizes until I can just chuck one or two big pieces in per meal
Is there anything else I should be working on/need to do to "finish" the transition?
Also, long-term-wise, can some of their meals each week be boneless meat with powdered bone/bone meal? The reason I am asking is because the frankenprey diet only allows for two "muscle" meals per week, but if I'm feeding beef, lamb, and pork, all of which they really seem to like and digest well, they wouldn't really get very much compared to rabbit/poultry. Obviously they still need plenty of "actual" bone-in meals to clean their teeth and stuff.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2015 23:10:28 GMT -5
There must have been some tasty marrow in the bones Those goals look great the only other thing id suggest doing is maybe reading a bit up on raw info as theres a test before you graduate (its not too hard) I talked to some of the other mentees and they said maybe once or twice a week wouldnt hurt, but be careful as ferrets can sometimes start refusing bones in they get used to not having them ehehe.
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Post by Celene on Feb 26, 2015 0:14:24 GMT -5
They are temperamental jerks like that. Right now they're having "actual" bone-in meals 3-4 times a week and not refusing. Either way was just checking.
I'm not worried about the test - I've read pretty much every sticky on this forum and am pretty active in other threads (see? I'm a "full" member now haha).
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