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Post by Celene on Feb 8, 2015 20:31:24 GMT -5
I cut up the kidneys!! Actually I cut one and bagged the rest. UGHCK. I didn't know what the white stuff was and was hard to cut so I chucked it. Turns out it is the "ureter" according to google. And suet, but it was all attached together and gross so I threw it all out together. Anyway, this week their "organ" meals will be 1/2 chicken heart, 1/4 chicken liver and 1/4 lamb kidney. So here is my "menu" for the week. Saturday PM is "tbd" because after I finished packaging, labelling, putting away, cleaning and sanitizing I realized that I had somehow managed to miss it. They won't go hungry though, I have tons of frozen meat, just not cut and portioned. Plus I have to go to the store this week anyway and get more heart for the next weeks. Lemme know what you think. They have two "actual" bone-in meals but I didn't want to overwork their jaws and also since they likely won't eat all the bone I thought the eggshell powder would at least guarantee some calcium.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2015 21:02:38 GMT -5
The organs on the back close to the spine are kidneys. They're so small so usually they don't get scooped out with the rest of the body cavity. I think they're doing very well. Even if they don't crunch a whole lot they're putting the meat in their mouths and chewing which is awesome! And they'll get there Your menu looks great
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Post by Celene on Feb 8, 2015 23:30:25 GMT -5
So they had their first organ* meal of heart, liver AND kidney. The heart and liver I had already ground before and I cut the kidney really small and mixed it in. Nova did great, but leave it to Mocha to daintily eat around the kidney pieces while managing to get every morsel of heart and liver. That's not too bad though. There was a lot more kidney left but I put a little drop of salmon oil on each piece and she ate the smaller ones. There were also a lot of really finely minced kidney pieces in there which she ate too. Seriously though!! *
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Post by Celene on Feb 9, 2015 13:06:37 GMT -5
So the ferrets are still manipulating/blackmailing me. This morning is pork and they're clearly acting very hungry so I put it out and they totally snub it and walk off. For the next 2 hours at least one of them checks on it every 15-20 minutes, gives it a sniff, then decides not to eat anything and walks off. I'm getting kind of worried that they aren't eating so I put the tiniest amount of watered-down egg on it (like 3/4 tbsp of half water, half egg) and they freaking chow down on it like they haven't eaten for a week!!!!
I told my husband and he's like "Yeah, remember? This happened yesterday morning." and I was like "Ah crap, they're training me."
On the plus side, I watched Nova eat the biggest chunk of meat so far: A piece of pork about the size of the top joint of my pink or a lip balm cap. She'd pick it up (well actually lick it around the floor until she licked it up), chew off a bit and let the rest fall to the ground, and repeat until done. I'm not sure if that's how ferrets "normally" do it, but I was proud of her nonetheless.
Now they're back to being jerks and trying to get into the dishwasher (and drink the gross dishwasher water) while my husband unloads it - at least it's clean, I guess.
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Post by Celene on Feb 9, 2015 23:34:06 GMT -5
So dinner happened.
I'm so proud of them - they both at (at least) one CGH rib bone in it's entirety! I don't know if they ate any more bone or just the meat around it, but I'm still proud even though they still don't seem to be getting the concept of chewing bone before swallowing and end up gagging.
In other progress news, I have seen them both eat pieces of meat up to about half the size of my thumb. Although sometimes they will take only a few bites before dropping and digging in the dish for a smaller/more convenient piece.
The only thing that is concerning me a little still is Mocha's poops are consistently looking like birdseed/grainy mustard.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2015 0:47:11 GMT -5
Hmmm could you post a picture of her poops? Her system could still be adjusting to the different proteins.
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Post by Celene on Feb 10, 2015 10:18:31 GMT -5
Can do, but you'll probably have to wait until tonight so I can "catch" her in the act to make sure it's hers and not Nova's Also, this morning I put out (much) larger chunks of chicken, about the size of a lip balm tube, but most of them taper at the end so shouldn't be too hard to eat. They've already ran between me, the food and the kitchen 3 times and I only put it up about 5-6 minutes ago. Yup. No egg this morning! Edited to add: Mocha is still holding out, but Nova went up to try and eat some. She had a big piece about the size of a white eraser that she was working on, and when she saw me watching her eat she scurried into a corner with her but towards me, presumably for more eating privacy (was adorable). The only problem is she started on a piece that was hanging off and mostly that whiteish skin stuff that's really tough (called silverskin on red meat but not sure what it's called on poultry). Anyway I think she got discouraged because she just left the rest.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2015 0:34:40 GMT -5
How are the girls today? I'm glad they're eating better! I gave mine a piece of pork neck yesterday and they LOVED it. It seemed like some good stimulation and they were working on it for a long time.
Did you get anymore poops? Did you find something they might have chewed on?
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Post by Celene on Feb 12, 2015 0:59:00 GMT -5
I don't know if you checked the potential blockage thread, but I came home to a GIANT pile of orange poops. There's a pic in the thread if you're interested but I won't repost it. Truthfully I didn't really want to dig through them and find out what it was she ate, but I'm just glad she's okay. What looked to be one of the "first" poops based on it being half brown at the front and orange at the back looked like it had a bunch of hair/fur in it, but neither are really shedding right now. Of course they'll be happy because there will be more egg yolk in their future. Weighed them again and they're still going down: Mocha Nova 02-Feb-15 1.69 1.59 05-Feb-15 1.65 1.57 08-Feb-15 1.68 1.57 11-Feb-15 1.62 1.55 Nova ate like a hob when I put dinner down, presumably because she was full from all that pumpkin and vaseline and tired from being a furry poop-cannon. She crunched quite a few CGH bones. I didn't hear any crunching coming from Mocha so I think she might be picking around them. On Friday they will get their bone-in meal individually on my lap so I can make sure they're both getting bone. One thing I am worried about is Nova doesn't seem to see eating as stimulation, but more of a chore. If she can't find any convenient bite-sized pieces it seems like she'd just rather not eat, which might be contributing to her weight loss.
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Post by Celene on Feb 13, 2015 12:37:29 GMT -5
So the vets last night was.... fun. (not) Nova was so worked up she scaredy-peed herself while getting her vaccination. She was also way too squirmy and worked up to get blood taken - the vet said he worried she could be injured if she moved too much while the needle was in her. Mocha was a little better, although she did poop in the corner even though we brought the litter box. After they got home Mocha had a huuuuge appetite, presumably to get her BG up after having blood taken (I know with humans we get juice boxes after). Poor Nova was so tired from the vet's and clawing at the carrier she just went straight to sleep after checking all her stashes. Interestingly enough, she decided to go into her carrier to sleep even though she had spent the previous 30+ minutes trying to get out. This morning was organ meal with they LOVE. I still feed it separately so I know they both get the same amount. I fed Nova first since she was closest to me and poor Mocha kept trying to climb up my legs and get on the couch because she could hear Nova eating. It was only a couple minutes but she kept looking up at me and I felt so bad. After they were done I thawed some of the NV Instinct Raw Bites (duck) as it's my go-to if I need a quick meal for them. I wanted to leave them food if they got hungry. I go to brush my hair and get dressed so I can leave for work and as I come back I see Nova licking the dish clean! I couldn't believe it! So I thawed more (in the microwave since I was in a hurry) and put it in the cage. I get my shoes on and come back to lock them up and Nova is 70% done that as well!! I put Mocha in front of the dish so she'd at least have a chance to eat some. I am torn between worried that they'll be hungry all day and worried that Nova might burst. Tonight was supposed to be their CGH bone-in meal but we're going to the hockey game tonight and I don't really trust the girls alone with bones so I'm thawing some buffalo commercial grind instead.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2015 1:10:34 GMT -5
I'm glad they ate so much! They worked up an appetite after having such a rough day. I don't blame your vet for wanting to skip the blood. Mine are usually pretty good and stay still when they're scruffed. I hope she gets calmer. Maybe you can practice stuffing her to get her used to it and she might stay still better next time. Or bring some oil to distract them?
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Post by Celene on Feb 14, 2015 1:44:05 GMT -5
Yup. Tried salmon oil, scruffing, pendulum, brute force (holding down) but nothing seemed to help. She actually loses her mind and becomes terrified when scruffed - I can't even imagine what happened to her to cause that sort of reaction - oh well. The salmon oil did definitely keep her still during the main part of the exam (checking ears, belly/body, listening to heart and breathing, etc.) and helped calm her down after the vaccination and blood-taking attempts.
Tonight when I came home they hadn't eaten much of their buffalo, there were only two tiny indents. I chucked it out and gave them fresh stuff and the both gobbled it up. I know most people say ferrets find dried meat a delicacy, but it seems my girls refuse to eat meat the second the surface dries even slightly :\ .
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Post by Celene on Feb 14, 2015 23:44:24 GMT -5
I have to say that Nova's appetite has stayed really high since the blockage protocol on Wednesday. At first I thought maybe it was because all her intestines/belly were emptied out so she was hungry and trying to make up for that and maybe needing extra nutrients due to the vaseline coating her digestive tract... But it's been a few days and she's still eating a lot so I'm starting to wonder if maybe she had a floating blockage for a little while or something. Either way definitely not complaining that she has an appetite! This morning they had pork and I cut the chunks a little bigger than usual. Nova did try and find the smaller pieces but even those were several bites and required her to chew a bit off and let the big piece drop to the ground, then pick it up and eat off a little more, etc. Mocha on the other hand can keep the meat in "one piece" so to speak and doesn't chew all the way through so the larger chunk doesn't fall to the ground. What do your fuzzies do? Finally, tonight was bone-in CGH and they did grrrrrrrrrrrrreat! (Tony the tiger style). Nova was a champ and crunched through those bones and didn't discriminate at all when eating. Mocha was clearly just picking through and finding all the boneless pieces, so I took only bone-in pieces and put them in a separate dish for her so she didn't have a choice... Turns out she did. She still managed to eat all the meat off the bones while keeping the bone itself parallel with her jaw and outside her mouth, and mostly picked all the bones clean. But after that I put a little drop of salmon oil on each bone and she picked 'em up and started crunching. There was a a lot of choking and wheezing, but in the end she put back 3 or so CGH ribs/bones. I put the rest of the meat back after that because obviously too much bone isn't good either. Still - real proud! I have one more CGH which I will thaw tomorrow and make 4-5 bone-in meals with and after that I hope I can do chicken wings because you can buy them in huge packs and they're cheap. I'd really like to try rabbit, but our freezer is so tiny there is no room for it
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Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2015 1:20:53 GMT -5
Yay nova! Mochas still coming along nicely too Eris pulls off peices to eat and marco and Evanna just scissor up chunks with their incisors. Mordy gets really into it and he even used his paws to get more leverage while tearing meat. It's so funny that yours don't like dried meat. mine think it's the best thing ever and the other day marco pulled out a stinky leathery chicken foot and ate the whole thing >.> waste not I suppose? I don't think they'll have a problem with chicken wings, but you might need to cut up the larger bones a bit more so the narrow is nice and exposed. How was your hockey game? Did you have a good Valentine's day?
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Post by Celene on Feb 15, 2015 1:29:27 GMT -5
Haha did you tell Marco he's gross? I was just going to feed the wing tips to start and freeze the other joints for further down the road.
With "bone in" meals, what's the appropriate bone-to-meat ratio? Wings have a lot more bone than meat so I'm assuming I'll have to feed extra meat along with the bones..
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