A New Sticky

[Celene]

Inspired by @poncesmom's most recent post in the thread titled "overwhelmed", I think it might be a good idea to have a new sticky under the "newbie diet questions" sub-board called something along the lines of "Raw Diet - Simplified" (I'd suggest calling it "Raw for Dummies" but I don't want any newbies to feel like we're calling them dummies).

Maybe include the soupie recipe, basic frankenprey menu and/or sample menu, and probably ratios as well (some people find it easier to wrap their heads around what % of the diet should be muscle, heart, bone, etc. than number of meals) and what constitutes organ, non-weight bearing bone, etc. But contain it all within the post rather than linking to it.

And other commonly asked newbie questions (tbd). I know all this information is available in other threads and/or on other boards and there is the raw FAQ and holistic ferret files and such, but I think most newcomers start at the "newbie diet questions" board which does have posts with recommended reading, but I think for a lot of people it becomes an information overload and/or they're intimidated by the amount of literature and don't know where to begin. Also (sadly) a lot of people are too lazy to click on links.

Not that I have a problem with people posting lots of newbie questions because then they can get specific answers directed at them and start building a relationship with mentors and/or senior raw feeders, but I have a feeling there are many "silent members" out there who don't post.

Anyway, that's just an idea I had. Or maybe make a pdf "ebook" that has all this info gathered together with a table of contents and such so that all of the information is contained in a single source. I've toyed with the notion of doing it before, I just haven't had time to post about it and get permission from HFF and the authors to use their writeups on various topics.

[Deleted]

I like that idea. I find alot of people who are new to forums (like I was) and have trouble navigating around the forum to find the individual threads. I've also had people simply say, could you break it down for me, I don't want to do all that reading. So, I write it all out.

[gfountain]

I believe Jason is already working on something along these lines. Not sure, but I think someone mentioned it.

[Celene]

Oh. Well I imagine he is much more qualified than I am for a job like that.

bitbyter, if you need help in any way I would be more than happy to give you some of my time! I do a lot of proofreading for long, technical documents as part of my job and am also pretty good at formatting Word documents to be easily navigable (i.e. clicking on table of contents topics jumps you directly to that page) in pdf form, so at the very least can offer my services there.

Anyway, let me know.

[bitbyter]

Celene There already was an Intro To Raw sticky in the Newbies section but all it did was point back to our Facebook document of the same name. Not to useful if the person didn't have a FB account.

I have recreated it with direct links to the Google Docs.

holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/17480/intro-raw-newbies-read

[Celene]

I've seen that post and personally found it very helpful (I actually have it bookmarked on my computer) but the problem is people are lazy or they don't know where to start or get overwhelmed by the reading.

I know people nowadays are often too lazy to do a lot of research and I personally don't agree with it, but I think all the different links and documents are a turn-off for some people, and decide not to give raw a chance at all. I know there isn't a ton that can be done about that, but I feel like we should at least give as many fuzzies as possible a chance to have a healthy diet.

[Celene]

Never mind, I see in the "intro to raw" sticky you've individually titled and linked each document. I think that will go a long way to help people find just the info they're looking for without getting overloaded.

[msav]

Raw feeding is not for the "LAZY" It takes work to make sure you understand what your doing and why.

having a sample menu is fine to start.Lazy people may just do that and not completely grasp the whole concept, I mean what happens when monkey wrenches get tossed in, your forget a feeding, or skip a meal, or run out of something. Understanding would give you the knowledge back on track.

I am not saying it is that crucial, but with frequent complacency of the menu you could end up with a malnourished ferret over time.

I am all for getting a ferret eating raw ASAP to start, But more learning is required.

This forum makes it easy for everyone. just need to put the time in to READ, READ, READ until it sinks in. 

For people like me, I have to read a few extra times before it sinks in.

[Celene]

That's true. I just feel like a lot more people might give raw a chance if they could ease into the reading/learning rather than be inundated with articles and text and not know what is really necessary/import to start and what is more auxiliary/advanced and can be read later.

I hadn't considered that the same people who would need it laid out piece by piece have a large overlap with those who might just not care enough to do the research and toss in some ground beef every night and call themselves ferrent of the year. Definitely a really good point msav. Kind of makes the reading like a mini entrance exam/requirement or something.

For me it's definitely all about trying to give as many fuzzies as great of a life as possible. Truthfully, I don't really like people all that much

I guess if someone really cares about their furbaby they will go to the lengths required to learn how to properly feed raw. I am the king of person though who reads everything (I think the technical term is "nerd").