Need Advice on Feeding

[Jack]

Hello everyone. I am hoping to get help feeding my ferrets. I very recently adopted two ferrets. One is about 3 years old and the other about 6 to 7 months. They were both fed kibble. The three year old was recovering from a tumor removal on his tail when I got him from the Humane Society. He is very small and skinny and sleeps a lot. I would like to switch them both to raw but I am not having any luck. They refuse to eat anything but their kibble. I have tried giving them turkey and chicken baby food but all they do is sniff it and then leave it alone. I have also tried mixing it with their kibble and they just ignored it. I have also tried giving them a raw egg with no luck. I bought chicken wings, livers, and hearts to see if they will like that better. What am I doing wrong? Should I just take away all their kibble and wait till they are starving and then try? Clueless over here. Please help.

[raynebc]

Ferrets typically need some convincing that raw food is actually food. You may have to use your finger to dab a little on the tip of their nose or get a little bit on their gums so they end up tasting it. You will want to take the kibble away for 1-2 hours before trying to feed them raw. This allows them more time to build an appetite and it prevents them trying to digest both foods too closely to each other (it's suspected that having both in the digestive tract slows the passing of the raw food and it stays in too long and can cause digestive issues). It will probably take some time and patience to get them to switch, but there are various threads on the forum and personal accounts of this process in the "diet transitions" section.

[Deleted]

You could place the whole egg with out breaking shell in some hot tap water or boiling water for a couple minutes to knock off the cold from being in fridge, then separate yoke from clear and daub mouths with yoke. One of mine likes all of it, and one just likes the yoke. There r not many ferrets that will turn down warm egg yoke.

Hold ferret and finger feed the yoke(daubing mouth). Let her/him run off and then go get her and repeat process 2-4 times. Hopefully u will not have to do this too many times. 

I first began feeding my senior eggs by letting her eat the yokes from our eggs we had for breakfast. I would scoop out the warm yoke with a teaspoon.

[Deleted]

you need to know how to feed raw. On you tube, you see people just throwing their ferret a chicken leg or a wing,but ferrets need so many bone in , muscle , heart, and organ meals. If you join up you can get a mentor to help u switch ur ferrets to raw---and while waiting, you can start ur own switching thread, and people will give you advice,and you can read  the switching threads of those with mentors.

[Jack]

Thanks! I have been waiting to get approved to me a member of this forum for several days now so I cant request a mentor I did start reading through the forums to get an idea on how to switch. I took the kibble out of their cage and will try to introduce the soup in a couple of hours.

[Celene]

Mar 9, 2015 17:21:07 GMT -5 abbeytheferret6 said:

There r not many ferrets that will turn down warm egg yoke.

Funny you should say that. My girls DEFINITELY prefer eggs (and meat) at refridgerated temperatures. If they're hungry they'll obviously eat meat that's been sitting out awhile and at room temperature, but there is definitely a preference.

Jack, I'm going to tag Sherry who is an admin. I think sometimes they get so flooded with admin-stuff and join requests that it's easy to miss someone. I was unapproved for awhile until I asked someone on the fb why I hadn't been approved.

Once you're a "real" member here you can start an unofficial switching thread while you're on the wait list for the mentorship program. It will help you track your progress and get advice from other raw feeders and mentors on the forum, plus when you do get a mentor, your history/progress will be laid out for them to follow

[Deleted]

Celene, maybe I should edit and just say egg yolk

Ferrets do have a way of making liars out of you. Well, mine have me. Just when I think I have got them figured out and say something........

[Celene]

I know exactly what you mean. I've always gone on and on (and on) about how freaking fussy my Mo is, but in the past week she's eaten 4 new proteins - partridge, quail, rabbit, frog legs - just fine! The only thing keeping me from feeling like I've betrayed everyone here is she still refuses to try FDR.

[Deleted]

when they eat these proteins consistently---then you can brag

[Jack]

Thanks! Yeah, I can't wait till I am approved. I really need a mentor to guide me. I did have success last night. I took the kibble out of their cage for two hours to try and feed them. I put chicken breast, heart, liver, and gizzard in the blender with a bit of water. I was able to get Pepsi to lick it a little and Franklin actually had like 5 small spoonfuls. It's very encouraging.

[Celene]

Yay, that's so awesome!

Once they will both readily eat it, you can take the kibble out altogether and feed them just soup. Not sure what amounts/ratios of heart and liver you used, but if it's pretty close to the recipe below you can just add ground eggshells and it will be nutritionally balanced for them.

RAW SOUP RECIPE:
8oz chicken breast
1 chicken liver
1-2 chicken hearts or 1oz other heart
1/4-1/2 tsp crushed egg shell or bone meal (to crush egg shell, air-dry egg shell then crush with mortar and pestol or in a clean coffee grinder)

[Jack]

My soup was pretty close to that. I will make adjustments. Pepsi (the younger one) is a bit more reluctant than Franklin go figure lol.

[Celene]

Yes well... Ferrets are ferrets after all.

I'm sure once Pepsi gets a good taste for it he'll get on board.

[Jack]

I just fed them and Pepsi still needed more coaxing but she finally did eat a spoonful. Franklin had a spoonful as well. It's very exciting lol.

[Celene]

Just wait until you see them eat their first slivers, first chunks, and first bones! You will be a very proud ferrent indeed