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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2015 18:20:21 GMT -5
Oh, it's a porkchop btw.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2015 22:31:00 GMT -5
Okay, they find slivers highly offensive. I accidentally dumped their breakfast before I remembered to weigh it, but I'd say they ate only about 20% of the food in the bowl (186g). :\
I put together their playtime meal just now with beef soup, water and pork slivers. I offered some to Noodles and he turned around and RAN.
Maybe they don't like pork and beef together??
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Post by Desiree on Apr 16, 2015 22:45:50 GMT -5
It's possible the combination smells weird to them.
You can hold them in your lap and offer a soup covered sliver one by one. Don't let them down until they taste it at least. Once they taste it, let them down for some play for about five minutes and then try again. This is the hard, time consuming part of the switch. It might take a few tries before they take the sliver. If they spit it out, pick it up and dip it in soup and try again.
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Post by Desiree on Apr 16, 2015 22:49:05 GMT -5
If the size isn't working for them, try making them smaller if possible. One of our mentors suggests using partially frozen meat and a vegetable peeler. Once you get a thin slice, cut it into small slivers like spaghetti and try those sizes. Most ferrets go for long thin slice over smaller wider slices.
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Post by katt on Apr 17, 2015 3:02:34 GMT -5
Have they had beef before?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2015 17:37:47 GMT -5
They love beef
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Post by Desiree on Apr 18, 2015 11:37:34 GMT -5
How did the slivers go? Were you able to entice anyone else?
Are we doing weigh ins and pictures on Sundays?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2015 13:28:11 GMT -5
Slivers haven't been popular. They eat around them mostly. I'm going to try some different ways of cutting them + not mixing meats like before (laziness on my part.. BAD!)
Sundays are good for weigh-ins and pics. I'll post tonight!!
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Post by Desiree on Apr 19, 2015 13:36:59 GMT -5
Definitely try to make them smaller. We want them to accidentally pick them up. LOL. That way they get used to the texture and having to chew.
Great, I'll look for your post.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2015 0:47:16 GMT -5
Tonight I made 2 soups:
PORK 17 oz ground pork 2.1 oz chicken liver 3.1 oz chicken heart 2 tsp bone meal powder 1/2 cup water
BEEF 16 oz ground beef 3.3 oz chicken heart 2.1 oz chicken liver 2 tsp one meal 1 cup water
Weigh-ins etc to follow
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2015 1:11:03 GMT -5
Noodles1. Ferret's name: Noodles 2. Ferret's weight: 1307g 3. Ferret has eaten "X" amount on average per meal. Not sure, maybe 50-75g per meal or so? 4. Stools on various proteins. Stools are normal as far as I can tell. 5. Activity levels: Below average to average, but see below 6. Weekly menu: I hit sort of a bump when I was sick. I ran out of frozen soup and did not have the energy to mix up more soup, so for a couple of days I was just feeding raw beef with bone meal powder. I know, not good, and I really should have figured it out (we think I have rheumatoid arthritis.. it's crazy). Nobody likes the straight up meat, which surprised me. I suspect for those couple days they ate just enough to not go totally hungry. Peanut (I somehow didn't manage to get a top-down shot of her?? I have one but I can't tell if it's her or Raisin) 1. Ferret's name: Peanut 2. Ferret's weight: 838g 3. Ferret has eaten "X" amount on average per meal. Not sure, maybe 50-75g per meal or so? 4. Stools on various proteins. Stools are normal as far as I can tell. 5. Activity levels: Below average 6. Weekly menu: Just as I wrote above for Noodles. Peanut seems a little lethargic today. I'm going to watch her closely for the next day or so. Porkchop1. Ferret's name: Porkchop 2. Ferret's weight: 1420g 3. Ferret has eaten "X" amount on average per meal. Not sure, maybe 50-75g per meal or so? 4. Stools on various proteins. Stools are normal as far as I can tell. 5. Activity levels: Very energetic 6. Weekly menu: As above for Peanut and Noodles. Raisin1. Ferret's name: Raisin 2. Ferret's weight: 975g 3. Ferret has eaten "X" amount on average per meal. Probably about 80g. She's a piggy. 4. Stools on various proteins. Still having some green poops.. watery too.. 5. Activity levels: Average/normal energy 6. Weekly menu: As above All in all, I think everyone is at least okay. I screwed up the menu this week getting sick which is frustrating. The boys have a good amount of energy as usual, Raisin's energy is pretty normal (maybe a little lower than usual but not significant) but Peanut seems a bit.. quiet?? Quiet isn't the right word since she doesn't really make noise but it kind of makes sense. She wasn't causing the amount of destruction she usually does. She hid in the couch for most of playtime. But her poops are normal. Here's dinner: BOWL 1 Bowl = 117g Meat = 108g (pork soup recipe listed above) Water = 31 g Slivers = 20g (porkchop) Total: 273g BOWL 2 Bowl = 131g Meat = 107g (pork soup recipe listed above) Water = 33g Slivers = 15g (porkchop) Total = 276g
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2015 1:13:51 GMT -5
I realize my estimation of what each fert is eating per meal doesn't exactly match up to the amount of meat served in my dinner list tonight. I wanted to note that they are all sort of on different schedules - as in, they don't all eat at every meal. They are each following their own schedule and I am just making sure the food is there. I put food out 3-4 times a day
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Post by Desiree on Apr 20, 2015 11:06:07 GMT -5
On my phone so ill write up a more extensive answer tonight.
It's alright about being sick, things happen and that's okay.
Can you, for each week, put beside their weights, how much they have either lost or gained for the week? This will help us keep track of any trends.
Watch Peanut closely and see if she's eating, maybe hand feed her a bite or two. Definitely keep an eye on her.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2015 12:04:16 GMT -5
Yeah, I'll do that for sure.
I think Peanut is okay - my boyfriend said she played with him a bit. I think she was just sour at me because I was trying to get pictures haha. I'll see how she is at playtime tonight though.
From dinner last night, 214g total was eaten.
For Breakfast today, I served the Pork soup I made last night. Bowl 1: Bowl weight = 165g Meat = 61g Water = 37g Slivers = 14g (porkchop) Total weight = 277g
Bowl 2: Bowl weight = 133g Meat = 62g Water = 36g Slivers = 10g (porkchop) Total weight = 277g
Before I left for work this morning, Bowl 1 was licked clean.
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Post by Desiree on Apr 20, 2015 17:41:53 GMT -5
Awesome that means they are eating the slivers.
Okay, I have a clarification question for you. Did you happen to weigh their food while you were sick and see how much of the chunky beef/steak they were eating? Honestly if they were eating, even just enough to keep from going hungry, that is a very good sign and might mean that we can push them at a faster rate. You have four very healthy young ferrets so knowing that they were eating chunky steak this early on we can move them and you as fast as you would like.
Begin upping the sliver amount by a little bit every meal now that we know they will eat them. If they snub a meal, go back to the previous amount for a few meals and then up it again. You can also begin upping the size, a small amount, same thing, if they snub a meal, go back to the previous size and let them get used to the size or amount and then up again. When you up the sliver amount, you can big reducing the amount of soup so it'll even out and you aren't over feeding or wasting food.
That's good news about Peanut.
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