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Post by Celene on Apr 23, 2015 22:33:03 GMT -5
Boys are a lot bigger than girls. Marshall/farm boys average about 2-4 lbs, but unaltered privately bred hobs can get up to 11 lbs! ^^ I can only imagine how much poop that boy makes!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2015 12:00:19 GMT -5
Holy poop! 11 lbs? That's crazy!
Also, ran into my first problem. Last night was organ meal, and while my big cage was all for it, my little cage hardly ate any! Bellies feel full, but that's nit good! I was certain lat week they ate their organs ... but now I'm not sure! I think my fiancee dealt with organs last week ... they were choosing in their Cornish game hen that I have them this morning though!
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Post by Celene on Apr 25, 2015 12:16:13 GMT -5
Ferrets are eating less this time of year which means they're not always super hungry. My girls had a pretty big dinner last night so when I fed organs for breakfast Nova had maybe 2-3 bites. At this point it's important to make sure that they are eating organs so I would recommend doing the following: - Try hand/spoon feeding it with them on your lap
- Try feeding again in a couple hours
- Put back in the fridge (or only put 1/3 to 1/2 out to start) and see if they'll eat it at the next meal before you give them whatever the other meat is
If they won't eat it after all that then it's probably an issue of taste and not hunger. In that case you can try and make it more enticing by drizzling a little egg yolk or salmon oil on top until they get the taste of it and will eat it on their own
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2015 21:45:26 GMT -5
Cool. I got Belrand to way a slivered heart, so I'm wondering if it's the soupie, haha. Belrand and Argis skipped soupie fir the must part. Argis ate it fir a few days, but he's a little on the dumber side!
I am going to feed goose tonight, and hopefully that works out well. I might need to make soupie fir the boys a couple times just to make sure either will eat it as a whole in case they get sick!
How do you recommend going about this?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2015 21:59:30 GMT -5
Also, how do you spoon feed a kit? Haha. I dint think they're us a guide in the world to make Belrand sit still long enough, not even food! Haha
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2015 12:16:49 GMT -5
Goose went over amazingly! My little cage didn't eat everything, but the bugr cage DEVOURED it! Haha. And I thought ferrets were picky! Haha!
I have also seen at least one of the twins crunching bone (fairly certain both have gone after it, but not 100% since they look similar through the cage).
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2015 12:20:01 GMT -5
Tonight is organ again ... I have both organ soupie and organ slivers. Not sure how to get the boys to eat it?
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Post by Celene on Apr 26, 2015 19:33:24 GMT -5
Hey, sorry for being MIA! I threw my sister-in-law's bachelorette yesterday (through to this morning) and am still trying to feel human again So glad to hear about the goose! As for spoon feeding, Belrand, as a kit, should really just be eating everything and anything that's thrown his way. If he's refusing organs it's probably because he is manipulating you in hopes of getting more goose What organ are you feeding in addition to heart and liver? In general ferrets LOVE heart, but are often iffier on other organs. My girls love liver too (although apparently many ferrets hate it), and sweetbreads. They really DON'T seem to like kidney, although I insist on feeding it to them in hopes they'll just develop a taste for it, which seems to be working. The reason organs are often fed as a soup is because if fed in chunks, a lot of times ferrets will pick out the heart and leave the rest. Definitely try putting egg or oil on top to get them started until they have a few bites and realize they're hungry. If that really doesn't work then try the slivers and see which seem to be well-accepted and which are snubbed.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2015 22:12:41 GMT -5
I haven't been able to find 'exotic' organs, even though I've tried really hard to locate anything that wasn't heart or liver. Finding those gizzards was a rare occurrence. I can't even find organs on Craig's list! The only 'butcher' in town isn't actually a butcher and more a hipster hang out ... and really overpriced.
I'll add oil, since they got egg yesterday and see how that goes.
Glad you had fun, and no worries on the MIA. You'll feel human eventually! Congrats to your sister in law!
And yeah, Belrand is a huge manipulative best, but I love him anyway!
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Post by Celene on Apr 26, 2015 23:00:44 GMT -5
Sometimes I think ferrets are too smart for their own (or at least our own) good! There are also raw suppliers online where you can buy many different meats and organs - I know Hare Today is a popular one around here.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2015 11:59:13 GMT -5
My boys (again) haven't eaten all their chicken. They are leaving a little over 2 ounces of food in their bowl each time. They finished all but two slivers if their goose, but it seems to be the chicken they are having issues with ...
Also, still no luck with getting them to eat organs. They eat a little, but leave almost 4 ounces of that!
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Post by Celene on Apr 27, 2015 14:50:50 GMT -5
How much are you feeding? Since ferrets' appetites really drop this time of year a lot of times they are getting way too much food and so aren't worried about eating their meals since they aren't super hungry and know they'll have tons of food at their next meals too. I fed lamb last night and ended up throwing out about 3/4 of it this morning... And I only fed 2 oz to begin with! Of course if it's something they really like they'll go right through it, but otherwise they seem to be happy living on air! Before your next organ meal, try only feeding a half meal beforehand. Obviously you don't want to starve them, but if they're a little hungry it might provide some extra motivation A lot of switching is all about trial and error since ferrets seem to be determined to all be completely different and make our lives more difficult whenever possible
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2015 22:16:31 GMT -5
The boys get about 5 ounces, and up until this week have been chomping on that pretty good! I kept upping it, and now their eating half that! My big cage still isn't leaving any food, which is probably why I'm confused. It is still getting nice and chilly here at night (45 the past couple nights) and I leave a window open in my bedroom (their room too). I keep checking their bellies, but with Belrand being a kit and having almost doubled in size since I've gotten him, I dont want to under feed him, of all people!
They seem to eat like crazy when I first put their food in the cage too, so I'm nit 100% sure what's going on. Little brats. And energy of Argis had gone up and he's slimmed down to a healthy size and it's playing now (I contribute half that to food and half that to Belrand).
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Post by Celene on Apr 27, 2015 23:31:33 GMT -5
I'm not sure about the biology of it, but the weather/losing weight/eating less/shedding doesn't necessarily coincide perfectly. Both my girls have cut their eating and lost weight, but neither has shed. Nova didn't grow much of a winter coat, but Mocha still looks like a freaking polar bear! I've heard of other ferrets having blown their coats weeks ago but not having lost any weight yet. How old is Belrand now? I know bitbyter said his kit Athena recently cut her food intake by half basically overnight. Since your ferrets are eating everything, just less of it, and have lots of energy I wouldn't worry about it. Although you might want to portion smaller meals so you can better track how much they're eating and so you're not wasting a bunch of meat. When is their next organ meal scheduled for?
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Post by bitbyter on Apr 28, 2015 8:49:18 GMT -5
yeah, every year it is different. Sometimes they can blow their coat over a period of a couple of days (it literally comes out in hunks if you pluck them) or it can be a slow shed that happens over a week or two. Socks has lost her winter weight a few weeks ago and is just now starting to shed.
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