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Post by FireAngel on Apr 14, 2015 11:43:54 GMT -5
Apr 14, 2015 12:21:24 GMT -4 FireAngel waiting approval said: Hi everyone, I'm waiting on approval for membership but I started their transition a few days ago. Reading here helped a lot y'all seem like a great bunch of knowledgeable ferrents. I have been keeping a diary of the transition and their weights since I got them on 3/30/15. I'd like to share what we've done so far and see if anyone has any advice or tricks they would like to share. So here goes! I am going to just copy and paste my entries from my journal in this post just to catch up. Hope this is ok! 4/1/15 Weight Sir 1.5 lbs Missy 2 lbs Blood in Missy's stool noticed today bright red noticed in 3 stools. Attempting to start a raw food diet for them. Trying a beef neck bone with meat. Put ferretone on it hoping to entice them. They were not enticed by the ferretone and I tossed the bone away after 16 hours. (I tried the small beef neck because it was what I had on hand and was only a test to see if I got lucky) 4/3/15 Blood turned out to be treats with red dye in them. Threw out those treats! (the rest of the week was extremely busy for me and I had no time to do anything except read and learn more about the transition) 4/9/15 Weight Sir 1 lb Missy 1.5 lbs ? Hoping to pick up some stuff to make soupie out of to start the raw diet for them. They have both lost half a pound and I am hoping it is just because they are no longer locked in a cage all day. They have a full 4 hours of play time now. 4/12/15 Started the soup today. Sir took to it this morning very well but not this evening and Missy is not taking to it at all so tonight I mixed in a bit of the kibble with it and a little ferretone. They both ate some we'll see what's left in the morning. 4/13/15 This morning all of the soup and kibble were gone, so I gave them 3 oz of soup and neither seemed very interested so I added a few drops of ferretone and that did the trick. Missy gobbled up pretty much all of it herself and left Sir the pieces of fat that didn't blend well. He did really seem to enjoy them though and I put out more soup for them also. At dinner time there was a bit of soup left so I dumped that and gave them 6 more oz of fresh soup adding a few drops of ferretone again and again Missy ate some but Sir was not interested. They played for an hour and then I put them in their cage for the night and Missy ate a bit more soup but Sir still wasn't interested then I remembered him chowing the skin and decided to try a few pieces of the chicken thigh I have chopped up. These are not slivers but small pieces and he went right for it. Gobbled 2 pieces before deciding they were best saved for later. I added a few chunks to the soup and decided to let them be for the night. Sweet dreams! Weights Sir 1.5 lbs Missy 2lbs Yay! They gained back what they lost! And that brings us to today, 4/14/15 Doesn't look like the babies touched much if any food over night but while I was brushing my teeth Sir came up and took a couple of pieces of chicken thigh out of the bowl. Have to run out the door but when I come back at 10 I'll clean the cage and give them fresh stuff. I think I will have to do 2 bowls though since Missy is still stuck on soup. When I got back it didn't look like anything else was touched. I cleaned the bowl and put out 5ozs of soup and 4 ozs of thigh pieces. Separate plates. No ferretone this morning. Missy ate half the soup and Sir ate a couple of pieces of chicken before deciding to just grab and stash half the plate. He then joined Missy and ate a bit of the soup but not much. They are back in their cage after playtime, food bowl and plate ready when they are. I am impressed at how this is going and a bit scared it is going so well! I'm sorry for the long post but I just wanted to make sure everything was there.
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Post by Heather on Apr 14, 2015 11:51:03 GMT -5
sounds like you're off to a good start. What is your mixture? What are you using for calcium? powdered egg, bone meal? ciao
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Post by FireAngel on Apr 14, 2015 11:58:08 GMT -5
Thank you. I used the recipe from here so, 8ozs chicken thigh, 1oz liver, 1oz heart and 1/2 tsp eggshell powder. I had no chicken hearts but I had beef heart so that is what they have been getting.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2015 12:03:49 GMT -5
I moved your original thread over to Diet Transitions and added a comment. I'll leave your quest post and then lock it up later this afternoon. :wave2:
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Post by FireAngel on Apr 14, 2015 12:04:57 GMT -5
Thank you!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2015 12:12:29 GMT -5
Hi and Welcome to the HFF Your request for membership was approved. I'll delete your first entry, once you build your new one, lol. I kind of liked the large font. The first thing I should mention to you is that bones are the Non Weight Bearing bones of an animal the size of a chicken or smaller. Beef bones will be too much for your little ones. Think chicken wings, quail, cornish game hens, rabbit or even guinea pigs and mice. Pork buttons will work, but I never see those. It takes time to build up some jaw strength to handle bones. Gizzards can help with that. Some ferrets can handle chicken thighs, but they are weight bearing bones and considered a muscle meat. The Frankenprey diet is designed to mimic eating whole prey. The weekly menu is 7-9 meals of Bone In meats. 3-4 meals of Muscle Meat. Heart is a muscle meat and will be ten percent of their diet. Heart has Taurine and that is super important. One meal will be Liver plus another Organ. Organs are secreting organs, like kidney/spleen/pancreas/brains/thymus/lung One meal will be Liver plus another organ plus a half meal of Hearts. Take a look at the info under the Natural Diet section. It's important to understand why each protein is necessary. You want a minimum of three different proteins. Reading is important and you can do some reading while you move along. Follow along with some Mentor/Member switching threads (you can't post to those) and keep asking questions. It sounds like you're off to a good start. Sir and Missy will be happy and healthy. You'll also build a lovely bond with them. Plus you get grapetails. Raw fed ferrets will develop a grape kool aid smell to their tails. My baby even had grape urine. I know that you've also posted elsewhere, but I'll keep an eye out and you can either edit your first switching thread post or I can delete it for you. If you need any help navigating the forum, just ask. (dance) Read more: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/17936/unofficial-sir-missys-raw-transition#ixzz3XIwyFCSV
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Post by FireAngel on Apr 14, 2015 12:24:31 GMT -5
Thank you again! I do have some ground lamb and some beef set aside for them. I figure I will wait a week before introducing a new protein. Grape tail sounds wonderful!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2015 12:29:32 GMT -5
Lamb and beef are both wonderful. They are a red meat and full of Iron and Vitamin B. Lamb is considered a hypoallergenic protein. Rarely do ferrets have a problem with it. Beef is a strong flavor and takes some getting use to.
The key to switching is patience, persistence and coaxing. I believe this has been mentioned before, but ferrets do imprint on their food. They're not being difficult, unless you have a baby, they simply don't recognize new foods as food. They will happily however chew and ingest rubber/foam and other blockage causing items. Go figure. (headwall)
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Post by FireAngel on Apr 14, 2015 12:42:40 GMT -5
Haha, yes I remember reading that. They are 4 months old today, so not much time to imprint yet though they still need a bit of coaxing. They have not had kibble though in over 24 hours now! Yay!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2015 16:12:42 GMT -5
Been reading this thread, I wanted to clarify something as it confused me when I was learning the frankenprey menu. Poncesmom have you a rundown of it, for the organs like she said its Half Liver, Half Other Organ Then there is, Half Heart, 1/4 Liver and 1/4 Other Organ Its simple now but for a little bit I was doing as an example the correct amount would be 1 ounce Heart, 0.5 oz Liver and 0.5 oz Other Organ but I was doing 1 ounce Heart, Liver and Other Organ for a few weeks until I learned the correct way haha. Of course the amounts depend on how much your ferrets eat so 1 oz and 0.5 oz and etc isn't right for every ferret. Just thought I would clarify since it confused me a bit at first lol. From what I've read so far they ate eating the soup readily as long as you add ferretone? That's good they're eating it, ferretone has BHA in it which is a cancer causing agent so try picking up some salmon oil instead. Most ferrets go crazy over salmon oil. With every meal try giving 1 drop less of it so they don't get used to having it in their food and too much of it isn't good for them. It sounds like they're doing well, forgive me if you have done this or if someone has mentioned it already, once the soup is thick like pudding (add less water with every batch, only make enough soup to last 2-3 days at a time during this stage) once itd like pudding add 3-5 tiny itty bitty slivers of meat in it. Like the size of your nail crescent. If they eat those good then the next day add 3-5 more, then keep adding more every day or two. One day add more, then the next make them a tiny itty bitty bit bigger, then add more, then make them bigger, and alternate like that. If they start getting picky then add 3-5 less and go back a step, then continue in about 2 days. The goal is to reduce the amount of soup and increase the amount of slivers to get them off soup completely and onto chunks then bone.
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Post by FireAngel on Apr 14, 2015 17:05:09 GMT -5
Thanks Jules! Yes I am aware I need another organ meat when I transition off of soup. I do have butcher close to me so I should not have any issue getting kidney or something and I will ask them about any others they may have or get. I have done 4 batches of soup so far and made each one thicker than the last. The last batch I did was more like gooey mush then soup, but they will not get that yet. I am gone for 14 hours tomorrow and Thursday so I just did extras so I wouldn't run out and it would be ready. Everything is in the freezer and I take out only enough for the next day. I am working on getting chicken necks and the other organ on my next shopping trip. I noticed that they had beef tongue also and I am wondering if I choose to get that if I would just swap it for heart. I was just reading your thread funny enough too! I went to haretoday and did up a mock shopping cart myself. I included duck feet and sardines in it, realized they do not guarantee it to arrive frozen unless you order at least 30lbs at a time and then realized that was $180.00 order plus the $18.00 s/h! I'll hold off until I check further with my butcher! And no there was not any of the more expensive things like bison, venison or lamb in that cart! Thanks again for the input it is always appreciated! P.s. Today no ferretone needed and yes I will be looking into a healthier "crack" for them!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2015 18:19:15 GMT -5
Great clarification @julesalot. FireAngel, tongue actually has more taurine in it then hearts. So yes, you can use it as a backup. Heart has other nutrients that are beneficial, so we tend to recommend using Hearts first and tongue as a backup. Tongue can also be quite expensive. Mine love pork tongue as opposed to beef tongue. Here is a link to a discussion of heart vs tongue: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/14558/heart-soup-alternative
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Post by FireAngel on Apr 14, 2015 22:44:29 GMT -5
They ate all the soup from breakfast and a couple of chicken pieces, but the chicken was definitely too big yet and I think they (Sir more specifically, I have not seen Missy touch pieces still) got tired of chewing on them. For dinner it was another 5 ozs of soup an oz of very thinly sliced gizzard and a few chicken pieces. Again I think the chicken may still be too big so I pretty much slivered 3 ozs of chicken thigh tonight for tomorrow and another oz of gizzard. I will keep adding the gizzard once a day like that to try to help their jaw strength and teeth. I am very nervous about them being without bone too long. I want nice strong healthy teeth!
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Post by FireAngel on Apr 14, 2015 22:55:31 GMT -5
And just because I think they are cute
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Post by FireAngel on Apr 15, 2015 7:48:13 GMT -5
They finished all the soup and whatever pieces of chicken were in there are also gone, maybe a half of the gizzards were left. I gave them 6 ozs of soup, an oz of slivered chicken and half an oz of sliveredish gizzards. I won't be home until 10 tonight now and I am hoping that is enough for them and they won't be starving when I get home! Lol Now I did not have time to check the cage to see if they stashed the meat pieces before I had to leave to take care of my mother this morning but I will do a through once over of the cage tonight and let you know. Does anyone know why I have to leave the app taptalk and go to the actual website to upload pics btw? Is it a common issue or am I just dense?
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