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Post by lyles on Jul 28, 2015 18:01:05 GMT -5
Starting this new kit off the same way I did Nei, but I don't know if I can transition the same way as I did Nei. Alice is a Wardy, and although quiet and sweet, acts very unusual. She walks like she has hind leg syndrome, but I don't know if that's because of swimmers, birth defect or something else. Other than that she moves around fine, but has trouble in the litterbox as the litter gives way to her feet and she slips.
I'm going to thinly slice up some of the beef I have then try to feed it to her by hand, while Nei stays on her meal plan. Right now I want her to get accustomed to eating meat. Also, going to add calcium as well, see if that helps the walking.
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Post by lyles on Jul 28, 2015 22:38:18 GMT -5
Alice spent most of the day not eating or pooping. by 9:00pm she was exhibiting hunger pains (savagely chewing on everything in an attempt to eat).
Handing beginner pieces of chicken breast did not work, the scruff & stuff was no success either (she would just spit it out and struggle). Thankfully, she loves grizzly salmon oil. I coated a piece and she gobbled it all up. She ended up eating an entire portion without pause.
Tomorrow is Turkey Neck followed by Beef. Since she is not ready for turkey neck yet, I'm going to finely chop the beef and give it to her day and night while Nei eats the turkey. For the moment I have their food separate, as Nei will gobble up the bite size pieces first as opposed to eating the larger chunks w/bone. I'm also going to dust with calcium just like I did with Nei until she is ready for larger pieces with bone.
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Post by lyles on Jul 29, 2015 14:25:13 GMT -5
This morning, Alice ate a full serving of sirloin without needing to add any salmon oil. Later, she also ate 2 pieces of turkey neck, but wasn't interested in chewing on the bones.
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Post by lyles on Jul 29, 2015 18:37:40 GMT -5
Do wardys tend to have no control over their bite pressure? Alice was hungry and she let me know by biting deeply my finger. It wasn't a fear bite or a retaliation bite, She was sniffing around and acted like she was going to play then CHOMP! Canines all the way in
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Post by lyles on Jul 29, 2015 20:25:06 GMT -5
Defiantly tied to food. After feeding her she no longer tried to bite hard and was back to being gentle. The problem with Alice is that she can move and play fine when she wants to, but acts like she can't find the important places (will go potty on the spot she is currently at, can't locate and take her own food). I have to hand feed her because of this, and her biting me hard is a way of letting me know that she wants food. If I place her in front of the litterbox, she'll use it, same goes for the food dish. The problem being she is suffering from some level of mental handicap.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2015 21:03:42 GMT -5
Maybe not. Babies seem to get the hang of the potty better as days go by. I kept my baby in a Marshall Farms playpen at night(she could not share cage because of senior). Maybe this limited space helped, and u can leave a pooh in her potty at night , so she can smell where she went.
Same thing with mine--- less nippy with a full belly. mine would eat three times a day and made sure she had a little something to nibble on at night. I always tell people with kits to try chicken wings--the mid section and the the tip(I cut the drummette off and knuckle off the mid section of wing).
My baby just loved these.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2015 21:05:27 GMT -5
Babies don't know any better--they r just hungry. Even some older ferrets have this problem I have a two yr old that attacked my hand while wiping down the wall behind the garbage pail. It was a surprise attack---cant even clean pooh off floor while she is around--unless I am real fast,LOL. She attacks fast moving objects--kind of admire her spunk, because I think she would be a great mouser. This lady will put the pressure down.
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Post by lyles on Jul 30, 2015 14:35:49 GMT -5
Alice is continuing to eat well, the real test will be this evening when it's organ time. Nei is becoming stubborn with organs as well.
She hasn't bitten me since I been feeding her, but she still has trouble finding food on her own.
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Post by lyles on Jul 31, 2015 0:44:33 GMT -5
Alice ate some liver not too long ago, I mixed in some hearts with it but she didn't seem interested.
Right now I'm battling another invasion of ants, these are crazy ants. They don't sting like fire ants but they are much much worse. I got an exterminator coming tomorrow, though he said the treatment will only work for 3-4 weeks, but good news is by then the temp should be cool enough that they will be less likely to invade the house again. I am keeping them at bay now by regularly taking the bedding out and shaking the ants off and spraying bathroom cleaner where they swarm. Now I only see a few here and there and no swarming, but then again it is night time and 73F indoors.
I was wrong about Alice, she is not deaf. However, she still has odd behaviors. She no longer bites hard. It was gruesome in that I had to fight the instinct to pull away every time she starts to nibble at my fingertips. She didn't bite just anywhere, she seems fixated at just the tips of the fingers. She also does not like to play with me, but she does like to seek comfort by me and loves to climb all over me while I sleep. Today I seen her jump a few times, and she is dragging her belly around less, but still has her hind end low to the ground. She dooked some as well, while we was having a 3-way wrestling match. Alice and Nei are doing very well together, neither tries to hurt the other and they have bonded very nicely. Nei is a little devil though in that she tries to steal Alice's food when she can, but I normally feed her by hand so Nei doesn't get many opportunities.
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Post by lyles on Jul 31, 2015 12:38:29 GMT -5
Discovered this morning that they didn't eat as much liver as I thought, rather they craftly stashed it where I didn't see before. They did eat all their breakfast this morning. Alice's gait is improving, she is running more and behaving more like a normal ferret.
She was very skittish when I first got her and I think there may have been trust issues. Still, she warms up more to me every day. I found that she will initiate play with you as long as you don't bother her. Nei is the opposite, she wants you to bother her and will give you a nudge in the butt if you ignore her. Her potty training is improving as well. I discovered that she has her own spot of preference, so I'm using puppy pads until another high back comes in the mail. She doesn't have problems backing up either so she can use a normal litter box now.
I wish there was some way I could convince Petco that their ferret holding cells have traction on the bottom. I know they don't because it is much easier to clean a slick surface, but ferrets that spend weeks in there have no way to move normally (or any at all). I don't understand why they don't have a larger cage to house them so that they have plenty of room to move around in. I wouldn't put a ferret in one of those just for a time out.
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Post by Thérèse on Aug 1, 2015 8:03:28 GMT -5
Defiantly tied to food. After feeding her she no longer tried to bite hard and was back to being gentle. The problem with Alice is that she can move and play fine when she wants to, but acts like she can't find the important places (will go potty on the spot she is currently at, can't locate and take her own food). I have to hand feed her because of this, and her biting me hard is a way of letting me know that she wants food. If I place her in front of the litterbox, she'll use it, same goes for the food dish. The problem being she is suffering from some level of mental handicap. I have been following along with your thread and do realise that Alice has settled in more now but will mention my thoughts when I initially read this post, just in case it is the case. I know you think Alice is a wardy and that you initially considered that she was deaf but have reconsidered and believe she can hear, but have you considered whether she may be visually impaired? Can't explain exactly what about this post made me feel that but something did. Just a thought.
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Post by lyles on Aug 1, 2015 15:51:40 GMT -5
Defiantly tied to food. After feeding her she no longer tried to bite hard and was back to being gentle. The problem with Alice is that she can move and play fine when she wants to, but acts like she can't find the important places (will go potty on the spot she is currently at, can't locate and take her own food). I have to hand feed her because of this, and her biting me hard is a way of letting me know that she wants food. If I place her in front of the litterbox, she'll use it, same goes for the food dish. The problem being she is suffering from some level of mental handicap. I have been following along with your thread and do realise that Alice has settled in more now but will mention my thoughts when I initially read this post, just in case it is the case. I know you think Alice is a wardy and that you initially considered that she was deaf but have reconsidered and believe she can hear, but have you considered whether she may be visually impaired? Can't explain exactly what about this post made me feel that but something did. Just a thought. I feel so too. I thought it was deafness because of her delayed actions, and wardy because of her clumsiness and gait. I often have to wave my hands and toys a lot in front of her face to get her attention and when she charges me she often misses and hits the wall lol. Also, you know ferrets have that reflective in the back their eye to help them see in the dark? Normally it is a bright turquoise sheen, but hers is a very dark blue and does not reflect when I shine light in her eyes.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2015 17:53:05 GMT -5
I am happy that little Alice has you, and is settling in well. I hope for her sake, she has some sight. I remember you commented on her eyes in her pictures. Thérèse was so helpful to point you in that direction. Therese is wonderful and very experienced. There is alot of info on the forum about living with blind ferrets. Have you heard of scent mapping? The idea is to use one different scents in different areas, so she can smell her way around. Here is a thread that discusses living with a sight impaired little one. holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/17629/living-blind-ferret
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Post by Thérèse on Aug 2, 2015 5:20:49 GMT -5
It's certainly sounding like she may have vision issues. I have not dealt with a vision impaired ferret but from reading posts on them I understand they usually get along fine (ferret eye sight isn't their most used sense anyway). Poncesmom has (as always) found you a good link to get you started, if she is indeed having problems.
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Post by lyles on Aug 2, 2015 13:59:36 GMT -5
I am happy that little Alice has you, and is settling in well. I hope for her sake, she has some sight. I remember you commented on her eyes in her pictures. Thérèse was so helpful to point you in that direction. Therese is wonderful and very experienced. There is alot of info on the forum about living with blind ferrets. Have you heard of scent mapping? The idea is to use one different scents in different areas, so she can smell her way around. Here is a thread that discusses living with a sight impaired little one. holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/17629/living-blind-ferretI unknowingly scent mapped my room already. I recently bought some wool dryer balls and injected them with an oil extract consisting of sandlewood, lavender and hibiscous. The world's best cat litter has it's own strong scent of corn husks and I keep the carpet clean and vaccumed. She doesn't seem completely blind (she can follow movement 2 feet away), but does have trouble with depth perception and seems to have trouble distinguishing things from a distance (will be skittish of moving objects from a distance). Her nipping fingertips is virtually gone. She is a lot less interested in my fingertips, and I think it was weening behavior in mistaking for nipples. It has been two days since she has "bitten" me for reasons other than play, and those are within acceptable limits. Alice's appetite is somewhat to be desired, but she is eating, though I've yet to hear her crunch bone. Good news is she is now on the same diet as Nei, if only they wouldn't play stash games with each other (one will take the other's stash and hide it elsewhere, sometimes in my bed ). I need to find some way to get them to eat organs. Organs are like vegetables to them, in that they will try everything they can to avoid it (they will take it but will hide it in a good spot and not eat). Perhaps I can try grinding it up and mixing it with some hamburger meat? I did order a large order from Hare today. Just because they had preground meats that have the right proportion of meat, fat and organs with bone. I don't want to feed that on a regular basis because I want them to chew meat and grind bone for healthy teeth and gums. I never fed them ground before but I hope they take to it.
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