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Post by raynebc on Jun 26, 2016 3:58:26 GMT -5
Yesterday I cleaned their pen and all their laundry so they get tidy living quarters for a while until they make it filthy again. For dinner I gave them a few extra large adult mice (from the RodentPro shipment I got in the mail yesterday), mixed in with some beef chunks. I made sure to rub some of the meat juice on the mice. At first, they seemed to go for the beef and push the mice out of the way. Rusty did crunch on one's head a couple times, so I took a knife and made a cut inside each of the mice's legs to expose the yumminess. Rusty immediately stashed two of them and the girls inspected them briefly before feigning disinterest. They'll survive until morning should they decide to go on hunger strike, so I'm going to let them try to figure out how to eat. At least one of these weasels has eaten mouse before.
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Post by raynebc on Jun 26, 2016 13:33:52 GMT -5
Two of the mice's heads were eaten by around noon today. Those ferrets probably wished they ate more of their dinner. For their lunch today I mixed the remainder of the mice with their lamb+egg so they could marinade a bit. As whole prey, it should be fine to leave the mice in there for just under 24 hours so I'll get rid of the leftovers at dinner time.
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on Jun 26, 2016 15:39:33 GMT -5
Mine really like mice now, but I had devil of a time getting them to eat them. I have skinned them,(thinking the fur was turning them off) gutted them and cut them in chunks.
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Post by raynebc on Jun 26, 2016 21:57:23 GMT -5
The skin is kind of tough, I need to sharpen the blade on my chef knife. Next time I can try to cut open dissection style, and probably serve a little warmer. They're certainly not fans of mouse yet, but I've got another 47 mice left so they certainly haven't seen the last of them.
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Post by raynebc on Jun 30, 2016 14:30:34 GMT -5
For their next attempted mouse meal, should I try to fully gut the mice or would simply slicing open the skin on the front or chopping them up be sufficient? I read that cutting/chopping while they are still frozen(ish) makes it less messy.
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Post by raynebc on Jul 2, 2016 23:03:02 GMT -5
I cut open a few mice and included them with their Friday snack yesterday, but they hadn't really done much with them by dinner time (one of the mice was missing its head, probably Rusty's handiwork) so I gutted the mice as best as I could, rinsed and cut the mice up into quarters. I then mixed the mouse pieces with their quail and chicken egg dinner.
I had hopes when I saw Rusty take one of the eggy mouse pieces to a box to chomp on it for a couple minutes. I never see him carry food away from the bowl to eat in private. But by lunch it seemed like they'd mostly avoided the mice. It seemed like maybe 2-3 of the mouse pieces had gone missing so at best a half mouse was eaten. I may have to add smaller pieces of mouse to their other meals for a while to see if they get used to it. Does it typically help a whole prey transition if I removed the skin/fur?
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on Jul 3, 2016 6:02:38 GMT -5
Read more: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/18874/meet-callypso-rusty#ixzz4DLGXfosThat may be a good idea. Mine are refusing ASF rats now, and I just bought some, I began noticing it last time i bought some. I tried everything. A mouse tied to a string for the ferret that liked to play with cat toys. then I cut up and skinned a mouse and poured salmon oil on it, which was a hit for one. Don't give up they will eventually get it.
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Post by raynebc on Jul 10, 2016 16:26:00 GMT -5
With their dinner last night I included about 1.5 mice for which I'd removed the guts and fur, mixing it with their normally scheduled turkey neck. Based on the leftovers it looks like they ate about 1 mouse, which is better results than I'd seen in a while. I'll add some more to their upcoming Monday dinner.
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Post by raynebc on Jul 16, 2016 16:32:16 GMT -5
Last night for their pre-late-dinner snack I prepared 4 mice by gutting them and removing fur. On one of them, I left the fur on the head and otherwise left it whole. On a second one, I left the fur on the head and cut it into pieces. On the other two I removed all fur and cut it into pieces. Then I mixed it with a chicken egg.
Rusty dug into it immediately, even eating a torso piece with organs. I got Reska to grab a leg piece from me and stash it. When I held it in front of her again I made her pull it away and she "accidentally" bit into it. She let go and processed the taste for a bit. Cally and Copper didn't seem that interested in it. By dinner time about 2.5 mice had been eaten. What was left was the fur covered head piece and the whole mouse with fur on its head. The rest of them had been eaten. It took a while to prep these, but at least I know how I can get them to try eating mouse now. We'll see if it goes even better next week.
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Post by raynebc on Jul 23, 2016 4:10:16 GMT -5
Some progress this week. For Friday snack I gave them what would have been their dinner (quail), minus the egg. For dinner I gave them that egg mixed in with 4 mice from which I'd removed the guts and fur and cut up into pieces. Rusty, Reska and Cally started eating it right away. Copper was being his usual lazy self and preferred to doze off instead.
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Post by raynebc on Jul 23, 2016 20:18:14 GMT -5
By Saturday lunchtime all I found left was one head (the one I left with fur) and half of a tail. I think I've got them hooked now.
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on Jul 23, 2016 20:22:21 GMT -5
:goodjob:
I find the ends of tails too.
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Post by raynebc on Aug 12, 2016 14:52:21 GMT -5
Last night I spent hours deep cleaning the floor of their pen (soap, rubbing alcohol) and wiped it down with water, changed most of their bedding and scrubbed the dirty portions of their pen's fence with a tooth brush, a scrub sponge and alcohol. I even gave them a water only bath to freshen them up a bit. Copper's fur is really thick right now, he must have his winter coat. He was so fluffy when he'd dried himself off.
One of the ferrets (I just know it's you, Cally) has a tendency to go bathroom in a particular corner of the pen. Even this morning I found a present there despite how clean it had been and despite me covering it with a towel. Such a naughty little sprite.
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Post by raynebc on Aug 29, 2016 14:07:20 GMT -5
I'm doing better about changing their laundry once a week and deep cleaning their pen flooring (scrub with rubbing alcohol and then wipe down with water) every other week.
More progress with the mouse project: For Saturday I gutted four mice and chopped them into pieces as per usual, but I left the fur on one of them. And I didn't mix it with egg, but with a spare portion of about 1.5 ounces of chicken hearts. All but two tail halves were eaten. This Friday I'll leave the fur on half the mice and mix with the usual egg and see how they do with it.
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Post by raynebc on Jan 17, 2017 14:48:12 GMT -5
They'd been eating about 3 our of 4 mice when I gave them that for Friday dinner, so I have been giving 3 mice plus a chicken egg and they eat nearly all of that.
I empty their feeding dens (empty soda boxes) out before each meal and Cally will often snatch the best pieces and re-stash them if I don't remove them quickly enough. This morning they were hungry and keen for breakfast but they often seem to forget about Cally's secret stashes. I emptied them out and when Rusty grabbed one, Cally tug-of-war'd it out of his mouth and stashed it again. I could imagine her saying "I WAS SAVING THAT!"
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