I love the Halloween plate, it's so cute. I also like how you did one section in slivers and one in soupie.
I know that the whole bone issue is a bit surprising. How can they manage to eat bones?
First remember we are talking about small bones from small animals. Chicken wings, quail, cornish game hen, rabbit and if a ferrent is feeding whole prey then mice, guinea pigs and rats.
In the wild, the main source of food for the American black footed ferret is Prairie Dog.
If you've seen a Prairie Dog or Ground Hog up close, they are big.
I have a family of them on my property and they can be quite big and fierce looking.
We will work our way up to bones. Here is a picture of the first time that I served Quail.
I smashed it into tiny pieces and let them get use to the texture. Then each meal the pieces got a bit bigger until they could simply eat portions of it.
Before and then after:
Some ferrents will use a shower ring to attach a wing or small bird like a Cornish game hen to the inside of the cage. That holds it in place and the ferrets eat it but can't steal it from each other.
We can talk more about bones as you move closer to that stage.
The idea with soupie is to get Gomez eating slivers and reduce the soup while increasing the amount of soupie. Once he will eat all slivers, we move him to the Frankenprey menu but on training wheels.
We'll introduce a variety of proteins and follow the weekly menu.
We'll start working on him eating his bones with help by smashing them and by following the Frankenprey balanced menu; he gets his nutrients, learns to eat bones and organs and we take it a step at time.
For example, if he has trouble with chicken wings then we may want to give him wings for a few days in a row until he has mastered them.
It would help if you picked up a package of wings and smash one once lengthwise and twice width wise without cutting all the way through. Then put one in with him each night. Let him get use to it and see how he handles it. You can do that anytime now. Include his regular soupie meal at night but let him also have a wing. You may waste one or two but he needs to become familiar with them.
Waardenburgs Syndrome is a neural crest disorder. Ferrets with a blaze (a white stripe on their head) are most often deaf and quite often Waardy's. They are a bit special but very loving.
White ferrets are prone to deafness like my Keller while my Juliet is not deaf.
This picture of this beautiful little one shows the flatter head and wider nose.
Don't be afraid to take home a Waardy if you make a connection. Alot of our ferrents have them and find them so loving and so special. They're just a bit slower to learn some things.
Take a look at this thread. It's very interesting and has pictures of different Waardy's.
Heather posted it in this thread about them. At some point almost every ferrent wonders if theirs might be a Waardy. I suspect my Wynstan just might be. He's a bit goofy and can be odd about certain things but then sometimes he is smarter than my others in some of his play.
holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/19177/oldI think it would be wonderful for Gomez to have a friend. We can play with them, give them love and attention but when you see two ferrets bond or play together, sleep together and just make silly ferret mischief then you realize how much they need a friend of their own who speaks their own special ferret language.
Two is also easier. You don't worry about them when they are alone or when you're busy. You know they aren't sitting and waiting for you to give them some enrichment or attention. They still want you to be part of their life but you aren't their whole life.
Just like children, they need and thrive with friends of their own and learn socialization skills.
:wave3: