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Post by gfountain on Nov 3, 2015 14:57:14 GMT -5
How are you feeding her? You should still be spending some time with her each day, holding the pieces and encouraging her to eat them. She's not at the point yet where you can just leave it with her and expect her to eat it. Try feeding her less at each meal so she gets hungry between meals. Then give her JUST slivers. Hold her and put the pieces in her mouth so she knows what she is supposed to do with them. Let her eat as much as she wants while you are there, then put the food away. When she gets hungry again and asks for more, do the same thing. Hold her and give her only slivers. When she's had all she will eat, put the food away.
As far as the random peeing and pooping, it could be revenge or it could be a medical problem. Is she showing any other different behaviors?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 7, 2015 0:53:22 GMT -5
I'm so sorry for being MIA. My phone hasn't wanted to let me go online other than Facebook. Wisp's transition had to be put on a slight hold due to financial constraints at the moment. She is still eating a mix of ground chicken, slivers, and to finish it out with being an entire meal; I've had to add some of her fdr because I honestly don't have any money to spare for extra food right this second. My savings went to bills this week and for food for my son and myself. I have just gotten a new job yet so my money is tight right now. But, I'm trying to get a loan from my sister to get some more meats for her since I don't want to regress her. So please just bare with me for a couple of days. I am working most nights now and have to get my sleep during the day, so in all honesty, I have been just putting the food into her bowl and letting her eat it. I'm hoping by next week, I will be on first shift so will be able to spend the time with her to get this transition completed.
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Post by gfountain on Nov 9, 2015 15:07:04 GMT -5
I understand life happens and sometimes it's necessary to take a break. That's not a problem. However, although we have some leeway with balance before deficiencies start showing up and causing problems, Wisp's diet has been out of balance for about 3 weeks now. It's important to get the right nutrients into her. Until you are able to move ahead again, it would be best to move her back to mostly the FDR and just supplement with the slivers so she doesn't backtrack too far.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 10, 2015 17:06:21 GMT -5
So, I got a huge haul of foods for wisp today. I got 3 whole rabbits from a friend who goes hunting, a 6 pack of quail, quail eggs, got some sort of second organ (not positive exactly what it is exactly because I'm not at home right now, but I believe it's beef intestines, and some chicken breast. I took one of the breast and chopped it into slivers and sectioned it into daily portions for her. So she has been getting her fdr for meals although a bit less than usual to try and get her hungry for the meat; and trying the chicken as snacks between meals to get her used to the chunks. I am trying my best to get on an afternoon shift so I am not so exhausted during the day and can work with her one on one.
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Post by gfountain on Nov 10, 2015 19:48:14 GMT -5
Wow, that is quite a haul! Now if we can just get the little brat (a term of endearment when referring to ferrets ) to eat all of that. The rabbits I assume are wild. They need to be frozen for at least 2 weeks to make sure there are no living parasites. If the organ is intestines, Wisp may not eat it. We can try it of course, but most ferrets will not eat stomachs or intestines. It is unprocessed, right? How are her poops? Still firm enough?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 10, 2015 23:00:00 GMT -5
That's exactly what I'm saying. I hope her little brat self will eat it. And the rabbit has been frozen for a while now, but I will try to find out how long it has been. It's going to be sitting in the freezer for a while anyways. The person I got it from was cleaning out their deep freezer and gave it to me. But I will find out in the morning exactly what type of organ I grabbed and let you know. Her poops have been normal, but she has been back to fdr for a few days so she hasn't been lacking anything. I love her fdr, but it's so freaking expensive and a $40 bag last barely a week. Then lord forbid I forget to order it or the truck runs late and the delivery is late. I was getting it from a store, but they stopped stocking her flavor so I had to order it every week and wait for the delivery. Anyway, she has been doing great. She got an extra treat today with a trip to petsmart to pick out a new toy since she has torn all of her cage toys up. So she had fun meeting some new people and going for an outing.
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Post by gfountain on Nov 12, 2015 10:15:18 GMT -5
How is little Miss Wisp doing?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 12, 2015 22:13:16 GMT -5
She has been doing a little bit better. She has started to eat very small chunks of chicken breast. (Roughly 2 oz a day of chicken) She gets her fdr for dinner. She gets a small amount (roughly 1.5 oz) of fdr for breakfast so she is still a little hungry to try the chicken chunks throughout the day. She is doing pretty good on that. That way, I don't have to worry so much about her lacking in needed nutrition but still moving forward with meat. I have found that she really LOVES quail eggs alot more than chicken eggs, so I enticed her to the chicken by marinating the chicken with the egg and she willingly tries the chicken. I still have to work nights, so trying to work with her during the day when I am awake enough to do anything.
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Post by gfountain on Nov 13, 2015 9:49:41 GMT -5
If she's eating 2 oz of chicken a day, you could stop with the FDR and do all meat IF you can start pushing the organs and heart again. 2 oz is within the normal range of what an adult female needs per day. It may not be as much as she WANTS, but being hungry would encourage her to try new things.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2015 20:18:24 GMT -5
So I have some odd news for you. Wisp has pretty much taken to the Franken menu without a hitch so far. We haven't gotten to the intestines yet (which ended up being what the "other" organ was). She had 1/4 of a quail this morning and ate it without a problem. I even cleaned her cage up to make sure that she didn't stash it anywhere. So right now, her proteins are: chicken, quail, and rabbit. Although, the chicken is only meat instead of bone in meat since I only have chicken breast for the time being. As I was separating everything and measuring everything out, I would give her litter slivers of eat meat and to my absolute shock, she willingly ate it. I crushed up the bones in the rabbit (I ended up buying one from the grocery store to use until her wild rabbit has frozen for long enough) she doesn't even want the fdr anymore so she no longer has been getting it. I know people would call me crazy, but I told her that if she doesn't want any yucky fdr, then she has to eat her meat. I guess I got through to her because she is eating everything with gusto for the past couple of days. So I don't know what happend, but she is being a good little girl lately. I'm so glad because we are going out of town for thanksgiving, and this would be so much easier for everyone to have completely switched. I still have some confusion about everything, but basically this is her mock menu: Sun AM: quail= 2 oz PM: 1 chicken liver, 1 oz of beef intestines= 2 oz
Mon AM: rabbit= 2 oz PM: quail= 2 oz
Tue AM: rabbit= 2 oz PM: 1 oz of chicken breast, half of a heart, half of a gizzard= 2 oz (all chicken parts)
Wed AM: quail= 2 oz PM: Heart= 2 oz (2 hearts) (chicken)
Thur AM: rabbit= 2 oz PM: quail= 2 oz
Fri AM: rabbit= 2 oz PM: 1oz chicken heart, .5oz of chicken liver, .5 oz of beef intestines
Sat AM: quail= 2 oz PM: 1 oz of chicken breast, .5 oz heart, .5 oz gizzard= 2 oz (all chicken parts)
Now, did I understand the balance correctly for making the menu and having the muscle meats correct? (Tues pm and Sat pm) Or do I just give her chicken breast? I thought that it would be a good way to add some hearts to her diet, or is that too much? Can they even have too much? Some of the muscle meals, I plan to add some of the lamb and turkey and such since they can't be bone in meat. This is just what I have so far to work with right now. Feel free to add or take away if I don't have it correctly.
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Post by gfountain on Nov 14, 2015 22:10:19 GMT -5
WHAT?!?! After all her shenanigans, Wisp has just suddenly 'decided' that she's going to eat real food? When did this happen? And she is or is not eating the bones?
My internet is being sketchy right now so I'll check that menu and answer questions tomorrow.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2015 23:06:07 GMT -5
Yeah, she eats the bones so far. I gave her a small piece of rabbit back and although I had to smash it up first, she ate it. But she ate the quail without any problems with the bones. I couldn't believe it, and had to check the cage to make sure it wasn't hidden. She has been extra sweet and loving lately, so I guess she is taking a break from being a total brat. She has even stopped with the pooping and peeing all over her cage constantly. I don't get it, and feeling like I'm being punked and any moment she will turn back into a little hellion again.
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Post by gfountain on Nov 16, 2015 9:42:48 GMT -5
HAHAHAHA!!! That's a ferret for ya! Always expect the unexpected!
Well. OK then, the menu. Your menu is balanced. The muscle meats can be mixed with hearts and gizzards. You can't overdose on hearts like you can with liver. (Liver has Vitamin A that builds up in the body. Any extra taurine from the hearts will be expelled in the urine.) You have only 3 proteins in the menu (we don't include organs as proteins, so the beef doesn't count). That is the bare mininum that she needs. You mentioned adding lamb and turkey as muscle meats. It would be good to use those 2 as the muscle meats and use chicken as a bone-in meat. She'll be able to eat chicken wings and backs, and possibly thighs if you smash up the bones for her. And just FYI, dark meat is preferable to white meat for ferrets. It has more fat and more taurine.
What size pieces is she eating of all that stuff?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 16, 2015 15:10:31 GMT -5
Yes, the chicken is only used as a muscle meat for right now since I have some breast. This is only for right now. The lamb, goat, turkey and such (whatever meats I can get my hands on) that she can't eat as bone in meat, will be used as muscle meat. Then chicken will be used as bone in meat and will alternate between the quail and rabbit. I don't know if you caught my pattern that I was going for, but that's my basic idea for right now. I also wanted to ask (in the future) about adding a treat of whole foods (pinkies) for an occasional treat? She has a pretty good prey drive so was possibly considering that as a once a month or so meal. I definitely won't be able to do it all the time. I just roughly cut chunks of meats/bone meats into roughly 2 oz meals. With the rabbit, I crushed the bones quite a bit with a hammer so she could easily eat them. Basically, one whole quail yields 4 meals. I cut it in half long ways, then cut the halves in half. I have little 2 oz cups and just fill them up and weight. I couldn't find a Sharpe to mark individual cups, so I bagged them up and marked the bags. Ex. Quail bm (for quail bone in meat), same for rabbit, exc.
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Post by gfountain on Nov 16, 2015 17:13:31 GMT -5
So are you giving her a whole 1/4 of a quail (that sounds weird, lol) or are you cutting it up for her?
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