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Post by taratee on Feb 13, 2011 18:23:06 GMT -5
so while at the store today i failed to find NEW meats but i did get some pretty SWEET whole chickens for like 2 bucks so naturally i got three if i serve these to fuzzy little carnivores how would i go about this? just cut it in fourths and let them have it? should i be worried about some of the bones?
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Post by Heather on Feb 13, 2011 19:15:11 GMT -5
Excellent price!! If you think that they would eat it when it's cut into those large chunks...go for it. They should have fun with it. You may want to score the meat to make it easier for them to tear into the meat. Worry about the bones...nah...they're ferrets. If they were dogs and inexperienced I would say maybe....but they're ferrets they will be ok ciao
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Post by taratee on Feb 20, 2011 17:13:05 GMT -5
so the whole chicken is going over great, steven pointed out today that the wings ive been feeding were soaked in a chicken broth and im wondering am i going to kill my ferrets? im sure its a nice way of saying sodium *worry*
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Post by Heather on Feb 20, 2011 17:29:46 GMT -5
Is the broth just water and boiled meat or are we talking about bovril or some flavour enhancer. If it has some sort of flavour enhancer...stop basting the wings and tell the fuzzes they're back on a natural diet. They don't need that stuff any more than we do, they may like it but they're shoudn't have it...it's like feeding them ham or some other processed meat.....no way Wait...the wings aren't cooked are they? ciao
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Post by taratee on Feb 20, 2011 18:48:01 GMT -5
noo they arent cooked, finding out whole chickens are just as good ill probably stop buying just wings and just feed the whole chicken because pretty much every part has bone but they pretty much pick and choose which bone they eat and plus it gives me extra stuff, it just says broth im assuming its just water and meat, today we are having livers and necks and scraps from butchering two whole chickens
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Post by Heather on Feb 21, 2011 1:14:27 GMT -5
Sounds good. I had to ask. I made the mistake at one time, and had one of my "students" talk about feeding pork...fine I agreed, no problem and then she mentioned about it being extra salty one day ...ham, she was feeding ham.. of course her little fuzzes loved it. They love things with sodium nitrates in it...I don't know why other than it's bad for them . I've bought chicken for all of us Humans got the breast, the dog got the frame, the ferrets got the legs, thighs and gibbies (no hearts or livers that day). It's much more economical ;D ciao
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Post by taratee on Mar 9, 2011 20:24:05 GMT -5
TODAY THE KIDS ATE BEEF HEART yesterday i finally found somewhere in lexington that will sell me less than 30 pounds of heart i was going to get some lamb "fries" but im not sure what that would be under or if the ferrets would eat it. ive not yet found any pork that doesnt have seasoning or salts that is affordable enough but i have found some turkey back so they get turkey bones and the whole chickens are going over pretty well
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Post by Heather on Mar 10, 2011 3:38:15 GMT -5
Beef heart is great....I can't say I've ever heard of lamb fries...sounds horribly bad for you ;D ;D. You may have to give the turkey backs a few bashes with a hammer, to smash up the bone a bit to make it easier for your little ones to consume. Sounds like you and your little ones are moving on very well. ciao
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Post by taratee on Mar 26, 2011 20:09:50 GMT -5
as far as diet is going the new girl is eating everything everyone else is with the exception of being able to chew through bone, theyre eating the beef heart very well, also tonight i found pork neck and stew pork. stewing meats rock. theyre already cut up into chunks so rationing them out is pretty easy and then everyone gets their own chunks, as tessie is quite a screamer when foods involved. we are up to four different meats in my freezer i have turkey thigh and drumstick whole cut up chicken beef heart beef liver stewing beef and tonight i will be adding pork neck and stewing pork. any suggestions? once they get on beef i was thinking about also adding cornish game hen
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Post by Heather on Mar 26, 2011 23:33:10 GMT -5
So...is everyone basically eating whole meats? with bone? organ meats? variety of 3 or more meats? where do you want to go from here? You're doing great ciao
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Post by taratee on Mar 27, 2011 1:03:30 GMT -5
i feel like i need more variety in organ meats. i mean is beef liver and beef heart the occasional chicken gizzard/liver enough? in the late fall we might have a deer and if we can get one im going to ask if they will keep the organs. im considering feeding some thawed mice or rats because our local pet shop has it mostly for the organ and roughage aspect of it. im worried that im not getting enough diversity in age in the meats as well. i am assuming its important in raw as well as whole prey. there was tripe at my local walmart and i was going to grab some but i asked around and i heard their guys didnt seem to care much for it
what i do is i offer a meat that is on bone every day some days they eat the bones some they dont, if stools look to weak that day i give something like a wing or rib cage a meat where they HAVE to eat the bone i kinda just watch poops and go from there
pork went over well tonight i gave them the neck and some turkey to ease them into pork. offer something they know they like just in case they didnt want to try the pork but everyone took to it well
tessie is doing REALLY great. she was gnawing on the pork bones like she was in the wildddddd shes a stinky little thing but she will smell better after the kibble gets out of her system. now that shes chewing on bones shes less nippy and shes learning the litter box is where to do her business. she will come out of the top of the cage and go to the bottom to potty
tia is growing hair back on her tail her mood is much more even, i dont think she was really eating the kibble. i feel awful i didnt notice it before but im so glad shes maintaining a lb of weight and shes all wiggly and as long as she keeps in good spirits and doesnt show too much in the way of adrenal i think im going to put off the treatments as i think i read they all become less effective over time.
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Post by Heather on Mar 27, 2011 1:20:48 GMT -5
Can you get hold of pork liver? heart? Truthfully, other than prey, that's about all my guys get is beef, chicken, turkey livers. Ages of this is unknown. There isn't much you can do about it. As long as you vary your major proteins you will cover enough of your nutrients to let your guys have a healthy diet. I'm sure that there is a bit of variation in ages of store bought proteins. I'm glad that you're seeing a change in Tessie. It's great about the all round general improvements we see when we get the changes in process. You might want to try melatonin as a treatment to start. I've found it very effective, though others not so much so. I think the response to the treatments vary from ferret to ferret and how aggressive the adrenal tumours actually are. Do you think you're ready to try and write up a weekly menu and graduate? You've got the idea about balancing by observing. That is something that is really necessary and you're getting that. Let me know where you want to go from here. ciao
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Post by taratee on Apr 14, 2011 15:03:17 GMT -5
in the last two days ive tried feeder goldfish pinkies and mice, tia liked them all and the others didnt seem interested. is there any way to interest the others?
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Post by Heather on Apr 14, 2011 15:13:18 GMT -5
You can try playing with them (sorry)...poke the ferret and see if they will bite at them and then eventually get bits in their mouth and discovering that they're food. Otherwise, there is always the blender and gradually adding it to their regular food. Let me know how it goes ciao
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