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Post by Heather on Mar 31, 2011 12:44:12 GMT -5
How often do you have time to "encourage" her. If you think that you can do this often enough and get her to consume enough food in those sittings to cover her nutritional needs then try removing the kibble. What you might try doing is removing the kibble during the day and then putting it back in with her during the night. I have done this when introducing new fuzzes to a group of raw feeders. I don't want my regular fuzzes eating the kibbles (some are hard core kibble addicts) so my newbies get their kibbles at night when they're in their cages. During the day (3 or 4 times) I will sit down with the newbies and entice them to eat. Often when they're running with the rest they will just eat the food because they see others doing so ciao
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2011 13:07:28 GMT -5
I'm at exams right now so I'm home most of the day studying so I can def pick her kibble up. I do think seeing Percy eating raw would help but I have her with me at school and Percy is with my mom at home atm. I'll be back home around the 19th of April
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2011 15:47:04 GMT -5
I picked up some chicken thighs.. can she eat the bone in those
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Post by Heather on Mar 31, 2011 22:25:46 GMT -5
You may find that the bone is too heavy for her to actually consume, she may be able to eat the knuckle parts though. Weight bearing bones are often denser and more difficult for them to actually eat. You can try smashing them with a hammer and allowing her access to the marrow within. Give it a try, I've had a couple of furkids who really enjoy the knuckles had have consumed a good portion of the bone itself too. ciao
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2011 20:08:08 GMT -5
I smashed them up but haven't tried them on here yet. She's still not really into larger chunks but has taken a real liking to skin
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Post by Heather on Apr 2, 2011 23:48:16 GMT -5
A lot of fuzzes really love the skin, it contains a lot of fats and amino acids that they need. Keep at it, she will move on to larger pieces when she's ready don't worry ciao
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2011 0:45:13 GMT -5
So Update.. She has been switching back and forth between wanting to eat larger chunks and refusing to. It seems like she is more interested during feedings with lots of skin. She also showed some interest in bone today.. she took it out of the bowl and chewed all the meat off it and generally seemed confused as to what it was I find if I sit by her while she eats she's more focused. But her kibble in/out hasnt been consistent the last few days so she has had her kibble longer then 12hours at some points. She is definatly starting to put on weight and muscle. It's beautiful to see. Her coat's starting to shine now as well.
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Post by Heather on Apr 7, 2011 1:57:56 GMT -5
Sounds like she's moving along. Their progress is never consistent and you will have days where she's right into it and then others where not so much. You've found her weakness and that is skin and probably the fat that lies just underneath, it's common and it's good for her. I'm glad that you're starting to see some of the more noticeable benefits. There's nothing like real food to put on a gorgeous coat and some muscle on our little ones ciao
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2011 18:12:45 GMT -5
Ok so she has taken a few steps backwards. For a couple days she was refusing to eat raw.. would take a couple licks and thats it. She was holding out for night when I would put down her kibble. And when it did finally go down you should have seen her.. huge tail and all excited.. bouncing around. If anything would convince me that these guys are addicts it was def that So today I mixed kibble with her raw and she ate it. So I am going to do that for a little while and slowly move the concentration of kibble down. She is also biting the side of her glass feeding dish every once in a while. She doesn't try to drag it. Just bites it. Any ideas as to why she does that?
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Post by Heather on Apr 10, 2011 20:27:59 GMT -5
You do what you have to do. If you think she will eat it that way then do so. Try and move ahead with this as quickly as possible....as mixing kibble and raw is always a risky business. Some ferrets move through this without any incident but some get tummy upsets and I would sooner not go there and give her another reason to eat the kibbles. Is she eating this mixture with or without assistance? Keep me posted ciao
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2011 15:51:18 GMT -5
So I have her back to eating soupie.. I've found if its REALLY warm she's much happier eating it. I've basically been spoon feeding her. On the plus side I'm heading home in 5 days and I'm hoping that seeing Percy eating raw will really move her along. And I will have access to a real blender. I've just been handcutting it into mush with scissors.
When I am home.. can I switch her right onto Percy's schedule of feeding? And if she won't eat it whole just blend hers up? She's still biting the bowl which I think is curious...
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Post by Heather on Apr 14, 2011 0:07:55 GMT -5
Yuri has never stopped biting the bowl. I haven't been able to find a solution for that, all I've done was started feeding in metal bowls so that he will not eat chunks of the plastic bowls. It may indeed help her seeing and being with another raw fed fuzz. What and how is Percy being fed? She won't necessarily start eating whatever he's eating. She will probably have to be orientated to it. Just remember that all this is going to be quite stressful for her. Hopefully, she will just continue eating but she may not too. You will have to be very observant and make sure she does continue to eat. ciao
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2011 2:21:04 GMT -5
He eats one cube of a mix and a cube of alternating chicken bone in/chicken neck at each meal. The mix is 70-80% muscle meat, 10-15% organ, and 10-15% bone. With 1lb of mix containing about 4oz of salmon, 4oz of ground chicken, 1.5 oz of turkey liver, 1.5 oz kidney and 5oz of turkey hearts. But I think I might try and find a different fowl meat for his bone in.. he's getting a bit more chicken then I feel comfortable with. Any recommendations? He is fed two meals a day and is allowed to stash small amounts for up to 2 days before it is removed. He's usually pretty good at stashing it in one tube hammock he uses only for that purpose. I'm going to house them separately until I have them on the same meal rotation so not changing her diet immediately isn't a huge problem I wasn't even thinking about the stress of moving Also, I think I would like to work in the odd whole pre-killed mouse as well as pumpkin for Percy and eventually Olive. I've had them on the cat hairball stuff but would like to get them off after further reading. I'm also curious about freeze dried food? It seems like it would be very convenient for when we take our annual cottage trip but haven't been able to find much reading on it. Any threads I should check out? My mix for Percy comes pre-made for me. I buy off an enterprising raw feeder (she has dogs) who works with you to get your mix balanced to each individual animal (ie If I want to change something I just email her and she changes the composition) peterborough.kijiji.ca/c-pets-animal-pet-services-ATLANTIS-RAW-PET-FOODS-W0QQAdIdZ229875797Sorry I haven't been too forthcoming but schools been fairly stressful. It keeps your mind occupied on other things And any ideas about or suggestions for Percy's schedule are always welcome Read more: holisticferret60.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=newbies&action=display&thread=755#ixzz1JTiWqMLZ
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Post by Heather on Apr 14, 2011 20:16:27 GMT -5
The organ percentage seems a bit high....I will have to look that one up....I've got a feeling that it's supposed to be closer to 5 to 10 but I will see if I can find that for sure. Is there a particular reason for looking for another fowl? perhaps beef or pork, bison...those 3 are well liked by my guys. Turkey might be a good meat...I know you're using turkey organs (I use those in my mix too, I can get them more readily than the chicken ones) As far as stress you might try to get some RR rescue remedy (it might help you too, with school ) I will check out Percy's schedule in a bit, I've got a couple of sick fuzzes and I'm doing the whole check and dash thing, so I will get back to you. If I don't just respond again, and I will pick it up. Good luck with school ciao
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2011 5:30:30 GMT -5
Ok I completely understand. I just thought another fowl would be better as the bones are lighter, and it was the bone in I was looking to replace. Olive.. for the first time.. ate a full oz of raw today So we are getting there
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