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Post by gnarlysalamander on Apr 20, 2011 20:21:54 GMT -5
i got frankie and bandit to eat a couple of chunks of chicken today. jayjay ate the chicken baby food with some mushed up slivers in it from my hand, but wouldnt on his own. he didnt make faces trying to eat it, so i imagine the texture was ok, just the smell and taste being off.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2011 20:24:56 GMT -5
That is great! Continue with the hand feedings. It'll help speed up the process. You could also let him have a light dinner/early dinner so that he is extra hungry in the morning to encourage him to eat. You're doing an AMAZING job. How are everyone's stools? How are the other two doing on raw? Any issues? Keep me posted Have you offered any bone-in meats to Frankie or Bandit?
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Post by gnarlysalamander on Apr 20, 2011 20:56:16 GMT -5
sammy and jaydon are fine. sammy is actually done shedding her winter coat and my mom at one time had compared the ferrets' fur to that of our huskies... now sammy feels like a freakin' chinchilla! it's amazing.
since we've totally cut out the kibble they are getting stinkier, but i was expecting that since the other two did the same thing. consistency isn't too bad, it varies.
frankie one time randomly started eating the end of the other kids' chicken wing, but as soon as i looked over and caught him in the act he stopped and hasn't since.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2011 21:18:57 GMT -5
Hmm, well if frankie continues eating chunks well we can try a wing or two again. You can pulverize it so that it is easier to eat. Just watch the stools They can get kinda icky some times. Also, if you can, pick up some liver and heart and introduce a bit of that. Some love the stuff
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Post by gnarlysalamander on Apr 21, 2011 22:46:33 GMT -5
tonight i cut up a wing into pieces about half the length of each bone, then cut some just meat and skin pieces off and put that in a dish and topped it with the lamb freeze dried. frankie and bandit ate a few pieces without bones okay, jayjay licked it a bit but then ate around it and went for the freeze dried. we'll see how empty the dish looks when i wake up for work in the morning. i honestly just did not have the energy for force feeding today, which is why i threw it all together so jayjay wouldn't starve himself.
as of when i checked for the last time of the night, a few pieces were moved around the cage [ew, i JUST washed that blankie...] so someone thinks its stash worthy.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2011 9:28:03 GMT -5
I understand being tired. I hand fed Pixie for weeks before she ate chunks. Sometimes letting them get hungry is a better motivator. Let me know what's left Stashing is a good sign. - means they know it's special
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Post by gnarlysalamander on Apr 22, 2011 17:48:56 GMT -5
alright! good new and semi-bad news... GOOD NEWS: the bowl was EMPTY. i looked through all the blankets and hammies and everything and all i found was an inch long piece of bone with every last scrap of meat gone from it. bad news: i don't know exactly who ate what. like i said, i had seen bandit and frankie eat a bit, so i'm sure they continued when the other food ran out. i didn't SEE jayjay eat any, but my stepdad said he THINKS he saw him eating it when he walked by at one point. i went to take more meat out of the freezer and realized i'm out [oops], so they'll get to try hearts tonight as a meal [if thats ok if it's all i have? or should i just give them one a piece and then move onto the other stuff?] and go shopping tomorrow after work. i had one wing left which i'm going to give to sammy and jaydon, but that's it aside from hearts and liver [liver did NOT go over well with the other kids last time i tried so i'm not going to try that again for a while... not to mention the SMELL coming out the other end]
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2011 20:29:06 GMT -5
Great to hear!!!! You're doing a great job How bug were the pi3eces? How much was there? You can definitely feed an entire heart meal. Warning, the stools will stink pretty badly. Mine hate both heart and liver and only eat it in a soup form. They should have at least 1 entire meal of heart a week and 1 entire meal of organ a week. Let me know how heart goes over! I'd try it chunky first before offering it as soup
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Post by gnarlysalamander on Apr 22, 2011 22:22:02 GMT -5
my parents couldnt take the stink of the first one, so we spread out a meals worth of both throughout the week to cut back the smell.
one whole wing was there, each of the three sections cut in half so 6 pieces total plus i cut bits off the meatiest part just in case they didn't take to the bones.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2011 22:24:30 GMT -5
You can portion it out any way you prefer, as long as they gett it in the end - about 2 oz per ferret per week is a good estimate I also feed pumpkin with organ meals to help firm them up So pretty big pieces of chicken. I'd definitely continue feeding the wing and try to see who is eating it.
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Post by gnarlysalamander on Apr 23, 2011 17:39:24 GMT -5
BREAKTHROUGH!
i'm so pleased today. i grabbed more wings at the store, and just for the heck of it got some leg quarters because they were cheap as heck. i cut some chunks off the main piece, and cut the bottom half into sections and gave that to them. they all RUSHED the bowl. even jayjay ate it! he started to work on a piece with a bone in it, but frankie stole it from him so i didn't see if he'd try to eat it or not.. but they don't normally get too far with the leg bones anyway.
also, all the heart from this morning was gone. and the PUMPKIN. as soon as i walked in the door from the store, i realized i forgot to get it. jaydon and sammy have had their meals frozen in meal sized portions with ice cubes of pumpkin already in there so i never thought much about it. *forehead smack* will definitely get some more on monday.
but WOOOOOO nonetheless. somehow i'm a lot less excited than i thought i would be to see jayjay eat huge pieces on his own without me doing more than opening the door and popping the bowl in the cage, but i'm surely a lot less stressed about the stella and chewys getting low. that stuff is NOT cheap.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 23, 2011 17:46:55 GMT -5
i cut some chunks off the main piece, and cut the bottom half into sections and gave that to them. they all RUSHED the bowl. even jayjay ate it! he started to work on a piece with a bone in it, but frankie stole it from him so i didn't see if he'd try to eat it or not Wooot!!! Awesome news! Looks like the hand feedings have paid off also, all the heart from this morning was gone. Wow that is double great! Do you know if jayjay ate any? Check his stools and see if they're dark PUMPKIN. as soon as i walked in the door from the store, i realized i forgot to get it. jaydon and sammy have had their meals frozen in meal sized portions with ice cubes of pumpkin already in there so i never thought much about it Yeah, I forget pumpkin a lot Helps to freeze it wth the meat though so I don't have to remember but i'm surely a lot less stressed about the stella and chewys getting low. that stuff is NOT cheap. Yeah, it is expensive!!! So just keep offering the same size chunks you are and let me know once you've seen everyone eating meat with bone it in. The legs might be too dense, but the wings should be easy
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Post by gnarlysalamander on Apr 23, 2011 17:53:19 GMT -5
i just scooped the boxes so if everything is icky by bed time we'll know.
he must have just realized the kibble wasn't ever coming back and stopped holding out i'm sure the lamb freeze dried helped because he loved that stuff and yesterday i had it sprinkled over top of the chicken.
i think i'm satisfied with the size of the chunks they ate. sammy and jaydon have been being really aggressive with their food lately, sammy's even had jaydon making that bark noise a few times, so i've started cutting theirs up so they're not eating off of the same piece any more. although mostly it happens when they're fighting over hearts. if i have the 5 of them eventually eating out of one bowl i think it would be safer to have pieces for them.
in other, totally unrelated news, who here has reptiles? i'm going to the reptile show next weekend and getting my first cold-blooded critter.. i need a good forum to help me out!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 23, 2011 17:56:21 GMT -5
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Post by gnarlysalamander on Apr 23, 2011 17:58:25 GMT -5
thank you!
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