|
Post by Sherry on Mar 6, 2011 13:57:54 GMT -5
I know what you mean I guess what I'm saying is that it all depends on where you are with their switch. If they are still only taking tastes, and that's it, give it back when they go back in the cage after playtime. If they are eating a full meal of soup, even if it's from your lap with a spoon, then leave it out for the entire day, and leave the raw bits in there instead that the others like. If you have one group who will eat raw chunks, leave the kibble out entirely. But only if those ones are caged separately.
|
|
|
Post by gnarlysalamander on Mar 6, 2011 19:00:31 GMT -5
unfortunately, the wingettes i bought were expired, even though the sell by date hadn't come yet, and when i tried to exchange them, they were out so we had to go with whole wings. everyone should have seen the look on my face when i picked the first one up out of the package and it un-bended . anywho, i took two wings, and cut them up into thirds. the meatiest pieces i cut bits off of to put in the bowl with the rest in case someone was willing to eat the chicken, but not deal with the bones. i also cut up a few gizzards and threw it in the bowl with the rest.
sammy, jaydon, and bandit all ate what i gave them. they were even playing with the pieces with bone, and bandit ate a bit off of one, but the only one who really went to town on the bones was jaydon. ...oh just kidding! i just looked over and sammy is trying to "kill" the wing. woo! i'll have to start starving everyone more often
i set frankie and jayjay in front of the bowl, but there was no fooling them. i put a few drops of 'tone on the chicken and still nothing. when i was sure they weren't going to change their mind, i put some of the afs chicken nibblets [nuggets?] in another bowl with some water and broke them up into smaller chunks when they were soaked through.
jayjay would only lick the liquid off until i put it in my hand, but once it was in my hand he scarfed it down. i didn't measure it exactly, but he ate about the same as what he normally would if it had been kibble. frankie ate a little without me having to force him, but i ended up having to do a little convincing for him to eat enough that i felt comfortable.
i've noticed with everyone having to pee more, i'm finding more than just the occasional accident. for the most part, just putting out an extra box fixed it, but every once and a while i'll catch someone just stop dead and start to pee. jayjay even peed outside of the box today which totally shocked me because since day one of having him he has been 100% in the box 24/7. i'm hoping that once they adjust to the extra liquid this will fix itself... has anyone else had this happen?
|
|
|
Post by Sherry on Mar 7, 2011 1:13:18 GMT -5
First, let me say "congratulations" on all the successes!!! That is wonderful ;d As for the excess voiding, think about it. If you were to normally drink 2 glasses of water a day, then suddenly you were drinking 10-12- what would happen ;D ? That's what's happening with them right now. Their bodies have to adjust to the extra moisture they are now getting in their food. Which is why we say kibble fed animals are on the edge of dehydration all the time
|
|
|
Post by gnarlysalamander on Mar 7, 2011 22:43:04 GMT -5
yes i understand and expected the extra urine, but not the accidents. maybe i didn't paint the right picture... when i say "more than usual" i don't just mean more in relation to more liquid, i mean like multiple times a day, vs 2x a week. they're normally VERY good with the box, and i've been cleaning extra to make sure it's suitable for them. i forgot to take meat out of the freezer this morning, so tomorrow's meal won't be thawed in time for breakfast. everyone will get kibble in the morning, and then starting at dinner i'm going to take away sammy and jaydon's kibble for good [for now at least] and see how they do. we're also going to mix in some liver. they've been pretty good about eating chunks of whatever i throw at them, but i saw they don't normally like organs on their own, so we're going to start off with a very small amount and work up to what it should be. does anyone have examples of stores where i can get organs other than chicken liver? i don't mean "specialty market" or "asian market"... i'm looking for hopefully specific chains of stores in the northeast US. [hopefully around the philly area if anyone knows of one.] bandit was doing pretty good yesterday on the wing i gave them, so if he can keep up with sammy and jaydon for the next few days i think it will be time to switch cages and move jayjay and frankie into the smaller cage so bandit can join the "real carnivores" as i've jokingly been calling them. i think i'm going to go get a cheap tupperware container to use as a feeding den for the ferret nation. i've seen people using clips to hold on the meat, but i don't think that will be able to deter them for long and i like being able to have blankets in the cage so they use their boxes. so far only frankie stashes pieces of raw, everyone else eats in/around the bowl so the container should be alright until jayjay and him catch up. this is all going a lot smoother than i thought it would
|
|
|
Post by Sherry on Mar 7, 2011 23:54:46 GMT -5
That's a good idea, getting them used to a feeding den. I just use cardboard boxes, and toss them when they get too grungy ;D And not to worry- I STILL sometimes forget to take out the meat at night, so first thing in the morning, the baggie of meat gets popped into some warm water in a bowl, and site for an hour or two. I change out the water if it gets too cold. Some will say you breed bacteria faster by using warm water, but my attitude is these guys will sit and actually eat week old meat they've stashed somewhere, so I'm not going to worry about a few extra bacteria on the fresh stuff ;D As for stores around where you are? I'm in Alberta Canada, so can't help you with that one! Why not ask in the general food section in the nutritional board? Someone is likely to tell you.
|
|
|
Post by gnarlysalamander on Mar 9, 2011 22:41:22 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Sherry on Mar 9, 2011 22:50:20 GMT -5
Don't you just love ferrets ;D ! Anyway- the diarrhea could b because the beef is too rich, or she was feeling stressed because someone moved her stash, or someone picked on her, or...or...or! Once or twice, I really wouldn't be overly concerned about. And yes, stools will be much darker and looser with any blood rich meal. Heart, liver, kidney, etc. And yes, heart is a muscle meat. As for the cage doors- been there, done that!!! Not many of us haven't With my superpet(prior to getting the FN, I had to use butterfly clips, since Sinnead could open the doors at will ;D Now, with Sammy and Jaydon- you need to get other meats in their diet as soon as you can. You do NOT want them imprinting on what they are now eating!
|
|
|
Post by gnarlysalamander on Mar 9, 2011 23:07:01 GMT -5
they will both eat the freeze dried, chicken wings, chicken breast, hearts, gizzards, different cuts of beef, pork chops, and chicken liver. the only thing they didn't seem interested in was a turkey thigh i tried giving them the one day, but jayjay liked the ground turkey so i want to try to work that in with those two as well. that's three proteins, so we reached the minimum. there's not really a whole lot else around. when i run through what i have we'll search the asian market again. i really want to give them more organ variety. just gotta find some first...
i need to take some "before" pictures of sammy. she's gained 0.1 lb since the middle of january, but i'm much more interested in seeing if her teeth start looking better. they're not bad, but she has more tartar than the rest by far. even bandit being the same age, his look pretty darn good
could you possibly link me to the thread that has the breakdown of meal listings in a week? as in how many meals of bone-in, muscle, organ, etc? i can find the % breakdown but i'm not good with math =X i saw the page a while ago, but can't for the life of me find it now... it might have even been on the old forum, i'm not sure
|
|
|
Post by Sherry on Mar 9, 2011 23:45:42 GMT -5
Don't even need to do that ;D 4 days(8 meals) bone in 2 days(4 meals) muscle meats 1 meal liver/organ other meal what ever you have left over! Simple, easy
|
|
|
Post by gnarlysalamander on Mar 10, 2011 5:34:29 GMT -5
awesome. thanks!
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2011 10:21:15 GMT -5
Congratulations! You ar emaking fantastic progress! You should be super proud!
|
|
|
Post by gnarlysalamander on Mar 10, 2011 23:30:30 GMT -5
sammy, bandit, and jaydon are all chowing down on a drumstick right now. jayjay actually seemed excited for his freeze dried today, and actually it was in pretty big chunks and he chewed them without complaining, BUT he spit out the pieces with bits of bone in them . i haven't been able to convince frankie to eat yet, but i had to be out of the house a lot today so i didn't get to take out his kibble as early as i would have liked. he DID take a mouthful of what jayjay was having and run off and stash it in the corner though [the dog found it]. i'm going to stop at the store tomorrow and see if i can get some canned pumpkin. no long rant today, i'm too tired.
|
|
|
Post by Sherry on Mar 10, 2011 23:54:06 GMT -5
Understandable ;D And hey- at least he considers it worth stashing!!! And Frankie will get there yet- just keep plugging away at him. Just curious, and I may have asked you this before(I'm pleading age related short term memory problems here ;D ), but how many different types of meat have you tried with Frankie? Some simply dislike certain types of meat, but do better with others.
|
|
|
Post by gnarlysalamander on Mar 11, 2011 0:32:31 GMT -5
he has access to everything i feed jaydon and sammy, but soup wise it's only been beef and chicken. the one day he had picked at a few chunks of a pork chop, but i don't know what i'd be able to do if i cant eventually convince him he likes chicken. he will lick the liquid off most of what i put out, but he doesn't want to chew anything squishy. he stole a few pieces of freeze dried out of the bag once before i put it out [chicken] but it was hard like kibble, and i don't want to feed it dry like that unless i have to get someone to fuzz sit for me who'd be unwilling to put water on it [hopefully i can find someone more reliable than that lol]
|
|
|
Post by Sherry on Mar 11, 2011 9:57:52 GMT -5
So, he'll actually eat the smooth puree for you? Get him going with that for a couple of days then, and then start thickening it again. With some, you've got to go back before going forward again, stubborn creatures
|
|