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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2016 1:25:05 GMT -5
So, I want to switch my ferrets to raw, and I have some questions/problems. First I will describe where we are now: male: he has adrenal disease and his blood sugar is on the edge of insulinom (3,3 mmol/L), vet said we wont start with meds until he starts showing some clinical signs, and that is one of the main reason I want to switch. So, he does eat chicken and turkey, in a soup or bigger chunks, even some chicken ribs, necks or other 'light' bones.And I think whith him it wont be a problem, because he likes meat that much he even jumps out of his bed to eat. But I am a little bit worried about his blood sugar, because he needs to eat more often.
Female: well she does eat meat if it is mixed in a soup and I need to encourage her with my fingers (she only starts eating if I give her soup with my finger) and also last time she even eat some chicken wing that I was holding in my hand. So she is just so picky, everything must be feed with hands. And she doesn't want to eat bigger chunks.
I would like to try some other meat not just chicken but I am afraid they wont eat it. Next week I will get some rabbit meat and quail to try. I usually buy hole chicken with heart and liver and mixed that and give them for dinner, but they still have kibbles. So for start if I made the soup from chicken (recipe from here) and feed them this (how many times a day?) without kibble it will be ok? Or I should follow the Frankenprey menu and for start just mixed everything into soup and start feeding them with that (and until they don't eat that much bones maybe add some egg shell?) Sorry for all those stupid questions but for me its kind of hard to imagine them switch off from kibble.
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Post by FireAngel on May 16, 2016 10:19:13 GMT -5
Hi Sjora, Welcome to HFF! I'm so glad you are choosing to switch your little ones over. If your male is eating meats and bones already just switch him to frankenprey. If you still have to coax your girl then soupie and slivers is fine. It can be difficult to have them on 2 different stages of the switch but it can also be a good thing as the one that is farther ahead may teach the one that is behind a thing or two. You know the old monkey see monkey do thing. As long as they are eating on their own, their is no need to continue with kibble at all, even for your insuloma boy. You will just have to make sure he has food available to him at all times. Here is a time frame for you as to how long the different stages will last once put out:
Raw soupie is good for 6-8 hours Muscle meats up to 12 hours Bone In meats up to 24 hours Whole prey is good for 48 hours.
This is somewhat dependent on room temperature also, if it is extremely hot the. It may not last that long and if it is on the cooler side it may last longer. Ferrets in general have better sense of smell and will not eat food if it has gone bad. Trust your nose though and if it smells rancid to you go ahead and toss it.
Keep asking questions, no question is dumb!
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2016 12:40:05 GMT -5
Thank you for your help This week I started feeding them with soup and mixed chicken meat and remove kibble. And I figure out that portions that I prepare (60g) are too small, so they get this portion three times a day (just to make sure that my male has food avaiable all the time). And I will slowly start to give them some other meat than chicken. And hopefully some slivers.
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2016 9:39:11 GMT -5
Today I am a lttle bit woried because, over night they haven't eat nothing ( I gave them turkey liver and heart mix) and this morning I gave them mixed meat and some chicken ribs and also they eat maybe just three spoons of meat. Should I continue with feeding meat or should I gave them kibble? And also it is normal that they drink less, I know that meat contains more water than kibble but anyway.
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on May 26, 2016 10:25:58 GMT -5
I always had to make a soupie out of my organs and do a finger feeding at the start. After a few licks from finger they would eat from plate. They will probably eat it without coaxing after they get used to the taste and it is fed constantly. If you have a crock of water around, they will drink it when they are thirsty, and yes they do drink less. My senior and other ferret like about a teaspoon of water in saucer with their bone -in meats. They like the bloody juices, too.
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2016 12:04:10 GMT -5
Thank you for your answer, they did eat livers and hearts before, so I don't know why they didn't eat it. And I did a soup out of it. I do add some warm water in their meat so that's probably why they drink less.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2017 3:11:06 GMT -5
Hi, I haven't post for a while, well a lot had happened since my last post... My male had a seizure back in september (that we don't know exact couse it did look like insulinoma seizure but than they figure out he has a dilated cardiomyopathy).So he is on all kind of medicine now, and not long after he came back from vet, he stoped eating kibble and I started feeding him raw meat (which is great for him ). But I have to spoon-feed him all the time, he won't be eating by himself. If I left a full bowl in his cage or room he just licked the surface and than leave it. And he only eats it if it is mixed into porridge, if there are some bigger chunks he just swollow it-not chewing at all(once he almoust choke with some chicken skin). My concern is that he don't eat any bones (I'm adding him some bone flour for calcium). But I'm a bit concerned for his teet since he's not chewing anything. Other than that he has great apetite and he would eat everything I gave him through spoon. And I feed him 2-3 times a day (usually I have time just for twice a day), 120-130g per day (he weight 1340g) is that's enough? (he did gain some weight since he's been raw feeding). Well my female she only eat's chicken by herself anything else I have to feed her, but she does chew some chicken wings. And she's usually very jelaus when I feed my male, she starts to lick his spoon . But she's not fully on raw I'm still trying with her since I have so much work with my male .
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Post by LindaM on Feb 1, 2017 3:38:49 GMT -5
Could you take a look at your boy's teeth? Maybe he has a hurt tooth that is causing him discomfort when it comes to chewing, thus he prefers only to lap food up to avoid any pain.
It also sounds a little like he might have become dependent on the spoon feeding, sometimes they do this, they're just like babies. You're going to need to very slowly get him used to the idea of eating from the bowl instead. You can do this by sitting with him and letting him lick the spoon a bit as usual, and then slowly bring it down into the plate as he licks. It may take a good few tries at first, but don't give up.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2017 5:12:58 GMT -5
I do look at his teeth all the time but I do not see any kind of damage, they are just dirty( I will try to make a picture as soon as someone gets home- cause I only have two hands ) . Maybe I should clean them or maybe they need to be clean by the vet-but he don't breath (due to heart condition) very well on gas anestetic (they can take his blood sample but any longer procedure might be risky?). Well maybe I spoiled him too much and need some more patience on him, thank you for your advice. I will work on that
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Post by LindaM on Feb 1, 2017 5:33:55 GMT -5
It's no problem, it's easy for some of them to get spoiled a bit while transitioning. My little girl used to refuse to eat her soup until I started her off with the spoon first, every single time, even if it was food she did eat, lol. Try the lowering the spoon trick and see if it helps. If not, you might want to try adding a little bit of salmon oil or a bit of raw egg to his food to lure him into trying it. Some ferrets also take easier to eating foods, especially while transitioning to raw, on a plate instead of a bowl, it's less intimidating to them.
As for anesthetic, that's pretty risky even in healthy ferrets and a lot of vets will try to do as much as they can without putting a ferret under. And some vets will only do a cleaning if it's really, really needed, and it can be pricy. Some vets will put them under anesthesia for it, but not all do, especially for a ferret with a condition.
Have you ever cleaned his teeth by yourself? Ferrets eating kibble, or only soft foods without bone need to get their teeth cleaned regularly. Bones work very well for cleaning teeth, and giblets/gizzards can also be helpful with cleaning though not as much as bone. But since he doesn't want to chew, that isn't going to work. And him just wanting the soft food will definitely be bad for his teeth, so you'll need to brush them. I am concerned as to why he won't chew though.
Does he eat any freeze-dried treats? Or does he simply refuse to chew anything at all, no matter what it is? Were you able to see his teeth all the way to the last back molars, front and back of the teeth? No chips or cracks or anything? Does his gums look hurt or discolored anywhere?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2017 11:04:07 GMT -5
So here is the picture, I hope it is visible enough. I know that anastesia is risky but as far as I know they can not clean teeth properly with out it. I think that in near future they will start to do some research on ferret's teeth in our country so I will hopefully join in and they can clean his teeth. I did try to clean his teeth a couple of times but none of the tooth brush was soft enough so his gums starts to bleed. He did eat some dry meat chunks (that are harder). Other than this his teeth are normal no cracks or anything special, but he is 6, 5 years old so his teeth are not realy shiny.
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Post by LindaM on Feb 1, 2017 14:54:19 GMT -5
Okay, first thing first, which country are you in? I'm in the US, and I know for a fact that some vets will definitely do the teeth cleaning without using any anesthesia, just make sure they know your ferrets medical conditions. As for cleaning yourself, there's a nice little toothpaste recipe here: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/1109I buy soft, little denture brushes to brush my ferrets teeth if I need to, and I had gotten a bunch back when they ate mostly kibble and raw grinds. The brushes are interdental ones, similar to these: www.ranir.com/media/45657/02_family_wellness_interdental_brushes__single__0905121843_1843.jpgIf he's eating FDR meats.. you could try to rehydrate some of that, and it might help get him chewing and get a taste for eating raw chunks of meat. And then you can proceed from there to get him eating normal raw chunks with a bit of smashed up bone so it's less intimidating. At that stage you can also try giving him some gizzards if he'll take them.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2017 2:58:33 GMT -5
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on Feb 2, 2017 8:23:28 GMT -5
My Annabelle likes dry meat too. Funny how some prefer things differently. My senior likes water on her food or its bloody juices.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2017 3:37:03 GMT -5
Yes. mine is doing roll overs just when he hear a bag moving I talk to a vet about his teeth and they will clean it in spring time (she said it's not realy that bad and since he is eating "normaly").
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