|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2016 17:47:54 GMT -5
I am sorry I am bombarding you with so much to read. But it's so much easier to have it all on one thread instead of trying to find it in our forum.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2016 18:54:13 GMT -5
It's nice to know there's a place out here for us ferret-folk  I put in the 8oz of Chicken Thigh as well as the 1oz Beef Heart, 1oz Chicken Livers and I put in 1/2 tsp powdered eggshell. Is this okay? I figured I needed to follow the recipe and not use any other protein until I was given a green light to do so... I'm going to go ahead and get up every 3-4 hours to make sure she's eating it from her bowl, but she didn't need me to feed it to her by hand after she got the first taste...IF she isn't eating the soup, do I need to hand feed it or replace the kibble in her cage and take it out in the morning? Perfect. Reason I ask is because when you post more pictures of her poop I want to know what protein it is on. If she doesn't eat it by herself wake her up dip your finger put it on her lips and see if she will eat. If she's eating it by herself she will be fine. If she is down right refusing and it's been a long time since she's eaten then you can put kibble back in and take the raw out. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2016 0:22:13 GMT -5
Her poops actually don't look to bad. I mean a little green and a little yellow. The chicken is still considered a new protein give her a couple of days.
You can try Walmart. The kitchen scales like for food work well. I have one that I put a mixing bowl on and even it out so it isn't reading the bowl and put one kid at a time in it reads perfectly for me. But you can buy off amazon if you prefer it and its easier for you.
As for the soup you can add chunks in. You just take some cubes thaw it out till its a soup and add the chunks into it and see if she eats it.
Yes, the soup is balanced with the 8 oz of thigh, 1 oz of heart, 1 oz of liver and a half teaspoon of egg shell. But, you really don't want to solely rely on it because like I said it is ment for switching ferrets and elder/sickly ferrets. So getting her on to whole pieces of meat and organs and bones is the way to go. I just mentioned the soup because you were worried she wouldn't eat at night and this is a good tool for when she is being picky because essentially you could use this soup to introduce new protiens and it keeps her off of kibble.
You can't technically give to much heart because the amino acid taurine is a water soluble vitamin so she cant overdose on it so to speak. Vitamin A which is in liver can and does build up in the system so you can eventually have to much and cause issues. Now don't freak out over that it takes a while to do so but, that is why the forum only recommends liver being 5% of the weekly menu. That's not to say goover board feeding liver just make sure you give enough and not to much.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2016 0:36:46 GMT -5
Just as another tip. How I feed my organ meals and my heart meals I use a food processor and I put it in there and grind it all up and it makes an organ soupy and a heart soupy. So sunday mornings I feed 1/2 liver + 1/2 kidney I put it through the food processor put it in a bowl and that's how I make sure my kids are eating the kidney and liver not just one or the other. Its a sure way they are getting both organs equally. Tuesday mornings are heart meals and Thursday mornings are 1/2 heart + 1/4 liver + 1/4 kidney.
If you are confused on the 1/2 liver + 1/2 kidney I can explain. So a scale is nice to have so you know how much your little one is eating. So this is all hypothetical, anyways say your little Piper eats 6 ounces a day. We go by twice a day feeding schedule and she eats 3 ounces for the morning meal and 3 ounces for the night meal. So say you are feeding the organ meal 1/2 liver + 1/2 kidney you would do 1.5 ounces of liver and 1.5 ounces of kidney to add up to 3 ounces for that meal.
Now just to clarify the twice a day feeding. Your little Piper is a tummy with teeth and she will be till she is about 6 to 8 months old. Anyways you need to figure out how much food she is eating in a day so you can divide it up from morning to night. This does not mean you cant feed her in between its just a schedule and lay out of what she needs to eat that day. If her bowl is empty please fill it back up. You should finally figure out how much she is eating per day so in the morning you can give her enough food to last the day till she gets fed at night. I rather you have a little left over and have to through some away than have her go hungry.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2016 7:01:29 GMT -5
@morgan2247 - I actually have a kitchen scale for food (it's how I measured the ingredients for the soup, it slipped my mind to measure the cubes...) but it's very tiny, and goes up to 1,000g - just like this one:  I doubt I could get her on there, but I haven't actually tried. I know it's off by exactly 40 grams when the tray is put on. I checked her food and she's eaten 3 1/2 cubes since she put herself up. Thank you for the amounts info, it makes me feel a whole lot better, I can tell you!! Okay, so all is not lost if she flat out refuses the organs and hearts in pieces? Especially since beef heart/kidney is the only heart and the other organ I can reliably find locally besides chicken livers, and some people around the forum said their fuzzies don't like the taste of beef. That's really good to know, hopefully she'll be more accepting of the small pieces and I can work my way up. I will be sure to measure what I feed her over the next two to three days so I can get a good idea of the actual amount she's eating! I will also be diligent in checking her bowl and making sure she's always got something in it, I've noticed she's definitely eating more of the soup/chicken meat than she ever was when eating the kibble! She's also been much more active as of late, but maybe that's my imagination?  That would be good for food but she might get big so you will need it to go higher than 1,000 grams. I am glad that I can be of help. You are doing a good job don't let anyone tell you any different. Also, I don't know your financial situation but I would seriously consider if you are having a hard time getting proteins where you are at, to order from Hare Today. That way when she is progressing nicely you have more proteins to show her and it is more balanced. She is only one ferret but I would still use the food processor for the organs. Unless it is cut up very finely she can't pick out her favorite part. On that note my kids LOVE beef. It's a favorite protein here. It's excellent for iron and other vitamins that chicken doesn't have when you get multiple ferrets you want to make sure no one is just getting one other organ they get an equal amount because like I said they pick out their favorite. By the way the only food that my kids flat out refuse is pork. Other than that I can get them to try new proteins a lot. I have noticed at least with my ferrets that even though they have imprinted on proteins I had them on before they aren't picky and will try new things vs a ferret their age on kibble. It might just be mine who knows lol Raw fed ferrets are a whole new ball game than a kibble fed ferret. Their activity level is a lot higher, they are more hydrated (which is way better for kidneys because carnivores have issues with their kidneys with being dehydrated), their coat is so much prettier, their weights are usually more average vs having to deal with obesity (depends on the ferrets) their teeth are in better shape because the bone they eat actually cleans and keeps their teeth clean. You don't have to brush the ferrets teeth when they have bone in meats weekly. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2016 14:43:03 GMT -5
Hmmm you can make a beef soupie so just replace the chicken thigh with 8 oz of beef either ground or you can use a stew meat as well. To get her on a beef protein (basically a different protein).
No 400 grams sound a little light even though she is young... That scale looks good.
Hare Today has a minimum of 10 pound requirement. So you have to order at least 10 pounds of food in order to be able to purchase it. The lady who owns the company recommends you ordering as much as you can for thawing purposes. So that the meat doesn't thaw completely out on the shipment.
If you can get her eating the chicken, beef and pork for now that will be fine. The minimum protein amount is 3 and right now you have 3 till you can get more in a couple weeks. So right now you can use the chicken soupie. You can make a beef soupie to get her to eat beef and you can make a pork soupie to get her eating pork. With these three kind of soups if shes eating them well like I said start lessening the water content and add slivers. The slivers should be a pinky nail size and once she eats those you can start making them bigger. It sounds like if we can get her eating the other proteins with a soupie it will be easier to get her on the chunks because she is eating the wingette.
She is a picky little thing for only being 3 months but that's fine we will get her eating chunks here soon. You can always use the scruff and stuff method though its not my favorite it gets the chunk in her mouth and she has to chew it. You can give her a wingette no problem. The bone is going to keep her teeth clean. If you can it might be to hard for her to chew so you can smash the bone up for her a little so its easier to chew.
I hope this makes sense.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2016 14:48:34 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2016 14:51:30 GMT -5
She just needs to her jaw strength and ways to do that are feeding her bonelike you are doing and feeding her gizzards. Remember gizzards are a muscle meat they aren't considered organs and same with hearts, they are muscle meats too.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2016 19:13:41 GMT -5
That's really cool! You can try warming it and offering it to her to see what she does with it.
Anything that was caught like deer needs to be in the freezer for at least 3 months to kill anything in the meat. But that's cool people are helping you out!!!
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2016 20:04:06 GMT -5
Also - I went ahead and made more soup because I ran out (she's finally got such an appetite!). I will substitute the 8oz of chicken for 8oz of ground beef or stew meat like you said, and then after that I will make the soup with 8oz of pork. I'm going to try her on some slivers of pork tonight, hopefully she doesn't flat-out refuse it like she did the beef heart... I also ordered the scale and it should be here by Friday! I will weigh her as soon as it arrives. I'd like to submit my Mentor Application tonight but I'm confused as to where I do that? Do I just post a reply to the Sign Up thread? Yes you just copy paste fill it in and submit it. Everything is looking good! |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2016 20:05:58 GMT -5
For the deer and quail - all of the meat had been in the freezer since March as they told me. I'll be sure to ask them again just in case If it's been in the freezer since March your fine. If the Quail was purchased from a store you can feed it without doing the freezing protocol. The protocol is just for if you go hunting like deer, elk turkey and sometimes Quail you need to deep freeze for 3 months. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2016 20:53:46 GMT -5
So I checked her box this morning and there's some questionable stuff in there?    Then some that happened not even an hour ago:   Unfortunately, she ate only a little of her soup last night. I tried hand feeding her some this morning but she didn't want any. I replaced the soup from last night with new soup, but when I was out she only ate a little bit of it. I tried hand feeding her again about an hour ago and she ate a little but didn't seem hungry? Hmmm the green poop isn't great. Just remember she is still switching so that's the only poop to me that stands out. Some days ferrets have great appetites some days they don't it's like us humans we don't always eat the same amount every day. If it continues with the bad poops and no appetite she might have a bacterial overload. Let's not jump to conclusions just yet. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2016 0:33:50 GMT -5
Well, good news is she ate at least 50g earlier today and I put out 70g more and she's eating on it. Those stools in the litter box in the previous post...those were after she ate the soup with pork pieces in it. Could she have had a bad reaction to the pork? Her next three stools of the day were these:  I don't know if it's just me worrying, but these two look really seedy, but I know she hasn't fully transitioned yet.  I'll keep an eye on her stools; IF, really stressing IF, she has a bacterial overload, what do I need to do? Rush her to a vet? I should know this by now, but I really haven't seen any posts about it personally. I promise I'm not jumping to conclusions, I really am interested as to what I should do in that situation. Hopefully, my scale gets here Friday as promised so I can give her a weigh in. Her activity level has been about the same, we played really hard for about two straight hours yesterday and it really wore her out I think, but she's been speed-bumping a lot today, so I tried to do some new stuff and she ended up laughing all over the place with joy... First of all I know the whole over worrying and it's something you have to learn to not worry because ferrets can sense it and it stresses them out. Not that's taken care of calm down I assume she's not acting any differently so she's fine. Yes the poop looks seedy. If you look in your poop chart seedy just means undigested fats. That's not too alarming. That would make sense why her poops are green if that's after the pork. Let's wait to give her pork for a couple more days. Let's try the pork Saturday morning. Stick with the chicken for now on. I want to see what her poop looks like Friday night to assess the situation. I have had one bacterial overload. It scared the living sh*t out of me. My little Shelby was projectile vomiting 4 times during the night and was acting really sick. When I woke up she still wasn't feeling good. By 10 o clock that same morning she had started to perk up but I still opted to take her to the vet. With the stool evaluation she said she saw some over amounts of bacteria. She gave me some a moxie drops and ear drops because she was scratching her ears and she didn't know if it was an infection. Her poops were just water and nasty looking. She was sick. Now that doesn't happen everytime for ferrets with an overload but their poops with be pretty bad looking and smell awful. I think you said you can't smell, do you have a roommate or a significant other that can help you with that part? If you are concerned vet visits always are recommended but if you suspect an overload I would make an appointment and go in. Obviously it's not an emergency vet type deal as long as you make sure she is hydrated. (This is if she even has one) Let me know what her weight is. I can link you my thread on my overload for Shelby. holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/19760/vomitting-shelbyAlso ferrets do have lazy days. Shelby my alpha is a more quiet ferret but she has days where she just doesn't want to do anything. It's just like you or me where you just don't feel like doing anything. Now if it's consistent then I would vet her and do a stool sample and give it to the vet. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2016 1:26:45 GMT -5
Yeah, she's not acting any different at all. Truth be told, I haven't been worrying about anything until I saw those weird poops in her box this morning. I'll definitely stay away from the pork until Saturday. Should I stick to the soup or should I "mix it up" and give her a Chicken Wingette tomorrow morning, then her soup again in the afternoon? I could take up some of her stools to the Humane Society for a sniff test. I don't have any roommates or friends here...My landlady owned ferrets so I could probably get her to do it? I will take in whatever she does tonight, as soon as I can tomorrow. Friday seems to be the day for the stools and weight, so I will hold out for that. I read your thread, if her stools aren't looking better by Friday I will go ahead and make an appointment, or if she is lethargic or just generally bad I will get her in sooner. My problem is, is that the vets here are general "small animal" vets or "all animal" vets as this is a mainly ranching community. I was highly recommended a vet here, even by the Humane Society, but no one could tell me his history with ferrets, so I don't trust that very well until I call tomorrow and ask myself. I looked in the town an hour over and only one stated they saw ferrets but it had incredibly negative reviews...I will call around tomorrow and ask some locals and the Humane Society who they might recommend again. I say it a lot, but I really appreciate your help in the matter.  I've also applied for a mentor, but I don't think I'll be accepted until that scale gets in and I can weigh her! Good ahead and give her a wingette. Maybe smash it up a little so she can get some bone in her. I would ask someone to smell when the poop is fresh. I was pretty panicked about Shelby to be honest. Just to fore warn you vets usually are not pro raw. They may have on nutrition class in their schooling that is it. Unless they are a licensed nutritionist I don't really listen to what they say. The reason I say this is because they will tell you how awful the raw diet is or how unsafe and ferrets can't have it blah blahblah. Just tell them we can agree to disagree please treat my ferret and let me be on my way. That's only if you need to take her in. You may not have to its just precautionary. It's really no problem. Also with the Mentor thing. They won't stop you from getting a mentor especially if your getting a scale in two days. Don't worry. Most of the time you just have to wait a couple weeks for your turn I am glad I can help someone out |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2016 11:50:25 GMT -5
She ate almost all the soup last night and I'm going to do what you said with the Chicken Wingette! She's still up and about, running everywhere this morning, no problems at all.    Good! Told you they do the lazy stuff and don't eat as much lol |
|
