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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2016 13:41:02 GMT -5
Just one ferret in our household! Shaman is already starting the transition and doing well, wanted to make a thread to update progress and report any issues we have.
Shaman
- Male (neutered)
- 6 Months
- No known health problems.
We switched from Marshall's ferret food to grain free cat food (Solid Gold high protein chicken) when we brought him home. He switched instantly. I then started taking his kibble away for 3 hours and then offering raw soup (chicken, heart, liver, calcium - per forum recipe). Shaman fully switched to raw soup within maybe 24 hours of offering it and is now on full raw soup. I have about two weeks of soup in the freezer (made a big batch when I started the transition) and then will start moving him to chunks and then hopefully bone-in meals and other proteins!
I will keep this thread updated as we progress with Shaman's raw diet.
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on Oct 25, 2016 21:10:29 GMT -5
Good for you:)
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2016 3:17:14 GMT -5
Since he is being easy to switch why not offer him a chicken wing and see how he does? You can also offer quail too. That's what I started Shelby on for bone in meats. The faster you get him to fully switch the less stressful it is for you  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2016 19:53:58 GMT -5
Ran to the store earlier to get some chicken wings and see what he thinks. I pulled Shaman's food bowl (with raw soup) for three hours and then offered a few chicken wings, scored on the surface so he has some good grabbing-on points. I put a bit of raw soup on top of them.
He licked off the raw soup and then gnawed some of the chicken off with his back molars! I woke him up to put the wings in his cage and he's now back to his nap, but if he decides to try the bone I'll let y'all know! If this is unsuccessful I'll try cutting the wings into chunks, but he'll work up an appetite tonight out of cage (I'm on a night schedule and he's out most of the night from 10 pm to 4-6 am) and may decide to try them afterwards.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2016 21:11:59 GMT -5
You can cut the wing in 3 chunks, the wing tip, the drummette and I forgot what the last name was lol
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Post by Deleted on Oct 27, 2016 2:40:42 GMT -5
Great work. Here's my photo if you need any visual guides.  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 27, 2016 4:06:53 GMT -5
Great work. Here's my photo if you need any visual guides. Beautiful thank you Machan! I am going to have to do that for me too for reference for everyone. Hope you dont mind i steal your idea. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2016 16:14:02 GMT -5
Thank you for the awesome picture reference for the wings!
Since I'm making the soup in batches that are lasting about two weeks and freezing, I'm gradually making things less soup and more chunks. I made a big batch of raw soup last night, but much less finely pureed and much of the chicken added was cut in small chunks instead of run through the Ninja. At this point it is barely "soup" anymore and more of a thick paste with 1/4" chunks. I'm being careful to stick to prey model raw ratios of course as I fiddle with texture.
I also added small ~1/2" chunks of chicken necks since Shaman happily accepted the cut up chicken wings but ate around the bone instead of crunching it up.
Hopefully since chicken necks are softer with more cartilage and connective tissue he will get the idea from them! I'll try to start posting weights, it's just been a crazy week for us. We may try offering whole prey sometime this week as well, I always have frozen adult mice around for our ratsnake.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2016 18:20:16 GMT -5
That's fantastic progress for Shaman! Great job! Since he's still pretty young, hopefully it won't take much to get him eating wholeprey. I introduced wholeprey to Yuuki when he was 6 months, I personally found it a breeze because I caught him in time before the imprinting ferrety thing. Good luck to you when ever you decide to try some wholeprey. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2016 2:49:59 GMT -5
Tried cutting a mouse up into tiny chunks - while frozen - and thawing it mixed with soup, but Shaman wasn't interested. I'm guessing it was too different and smelled weird. He's perfectly happy with this new batch of chunky soup and even eating the chicken neck chunks, so I'm not complaining! He has plenty of time to learn and even being on raw soup is miles away from the Marshall's kibble he was on just a few weeks ago when we brought him home. I had no luck getting my previous ferrets onto raw, so I am really proud of Shaman for his progress! I won't lie though, I'm excited for when he's on whole prey and bone-in meals. I've already picked up packages of whole quail, lamb and frog legs this week and considered buying them for the future before realizing how long it might be before he's ready for them. I can't splurge as much for my dogs' raw food - they eat about 0.75-1 lb per dog per day so we have to be thrifty with their food! But with Shaman's smaller portion sizes we'll be able to afford to give him more exotic prey.  |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2016 2:59:09 GMT -5
Good attitude! There is plenty of time, and that was a great try.
The more you introduce the new food, the more he will become used to it.
If you try this a few times and he doesn't try it willingly on his own, then you are more than welcome to attempt to hand feed him (or using small set of tongs if you prefer not to touch the wholeprey.) Getting it touching his mouth, or gums is another good way to get him introduced to the new tastes. Keep trying, he'll get there in good time. When I first started, I managed to get my little girl Haru eating the young baby animals, but come adult animals she was not having it. I ended up having to grab the entire whole mouse and held it forcefully right in front of her, while holding her (she wriggled like no tomorrow and hated me for it) but I did this for 2 minutes every couple of hours for a couple of weeks, gradually she got used to it and started to eat it after I kept pushing it at her mouth and held it until she chewed. This kind of thing can be a last resort if you wish, I thought I would mention it incase you ever needed some ideas.
Whole quail!! My guys love this, It is a major favourite (they love it over whole rats!!) I hope Shaman enjoys all these yummy meals you have in the make for him.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2016 3:18:38 GMT -5
I've noticed starting a few days ago that Shaman is already showing positive changes from being on raw. He's young, energetic and healthy and I can't say that I've noticed a change in his energy levels, however his coat is already looking so much nicer! When we first brought him home, Shaman's coat was rather dull and he had a strong ferrety smell. He has become very soft and shiny and he no longer has that strong musky odor, he smells more mild and pleasantly sweet now.
He had some runny poop for awhile as we began the transition, but now it's starting to return to normal. It's so exciting to see him making progress every day!
EDIT: Edited to add - Shaman is currently 2 lbs 6 oz.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2016 18:24:28 GMT -5
Those are one of many things we love about a raw diet. They look, smell, and are in general a lot better than they were when on kibble. I'm glad to hear you have improvement in the stool department. The funky stools tend to happen during the start of the transition, and also when you start a new protein but generally clears up in a week or two, sometimes up to 6 weeks even. Great work!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2016 4:42:32 GMT -5
How's Shaman doing?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2016 21:28:41 GMT -5
Shaman is doing wonderfully! He's got a great appetite. We finished up this last batch of soup yesterday (except 4 bags in case we need to fall back on soup at any point) and he's moved to chunks of food. I chopped everything up into about 1" chunks and mixed it together into the proper ratio and then bagged it in daily portions. This batch includes chicken necks (cut in half), chicken wings (cut into thirds), chicken liver, chicken heart, beef kidney and boneless chicken & pork.
He is happily eating the bone-in pieces and not being picky. Now that I know he'll eat meat chunks and bone-in pieces, I'm going to start organizing his food for a weekly menu instead of offering everything every day. This is the first week he's getting new proteins (boneless pork, beef kidney) and we're going to gradually incorporate more proteins into his diet.
I think after we get through this batch he's not going to need his food chopped up anymore! That makes my job a lot easier.
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