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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2017 14:16:35 GMT -5
I brought home Artemis, my first ferret, about two weeks ago. She was solo for a week and a half and during that time I managed to get her from kibble to wet food, to wet food and ground beef and a little bit of smelt. I brought her brother, Apollo, home about five days ago. He'd been kibble fed all his life, but they're both only 5 months old and I was hoping Artemis would 'teach' him that the beef/wetfood/smelt mixture was food to eat.
No dice. Not only did he refuse to touch it, but he even went about teaching her all his bad habits (like the litter box is for sleeping, not pooping (twitch) ) but I didn't want to cave, give him kibble, and have Artemis back-slide as well. Well, I live two blocks away from one of those unleashed petco stores and decided to browse it for inspiration and I came across pre-made raw cat food in a freezer. It's called Instinct Raw, and is 95% ground meat, organs and bones and 5% veg or berries. Now, it's not 100% raw meat but I'll take 5% over 95%grain kibble. What really got me interested was the fact that it's in PELLETS! Once thawed it looks like kibble! I purchased some, put it in their dish, thawed it out and topped it with a bit of ferretone.
They LOVED it! Once they're used to this stuff I'll start incorporating meat again but I'm so grateful I got my picky boy to eat this stuff! Already after only 3 days I'm noticing he has more energy, his belly isn't bloated from grains, and his fur is silkier!
I'd definitely recommend trying this if you're having trouble transitioning!
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Post by LindaM on Jan 16, 2017 15:46:17 GMT -5
Yea, NV Instinct Rawbites work pretty well. My ferrets eat like all of the flavors of it, they love chicken, beef, lamb, rabbit, turkey & duck. I have no problems in using the NV Instinct products, I will never go lower than 90% meat, in fact I try to never go lower than the 95% that NV Instinct offers, I think most of the Stella & Chewys products (which my ferrets enjoy as well) are also around the 95% meat mark. It also works great when you have a sick ferret, you just smush up the pieces with a little warm water and it becomes a soupie.
The biggest and almost only complaint I'd have about NV Instinct Rawbites, would honestly just be the smell. You can not leave that stuff sitting out long as you might with other brands or raw. Boy, can it smell, lol!
Try topping food with a bit of salmon oil instead of Ferretone.
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Post by Aftershock on Jan 16, 2017 16:43:10 GMT -5
Beef is actually a very intense flavor for ferrets, when transitioning we generally recommend chicken as the taste is mild. Most ferrets need some firm convincing (rubbing raw soupy on their gums or spoon feeding) that raw is food. I am glad you found something that works for you though.
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Post by LindaM on Jan 16, 2017 17:51:46 GMT -5
I agree Aftershock and while my ferrets do eat their beef, I honestly still believe it is their least favored flavor to the this day. The first ever time Athena sniffed at beef, she started making gagging noises and refused to go near it at all, she has since changed her mind about it being poison vs edible though. Mine's favorite tastes are duck and rabbit by far, they'll even eat you to try and get at them if you don't hurry up (Athena has at times begun just lying on her back by my feet and chewing on my big toe while I prepare their food, Loki just sits there and gives you that look).
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2017 20:35:39 GMT -5
Thanks for the advice! I tried chicken initially, but Artemis wouldn't touch it, even mixed in with the wet food, so I started using ground beef because it could be mixed in more thoroughly. I'll definitely try the salmon on top! What a great excuse for me to buy some for me, too I'll try some ground chicken and see how they tolerate that. Hopefully I can get them eating a wide range of food! I think I'll keep some NV around, though. It's pretty convenient!
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Post by LindaM on Jan 16, 2017 23:30:10 GMT -5
I always have about 2-3 bags of the NV Instinct Rawbites in my freezer (especially for the days my two babies feel like being picky little snobs for no reason), I like to buy the trial bags since they're only like $3.99-$4.99 a bag, and when you do a cost to ratio equation, they work out the same price. So it's easier getting the small ones for some variety of flavor.
Something else that helped mine adjust to the idea of raw, was rehydrating freeze-dried raw. I've rehydrated NV Instinct Rawboost Mixers (they get these as is for treats too), PureBites (again, treats too), and Stella & Chewys. Those all work pretty nice to help transition, at least they did for me.
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Post by Corvidophile on Jan 21, 2017 23:05:10 GMT -5
That's the food I used in between kibble and raw as well, and I still keep some in the freezer in case I can't get home in time from a long day trip and ask my friend with keys to go into the house- she can give the food without getting grossed out. My ferret does inhale TONS of it though, because it's so easy to eat, and it results in anaconda-length poops. Like he'll eat a mouse and a half normally, but easily a packed CUP of NV raw bites.
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