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Post by LindaM on Feb 28, 2017 16:55:01 GMT -5
It's perfectly fine to get a little nervous during the switch. It's always scary to think your ferrets aren't eating, and a very solid idea to keep track of their food intake, especially when introducing new proteins. I would also highly suggest signing up for the mentoring program on here, having a mentor walk this path with you and your ferrets, able to advise and teach you all you need, is really invaluable.
If they're still eating poorly during the day, you may have to let them have a bit of kibble, and just continue to get them used to the taste of the soup until they eat by themselves from the soup bowl more often. Though before taking a step back like that, I'd try some finger feeding or spoon feeding, maybe they'll take to it this time, and eat a little more with you sitting with them. Something else you could try is to add a bit of extra water to the soup, making it more runny, sometimes that can get them licking at it more too.
I would definitely get them used to eating a raw egg each, once a week. It helps to prevent hairballs, which in ferrets are potentially fatal as they become blockages. And the store-bought stuff like Ferrelax have so much sugar, it can lead to nasty things like insulinoma, thus should be avoided.
Let me know how they're doing today!
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Post by marietta on Feb 28, 2017 17:30:34 GMT -5
Yeah I think I am going to sign up for the mentoring program to have someone I can reach out to specifically.
I just weighed their food when I got home it is two ounces down from the start again. What times of day do you generally feed them? I gave them soup at around 8am before I left for work. Should I give them soup when I get home (around 5:15pm) and leave it over night after trying to get them to eat more or should I wait till a little later in the evening to give them more?
I am also going to start weighing Albie and Gwin tonight.
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Post by LindaM on Feb 28, 2017 18:49:47 GMT -5
I just do an AM and PM meal, not super specific times on it though. I'm a graphics designer so I get to work from home, thus I can check if anyone needs extra food in the day, mostly on FDR days. My two like to sleep in some mornings, I just open their cage door in the morning, and put breakfast out. Loki tends to get up first and he'll eat his food. Athena will get up about 30 minutes to an hour later, spend about 15 minutes preening herself, and then get out and go have breakfast. Due to that, some mornings they'll get out and eat at 9am, some mornings they'll crawl out closer to 11am.
But I free feed.. so I put the bowls out and leave them for the rest of the day, until I put out their evening meal, and I just always make sure they get enough food to have only a little remaining in their bowls by the time of the next meal, but never entirely empty bowls. So evening meal usually gets done anytime around 7pm-9pm for us.
My two are both also INCREDIBLY obnoxious though.. so if they do clean a bowl and are still hungry (which rarely happens), they'll let me know. It's the ONLY time Loki will ever bite me, or should I say, try to take me to the kitchen by the skin on the top of my foot. And Athena will go for the toes. And neither will rest, until their need is met.
Since you're still on the soup stage, and trying to get them used to eating it, I'd say leave it out after trying to see if they'd eat more. When I did the soup though, I'd add some fresh in with them when they got caged around midnight, since the soup starts going yucky (and dries out at the top) faster than raw chunks and such. So maybe add a bit of fresh soup in later at night before you go to bed, so it stays fresher until the morning. Soups tend to be good for about 6-8 hours being out. Mine never really wanted the soup if it started slightly drying at the top, but they were also super picky about the texture of thawed soup versus fresh soup, lol, so they're probably not the best example.
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Post by marietta on Feb 28, 2017 19:15:10 GMT -5
Yeah I think mine might be picky about the drying out too. It seems like once it is drying out on the top there isn't much displacement of food. So I guess I will just have to replace it after it gets kind of gross if they don't eat all of it. I have been doing the evening meal in that time frame as well. Thanks for your help. I am going to try and fill out the mentor application in the next couple days. I am a graphic designer too! I am trying to get to the point where I can work from home. Right now I am doing another job while trying to get freelancing off the ground.
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Post by LindaM on Feb 28, 2017 20:43:03 GMT -5
You're very welcome. Yep, ferrets seem to come in all sorts.. and I guess we got landed with some picky butts. I just got kicked off the couch by Athena, madam wanted some more fresh food. Since my menu is split between frankenprey, rehydrated FDR and frozen raw commercial, on the days I do those latter two types, I portion meals a little in the day so the food doesn't dry out too much and give more during the day as it runs low, so that's a bit more work than the frankenprey days. That's wonderful to hear! I'm sure you'll get there, sometimes it just takes a little bit, just stay strong and keep your eye on the goal!
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Post by marietta on Feb 28, 2017 21:02:29 GMT -5
They are doing better tonight. I gave them a fresh two oz of soup around 5pm. I came down around 8:30 and half was gone then I fed the rest (minus a small amount they didn't eat) to them by spoon. Will give them more before I go to bed. Yay!
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Post by LindaM on Feb 28, 2017 21:43:24 GMT -5
Wonderful, definitely sounds like they are eating better today! They'll get there, you just keep being persistent with it.
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Post by marietta on Feb 28, 2017 22:20:04 GMT -5
Got some weird poops tonight. Is this normal for switching? Albie I think Gwin
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Post by LindaM on Feb 28, 2017 22:43:33 GMT -5
That seems pretty normal to me for fresh on a switch. Ferrets will go through a detox poop stage. They'll look funky and smell even worse than they look. This can happen for a couple weeks after the switch. As they continue, their bodies will become used to the food and adjust accordingly. Mucous-like poopies usually indicate some tummy upset, usually from new food. But you still need to keep a close eye on these poops, as with all raw fed poops, because they can indicate needing more bone, or less bone too. They can also show if there's too much fat in their food, or if there are any food sensitivities, etc. So just keep an eye on those for now and we'll see how they do. Is the red-brown in Albie's poop from the paper litter there? And here for reference: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/2469/poop-chart
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Post by marietta on Mar 1, 2017 9:14:12 GMT -5
That seems pretty normal to me for fresh on a switch. Ferrets will go through a detox poop stage. They'll look funky and smell even worse than they look. This can happen for a couple weeks after the switch. As they continue, their bodies will become used to the food and adjust accordingly. Mucous-like poopies usually indicate some tummy upset, usually from new food. But you still need to keep a close eye on these poops, as with all raw fed poops, because they can indicate needing more bone, or less bone too. They can also show if there's too much fat in their food, or if there are any food sensitivities, etc. So just keep an eye on those for now and we'll see how they do. Is the red-brown in Albie's poop from the paper litter there? And here for reference: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/2469/poop-chart Yes the poop in the paper litter is Albie Save
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Post by marietta on Mar 1, 2017 12:28:25 GMT -5
Just came home on my lunch break to check on their food supply and they are the whole three oz I left for them this morning! I just put another three in and Gwin went right for it.
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Post by LindaM on Mar 1, 2017 12:32:54 GMT -5
That's wonderful news dear! I'm so glad, let's see if they can keep it up. If they keep doing good on it for a while, you can try making the soup a bit thicker, or less blended so it has some little pieces in, or even cut up some tiny slivers and pop a few in the soup.
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Post by marietta on Mar 1, 2017 18:19:59 GMT -5
I think they really have it. They have eaten 3oz each so far today.
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Post by LindaM on Mar 1, 2017 19:48:04 GMT -5
3oz each? That's excellent progress! Let's see how they do with the soup left over in the cage tonight. Do you still let them have kibble or just soup now? If they're still getting kibble, you can stop letting them have that. They seem to be eating the soup fine.
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Post by marietta on Mar 1, 2017 21:00:05 GMT -5
No more kibble. I am really concerned though because I have a very different poop tonight from Gwin. These are from both of them not sure who from today: This is from Gwin just tonight:
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