Am I going in the right direction?

[Deleted]

Today I tried to start the raw diet with my three ferrets. I just want to make sure I am doing everything right so far.
Last night I bought a package of stew beef strips, chicken thighs, chicken livers, chicken hearts/gizzards, and eggs. 
I first got 8oz of chicken meat off of the chicken thigh and did not include the bone (still confused on whether or not im supposed to include bone, but I dont think my ninja bullet could handle it anyways.. lol). I then put one chicken liver which I believe was about 1.4oz. The chicken livers and hearts did come in a package together which did say "mostly gizzards", but I did not think it was only going to give me ONE heart out of the entire thing... So I put in one chicken heart, and a little piece of gizzard as well. Lastly, the egg shell. I read you are supposed to let them dry for a day or so which I did crack open the other ones which are drying right now, but I just rinsed one and mixed it in. Why exactly are you supposed to dry the egg shell out again? When you add water doesn't it just get wet again?
After mixing it all together, two out of three of my ferrets were awake so I decided to give it a go. I gave them each 4 or 5 licks by just putting it on their mouth/nose. I dont think they liked it very much lol. Neither of them gagged, but they didnt seem to like it. They would just kind of smack and taste it, but definitely wanted to run away after the first couple licks. I also mixed some of liver juice into the kibble, but they wouldn't even touch that.
This morning, I thawed the soup, put it in hot water to make it warm and tried again. They did the same thing after I put some on their mouths. I put a semi thawed piece of soup on the plate. I used the warmish soup and mixed it with some of their kibble. Again, wouldn't even try that. 
I then proceeded to cut up VERY tiny pieces of the beef strips, acted like I was taking them out of their treat drawer lol and put some ferrivite on them. They sniffed it, licked some ferrivite off and licked the meat, but immediately ran away.

Is there anything I need to be doing different? Any tips for day two? Also, how watery is the soup supposed to be? Mine was kind of like a puree maybe a tad thinner. I found out yesterday after taking one of my ferrets to the vet that he is anemic :-( and its possibly causing a heart murmur. I dont want to fully take away the kibble because hes still not feeling great and I dont know if it will affect him in anyway like it would with insulinoma. I definitely want to switch them completely ASAP because I know how horrible kibble is for them.

Thank you!!! 

(also I underlined all the questions/concerns because I probably typed way too much lol okay Im done now)
    

[LindaM]

Big response below, I hope I answered most of your questions, sorry if I missed any.

The mixed packets of hearts and gizzards are always a rip off, I never buy them. If you have a Asian/Ethnic market near you, they'll sell chicken/pork/duck hearts for cheap and in a packet of just hearts! Also found packets of just chicken hearts at the local WinCo store, if you guys have one of those near.

So for your soup recipe... the egg shell gets dried out naturally after being rinsed out and then must be powdered (obviously will powder better when dry so that's why) either by mortar and pestle or coffee grinder.. blenders tend not to make them fine enough by themselves. Your soup consistency should be like yogurt. And a kitchen scale is essential when doing a raw diet and getting started, both to weigh and portion foods, check on amounts given and eaten, and weighing ferrets.

Do not put the soup in hot water, it will cook it around the edges, you can use warm water, or just let it thaw in luke water instead or on the counter.

Beef is very strong for lots of ferrets, it smells and tastes strong, it's not the best choice to start a transition because of that, thus we use chicken first. Chicken is much milder to start with. Mine, while eating raw, still hate getting any beef with a passion. So beef will be better to start adding in once they at least eat the chicken.

As for the Ferrevite, please toss that. Actually, if you have any of the following, toss right into the garbage: Ferrevite, Ferretone, Ferrelax, Marshall Ferret Shampoo, Marshall Bandits Treats, etc. Usually if it has a ferret on and is sold commercially, especially by Marshall's, it's bad for your ferret. Those products contain loads of sugars, carcinogenic ingredients, essential oils, and indigestibles. If you want I can list better options to replace all those products with, such as salmon oil in place of Ferretone and Ferrevite, or raw egg in place of Ferrelax.

I definitely suggest signing up for a mentor on here to help you switch your babies over and get them on a balanced menu. Your mentor will also teach you very valuable knowledge about raw feeding and other healthy things for your ferret. Sign up:
holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/61/sign-mentoring-program

Also, don't get discouraged.. raw can take a while depending on the ages of your ferrets and whether they've finished imprinting on foods already. Patience and persistence are your best friends.  Oh, and congrats on deciding to want to raw feed your little ones! The benefits and differences seen in a raw diet is AMAZING!

[Sherry]

Raw Soup

8oz chicken thigh, meat only
1oz heart
1oz liver
1/2 tsp eggshell powder

Blend together with enough water to make a yogurt consistency.

The eggshells are rinsed and dried first otherwise they will gum up together and you can't get them into a powder form

Do NOT put bones, or even gizzards into your blender. Bones will kill it. Gizzards become little rubber bullets and may do the same

Read through some of the switching threads here to get an idea of the process of switching them holisticferret60.proboards.com/board/55/archives

And please- ditch the ferrevite. It is sugar in a tube, nothing more.