Switching: Spazz & Mimi

[Deleted]

05/01/2017 day 10

AM Soupie (Spazz remains to start on her own, Mimi still working on getting her to eat on the floor and not in my lap)

SpazzStart:2.6oz Ate:0.6 Remaining:2.0oz

MimiStart:2.6oz Ate:0.4oz Remaining:2.2oz

PM The girls got kibble due to emergency I feel like a bad momma but I couldn't leave them with nothing so I had to put kibble in cage though ill comment looks like they didn't touch it.

[Deleted]

05/02/2017 Day 11 Tuesday

AM Soupie(Spazz remains to start on her own, Mimi still working on getting her to eat on the floor and not in my lap)

SpazzStart:3oz Ate:All Remaining:0oz

MimiStart:3oz Ate:0.8oz Remaining:2.2oz

PM Soupie (Little worried Mimi just doesn't seem interested, I want to remove kibble but I do not want her to starve, she already so little, tried the egg drizzle and she still eats very little)

SpazzStart:2.1oz Ate:All Remaining:0oz

MimiStart:2.1oz Ate:0.3oz Remaining:1.7oz

[LindaM]

So sorry I've been MIA yesterday, it was our anniversary and I was away from home, and even cell signal up in the mountain later, haha.

Spazz sounds like she's doing pretty good, she's eating very well too, and with the amounts she's eating of the soup now, she may just not want/need the kibble anymore if she's getting her fill on soup.

Mimi is a bit of another matter, while she's older, and actually eating about in the range for an adult female (1-3oz per day), I'd honestly prefer it if she was eating by herself before removing the kibble, since she might just ignore the soup and try starving herself. Could it be that she's been eating some of the kibble, or does the kibble seem entirely untouched?

Let's see if she'll take to one of the following incentives with her soup:
* Drizzle of Salmon Oil
* Sprinkling of crumbled Freeze-Dried Raw treat (that is if they get any or like a specific one)

And to recap, when abouts in the morning and evening do you give them their soupie? How much time do you leave between soupie and kibble right now? Remember, a ferret typically digests their eaten food in 3-4 hours.

[Deleted]

LindaM No worries hope you had a good time.

When you say eating by herself what do you mean? I feed them from separate bowls, and the kibble has been untouched from what I can tell. Weight and everything is same so id say definitely untouched.

With the drizzle or without mimi isn't eating anymore or any less tried several times and she still needed a prompt to start as of yesterday 05-02-17.

Mornings I've been feeding them between 4-7am depending on the day. Evenings I've been feeding them between 3-6pm as of yesterday 05-02-17

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05-03-17 Wednesday

Soooo the girls still aren't messing with their kibble.

Soupie AM

Spazz:2.6oz Ate: all

Mimi:2.5oz Ate: all

Side note both girls finished ALL of their soupie this morning which shocked me with mimi she is seeming to like her soupie but gets like distracted? So partially with Mimi I think it is me being paranoid of chicken getting warm sitting out but today I left their soupie in their area and when I was walking to the kitchen found mimi eating all on her own YAY!. Even though both girls finished their soupie I places 4oz more out for them, both ate a little more after their initial bowls but not at same time this was a little bit after playing. So LindaM thank you for your list of times on leaving the meats/soupie out it helped me today and I realize its my own mess up to maybe why mimi might be having an issue, I should of known better because even with her kibble she would eat at odd times than spazz because mimi would prefer run around and play. On that note, I have a double critter nation cage, at night should I put kibble in and separate the girls just in case? I feel bad separating them during the day when im not home but maybe at night? Suggestions please would be appreciated. Will update with dinner soupie later tonight.

[Deleted]

Update on meats/butcher

Got call back and he can get me Whole rabbits, pork kidney, beef kidney, whole duck, chicken necks, turkey necks, chicken feet, beef heart, beef liver......was given pounds per case and how much per pound going to look into ordering meats Friday

As well as the every day meats you get at most meat markets, like chicken, beef, pork

[LindaM]

Yes, it was absolutely lovely, hubby and I had a great time.

So, with eating by herself, I simply mean that she'll eat from the bowl without you needing to prompt her, or sit with her on your lap to get her to eat.

I'm very impressed with Mimi eating all her soupie this morning, let's see if she can keep it up! I'm glad the list of time out for raw has helped. So yeah, the soupie can stay out several hours, though I always refreshed it with new soup once it looked like it was drying out on the top, my ferrets were very fussy about touching it when it got like that,] but that usually happened closer to the end time anyway. If they lick their bowls entirely clean, put in a little more, not a lot, do it little by little, that way you can minimize wastage, but always make sure once they are done that there's a bit left in the bowl by next meal time.

Let's see how Mimi does for the next few meals, if she continues eating like that, and starting to eat the soupie all by herself, then we can remove the kibble, as she clearly sees the soup as food then. Since the girls really don't sound like they are interested in eating any kibble, I'd keep them together still as they have been used to and we can see how it goes over the next day or so's meals and if it continues with Mimi as it did today, we'll take the kibble away.

[LindaM]

Excellent on the meats! Just double check your pork, pork tends to have a tenderizer solution (salt water) added to it when bought in the stores and some markets/butchers, but it should always be listed on the label, so just make sure none was added to the one you buy.

[Deleted]

May 3, 2017 13:50:54 GMT -5 LindaM said:

Excellent on the meats! Just double check your pork, pork tends to have a tenderizer solution (salt water) added to it when bought in the stores and some markets/butchers, but it should always be listed on the label, so just make sure none was added to the one you buy.

Yeah I read packages before I purchase I don't want to get something they aren't supposed to have. Im going to say though I got info on what I can get and where I can get but after soupie I have no idea where im to go to next level and like what meats should I have ready, ive read the Franken prey menu but im still a little confused on WHAT exactly I should have on hand to start off and so on....I just don't want to screw up

[LindaM]

Well, since the soupie introduced the taste of Chicken to them, for the next stage you'll stick with that. For chicken I tend to get boneless chicken thighs (it's a darker, fattier meat), but you could use chicken breasts too. You'll chop (or use a meat scissor) some of this into very small slivers and start adding a bit of that into the soup so they get slowly introduced to it. And as they get along with it, increase the amount and size of the pieces. And once they are good with that, we can introduce bone-in like chicken wings, chicken necks, chicken thighs (cornish game hen works especially well too).

Just to double check, do you have bonemeal powder on hand or only eggshell powder?

I'd also like you to check out and read up on these following links:
Standardized Sizing of Meats
Smashing Up Bone for Beginners
Effect of Stomach Acid on Bone

[Deleted]

I have bone meal powder and eggshell, once I purchased the bone meal powder I put the egg shell up as a back up just in case maybe I run out or something.

LindaM Also so I tried a little experiment today with the girls more specifically Mimi. So they haven't had kibble in like 3-4 days (its been offered but untouched) sept that night I had no choice. So this morning I woke around 4:30am and I put 16oz (yes I know a lot but I wanted to see how much they would eat because I truly don't think spazz would eat it all on her own) of soupie into a bowl for the girls and put it in their cage. Soon as I placed the bowl down mimi ran up and started nibbling, but by time I was ready to leave for work she stopped. Upon returning from work 8 hours later I came home and found approx. 4oz left in the bowl, I had to run to the post office so I was in a hurry and I forgot to remove the bowl in the middle of my rushing. When I returned home from post office like 20ish minutes later the bowl was licked clean, so between the girls subtract like 2oz due to one of their toys ending up with a fuzzy foot in the soupie, they managed to eat 16oz. So should I still offer kibble? Because its pretty clear Mimi is eating the soupie and for past two days has had no prompts at all, no oil and no egg added either (I always offer it without at first then if I notice she's being funky I tried the oil but she's been good the last two days) I'm thinking Mimi does not like her soupie cold and seems to wait till its warmer. When I noticed the soupie was gone when I got back home I put in 3oz in a fresh bowl and put in their cage to see if either wanted more. In a few hours ill continue with the regular 2-3oz pm serving.

[LindaM]

Wow! The girlies certainly ate a lot of soupie! Yay! (dance)

Ferrets do tend to like their food at least room temperature, so it's a big possibility that it could be what's been stopping Mimi. They can get just as fussy as we do, haha.

Since they haven't been touching the kibble, and clearly recognize the soupie as food right now, you can go ahead and remove the kibble entirely.

How are the girls' energy levels doing? How have their poops been looking? Still doing alright on that end? Remember, detox poops can look a bit funny all over the spectrum for a few weeks.

[Deleted]

Their poop is ranging from a red to orangish yellow color, semi soft but not watery.....energy levels are normal, sleep till I or fiancé gets home then they are like little tazmanian devils, just before dinner its nap time and then wake to play a little more shortly after....when its bed time usually when I turn the lights off the girls go crawl in bed on their own

[LindaM]

Let's see in the next few days if they'll let you introduce some small slivers of meat into their soupie. For the smaller slivers, I used to just cut some chunks, and then take a meat/kitchen scissor to it and snip, snip, snip. Ended up being much easier and less back pain than cutting little slivers using a knife. You can also try offering them a little sliver off your finger like a treat to see what they'll do.

If they really balk at it, or just eat the soup around it, then we can try doing the soup in a less blended form, or see how they do with some ground meat mixed in with it, or just ground meat with a bit of water (so it's kinda like a coarse soupie).

[Deleted]

05/05/2017 Day 14 Friday

4:30am put out 12oz, got same result as yesterday, returned home to some still in bowl after work if I had to guess 4oz and by time I went an showered and came back it was all gone.

Picked up some turkey necks, chicken necks, chicken gizzards, chicken at the market today here in a little going to portion it all into individual bags and freeze most of it and work on slivers for the girls to try in their evening soupie and so on

[LindaM]

Sounds good to me. You can see if one of them is willing to try chewing on a gizzard. Try one whole, and if nothing, then slice it a bit smaller and try again. If they don't want it, it's okay. We can always try that later in the chunks stage, but sometimes they'll surprise you and take right to something.