Here we go: Peter, Sam, and Dean :)

[hiddenstars826]

Hi everyone! I've posted in the past, a few years ago, but only a few times. My current kids are Peter (6y, already on commercial FDR), and Sam and Dean (both ~1y, on kibble but interested!). Peter made the switch off of kibble years ago now, and (mostly) happily eats his FDR and frozen. We're having a bit of an issue right now with him as he just had a horrible bout with ulcers last week that we aren't anywhere near done with, but he IS back to eating again thankfully. Sam and Dean have been with us just over a week and a half, and I HAVE seen Dean gnawing on a chicken foot a few times and he did eat a piece of Peter's food. Then took a lot more to stash, for me to clean later! Sam is interested, but hasn't taken a lick yet. I haven't pushed either of them too much as a) wanted to let them settle in and b)Peter was severely ill last week and I just knew I wouldn't have the time to encourage. 

I don't have current photos right now, but can get some on the phone this week. I have a food scale but need to find that, that's on the project list too. I've not been measuring Peter's food by weight, just volume, so gotta get that going! Especially with the youngsters who are, uhh...well, not slim. 

About Peter!
Peter is 6 years old, and since Oct 2015 has been diagnosed with insulinoma after he crashed 3 weeks post-deslorelin implant (yes, folks, this is why we caution people- it DOES happen). He has been on prednisolone since then, and last fall we added in diazoxide so we could drop the pred a bit and help keep his weight as managed as possible. He can be kinda picky about his food and flavors, but for the most part he eats pretty well. 
His current weight is 1.58kg as of this past Monday with him not eating much at all and being so sick. He's normally around that range anyway, though he did drop some from a week prior. On a normal schedule, he eats 3 meals a day and usually seemed to do well with that. 

Sam and Dean
Both boys are about a year old, and came from the shelter last week. They are quite the handful, it's been an adjustment going from quiet Peter who doesn't challenge anything to these two cyclones! Case in point, I just heard something get flipped over. Pray it isn't a litter pan. This morning they've already dumped 2 water bowls over. But they are sweet and good boys, if not a bit crazy. 
Sam's weight on Friday was 1.45kg (I was told to watch out that he doesn't get heavier..yikes!), and Dean was 1.25kg. They are currently eating (and making a mess of) Zupreem Original and I tossed some of the cat's Acana Meadowlands in there as well which they are eating. 

Also, I have a cat...so if anyone has experience switching a cat over, that'd be cool too! 
She's about 9ish, exact age unknown so the drs went with the best guess. She eats Acana Meadowlands right now, and whatever Peter leaves in his bowl for her to finish. She has idiopathic hypercalcemia, which seems to be controlled with her current diet, so that's just something I need to be careful of. We recheck bloodwork about every 3 months to be sure nothing is going on, though we're overdue for that due to changing her food over. She was 8.25 lbs last time she was weighed in January. 

Anyway, that's us. I have to run and get ready for work, but I'll get body photos this week to post! 

I'd like to get everyone onto home-made raw food, because this commercially prepared stuff sure is expensive even for just Peter, let alone the two youngsters! I don't want to do whole prey though. Nothing with eyeballs  

[abbeytheferret6]

Don't know if I have welcomed you to forum or not. Just popped in to say hi Hope your older ferret gets to doing better and congrats on the one yr olds.

Here is some reading material

holisticferretforum.com/natural-diet/

[hiddenstars826]

Hi! Thanks Peter seems to keep making progress, thankfully. Yesterday morning he was up and looking for his food. By the time I got it set for him and put it into his cage, he was back in bed, but he went back down to get it on his own and it was mostly gone by the time I got back up for the day. He's been eating on his own the past couple of days, finally. He still has something going on, not sure what. I know it'll take him time to bounce back from last week but I think there's something more happening. He was supposed to come into work with me today, but its about 90 degrees outside and I have no a/c in my car. The house isn't cold, but it's comfortable and definitely cooler than outside, so I don't want to subject him to the heat today. He's passed out on the tile near my front door, and the cat is sprawled on my kitchen floor. The bedroom, where the cage is, is the coolest room in the house but Peter would much rather be out in the living room or kitchen if I'm out here. And he's Peter, so he can do whatever he wants

I'll check out that link, thank you!

[hiddenstars826]

I see and hear lots of people using bone meal powder for those not eating bone. Where would I find something like that? Same with taurine, where would I find that? Is that something that I even need?

[raynebc]

Health/fitness stores or even some grocery stores should have those. Bone meal is a temporary workaround, it's recommended to get them into eating raw bone (whether it's whole or ground). I used it when I was transferring my oldest pair of ferrets onto raw soup years ago. For my newer pair I didn't bother (I found it a hassle to prepare raw soup in a blender), I just used FDR and added a bit of ground meat to get them used to the idea.

[hiddenstars826]

Oh man, it's been a while. Oops. It got a little crazy here for a bit but it's going to get even more crazy soon!
So here's what's changed in the mean time!

Peter is feeling mostly better. YAY!
Bananey, the cat, is happily eating the freeze-dried and frozen raw like Peter is. Yay! She's even tolerating it well too, no vomiting yet. Usually that's pretty instant, so this is a good sign.
Sammy and Dean have been getting freeze-dried Stella and Chewy's, and enjoying it dry. Yay! We've been trying to expose them to different things and getting mixed reviews, but this is going good!

They've been exposed to egg, chicken wings, chicken hearts/gizzards, and frozen or freeze-dried Stella and Chewy's both in pieces and soups. Mixed reviews on those, they like to try most of it and then stash it somewhere. But I keep exposing them and trying it, so we're getting there.

[hiddenstars826]

I just found at our local store Vital Essentials frozen rabbit patties, and they told me they can special order it as well in other proteins. I picked up a pack of rabbit, and she's going to check into others. They had Primal frozen as well and it sounded like they can get freeze-dried and frozen in too.

I'm concerned Peter may have a bit of an intolerance to chicken, he's had horrible diarrhea after eating some. Thought it was coincidence, but it happened each time after the chicken and normalized when I didn't give him that, so I'm thinking it's the issue. Oiy. Always something.

I am checking into Hare Today and My Pet Carnivore for what they offer and am going to try to put a "menu" together, but I'm not sure how much to feed? I don't know how much I'll have to order and feed them. I don't have a ton of freezer space either, so it'll be fun explaining to Mike what all of the food is hahahaha.

[hiddenstars826]

My local store had Vital Essentials frozen patties in stock. The only kind they had was rabbit, but I grabbed a pack to try. The girl at the register was so excited I was interested in it and wants to start carrying other varieties. Tonight was our first attempt.

Bananey, the cat, was pretty sure I fed her something out of the trash. I caught her taking a few licks but she's not thrilled. I should have known better as Bananey hasn't so far been thrilled with rabbit in the freeze dried form.

Sam and Dean were offered some. I tried as is, no luck but interest! I added a tiny bit of water to thin it out and that made it better! Sam was interested after a few dabs on the nose and spent a while licking from the bowl before abandoning. He'd take a lick from the spoon and then back to his bowl. Dean is on the cat's side, and not a fan. Dean all along has been the one who is first to try something but he was not interested here. We tried the spoon, we tried dabbing. He took a lick finally and looked highly offended! This was the first taste of rabbit for the boys. I remember Peter and his sister not liking it at first: we actually didn't bother for months after the initial attempt, but they learned to try everything offered at least once so rabbit eventually made the cut. I guess it's an acquired taste.

Peter? Well, Peter dove in no questions asked! I didn't add any water to thin it out, but he didn't care. He ate more than I expected him to, and then when prompted ate a good amount more. We're battling tummy issues and he's pretty picky, so for him to really dig into what's a more coarse grind than he's used to is awesome.

[LindaM]

Be careful of using the Vital Essentials patties. I was super excited the first time I came across them, but as with all new things, it requires research first. I have spoken to a rep of the company in length and the patties have two issues, the feline ones contain goat milk and ferrets should not get milk of any kind. The second problem is, that the prey model they use for the patties is incredibly high in organ content, MUCH higher than ferrets should be getting. They use a total of 45% organ, but a balanced ferret diet requires only 10% (5% liver, 5% other organ).

The Vital Essentials treats are wonderful to get though, and I keep a huge variety of them in our house, Chicken Hearts, Turkey/Chicken Gizzards, Minnows, Duck Nibbles, Rabbit Nibbles, etc. Maybe one day they will also bring out a ferret balanced selection of raw.

[hiddenstars826]

Oh no! Thank you for that important info! My plan then is to use it for the cat, and to help get used to the texture vs the freeze-dried. I was honestly surprised that Peter ate as much as he did, so that's a good sign.

[hiddenstars826]

We got our Hare Today order in yesterday! I'm impressed with how frozen it still was (completely) considering the heat. It's thawing in the fridge enough to be workable and then I'll get it all prepped for easy storage.
I started with grinds. We have beef, Turkey, pheasant and duck. I got the complete grinds as an easy starting place. I have local stores that I'll be able to get other items from like chicken wings, necks, etc. We have two girls inbound, so I wanted to make sure I got something they'll eat (it's only polite!), and Peter will (hopefully) eat the grinds too. I don't see why he wouldn't.

So...how much would one feed a 1.5kg ferret per day or per meal? He needs a few meals a day, we currently feed 3.

Im working with the other two boys, who aren't close to fully accepting it (more fun to dump the bowl) but they are 1.45 and 1.2kg at last weigh ins, so I imagine they'll get around the same daily amount as Peter would?

[LindaM]

Most of us feed only an AM and a PM meal, so 2 meals a day. The whole prey providers can even get away with a single meal a day, depending on what they have given. Usually, we will free-feed though, so we put out food bowls and leave them out until the next meal time, instead of taking them away after a while. If you have a ferret with insulinoma, or a kit, you will feed more meals a day I believe, or simply make sure food is always available to them.

I've never fed a ferret by their weight like food companies suggest on their products with cats and dogs. Instead I go by the averages rule, and tested it out with my ferrets until I found the amounts they each eat on average (as ferrets can all eat differently from one another).

The adult female ferret eats on average 1-3oz food per day. The adult male ferret eats on average 2-5oz of food (most of the time it's said to average 2-4oz, but I've heard some average 3-6oz). Their appetites will fluctuate with age, gender and the seasons. More in winter, less in summer.

The best way to figure out what yours do is to keep a food journal and dish out food around those amounts, weigh it before offering, and weigh again by the time the next meal rolls around. That way if there is a lot of wastage, you can lower the amount you offer, but if the bowls are clean by the next meal time it may mean that someone didn't get enough food though, so it's good that there is always at least a bite or two of food remaining at the time of meal changes.

[hiddenstars826]

So in the last week and a half, the boys really took to their raw grind. The beef is not readily accepted but they WILL eat it. They've been finishing the bowl 95% of the time.

We've also added 2 girls, who are already on and used to raw which is helpful for me! A 3 year old jill and her 11 week old kit. I had my first experience watching them eat bone the other day which was frightening! Monday wasn't sure why I was hovering over her! She's a pro, so she certainly was capable.

Anyway, I've got all of our Hare Today grinds portioned and everything and made a little chart with their current amounts etc.

I got weights last week and pictures of the younger boys.

Sam was 1.25kg And Dean 1.14kg. Before they switched foods, Sam was 1.45 and Dean 1.25 kg. Not an unreasonable weight change, right?

Let me see if I can get photos in..

[hiddenstars826]

argh didn't work. I'll do it from home I guess. 

[hiddenstars826]

Sam


Dean