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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2017 14:01:03 GMT -5
What cuts of meat are ideal for ferrets? Turkey? Chicken? Beef? Pork?
Mine are still in the soup stage and I've introduced chicken and turkey so far. I want to introduce beef but what cut? Is beef shoulder okay?
Also how do I introduce organs? I don't think mine are going to like them alone lol as they barely like the turkey.
My two babies are doing good on the soup, and I've been adding less into the meat but what they do is just lick up the soup and eat a couiple chunks of meat then they are done. What should I do about that?
Im also worried about the nutritnal deficiencies still. They been on soup with chunks of meat for about a month and a half now. How often should I be introducing new things? I'm introducing RMB after the beef so probably in a week.
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Post by LindaM on Jun 12, 2017 14:28:12 GMT -5
Do you weigh your meals? How much in weight are they eating? A couple chunks of meat could easily be 1-2oz depending on their size, and when you factor in the gender and age of the ferret, that could be their full, or already half of their daily amount of food. This is why we say to weigh portions of food and work off of the weights instead, that way you can see how much food is actually being consumed.
Have you not given them any organs at all, or do you mean introducing different kinds of organs to provide variety in your other organ half of the organ meals (1/2 liver + 1/2 other organ)? Do they eat heart meals by themselves yet?
They really need to eat their heart and organ meals in the week, and getting them to eat that is really more essential than introducing new proteins right now, unless you feel a new protein will have more success in getting them to eat those particular meals (eg. using beef heart vs chicken heart).
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2017 17:00:38 GMT -5
Do you weigh your meals? How much in weight are they eating? A couple chunks of meat could easily be 1-2oz depending on their size, and when you factor in the gender and age of the ferret, that could be their full, or already half of their daily amount of food. This is why we say to weigh portions of food and work off of the weights instead, that way you can see how much food is actually being consumed. Have you not given them any organs at all, or do you mean introducing different kinds of organs to provide variety in your other organ half of the organ meals (1/2 liver + 1/2 other organ)? Do they eat heart meals by themselves yet? They really need to eat their heart and organ meals in the week, and getting them to eat that is really more essential than introducing new proteins right now, unless you feel a new protein will have more success in getting them to eat those particular meals (eg. using beef heart vs chicken heart). No I haven't been weighing anything besides the soup recipe ingredients. They aren't eating chunks by themselves just with the soup and the chunks are about the size of your thumb nail. So not super huge but good size. That's my problem though they won't eat a lot of the meat because they eat the soup first. Like they lick it all off the meat then eat a few chunks. Should I try just not giving them soup anymore and try and get them to eat the chunks alone? I've been trying but they refuse most of the time. The only organs I've given them is the ones that are in the soup recipe and I haven't tried to feed them a chicken liver, etc by itself but I doubt they will even touch it because they are barely eating chunks. I've tried feeding an egg multiple times with 0 luck |
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Post by LindaM on Jun 12, 2017 17:23:48 GMT -5
I would suggest to start weighing their food before you give it and again afterwards so that you can see how much is being consumed overall. It's important to know how much your ferrets are each eating, so that you can know when to step in if there is a problem. Weighing both the food and the ferrets regularly is very important in a switch.
Have you tried to switch them gradually first? Like going from soup to ground meat then to small slivers and increase the size as they go along? Ferrets will often just eat the easiest thing in their bowl, in your case, the soup. Some ferrets switch easy and you can skip some steps, but the more stubborn ones tend to switch better if you do it gradually.
Perhaps try making your little chunkies into small slivers and mix those with the soup about 50-50 and see if they will eat the small slivers with soup. If they do, then you can start making the soup less and less until it is removed entirely, and then start increasing the size of the slivers. When feeding them just muscle meat you need to remember to add bonemeal powder, 1/2 - 3/4 tsp per 10oz of meat.
For the weekly raw egg, you can try the Grab'n'Dab method of introduction. Grab a ferret, dab some on the nose/mouth/gums and let them go again. Be persistent with it. You can do it throughout the day as you have time, or in sessions of 20-30 minutes, dabbing every 5 minutes. This allows them to get used to the taste of it, and they should start to be willing to lick it off your fingers and you can proceed from there.
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