How long should I hold out before returning kibble?

[Kriket]

Hi guys!
So we've started the switch!

We followed the soupie recipe and now have trays of soupie cubes in our freezer.
I take one out in the morning and remove Pan's kibble. It's thawed a couple hours later and I start offering it to her on a spoon or my finger.

We're making progess because she'll lick up a fair amount off the spoon, eventually.
I'm worried because it's usually that evening that she finally eats some. We try all day and I only give her kibble back at night.

She gobbles up the kibble because she's so hungry.
I don't want to starve her but I also don't want her to just wait and wait for kibble.

How long should I hold out? Is a few bites all day good enough at this stage?

Don't want her to go hungry but she does eat some soupie so I feel like of I wait she might eat more.

Thank you!
~K

[mermaidsirena]

I’m in the same boat. I made the soup mixture and the second time he licked some off my finger. I left it for him but he ignored it. Eight hours later I worried so took it out and have wet kibble. It’s still the crap Kimble since the good stuff is ordered and not here yet. He gobbled it up. So I have waited again about four hours. Going to try the soup again. Not sure if I give him over night or what. He’s only three months old but from Marshals so been on crap for a while.

[Aftershock]

How often are you feeding soup per day while kibble is not available?
How old is she?
Does she have health concerns at all?

[Heather]

How much soupy is she eating through the day? If she's eating 2+ oz per day then don't give her back the kibble. When I'm doing an intensive (meaning that I don't have a kibble to fall back on) I measure the soupy. If they eat the minimum allotted during the day (a jill/sprite) will eat about 2 to 3 oz then there is no other food. I give a feed (usually hand feed) just before going to bed, that's it. They either eat what is left in the cage or they wait until they get hand fed in the morning. Offering up kibbles at night is just teaching them that if they wait they will get their biscuits. As long as your ferret is healthy and is getting in their minimum allotted food amount you're good to go. Offering kibbles is just reinforcing that they get to eat garbage at night. Unfortunately, ferrets are not stupid especially when it comes to crap in a bag.
ciao

[mermaidsirena]

Well we had awesome success with the spoon feeding. Last night he ate about .5 ounces of soup. I left it in there for hours but he didn't touch in so I put wet kibble in overnight. He ate the kibble. In the morning I offered soup from my plastic spoon. Success again! He ate about 1 ounce (I have been weighing the food). I left only a small amount of wet kibble for him while I was at work. He only ate a bit of it. This evening I spoon fed him 1.5 ounces and left the bowl for him. He finished every last drop!! It was licked clean.
So as a baby (three months) is it still 2-3 ounces a day of soup or is it more?
When do I try ground meat instead of soup? Do I put pieces of ground meat in his soup?
When can I try a chicken drumette or thigh?

[LindaM]

Kits will often eat several times the adult averages. So no, that isn't quite enough, especially if you are anywhere that is going into winter right now. A rule I generally applied when feeding kits was that if the bowl is licked clean, then chances are somebody might not have eaten their fill, but if there was a bite or two remaining at the time I changed meals, then everyone had the chance to eat enough.

Perhaps give it another day of perfect soup success (no kibble at all), and then try some ground meat, either as is or with a bit of warm (not hot or it cooks) water to make it mushier. If he takes to that without issues, try some slivers or even chunks.

Since yours is a kit.. they shouldn't be giving you any real troubles to switch, though you do get the odd one or two now and then. You can always try any stage at any time right off the bat, and if it doesn't work, then you can take a step back and try a slower method or a previous step.
So toss a chicken wing at baby and see what he'll do (wing is easier to start, weight-bearing bones are often too tough and ferrets will ignore them unless smashed some). If he seems to show no interest, try smashing the wing up a bit.

holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/18359/smashing-bone-beginner-ferrets

[mermaidsirena]

Awesome video assistance - thanks. We will keep at the soup and move toward wings this weekend when we buy them for watching football (LOL). Similar to soup which I warm just slightly as it is in a fridge, I will warm the ground meat and see what he does. It is so much fun to see him finally enjoying what I would think is an awesome ferret meal. I do seriously enjoy hand feeding him so I hope to keep a bit of that like the video was showing.

The licked clean bowl was really, really clean so I will watch that closer. I bit nervous during the work day right now. It was a long weekend so I was able to watch closer. I am looking forward to Saturday when I will feel more comfortable not giving kibble.

Thanks, so much. Didn't mean to highjack the post but wanted to keep my ferret fed but heading to healthy.

[Sherry]

With warming, don't use a microwave. Either put in a baggie in some warm water, or even better leave in a baggie on the counter for an hour until room temperature.

[mermaidsirena]

Hmm - will have to plan on how to have it on the counter and not gross out my family -- they are still adjusting to the raw thing and soup looks ...... gross. They will actually handle the raw meat better! Is there any reason I can't just serve cold?

OH -- and another great morning but the bowl was empty before noon so my hubby put wet kibble out. It was only nibbled at (hurray!) but did eat some. I have given three ounces tonight as the two morning ounces weren't enough.

[LindaM]

Usually the raw will come from a batch of frozen for most of us. We buy the meat, prep and weigh the meals, and then store them in the freezer and just thaw as we need. Microwaving to defrost ends up cooking the edges of the meat, and using hot water to thaw or warm has the same result. Some will thaw in the fridge overnight, my fridge will actually have the food still half frozen the next day, so we thaw on the counter overnight (granted our home is kept to a temperature around 70F).

You can serve the soup/meat cold from the fridge, but in my experience at least with my lot, they prefer it to have warmed to room temperature first, unless it's on a hot day in which case the nice cool food will help cool them down. Some fuzzies also don't seem to actually mind the temperature of their food.

[mermaidsirena]

I did similar last weekend when I made the soup but I kept the week's worth unfrozen to have ready to keep trying him with it.
I used a mini muffin container and have a large ziplock bag full of meat muffins. Not sure how long one will take to defrost but will have to try it tonight for tomorrow because he is now finishing the unfrozen portion.

This morning, out of the three ounces only about three ferret bites were left in the bowl!! I gave him 2.4 ounces this morning and tried to spoon feed but he wasn't interested. He was more interested in eating it from the bowl. I am Happy Ferret Dancing!!!

Now -- I did purchase the two 'good' dry foods to mix. I wanted dry food backup for when we take a trip and need someone to watch him. Also, I live in hurricane land here and we do lose power and might have difficulty getting/keeping raw meet every once in a while. How do I keep him familiar with this dry food but continue on this raw meat journey? I saw the chart of 'alternate meals' and have printed that. Since I am only just beginning the move toward raw and will not be traveling much until December I think I will be able to figure it out by then. Just wanted to put the question out there.

Oh, I am so loving this way of keeping him healthy. Thanks for all the help!!

[Sherry]

Honestly I would get some freeze dried raw for the instances you are talking about and get him used to that instead.

[LindaM]

As Sherry said, keeping a bag or two of Freeze-Dried Raw is going to be your best bet. I keep some FDR in my house as back-ups as well and offer a meal or two of it during the week to just keep them used to it. I prefer to Stella & Chewy's as my commercial portion of their diet. But there are other brands, be wary, as not all of them are balanced or good enough. You want to have one that is ideally 95% meat or higher, and never, ever go below 90% because the percentage of indigestibles is pretty high at that stage. Certain brands may look highly promising.. like Vital Essentials, now while I love them for their treats.. their frozen and FDR are not balanced at all, as they use at least 45% organ content per product, much too high for a wee ferret who needs only 10% of their diet to be organs.

[mermaidsirena]

I did buy two different Stella & Chewy's but I tried it before the soup and he didn't touch it. I followed the directions and watered it down but still he turned his nose.

I'll try it again maybe this weekend when I have more observation time myself.

Maybe this weekend I can update my profile with a picture, footer, etc. Then we are more human/animal than just the avatar!

[LindaM]

If you have any troubles with it or struggle to get it accepted at all, just let me know and I can walk you through some tips on getting it to be better accepted by fuzzy.