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Post by Aftershock on Oct 4, 2017 23:14:47 GMT -5
Still going well?
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Post by bishop24 on Oct 5, 2017 14:54:23 GMT -5
The ferrets are doing well. My husband isn’t 😢 He has been dizzy, confused and his vision is all messed up. He fainted so we went to the hospital yesterday but they couldn’t find anything. He is worse today. We are going to our GP today to see if we can get some more tests done. The ferrets cheer him up and give him something good to think about. But its difficult making sure they are getting enough to eat when we aren’t home.
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Post by Aftershock on Oct 6, 2017 18:48:41 GMT -5
D: yikes! That is super scary! I hope your GP can figure it out for you guys. You're leaving soup with them when you are gone, right?
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Post by bishop24 on Oct 7, 2017 0:28:33 GMT -5
Phew, so my husband is ok! We think it was stress and he has strict orders to relax and not worry about his job, his boss, or his claim, just the ferrets <3 So, back to the furbits! Missy has gone back to making her funny face when she eats. We start her out on the spoon and move her to the bowl. When she makes squishy face we bring her attention back to eating with the spoon and then move it down to the bowl again. It works well, and she seems to understand that "oh right, food! Yeah that comes from the bowl!" But I still don't understand why she makes that face. Does it taste sour? Flint never makes funny faces... while he eats at least. Flint has been doing very well. He is a lot more cooperative during mealtime and hasn't made his pathetic "your killing me" face in a few days. He is catching up to missy in the amount of food he is eating. He has even started eating the dribbles of soup that have fallen on the ground all by himself!!! And I was so proud! I had some soup in the blender and was showing him where his food came from and he actually willing licked some off the side! How long does it usually take other ferrets to eat soup on their own? We did leave their bowl out when we were at the hospital and someone (probably Missy) did eat some! And question about when to throw out food. Their food had been out for a good 7 hours but it didn't smell bad. Is their food garbage only when it smells rotten or if its been out too long? I threw the old food out anyway just to be safe... but do ferrets get sick if their food is a bit off?
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Post by Aftershock on Oct 7, 2017 13:51:17 GMT -5
I hope some good R&R brings him back to full health! Sounds like it might be time to do some couples massages<3 RE Missy's squishy face- Personally, I think it's just a texture thing. Mine all do it on organ (soup) days or when they are trying something new. I promise, it's nothing to worry about<3 Great job on keeping up on not letting her get distracted! RE Flint- YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! This is so exciting to hear! Just keep it up and keep an eye out occasionally, he might surprise you by maybe being the one eating soup at night RE general time for ferrets eating on their own- So, it REALLY depends on the ferret and their health. Example- my boys took to raw the moment I brought home Croc and put it in front of them. Croc went to take off with it and Gator reacted to that. Gator was skeptical when I offered bits of raw to him before that. Cow wanted NOTHING to do with it. My determination and stubbornness had her eating frankenprey in three days after we got her home. Don't ask me how, those three days are fuzzy and I just remember being really frustrated lmao. My first Mentee had two ferrets about 2 years old- it only took them a couple of months. My other current Mentee has three ferrets, older (ages unknown) and two have insulinoma. It's been quite the battle with one, but we've finally got him eating soup on his own. I took the switch over in April. Her thread was started in February. Some switches take years, others only a few months. Don't worry, your two are progressing along FABULOUSLY. RE food time- Soups are usually good for about 6-8 hours BUT temperature can mess with this. I usually leave soup out for 12-14 hours, but my house is generally fairly cold. Wanna know something super neat? They won't eat it if it's bad There's a period of time after you feed that the bacteria swamps it, but it goes back down to safe levels. I'm foggy on exact times, but I've watched mine do it. I feed once a day, and they will eat a bunch of it the first 12 or so hours, leave it alone for a while, then go back to eating it again. If it does smell rotten, toss it. If I think something smells off, I will generally offer them a piece to see if they will eat it and go from there lmao!
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Post by bishop24 on Oct 7, 2017 19:55:52 GMT -5
Lol! I guess a ferret knows best when it comes to wether or not their food is good to eat. Our place is generally pretty warm. We face south and the instant I turn the stove on our place becomes a furnace. We don’t even use the heat in our place very much during the winter. I know that ferrets aren’t too fond of warm temperatures anyways so we try our best to make sure the temp is cool, especially when we are gone. So hopefully that works in our favour! I love your “cow” stories 😊 Makes flint seem like a softy
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Post by bishop24 on Oct 8, 2017 12:33:56 GMT -5
1. Ferret's name: Missy 2. Ferret's weight: 877g (She's my little pudge-ola!) 3. Ferret has eaten "2oz" amount on average per meal - She seems to go between eating 1.5oz and 2.5-3oz a meal 4. Stools on various proteins: Still a bit loose but don't smell nearly as bad as they usually do. 5. Activity levels: Noticing that she is starting to sleep more (going into "winter mode") but is still interactive and curious when she is awake. She is also starting to fall into more of a sleeping/waking routine with the scheduled meals (used to be awake more during the middle of the day and night when no one was around but now she is most active in the morning and evening when we are home) 6. Weekly menu: chicken soupy. We have put the slivers on hold until she is more consistent with eating out of the bowl 7. Picture of ferret from above:
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Post by bishop24 on Oct 8, 2017 12:46:12 GMT -5
1. Ferret's name: Flint 2. Ferret's weight: 1021g (lost 1 gram?!) 3. Ferret has eaten "2-2.5oz" amount on average per meal 4. Stools on various proteins Loose, not quite diarrhea but always small 5. Activity levels: Very active. Always wakes up when we are around and goes crazy for walks outside. This morning he was especially nuts and terrorized poor Missy and jumped onto the coffee table in one go 6. Weekly menu: chicken soup. Much more cooperative eating off of the spoon. I got him eating out of the bowl a few days ago but once he realized he sorta freaked out and refused to go near it. 7. Picture of ferret from above:
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Post by Aftershock on Oct 9, 2017 12:07:50 GMT -5
It's not even that they don't like warmth, I mean, their love of fleece blankets trumps their instinct to live. They can easily over heat from piling into some blankies while it's hot out -.- cold temps are just way easier to keep them in because you have less to worry about.
Bahahahahaha, Cow makes most people's ferrets look like cake walks. She is my Sassy Hissy CowyCowy2by4.
^This is a typical day at my house
Just keep it up with what you've been doing! I know it seems super repetitive and like it never gets you anywhere because they keep taking steps backward, but take heart that this is COMPLETELY normal. You and your floofs are right on track!
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Post by bishop24 on Oct 10, 2017 9:11:32 GMT -5
Omg! So hilarious 🤣 I love the setup too! I wish I had a whole room for my fur kids but we live in a one bedroom condo so we share. I’ve never heard a ferret noise like that. Is that a scream? Flint is pretty much mute except when he wants missy to play he hisses at her. Missy hardly makes a peep either aside from the occasional dook or cry when flint plays too hard. Thanks for the encouragement. I’ve creeped on other peoples switching threads and they have their ferrets eating all kinds of cool stuff and my ferrets eat soup, soup, and soup but only if we make them. I got both Flint and Missy eating off the floor by themselves! Oh and there was a big chunk of chicken thigh that little Missy gobbled up. It was both cute and terrifying! Small steps I guess.
I have a poop question. Last week their poops were better. They were larger, less frequent, and more firm but a light pink colour, sorta like the colour of their food. But they are back to smaller, diarrhea poops that are kinda frothy/mucousy and sorta a reddish brown colour. Is that normal? Is because of the variations in their batches of soup? Anyways, back to the “grind” I guess! 😂 Sorry
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Post by Aftershock on Oct 11, 2017 0:57:33 GMT -5
Bahahahaha, that's one of my favorite videos. It's kind of a scream, I consider it more of a squeak. That's not even the loudest they get. I heard banshee screaming yesterday from their room, got a bit nervous, poked my head in, and Cow was screeching at the shower curtain hooks with food on them. 😂😂😂😂😂 Thank you! Their room has been super nice❤ especially when we both had full time jobs this summer.
😃😃😃😃 I know you're a bit discouraged, but every day that passes you've managed to get them a LITTLE further❤
Smaller poops are normal- but the froth sounds odd, did you get any pictures?
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Post by bishop24 on Oct 11, 2017 10:13:47 GMT -5
Missy hates shower curtains too! Except that they don’t have food on them and she just runs like a bat outta h*ll when she hears them. Poor girl was terrified of the thunder and lightning today. She hides under the shoe chest and pokes her head out when she gets scared. Both the ferrets will eat their food off of the ground by themselves! Not ideal but it’s progress I guess. And of course I have poop pics! Missy was kind enough to go next to the litter box for me 😓
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Post by Aftershock on Oct 12, 2017 10:53:12 GMT -5
That makes me a bit thankful that Cow and Croc can't hear anything. lmao it makes life easier So, that poop doesn't look terrible. I've seen much worse The joy of the detox poops, is they can be pretty gross and weird. I would mainly be concerned with super green and bright red. If poops ever don't feel right, please post up pictures, but the first month or two I don't usually get too worked up over weird ones. What we will probably do is up their calcium source that is in the soup. You can either add more into the soup when you make it, or add a bit to what you are serving them. How's Dan doing? I hope he's getting some good relaxation!
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Post by bishop24 on Oct 13, 2017 20:00:44 GMT -5
I never thought that I would miss their toothpaste-like poops but I must say that I feel bad for my little furkids. I haven't seen anything overly green or red just messy. Except for that one time with the rubber.... So Im doing about 3/4 of a tsp of bone meal powder per soup batch (8oz chicken thighs) but Im a bit paranoid about adding too much because of Flints bladder stones. Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but there is magnesium in bone meal (Kal brand) and thats one of the things to avoid if he had struvite stones??
Thanks for asking about dan. He is doing ok. Its been difficult for him to accept being injured and not getting anything from workers comp. yet but he is getting by. He did discover something that I'd never even though about. The ferrets don't like eating off of metal! We were feeding them off of metal spoons and out of metal bowls but when he switched to a plastic spoon and a ceramic dish they magically started eating without a fuss! They have been eating by themselves now for the last day and its soooo awesome to not have to guess when they are full and fight with them to eat. Who would have known!
Another potty related issue though. The ferrets have been going to the washroom a lot and when they go it seems to take a long time, especially for Flint. It might be that they are having to pee more because they are getting extra fluids with their soup or that they are a bit constipated because they have little gooey drop poops. But we are afraid it might be more bladder stones or a partial blockage. We gave them some egg today and their poops were more solid for a while and we are taking Flint in for his checkup tomorrow with the vet. Im just insanely worried because we don't have the money right now if there is something wrong!
Anyways, I am very happy that the ferrets have taken to the meat soup. Yumyum!
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Post by bishop24 on Oct 14, 2017 17:05:30 GMT -5
So we just finished with the vet and there are no signs of more bladder stones!!! But he did have some particulate matter in his bowel and we think that it’s the bone meal because it showed up on the X-ray. I have a feeling that it was from brushing his teeth with it. He must have swallow too much of it. We are gonna give him some pumpkin when we get home to clean him out. Luckily he wasn’t blocked up, just constipated 😅
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