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Post by mfouche89 on Sept 21, 2017 12:36:54 GMT -5
Today is Sept 21st (day 5) I put 3 oz thawed in front of them this afternoon and while Edge attempted to chew on a small chunk and eventually gave up, Kohaku ran off with one and I can't find it. . .so I'm not sure if he ate it or not. About 1.6oz is left and of course Biscuit stayed the longest so I'm gonna say she probably had half an oz while the other three split that oz in thirds. I worry we are on a plateau with the boys eating only a small amount but I'm not sure how to get them to eat more. I'll have to ask raw feeders or scour the transition forums for advice. I'm feeling positive about the chunks though. Might have to introduce those next batch on purpose. I guess the food processor didn't grind up the meat as throughly this batch. I think I'm gonna do 2 oz from now on and not increase the amount till they eat it all and then ask me for more. I did have Beaker and Biscuit asking me for it when I got home in the early morning hours. If there was a way to not starve them I'd love to but they aren't eating enough yet to let them be without for so long. The best I have is my husband taking the food out before he goes to bed at 9pm and some nights work keeps me away till nearly 4am. I'm not sure how to fulfill that request. I am gonna have to barricade the kitchen now though. . . Thanks to Kohaku. But I knew it was coming. He's just like that hahaha. Edit - Biscuit came back after abput 10 minutes and ate another .3oz of raw, I saw her chewing a lot so she must have been working on a chunk. This seems to be her average though. So she ate about .8-9oz today again. That's 3 days in a row. Edit 2 - Well I was just corrected. A few minutes after I edited this the first time, Edge came back for more and ate 2 mouthful chunks of meat with almost no problem. He wolfed them down and ate probably a half an oz. Beaker started watching him so once Edge walked off I gave some off my finger to beaker and he started eating again till about he'd had about a third of an oz and then he stayed away from any chunks. There was maybe any third an oz left so I ran to get Kohaku. He took it from my finger and started eating the last bit. He ate a pinky sized chunk without noticing in the process and locked the plate clean! Never mind 3 oz I think I need to go to 4 and start on slivers of meat! I was worried for no reason. ^^ To clarify Biscuit ate about an oz, Beaker and Kohaku shared an oz and then Edge ate an oz with chunks. I did t realize there was one in the middle the size of a silver dollar and he did have to chew it a little, but he ate it like a CHAMP! Mind you, this is the ferret I've had for a little over 2 months and hadn't had anything but one kind of kibble before us. I'm blown away! ♡
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Post by mfouche89 on Sept 28, 2017 14:36:42 GMT -5
It's been a while since I last posted because we have had a lot of busy days since we started and we are still going with the soupie but the kids had a vet visit yesterday and I didn't feed them raw because I couldn't fast and fees them before their appointment and my sleep schedule. I had to take my two cats in before them too so I was running about like a freak. We started back up after our day break today and even though everyone was asking me for 'breakfast' they all ate a small amount. I served 4.6oz today and all of them ate hardly half an oz. I've been having to hand feed Beaker or the past few times, he won't eat. They have more slivers in the food now but they more often than not, take them in half way and then want to run off with them. I guess I need to cut thinner slivers. They are all very sleepy today because of the shots I'm sure, so everyone is just sleeping around and not doing much of anything. They don't have fevers so I think they are ok, they just need time to rest. Hopefully every one will be in better spirits tomorrow ^^
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Post by mfouche89 on Oct 2, 2017 19:05:33 GMT -5
Today we are eating late because I'm off work and I had to help take a relative's ferret to the vet early. It's now October and as long as I constantly encourage my boys, they eat a lot longer than they used to and I don't have to keep making them come back. The four of them are all sharing about 4.6oz and when I try to up it, food doesn't get eaten up so we are sticking to the 4.6 per meal for now. They have started trying to break up/eat the slivers without really thinking now, so soon I think I'm going to try giving a side of raw organ slivers with their meal and take back the amount of soupie some more. Everyone comes to me in the kitchen now and asks me for it when days like today come around and I am feeding them in the evening instead. They are starting to look forward to it and they really enjoy it.
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on Oct 3, 2017 21:24:20 GMT -5
Your babies are so cute! Very precious the little white one enjoying laying in the grass. Read more: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/23579/biscuit-beaker-kohaku-edges-journey#ixzz4uV9OYG2XMine thinks that me being in the kitchen is all about them. In the mornings, sometimes my blaze will try to climb my pajamas like she is starving to death.LOL. I never put them to bed without supper--now whether they like what i give might be why she acts like she is so hungry.
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Post by mfouche89 on Oct 7, 2017 15:01:56 GMT -5
So it's been yet again awhile since I posted. I think I got over ambitious with the amount because there have been a few days we haven't finished the 4.6. I'm back to about 4oz and for some reason Edge needs me to nearly chase after him to start eating and he's avoiding slivers for the past 3 days. Biscuit is unchanged. She could go frankenprey right now almost because she sat and ate whole slivers of meat alone while I was prepping the soupie the other day. I don't wanna only progress her cause that's more work and right now it's hard enough making sure I have time to get things done. They are eating their fill as they first eat now though. I used to have to chase Kohaku, Edge and Beaker to come back after a bit of play cause they would hardly lap up any. Kohaku has gotten pretty good about the slivers that are a bit long and he's using his back teeth to cut it into smaller bits. Beaker still has to be hand fed but he's eating well the past few days and makes sure to tell me how happy he is by rubbing his face on my leg when he's done. I've been getting asked mostly by Beaker still about raw in the mornings when I get home from work. This morning I had Kohaku, Biscuit and Edge asking too. I need to find a way to schedule this so I make sure they don't starve buy I can't remember what the required oz per ferret per day based off of weight was...I remember when I first started here I saw something in the frankenprey posts buy I can't find it anymore. I have no way of taking the kibble back out while at work for 8-12 hours and I'm not up long enough to fast them the 2 required before raw feeding so I've gotta figure this out because they do want it pretty badly.
Anyway they have been pretty good and normal otherwise. Though Beaker has a small cold and he's sleeping it off as of the past 2 days. He's eating well and not sneezing a ton or oozy or breathing raggid so he's probably almost done with it. The others seem unphased.
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Post by mfouche89 on Oct 23, 2017 2:04:15 GMT -5
So, things are great! We are slowly transitioning the portions to 1/4 slivers and they are eating more in one sitting now than before! They are still begging me for it at early morning hours when I let them out after working and it's become a work in progress to get them on a 12-hour schedule. We have had 3 feedings, one was to start in the AM of yesterday- then they were begging for food after only 10 hours so I fed them out of worry they wouldn't be able to wait. Then they slept about till about an hour ago when I fed them for the 3rd time without leaving any kibble or fasting them from it beforehand. We haven't touched kibble in over 24 hours!!! They are currently eating about 5oz all together and Biscuit seems to be the biggest chowhound of them all, but everyone (Including Beaker too) is taking the small slivers/chunks and chewing them smaller to swallow. I've gone ahead and pre portioned many meals and quick thaws for the ninja processor I bought last week (I LOVE IT OMG) so we are good to go! While I was sitting doing prep in the kitchen this past night though (about 10pm) Biscuit did come to beg for chicken thighs. I fed her about half an oz and she left satisfied. I'm thinking of telling my husband to put a few bits of chicken out for her over the time he goes to bed and I come home from work- just in case she needs it, but I'm thinking that's probably an overreaction and I'm just being over protective.
Also as a note, I don't make my soupie actual cream like in consistency, I'm making it more like a thick mashed potato. I know the instructions mentioned a cream like substance but they like this better.
I'm only 3 prepped portions away from finishing off the chicken hearts I got at the local farm, but I went out of town to the city where I work and I found beef, chicken and pig heart at the asian food markets, as well as all sorts of whole fish and the like. I'm excited to let them try beef heart. I'm hoping it won't taste too different and they will like it. I'm also relieved to find a source that isn't shut down for business from November to March. Hopefully after we are done with these portions I have prepped, we can work on starting with bones and then on to frankenprey! =D
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Post by mfouche89 on Oct 23, 2017 13:47:16 GMT -5
Wow we hit the 48 hour mark and boy they have been hangin about playing and just walking the house for over an hour and a half. They played hard when I let them out and when I went to feed them they almost vaccummed it up. We did 5.5oz today and the boys got to it before I could go snatch biscuit up and it was almost gone! I force thawed another oz and she ate that alone. So looks like we are going to 6.5oz this morning when I get off work! So happy to see them doing so well like this. They are digesting/absorbing so much of it they aren't making as much mess in their litter pan. It's really good to see. Everyone is acting normal other than that. I'm ecstatic!
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Post by mfouche89 on Oct 27, 2017 3:41:45 GMT -5
So it looks like we have a constant amount for feeding at this time. They don't want to share more than 4oz when I feed them in the early morning hours (after I get off work) and then during the daytime they always want at least 7oz to share. It seems like Beaker and Kohaku don't eat as much, but I just made a new batch and I halved the water amount to make it more like fine chunks and also made half the meal pinky nail sized pieces of chicken. They are getting very good at eating till they are done and everyone is starting to show signs of healthier digestion. They are still some wet small poops, but everyone's pee is getting lighter and they seem to be getting more energetic and trying to do new things. Beaker has recently taken to playing on his own a few times now, which in my year of having him, he never did. We also have had a few climbing adventures to places normally they never seemed to be able to reach before. Kohaku is more collected and his energy is more decisively placed now, which is interesting to see him just want to look around and walk about. Anyway I've gone ahead and ordered a meat grinder, so soon we will start grinding bone into the meals. Something I am very happy for, because I don't feel like we should keep doing eggshells if we can help it and they've been eating nothing but raw for 5 days in a row now. Hopefully it doesn't take long and the next batch I make can have some ground bones in it =D
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Post by mfouche89 on Oct 29, 2017 13:08:22 GMT -5
Today marks 1 week of raw! Everyone's starting to really catch on to the slivers/chunks of meat and I might try to go for 2/3rds the next meal and see how it goes! I got a lot of dirty looks this morning when they had their 4oz meal, they wanted more. I might try to make it 5oz. We are also going to try branching out to pork hearts the next meal too! Hopefully that goes well. I weighed everyone today and they were kibble fed when they got weighed at the vet's office last saturday so they hadn't eaten much I'm guessing. They weigh in pounds there, so I went with pounds. Beaker last week was 2.7lbs and today he was 2.11! Biscuit was 1.4 last week and she was 1.8 today! Edge was 3.2 last week and today he was 3.4! Kohaku was 2.3 last week and today he was 2.7! Everyone's getting fed and keeping the weight on which is WONDERFUL! Also, Biscuit and Kohaku's stools are starting to get more like they were with kibble, and though they still reek, it's good to see less watery stool. Everyone seems to be in good health and I'm excited to see how long the transition to frankenprey goes from here!
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Post by mfouche89 on Nov 10, 2017 1:15:58 GMT -5
Well it sure has been a bit and I'm having a bit of a rough patch. I still am doing about half slivers, half puree. I changed out the Chicken Hearts for Pig Hearts and in the same amounts, it gave Edge and Beaker tummy aches although Biscuit and Kohaku were just fine. I had to rush to the store and buy Gizzards with hearts and prey I had enough to feed them a few days before I could resupply with just Chicken heart. I have changed it back to all chicken and I'm scared to try any other animal now... We did try Chicken neck and now I've got a hand crank meat grinder so I've replaced the eggshell with actual Chicken bone. Beaker has been acting up really bad today and today was kinda a slow go day. We all played super hard the night before so I'm guessing this is why. But Beaker has been making his bathroom breaks all over the kitchen floor and the middle of the hallway (while there is paper in the corner of the kitchen near him, as well as the hallway corners are all lined.) He also went in front of our front door on carpet when I went out to talk to my husband as he smoked a cigarette...so I opened the door and made it spread across the floor. He makes mistakes sometimes, but this is a message and I'm not too sure what he's getting at here. Not over 6 times in a day. With the Pig heart he refused to eat so he lost a little weight, I need to weigh them again, but he's eating his fill each meal and running off before it's all gone so I haven't increased the meals by much. They are eating the low end for the boys and my girl is eating the max and is always left licking the plate clean and cleaning up chunks no one else ate. Kohaku is just the same through this all. I haven't seen any real changes in him other than he seems to have more control over his energy. He's calmer and more decisive, but that could also be him hitting his 2 year old mark. ~shrug~ I have dabbled with the recipe a little because of the Chicken necks, but it didn't add much meat and now that we've been eating the actual Chicken bone with marrow, everyone's stools are getting more solid and more consistently the same color! Still nasty smelling though! Yuck! Dx Anyway that's all I can think of right now... Oh and here is a cute picture of my baby Edge with a bowtie G'night!
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Post by Sherry on Nov 10, 2017 11:01:40 GMT -5
Sorry you've been neglected here! It sounds like he's been protesting pooping over the pig heart lol. Best bet for that is to puree JUST the pig heart alone and start like you would with a transtition. Finger feed, and then spoon feed from your lap. You are doing well so far. If they are at the point of eating half slivers and half soup, start slowly increasing the size of the pieces they are getting. Just add in maybe a half dozen larger pieces until they are accepting them. With your girl try giving her JUST small chunks and see how she does. If she accepts that, then try chopping up the chicken necks alone and give those. Again, if she accepts them you are well on your way
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Post by mfouche89 on Dec 5, 2017 2:55:42 GMT -5
Sorry you've been neglected here! It sounds like he's been protesting pooping over the pig heart lol. Best bet for that is to puree JUST the pig heart alone and start like you would with a transtition. Finger feed, and then spoon feed from your lap. You are doing well so far. If they are at the point of eating half slivers and half soup, start slowly increasing the size of the pieces they are getting. Just add in maybe a half dozen larger pieces until they are accepting them. With your girl try giving her JUST small chunks and see how she does. If she accepts that, then try chopping up the chicken necks alone and give those. Again, if she accepts them you are well on your way She most definitely will eat just chunks and chicken neck chopped into slices. I'm sorry I haven't been on. I've had a lot of stress on me because of Thanksgiving and trying to balance a part time job and housework with little self rest. I'm starting to lose grip on reality. I've got them on 70% slices and the organs and a small amount of chicken ground now. I need to start with organ slices now, don't I?
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Post by mfouche89 on Dec 5, 2017 3:06:42 GMT -5
I broke down today. Most recently I've been trying to keep up with the food transition and have it ready to feed them. I have been juggling a job that is over an hour commute, housework (which is hardly getting done) and to have any thought on what to give relatives for the holidays. Beaker got into a piece of floor jerky (someone ran off with chicken and stashed it in the carpeted areas of the house.) so he was feeling sick and vomited up foam 2 nights ago and I nearly lost it. He slept almost non stop for 24 hours and seemed a pitiful heap, not taking the urges to play with his brothers when they clearly all wanted to play... So I freaked out. I almost quit today... I think I'm stuck. I'm afraid to move forward and I feel immense stress because I don't want to stop and I also don't feel like I have what it takes to keep up. I cried and cried and my husband said I need to keep going because it's what I really want. I think I just need guidance. I shouldn't have done this without a mentor but I've always tried to be that headstrong person who can do it with information alone. I need help... I was terrified that Beaker was having issues with not eating the food properly, and yet here he is roaming about and being himself again. I jumped the gun on being worried. I guess I couldn't help it. My other 3 kids act fine, so I didn't know what to think. I just can't seem to find time for myself in all this work work work and the raw feeding is work and I almost feel like I'm not there for them because I'm prepping all the time and I don't have room to make huge pre portioned meals and save them in the freezer... The other day my husband bought cases and cases of meats on a spur of the moment and all I could think of is how I have no room for their food all of a sudden. Not even the meager amount I had in there was left with much room.
I want to keep going. I just feel like I'm burnt out. Can someone help me see this as a roadbump? Cause I feel like I'm losing it.
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Post by Sherry on Dec 5, 2017 9:24:30 GMT -5
I understand fully where you are coming from. When I was first transitioning I had one who actually choked on some ground meat. Scared the bejeepers out of me. I almost called it off then and there. It is really scary when something happens. Try to remember that ferrets will actually panic themselves. If anything happens, from getting a bit caught in the teeth, to choking, to even a hair caught in the throat they start coughing, they can then get scared, and actually make themselves vomit from panic. Which in turn since vomiting isn't normal they actually panic, which causes more vomiting, repeat. They physically exhaust themselves. If you can interrupt that cycle it really helps. Even picking them up, and dabbing a bit of rescue remedy on a nose can help distract them. Granted if something is caught you may need to do more depending on the issue. With the cases of meat he bought. Can you partially defrost just ONE box, portion, baggie and refreeze? Then a day or two later once one box is done, start another defrosting. If you can get one box down at a time it will become more manageable. Get hubby to help with the chopping. You don't need to cut to portion sizes(slivers, etc) right now. Just enough in a baggie for a day or two. You can recut as needed. Right now in my freezer I have pork steaks whole each in a baggie. Chicken necks are 3 to a bag. When I defrost for a meal I chop them then. Takes 2 or 3 minutes. What I need to know is exactly where they are diet wise. Size of slices, size of organ bits, etc. TBH for organs, I actually puree and give that way I'll keep a very close eye on this thread so you aren't alone
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Post by mfouche89 on Dec 5, 2017 13:16:03 GMT -5
Sadly the cases of meat were human food. A local door to door salesman caught him outside from a meat company and he bought way too much at once. (we don't have a big freezer) so it made having my kids' food harder. I puree my organs too (the heart, liver, and the chicken neck is ground with a meat grinder) and mix it in with slivers of chicken thigh about the length and width of my pinkey (5cm L x 1cm W) and right now about 70% of the chicken is slivers, the rest goes into the ninja blender and gets ground up (no water in any of my recipe!). I'm still gauging the right amount of chicken neck. Their stool is more solid with the chicken neck and it's actually absorbing into them (the eggshell was coming right back out which is why I got the grinder and necks asap) Right now my mixes are multiple of the old soupie mix portions without water. 8oz of chicken to 1oz heart and 1oz liver. But instead of bone meal or eggshell we have 1.5oz of ground chicken neck (with the meat) and about 1/8 of a tsp salmon oil. I think I'm going to up it to 2oz per portioning of food. What I do with my portions once I have blended, cut and mixed them, is stick it in a giant bowl and I have reusable baggies I got online from a CA company so I was wasting less plastic, and I portion two meals per day (one 8oz and one 7oz) and they always seem to have leftover so I have a stainless steel bowl I put in the cage with a kids placemat on the shelf for them to eat off of when they pull the slivers out to chew. (we have fleece liners) Most of the time it's gone when I feed the next meal- sometimes it's still there, or mostly still there. So I am not worried they are getting enough food at least. If I have a small amount of food mix leftover from portioning I will put it in any baggie I can find and hold onto it in case they manage to eat their entire meal at the time I give it, and then I put the extra in the cage to make sure they aren't still hungry all night or day.
Part of me was thinking of not going full frankenprey and just keeping this mix. I already brush their teeth once a week with enzymatic toothpaste and the vet said they had good teeth...
I don't know.
Personally I hold onto a days worth of premade baggies and pull one from the freezer for the 12hours before the next meal. But so far I've only pre made a few days at a time, and I was deboning and skinning the thighs myself to keep costs down, but I think it was only adding to my stress (I'd sit for hours just prepping the chicken) and I'm trying to look for sales on thighs now for boneless skinless. I store my organ meat and chicken necks in the freezer, and right now I'm grinding the entire pack of necks as soon as I get it (exception of when I first got it and gave them all slices of neck to try) and portioning them in wrapped bundles of parchment paper of 1.5oz portions. I weigh and portion out my hearts to 1oz, and same for the livers when I get them. Immediately into the freezer pre portioned and I pull the amount I need the day before for making more food. Making the food after it's been pre portioned doesn't take long. It's more the prep of the thighs that was messing with the stress levels. I also keep worrying about freak power outages but that doesn't happen much here, so I don't know why I think about it every so often.
Umm... Other than that, I'm not really sure what I should write about. I keep thinking of giving them cut chicken wing in their food replacing some of the thigh to up the bone intake, but I'm not sure...
{edit} Do you think I could feed them Chicken Feet as a treat to up the bone in their diet?
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