stacylo
Junior Member
Raw Feeder
Posts: 225
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Post by stacylo on Dec 6, 2017 17:08:35 GMT -5
Alright. So. They DID eat the chicken wings. But now my question is this. They usually eat between 6 and 8 ounces a day.
Let's take chicken wings as an example.
Day 1 AM - I give them 3.5 ounces. They eat 1 oz. Day 1 PM - I fill it back up to 3.5 oz including old stuff plus new stuff. They eat 1.5 oz. Day 2 AM - I throw it all out and give them 3.5 more ounce of chicken wing. They eat 1 oz. Day 2 PM - I fill it back up to 3.5 oz and they eat 1.8 oz. Day 3 AM - I put out 4 oz of chicken heart. It's all gone by two hours before the PM meal is due as though they were starving to death.
Wahhhhhhhhh. Do I stay with the chicken wing until they eat a full meal of it? Sorry. This shouldn't be so complicated for me I'm sure. :/
EDITED TO ADD: Sorry, I just remembered another question I wanted to ask. I've noticed over time that Rogue is pretty consistently constipated. She poops itty bitty poops and will go try to go to the bathroom 2 or 3 times before she goes. She's not stressed about it and doesn't seem to be in pain and I'm not concerned about a blockage because this has been consistent for awhile now. When I give her organ meals or muscle meat they clear up. But is it okay for me to give her a tbsp of pumpkin once a week just to keep her in the clear? Or will salmon oil do the trick? It just seems like she needs or can handle less bone than Calamity can and not sure what to do to keep her not backed up.
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Post by Sherry on Dec 7, 2017 10:04:42 GMT -5
Don't forget stools are MUCH smaller on raw. Are they hard and crumbly? That is a sign of constipation. And the lazy sods are being lazy sods lol. How many wing meals in a row did they get?
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stacylo
Junior Member
Raw Feeder
Posts: 225
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Post by stacylo on Dec 7, 2017 10:10:36 GMT -5
They got 4 wing meals in a row. They'll eat rabbit bone in like they've never eaten before as well. So I done think it's about bone in vs muscle meat (also because lamb is not their fav either).
And I don't think Rogue's poops are dry so much. I'll take a pic the next time she goes. They're much smaller than Calamity's but she's a smaller ferret and definitely eats less. She just will stand in the litter box like she's going for a split sec then change her mind and walk away. She'll do this a few times before she goes.
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Post by Sherry on Dec 7, 2017 10:14:08 GMT -5
Unless her stools are actually dry odds are that is what's normal for her And it sounds like chicken simply isn't a favoured meal. Mine aren't that fond of it either. Can you access turkey necks at all? I have to cleaver the bejeepers out of them, but they do eat them.
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stacylo
Junior Member
Raw Feeder
Posts: 225
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Post by stacylo on Dec 7, 2017 11:42:46 GMT -5
I saw turkey necks the week after Thanksgiving but the butcher said that it isn't normal to have them all that often. I've been considering ordering online for consistency sake. I'll add turkey necks to the list. I hate to pay the shipping but I'd like for them to eat a wider variety of things than they are now.
I'm also having a hard time finding any turkey at all that doesn't include rosemary extract and I know that's a no no.
What's strange is that they used to eat tons of chicken wings. I almost wonder if it's the latest batch (all from the same store) that I have that's the issue. I usually buy chicken wings two pounds at a time then portion it out and freeze it. Just like everything else. So maybe I'll try one more batch and then move away from chicken wings if it doesn't work. I was hoping I could strong arm them into eating what I give them. But. Nope. LOL.
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Post by Sherry on Dec 8, 2017 8:14:57 GMT -5
Leave them off for a month or so and see how they do. How do they do with dark meat, as in drum sticks? That can be one or two bone meals if you can get them to eat most of the bone. With mine i have to break tge bone in a few places. Cornish hen is also an option for a couple of meals if they are refuaing the wings. Online however may indeed be your best bet for variety. If you have the space make sure you get a full box as I believe you pay the same shipping rate whether full or half full if I remember correctly.
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stacylo
Junior Member
Raw Feeder
Posts: 225
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Post by stacylo on Dec 9, 2017 14:29:14 GMT -5
We recently bought a separate freezer chest more as a token to my marriage than anything hahaha. My husband one day was like "the freezer is just too full!" and I tried to play on his engineering side and said, "yeah but it's more energy efficient this way". He said "but I can't find anything" so I asked, "Would you rather I buy a separate freezer for ferret food??" and he said, "yes, yes I would". So 200 dollars and 10 days later we have a freezer chest! LOL. I haven't tried chicken legs with them yet. For some reason I thought weight bearing bones were a no go. I'll get some the next time we go out. We got 11 inches of snow and are currently house bound. May not be until tomorrow that we can get out. (Asheville, NC doesn't get much snow usually so there's no plows, etc.). I've also wondered about cornish hens. I'll grab a couple of those too. And yeah, I've been looking at a big order online. They appear to be backing down from 6 to 8 oz a day to 5 to 7 oz a day. They're just over 5 months so I imagine that's normal. I suspect Rogue will end up being a super light eater when she's older. Calamity not so much. They took liver by the spoon very well today. I didn't even have to lightly scruff them. I do have a question though. And it may sound REALLY stupid. But they get this kind of quail: imgur.com/a/hWRSH How can I tell if it has liver still in it? When I chop it up it has a fair amount of red stuff but I kind of thought that was just muscle or something. So I guess my ultimate question is, if there is liver in the quail (which I can't figure out if there is) then am I over doing liver?
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Post by Sherry on Dec 10, 2017 9:20:57 GMT -5
Not stupid at all! But no- those are "ready to cook" means all the innards are removed With weight bearing bones it is going to depend on the ferret. Mine will eat most of a chicken thigh or drumstick, but I do have to break them up somewhat. Usually there is only an inch or two of the middle of the bone left.
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stacylo
Junior Member
Raw Feeder
Posts: 225
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Post by stacylo on Dec 12, 2017 10:09:20 GMT -5
Okay cool! I've bought some chicken legs and will serve them at their next bone-in meal and see what happens. I'm super proud of them today though! I had put out lamb muscle meat which is what I mostly used to move them over to raw but then they were less sold on it and weren't eating it. So I've stuck to the whole fill the plate back up to the top if they don't eat it and so Monday morning I added more lamb to the tiny amount they ate and then by the time I got home from work yesterday it was all gone! I wonder if they're starting to figure out that they don't get a change until they eat their food!
I watched Rogue do the whole find a litter box, not actually go, then go find another litter box and not actually go, but when she did finally go it was definitely not a constipated poop because she had been eating muscle meat. So I think you're right and that's just her routine. She doesn't appear to be stressed out or bothered by it. If anything it seems like she doesn't want to miss out on the excitement but still has to go to the bathroom so she goes to go and then forgets and runs off. Then comes back etc. LOL.
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Post by Sherry on Dec 13, 2017 10:15:18 GMT -5
Sounds like a ferret lol
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stacylo
Junior Member
Raw Feeder
Posts: 225
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Post by stacylo on Dec 15, 2017 21:15:24 GMT -5
So knock on wood but we've had a really good several days with feeding! They have consistently eaten their food for the last four days with no battles. It's been lovely! I'm sure there will be more ups and downs but this break has been nice.
Turns out they love chicken legs so I'll go with them instead of chicken wings and see what happens. They're eating lamb chunks and turkey chunks on their own which is nice because getting back to muscle meat (besides heart) has been tricky.
The only thing that isn't balanced is that I don't have another organ meat besides chicken heart and chicken liver. So I was going to do an online order and get the following list. Is there anything else I should consider ordering?
Turkey grind Ground beef Chunked duck Turkey necks Pork kidneys Ground turkey
I can get chicken, quail, duck, and rabbit locally. I suppose I can get pork locally too but I figure they won't eat the bone.
I sort of figure I should expose them to as much stuff as I can possibly figure out while they're still young? That way they'll eat stuff later? I've also been wanting to add some FDR into the occasion just to have at some emergency moment or when traveling or something. I haven't thrown that back in the mix yet but I would be REALLY surprised if they don't turn their nose up to it like they did starting the week after they were introduced to raw.
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Post by Sherry on Dec 16, 2017 9:16:41 GMT -5
Yep, give as much variety now while they'll take it. Let's work at getting the new proteins into menu now. Any particular reason you want to use turkey grind instead of something like turkey drumsticks(just cut the meat off). Same for beef. And if you can get the pork locally give them some chunks of cheap cuts as a muscle meat. Myself, I rotate between chunks of turkey, pork, beef, lamb, and goat. Are you interested in getting them onto whole prey?
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stacylo
Junior Member
Raw Feeder
Posts: 225
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Post by stacylo on Dec 16, 2017 9:56:30 GMT -5
I hadn't thought about turkey legs for muscle meat. Good idea! And the turkey grind was for bone in meals since they won't eat turkey bones.
Isn't ground beer cheaper than other beef varieties? That was my only thinking. I don't eat much beef so there's a good chance I have no idea what I'm talking about.
As for whole prey at this point I don't think I want to. My husband is squeamish and supportive of frankenprey but putting a whole dead animal in the ferret food spot seems like an entirely different ball game. I'm not sure how I'd do with having whole dead animals stored in the freezer, etc. I was a vegetarian for several years and while I've made a lot of progress away from it I'm not sure how whole prey would go.
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Post by Sherry on Dec 17, 2017 10:07:27 GMT -5
Okay, thanks for the clarification. I was thinking it was straight mean grind, not bone in mince. As for regular ground beef, yes it is usually cheaper. But I have found chunks of beef(even cheap stewing beef) are better accepted. And not a problem on the whole prey. You never have to do it. I was refusing for the longest time, until my heart ferret Boris was diagnosed with IBD. Mice etc helped so I made myself get used to the idea. I look back at how squeamish I was and laugh at myself
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stacylo
Junior Member
Raw Feeder
Posts: 225
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Post by stacylo on Dec 21, 2017 11:09:54 GMT -5
Yeah I could see at some point making the switch over but frankeyprey is plenty right now haha. My online order will be arriving today and I'm super excited! As far as introducing new meats (such as turkey necks, etc.) should I introduce a new one and wait a few more weeks before introducing another new one? Or is it okay to introduce multiple new ones over the course of a few days?
Of the list of things that I've ordered they haven't had any of it before besides duck.
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