Gg's Switching Thread / FireAngel

[FireAngel]

Oh and you can sprinkle the meat with bone meal while working on bones

[Gg]

Oooooh man you changed my whole way of seeing that chart! lol I feel like a doof haha
Thank you so much! Okay so I would totally love to do whole prey but what if they dont eat all the parts? does that also effect the chart?

[FireAngel]

You can start with mice and quail. Mice are generally too small for the to eat around organs or anything though they may leave the stomach and intestines generally all the parts get eaten starting with the head!. Quail may be a good start since they already like it but mice and quail sure the easiest to start with for sure. If you notice they are eating around something all the time feeding an organ soup is not out of the question.

[Gg]

Okay! So leave the whole mouse in tact.. can i pour some soup on it to encourage them to eat?
I know at first they wont eat the whole thing, atleast i think.. but if they dont, still give them their normal soup?

[FireAngel]

Sure you could dip the mouse in the soup to get them started. I would see how much of the mouse they eat before deciding to give them soup afterwards. They will eat less food food than they will soup. It will be a trail and error plus being hungry when something new is introduced can only help! Lol

[Gg]

I tried the mouse! I covered it in some soup and let the boys lick it. They didn't like it lol i think since it was big, they wanted to ignore it and keep licking the soup. so I mashed it with my spoon and some insides got out and when it mixed with the soup, they didn't want it anymore. They did eat bison grind, however! That's a first since they hate red meat. Our soup today is an ounce of bison grind mixed with 8 ounces chicken thigh, 1/2 chicken liver and 2 chicken hearts. I'm going to pull out another mouse and try cutting it up to mask it Hopefully that'll work.

[FireAngel]

Is the bison grinds a complete grind? Does it contain organs and bone also? If it does just adding an ounce is fine, if it it is just the muscle meat you should minus the ounce from the chicken so it would only be 7 ounces of chicken instead of eight.
Cutting up the mouse is a great idea to start with. Maybe use the legs like you do the quail wings. You're doing great!

[Gg]

I’m not sure if it contains bone in the grinds but I did chop up the little mouse today and the limbs were eaten! the head, tail and whatever that white bubble thing Inside the body was tossed! They seem freaked out by the stringy was of the intestines but it might’ve been the taste also. They caught me on that in the beginning so I used the soup to disguise it and it somewhat worked. I’m about to pick up some other organ meats tomorrow including brain since that was a hit. If I pick up a frozen rat, how do I go about gutting it so they don’t have to deal with the poop tract? Lol

[Gg]

I've been giving the ferrets blended quail body with chicken thigh, liver, heart and doing the quail wing spoon again.
Momo is loosing interest in eating the soup but he'll kind of take the wing but not as willingly as before and it worries me. This soup is thicker though so I'm hoping maybe he's getting full faster. I'm not sure.

Appa's eating well with the soup but last night the ate the quail wing in large bites. Hes done this before and was fine but just now he peed on the puppy pad and ran to the rug where he licks himself after he pees and I heard what sounded like a fart so I lifted him up to wipe his stomach down and he had a small goop of yellow mucus-y diarrhea on his tail. It was somewhat bubbly too. Should I be worried? Other than that he's acting more normal than last week and eating well. They did just get salmon oil with their teeth brushing yesterday too.

[FireAngel]

I'm sorry I did miss that you replied again on the 18th! For the rats, take a sharp knife and cut a small hole at the rib cage, pull the skin up and try to cut just deep enough to puncture the skin and not the stomach or intestines. Then you just use that hole to slice down the rest of the body and pull out the stomach and intestines. I found this is easier when the rat is still partially frozen.
Since they do not like the intestines or the stomach of the mice and you are cutting up for switching right now anyway you can just remove them before trying to give it to them if you would like.

I did not realize appa was still chewing and I did not realize it was on anything before. I thought it was just that he was making a chewing motion like they do when in pain. If he is actually chewing things like fabric you may want to either take all fabric away or switch a jean like material.

How has appas poop been since that episode? If they have been normal just keep a watchful eye on them. If not we may need to try and eliminate proteins one at a time to see if he is developing an allergy to one. Chicken allergies are not uncommon in ferrets and they have been on chicken soup for a long time now. Have you ever made the entire soup base from other proteins?
Have you found out about the bone content in the grinds yet?

[Gg]

It's alright! is it less bloody/messy while frozen? Ya know, I just got done making their first batch of soupie that didn't have chicken thigh as the staple. This time it's 4 quail bodies to make up the 7 ounces and 1 ounce of lamb grinds. They've only had soup that didn't have any poultry a handful of times and they didn't like it. Now that we've been throwing in some red meats for this long though, they're coming around so it's time to switch it up
Yes Appa chews on practically everything D: They get the expensive denim duvets and custom denim hammocks (made by yours truly). I feel bad for Momo because he loves soft faux fur blankets but Appa can't resist :/
Winters are especially hard with how cold my room gets. Any chance I lay down there with my warmer blankets, Momo comes running and bundles up and we have to hide it from Appa lol.
His poops firmed up, actually! I think he's feeling much better. Idk what caused it, though. He did get the quail wing and it didn't seem like he chewed it all the way. I thought it coulve been a blocked from that but there's nothing weird in his poops now.
Momo did something weird just now after he peed. It seemed like he was army crawling across the floor and looked like he was still trying to pee, even though he was 3 feet away from the puppy pad.
His back leg looked stiff in a way that reminded me of his first sign of insulinoma. It only lasted for less than a minute.
He gets his .4 ml of prednisolone at 8:10-20 every morning and night so this happened right after he got his little soupie/medicine mix.
I've heard ferrents mention their little insulinoma babies living many years after diagnosed with cancer but for some reason Momo seems like he's been aging faster in these last 4 weeks. He's lost some weight this last week from him not eating as much as before. He throws tantrums after a few spoonfuls. How many ounces do ferrets usually eat in one sitting if they get fed every 5-6 hours/ 4-5 times a day? I have to feed Momo more often than Appa since he doesn't eat a whole lot in one sitting.
When he gets to the vet, is there any tests you suggest I ask for from these symptoms? I know they're new but we just upped Momos meds from .3 ml to .4 in december when he was only diagnosed in october.

[FireAngel]

Def keep having them check his sugar regularly, it is possible he will need another dose adjustment. It is also possible that he will need an added medication called diazoxide to help keep him stable. Pred can effect behavior and make them more aggressive and less patient as can adrenal. If an implant is not helping his aggression it just maybe a side effect of the president or a change in him as he gets older and less tolerant.
Loki (my insulinoma boy) was very aggressive until recently and would not tolerate any of the others getting close to him. He is now too weak most of the time to lash out at them though he still tries, he is just too slow for them now. Loki was diagnosed in June of 2016 only a few weeks of him being with me, no one knows how long he had it and it went untreated for so his med doses increased quickly and often until we maxed him out and he just never gets above 40.

How is momos urine? His prostate could be enlarged and causing a restriction.

[FireAngel]

Oh and. Yes it is way less messy and less smelly too if you do accidentally puncture the intestestines or stomach.

[Gg]

I have a bg test at my house and he’s pulling about 140 all the time. Even appa had 140 this week which I’m really happy about but he doesn’t have a des implant so I’m working on saving up for that. I feel like Momo is going to need a full panel done when he goes in so the next visit will be focused on appa..
Momos urine has some yellow to it but it’s mainly clear. He pees every time he wakes up too. He’s definitely too slow for appa now as well but instead of hissing at him like he’d usually do, he just walks away or ignores him. Although, appa either learned to leave him alone or he’s becoming older and less obnoxious. Is Loki really small too? And does he usually have an appetite?
I don’t mind feeding mo in more sittings if he isn’t eating but some days I’m not home enough. I’m going to try using some warm water to entice him. Maybe he has to get an appetite back from having so little all last night and today.
I’ve heard about the diazoxode. I hope he doesn’t need that this soon

[Gg]

Also, is it normal for poop to have bubbles? Appa made a circle poop and it has a bubble, making it a dome. lol
sorry for the imagery.