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Post by Charlie on May 9, 2018 19:30:16 GMT -5
Charlie definitely likes his rabbit and his egg but doesn't seem interested in his other meals but does eat some of them. I'm feeding him 4oz a day of various meats with bone in etc. but he hasn't been eating all of it like before. I measured what he was leaving. He eats between 2 and 3 oz a day tops. Should I be concerned? He's very active still and poops are good. He's always moving his stash from one spot to another, climbing up things and generally being a ferret and finding trouble! Lol. Still dooking lots when I'm playing with him or petting him.
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Post by Charlie on May 16, 2018 10:11:21 GMT -5
Any suggestions to get Charlie to eat fowl? He still doesn't seem interested in chicken, or turkey. I feel like I'm wasting food. He eats rabbit, beef and even does ok with pork riblets. He doesn't seem to like birds much.
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Post by raven on May 16, 2018 23:00:02 GMT -5
Charlie What if you start adding some of the fowl with the food that he likes by blinding it together not so much of a soup but just enough to where he can't pick it out and then adding a little more fowl each time till it's just fowl.
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Post by Charlie on May 17, 2018 16:54:01 GMT -5
Charlie What if you start adding some of the fowl with the food that he likes by blinding it together not so much of a soup but just enough to where he can't pick it out and then adding a little more fowl each time till it's just fowl. These are bone in meals, I don't know if blending bone is a good thing. I don't want to break the blender. lol Has anyone blended bones?
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Post by raven on May 17, 2018 17:13:07 GMT -5
Charlie What if you start adding some of the fowl with the food that he likes by blinding it together not so much of a soup but just enough to where he can't pick it out and then adding a little more fowl each time till it's just fowl. These are bone in meals, I don't know if blending bone is a good thing. I don't want to break the blender. lol Has anyone blended bones? I don't think you should blend the bones lol but I have read a lot of people smashing them with hammers?
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Post by Charlie on May 17, 2018 17:22:00 GMT -5
These are bone in meals, I don't know if blending bone is a good thing. I don't want to break the blender. lol Has anyone blended bones? I don't think you should blend the bones lol but I have read a lot of people smashing them with hammers? I've been using a meat clever to chop them smaller.
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Post by raven on May 17, 2018 17:41:35 GMT -5
Charlie I'm thinking it might be better to smash them in this case just to make it harder for him to pick and choose favorite parts and then once he's used to the birds you could go back to chopping them in bits? Or maybe making some kind of "bird gravy" to drizzle over the food he does like to get him used to the taste and then maybe you wont have to worry about the bone.
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Post by Charlie on May 22, 2018 0:43:53 GMT -5
Charlie I'm thinking it might be better to smash them in this case just to make it harder for him to pick and choose favorite parts and then once he's used to the birds you could go back to chopping them in bits? Or maybe making some kind of "bird gravy" to drizzle over the food he does like to get him used to the taste and then maybe you wont have to worry about the bone. I've been leaving it in his cage and he doesn't get anything else until he eats that. But if it starts smelling bad, I'll throw it out. He's been eating a bit more, but still not as much as before. By the way, how do you tag people in your post?
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Post by raven on May 22, 2018 15:38:03 GMT -5
Charlie in the little menu bar where you write you post towards the right end there's a little person with a blue shirt and an @ symbol. click that and then start typing the screen name of the person you want to tag.
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Post by LindaM on May 22, 2018 16:17:22 GMT -5
Hi! So what seems to be the issue here? From my understanding to prior posts and your posted menu for graduation as a raw feeder, Charlie was already eating chicken and turkey bone-in meats. Has he just stopped eating those suddenly or have they not been introduced to him yet?
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Post by Charlie on May 23, 2018 23:43:49 GMT -5
Hi! So what seems to be the issue here? From my understanding to prior posts and your posted menu for graduation as a raw feeder, Charlie was already eating chicken and turkey bone-in meats. Has he just stopped eating those suddenly or have they not been introduced to him yet? Yes, he was eating chicken bone in and turkey bone in but now he doesn't seem to like them as much and will leave it, moreso with the chicken. He will eat more of the turkey necks. Yes, in fact, chicken with bone in was introduced to him first as the bone in meat. Thank goodness he likes the rabbit and pork with bone in so he is still getting bones. It's mostly just the chicken he seems to be fussy about. He does eat it but not as much. I usually give him 2 oz. per serving and he only eats half now. Is it normal for them to be eating less int he spring/summer months and more in the fall/winter months?
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Post by LindaM on May 24, 2018 11:38:08 GMT -5
Yes, absolutely. In the winter ferrets will eat more and actually pick up weight, getting a little chubby. Then come the spring and summer again, they will start eating less and lose weight. They will sometimes lose up to 40% of their bodyweight in this change. Now, both gender and age are also factors when it comes to diet. Males will eat more than females, I'm not sure if you know the adult averages yet, so I'll give them again. The adult female ferret will eat on average 1-3oz of food per day. The adult male ferret will eat on average 2-5oz of food per day. Kits eat a lot more than their adult counterparts, up to 4x more, but as they start getting older, they will also start to slow down on how much they are eating.
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Post by Charlie on May 24, 2018 15:02:58 GMT -5
Yes, absolutely. In the winter ferrets will eat more and actually pick up weight, getting a little chubby. Then come the spring and summer again, they will start eating less and lose weight. They will sometimes lose up to 40% of their bodyweight in this change. Now, both gender and age are also factors when it comes to diet. Males will eat more than females, I'm not sure if you know the adult averages yet, so I'll give them again. The adult female ferret will eat on average 1-3oz of food per day. The adult male ferret will eat on average 2-5oz of food per day. Kits eat a lot more than their adult counterparts, up to 4x more, but as they start getting older, they will also start to slow down on how much they are eating. Ok. Charlie was 1440 grams or something like that in the winter and now is down about 200 grams. He eats between 2 and 3 oz of food a day. He is just over 8 months and 11 days old. He is still very active and looks healthy and has good poops and doesn't seem sick whatsoever. He has a lot of energy and bounces around everywhere and dooks all the time so those are all good signs to me that the is still very healthy. Just doesn't eat lot right now. Thanks Linda!
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Post by LindaM on May 24, 2018 17:53:02 GMT -5
Checking your ferret's weight by weighing is good, but also keep in mind that you cannot solely go off of weight weighed with them as body types can also play a role. This is why we always suggest that you also pick your ferret up and do a dangle with them. You can hold them by their scruff, or you can hold them gently with your fingers under their little arms, both of which will let their body hang freely downward. They should usually look like a straight tube sock while they dangle. If they are really dipping outwards at the sides under the ribs, then they are overweight, if those sides instead dip inward, the ferret is underweight. He sounds like he is doing alright overall. The warmer months of spring and summer can give many of us gray hairs when it comes to their eating. Best is always to keep an eye and see if anything is amiss with activity levels, poops, peeing when it comes to times of concern with eating, if they are still eating even if it is less than before and their activity levels are still high or normal, and there's no issues with pooping or peeing, then you are usually alright. Do you have an Asian/Ethnic store in the area? Frog legs or quail are other great options for bone-in meals, both are quite easy to munch. Something to keep in mind is that frog legs are lean and should be followed up with a fattier meal (eg. duck or pork) versus another lean meal (eg. rabbit). They are also a little 50-50, some ferrets instantly love them, some instantly dislike them, and some can warm up to them. Quail is usually accepted pretty well, so it may be worth a shot trying it with Charlie. If he is fine with eating Turkey necks as a bone-in meal with turkey as protein, then that is perfectly fine, just check poops for any constipation as turkey necks are a bit higher in bone content. The nice thing about introducing as many proteins as possible to your ferret, especially at a young age where they are more accepting to start with, is that it later allows you the opportunity to pick and choose according to current cost or availability which proteins you offer each week. Mine eat overall around 12+ different proteins, so I can easily pick and choose which proteins I would like to use every week.
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Post by Charlie on May 25, 2018 22:44:01 GMT -5
Checking your ferret's weight by weighing is good, but also keep in mind that you cannot solely go off of weight weighed with them as body types can also play a role. This is why we always suggest that you also pick your ferret up and do a dangle with them. You can hold them by their scruff, or you can hold them gently with your fingers under their little arms, both of which will let their body hang freely downward. They should usually look like a straight tube sock while they dangle. If they are really dipping outwards at the sides under the ribs, then they are overweight, if those sides instead dip inward, the ferret is underweight. He sounds like he is doing alright overall. The warmer months of spring and summer can give many of us gray hairs when it comes to their eating. Best is always to keep an eye and see if anything is amiss with activity levels, poops, peeing when it comes to times of concern with eating, if they are still eating even if it is less than before and their activity levels are still high or normal, and there's no issues with pooping or peeing, then you are usually alright. Do you have an Asian/Ethnic store in the area? Frog legs or quail are other great options for bone-in meals, both are quite easy to munch. Something to keep in mind is that frog legs are lean and should be followed up with a fattier meal (eg. duck or pork) versus another lean meal (eg. rabbit). They are also a little 50-50, some ferrets instantly love them, some instantly dislike them, and some can warm up to them. Quail is usually accepted pretty well, so it may be worth a shot trying it with Charlie. If he is fine with eating Turkey necks as a bone-in meal with turkey as protein, then that is perfectly fine, just check poops for any constipation as turkey necks are a bit higher in bone content. The nice thing about introducing as many proteins as possible to your ferret, especially at a young age where they are more accepting to start with, is that it later allows you the opportunity to pick and choose according to current cost or availability which proteins you offer each week. Mine eat overall around 12+ different proteins, so I can easily pick and choose which proteins I would like to use every week. Excellent! Thank you Linda! I read that you hold up the ferret and let his body dangle but didn't know what to look for! Now I know! Yeah, I've been trying to find a variety of meats for him so I do have options then. I haven't found an Asian store around here. I do know that 1 grocery store does sell quail but it's not available at the moment. I even asked at the butcher but no luck. I can get rabbit at the grocery store too but it's frozen and I'd have to throw the whole rabbit it cut it and portion out so I go to the butcher to get fresh so it's easier for me to cut up and portion out. He is doing great though and has lots of energy! He loves it when I let him run through the house and just bounces around everywhere! So cute! But of course I follow him like a hawk! Lol I do check his stool when I'm cleaning out his litter twice a day (morning and night) to make sure he is good. His morning meals are bone in meals while his evening meals are meat or heart, liver and kidney meals. If his stool becomes too lose I change out a meat meal to bone in. There are a couple evenings where it is bone in though. He he actually did well eating his chicken the other night, it was wing tips. I was so glad to see that! I should maybe cut his meals back to 1 1/2 oz in the morning and 1 1/2 at night because I seem to be wasting food and I hate wasting food, then increase it again once it starts getting cooler or all his food is gone! just checked and he definitely is a tube sock! Looks good! 👍
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