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Post by pazupazu1 on Nov 13, 2018 10:30:10 GMT -5
It is day 2 of my switch to raw with my two fuzzballs. Pazu is 4 months old and Howl is 12 weeks. I wanted a place to document it, and hopefully get input when needed.
They had kibble early morning yesterday, and midday received their first soupie. I blended boneless chicken thigh and chicken bone broth (pazu is familiar with this) Howl jumped right in when I set it down but Pazu required some coaxing. Eventually, they both licked the bowl clean. I had to go to work, but I had my mom put some more in (this soupie included chicken hearts) which they also devoured.
I then made a soupie late at night with the thigh meat and liver this time. They weren't so sure about this, but would both pick at it. I checked back later and the bowl was licked clean. This soup also had some bigger chunks in it which they ate.
This morning day 2, I continued with the thigh meat and powdered eggshell this time. They weren't so sure about the eggshell, although they were clearly hungry and Pazu was searching for his kibble. I also decided to offer them a chicken wing, in case Howl would jump at it like usual. They both had no clue what it was, lol.
I poured the soup over the chicken wing to see if they would eat off of it which they did, but would quickly get turned off and go do something else. I even put a bit of powdered kibble on top which Pazu loved but was turned off once he realized some of it was going into the chicken wing. Not sure how I'm going to get them to eat bone-in!
My biggest fear during this transition is them missing out on needed nutrients without the bone-in. Not sure if I should be offering them some kibble here and there, I don't want them to learn to wait for it though. Are there any recommended bone supplements/alternatives for now? I plan on experimenting with other meats this week.
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Post by crazylady on Nov 13, 2018 12:15:40 GMT -5
Hi at 12 weeks there should be no problem giving raw and your 4 month old should switch easily too try giving a bowl of ground up meat last thing at night ( anything that is ground beef chicken lamb etc) because there are no bones in it they find they can simply eat without having to chew lol after a couple of days mix in the powdered egg shells but roll the grind into tiny balls ( this imprints on them that meat comes in different shapes ( you can even add in a little liver heart kidney ground up to imprint them on different meats ) after a week of grinds move on to a week of small slivers then a week of chunks and then finally add in things like chicken wings ( cut them up ) I personally would withdraw the kibble at there ages the tummy talks and what ever is available the tummy will accept the eating with bone in will come dont worry as they get older especially your twelve week old will crave something to chew on to push the adult teeth through ( wings become ferret teething rings lol) take care bye for now Bev
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Post by Charlie on Nov 13, 2018 13:11:54 GMT -5
Since your ferrets are young they will switch fast! I got mine at 3 months and he was fully switched at 6 months. I didn't know about this site at first when I wanted to switch mine but I just kept offering him different kinds of meats which he liked. After I found this site I was able to give him a balanced frankenprey diet.
My sister's ferret that I am sitting right now is around 4 months and she got her at 8 weeks and she started her on small pieces of various meats right away and she took to it no problem. She is switched too with bone and all!
I chop up the whole bones to smaller pieces. I use chicken necks, backs, wings and turkey necks and backs I find that they like rabbit the best and the bones are easier to eat too. Oh, mice are great too! I started with a pinkie to see if they liked it first, which they did, then went to full size mice.
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Post by pazupazu1 on Nov 15, 2018 0:23:06 GMT -5
It would have been day 4 of raw, but on day 2 I tried smashing the bones of a chicken wing and introducing marrow to the boys, I was mortified and almost vomited, ha (they didn't touch it) I have been a vegetarian all my life and this is all very new to me. I wanted to look into more commercial raw to avoid having to do this preparation. I am not confident in my skills of handling meat and it is taking up all of my nights and mornings to prepare (leaving me no time to play with them before I go to work and come back at midnight)
I don't want to completely give up, as I am full aware of the benefits of this diet. I also knew it would be hard.
I ran to the store and picked up "Instinct by Nature's Variety Frozen Raw Bites" just as a fun treat, and to my surprise, Pazu LOVED THEM!! Of course, the protein and fat levels are too low to feed on their own, there's also quite a bit of veggies in them which is too bad since I've never seen Pazu dig into something like that before.
Are there any good commercial raw foods any of you recommend? I'd feel more comfortable feeding that in the meantime while I gain confidence in preparing the raw myself. Maybe something that looks similar to the Instinct frozen raw bites? Would I need to use multiple commercial raw products or is there one that hits most or all nutritional needs? I know they need various types of protein and organs.
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on Nov 15, 2018 7:36:51 GMT -5
You are going to be ok. I have gotten use to gutting whole frozen guinea pigs and 8 ounce rats for my babies:))) Although she is no longer on the forum, my mentor was in the health profession. She wore gloves when handling raw meat. I don't, but you can do that. Read more: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/24867/soup-stage-raw?page=1#ixzz5Wve9Em7eMy Petco baby was eating chicken wings(12 weeks old). I cut them at the joints and gave her the mid section and tip, she tore right into them. It took her a long time but she seemed to really enjoy gnawing on them. What she did not eat she stashed behind her potty. I have given mine the raw frozen Natural Instincts just as a variety meal. But my Petco quit selling the frozen rabbit. I can get plenty of chicken at the store. Hare Today sells grinds and My Pet Carnivore. To buy at Hare Today u need to get at least 10 lbs of things. The positive for feeding meaty bones---you do not have to clean ferrets teeth.
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Post by pazupazu1 on Nov 15, 2018 13:59:01 GMT -5
You are going to be ok. I have gotten use to gutting whole frozen guinea pigs and 8 ounce rats for my babies:))) Although she is no longer on the forum, my mentor was in the health profession. She wore gloves when handling raw meat. I don't, but you can do that. Read more: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/24867/soup-stage-raw?page=1#ixzz5Wve9Em7eMy Petco baby was eating chicken wings(12 weeks old). I cut them at the joints and gave her the mid section and tip, she tore right into them. It took her a long time but she seemed to really enjoy gnawing on them. What she did not eat she stashed behind her potty. I have given mine the raw frozen Natural Instincts just as a variety meal. But my Petco quit selling the frozen rabbit. I can get plenty of chicken at the store. Hare Today sells grinds and My Pet Carnivore. To buy at Hare Today u need to get at least 10 lbs of things. The positive for feeding meaty bones---you do not have to clean ferrets teeth. I hope this is the correct way to reply to someone sorry if it isn't. I just purchased a intro trial of Darwin's raw cat food. I am trying the chicken, turkey and lamb. The ingredients include the meat, bone, liver and heart. I plan to supplement those with store bought meats and organs etc. That way I don't have to worry about them missing out on nutrients during the transition. Hopefully they like them. I'm going to offer some more chicken soupies tonight and some raw bites. I'm not sure how long the Darwins will take to arrive, is it okay if I feed their kibble in the mornings, remove it when they eat the bulk of it and 5 or so hours later feed raw for lunch and dinner/overnight? I know they cannot be fed together preferably hours apart. I hope this will be okay.
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on Nov 15, 2018 17:05:57 GMT -5
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Post by pazupazu1 on Nov 15, 2018 23:10:42 GMT -5
Yay! A successful day of feeding raw. I waited a few hours after they ate some kibble this morning and offered some minced (not blended) chicken thigh and the frozen raw bites. Pazu ate the bulk of it but Howl only wanted the chicken. Later, I offered some ground TURKEY! (first new meat!) soup with chicken heart. I tried to make the soup not as blended with some small heart chunks. After only a bit of convincing, they both took to it! Some things I've noticed since introducing raw meats... - Better stools. On the kibble they would have frequent seedy and smelly stools (one of the reasons I wanted to switch) Now, they have nice smooth brown stools. They are a bit loose and odd looking sometimes but that's normal with raw. - Energy levels. Pazu normally is pretty sleepy, loves to cuddle very mellow guy. But now, he is more willing to play! He gets the zoomies often and I will see him playing with toys (he doesn't usually care for them) happy with how it's going so far tomorrow I plan on introducing some ground beef and mayyyyyyybe just maybe try bits of chicken wing again? We will see.
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Post by pazupazu1 on Nov 17, 2018 11:23:58 GMT -5
My routine of offering them their kibble early morning and removing it, waiting a few hours, then offering raw has been great. They look forward to the raw meal, and will dig right in when I put the bowl down. Once my order from Darwin's comes in, I will feel more comfortable removing the kibble entirely. Yesterday, I fed a ground turkey, beef, and chicken liver soup with ground eggshell. They seem to really be enjoying turkey and beef! I didn't blend it together either, just mixed them. Something I have to note...THEY WILL NOT STOP EATING! They are quickly making their way through my raw meat supply. I will make them a large soup, and they will devour it in minutes, looking for more. Since they're young, I want to keep feeding them until they leave some behind. I fed them raw bites for lunch. Howl likes these now. I will eventually not feed these anymore as I don't love all the ingredients in them, but I bought two bags and they make for a nice lunch meal / bulking up a raw soup. I decided to experiment with dinner and made a chicken thigh + gizzard meal. I didn't blend these, just chopped the chicken small-ish and tried to cut the gizzards as best I could. Both weren't sure of this meal at first, they think chunks are sketchy. Eventually, they got hungry and dove right in. It was nice seeing them both chew on big chunks (and take them to stash under my bed.... ) Does anyone know how much ground eggshell each ferret should be getting daily? I am waiting for my human grade bone meal to arrive. They still haven't taken to bones yet, but I know we will be getting there soon. The raw bites I feed for lunch almost daily have ground chicken bone in them, but I'm not sure of the percentage.
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Post by pazupazu1 on Nov 18, 2018 17:26:16 GMT -5
Update- very seedy yellow poos today... worse than the ones they usually get on the Wysong kibble. I know that means fats/proteins being unproperly digested. They only had a small amount of kibble early morning as they didn't seem to want much of it. After a few hours, I made them a large amount of ground turkey soup with bone meal powder sprinkled on, they devoured this in minutes. All poos after that were fairly seedy. It seemed to get worse as the day went on. They also didn't want to eat their raw bites at lunch time even though they go crazy about them. I assume it's because they ate a lot of soup and I offered this not long after. They could also just be getting sick of the stuff lol I'm going to say that it may be a sensitivity to turkey? They both seem to have it. On day 1 and 2 I fed only chicken and they had excellent stools so tonight I will stick to blended chicken gizzard and the rest of what they need for liver, and small chicken chunks and see what happens.
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Post by Charlie on Nov 18, 2018 18:42:36 GMT -5
Could the "seedy" stuff you saw in the stool be some of the bone meal that was in the soup?
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Post by pazupazu1 on Nov 18, 2018 19:04:34 GMT -5
Could the "seedy" stuff you saw in the stool be some of the bone meal that was in the soup? I suppose it could be. They did have seedy stools yesterday (without bone meal) but it was pretty minor. I hope everything's okay with them- they have been sleeping a lot today. Howl has barely touched any food since this morning's soup and pazu only had a few sips of dinner (even though it's chicken and they love chicken!) and went back to sleep. They have been drinking throughout the day though, and have played with each other and were happy during play time when I took them out of my room. I think they get bored being with me in my room, and would rather be out exploring the house (which is not ferret proofed) so they just sleep
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Post by Charlie on Nov 18, 2018 19:31:40 GMT -5
Is the seedy stuff white?
Keep an eye on their poop. If you leave the food in their cage thye may eat it at night when you are sleeping. As long as they are playing. Yeah mine likes getting out of his room to explore in the whole house. I literally follow mine around the house to make sure he doesn't get into anything he shouldn't. I also chase him and play with him though too. Lol
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Post by pazupazu1 on Nov 18, 2018 19:49:46 GMT -5
Is the seedy stuff white? Keep an eye on their poop. If you leave the food in their cage thye may eat it at night when you are sleeping. As long as they are playing. Yeah mine likes getting out of his room to explore in the whole house. I literally follow mine around the house to make sure he doesn't get into anything he shouldn't. I also chase him and play with him though too. Lol Not so much white, sort of same yellow color all around but looks like birdseed texture. Like little pockets? Yeah I will usually wake up to an empty bowl in the morning. Just strange as they usually dig right in when it's chicken. Each time I let them out of my room they perk right up and get all bouncey and dook-ey. I do have a lot of play things in my room and hiding spots but they must be growing bored of it (and me! lol)
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Post by Charlie on Nov 18, 2018 20:14:12 GMT -5
Yeah, I have lots of things in his room too and he doesn't play much with them anymore. You need to rotate stuff around in their room. lol
What's in the chicken meal tonight? Do you have bone meal in there too?
I've read that their stool can be different because you are doing kibble and raw. I know they are at different times but it takes time for their digestive system too.
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