Good morning...

[Deleted]

Welcome! Your baby's beautiful!!!

[darkmoonslayer]

I doubt there is an underlying issue fr her low weight, simply because she has a yearly check up and the first one the vet said he was concerned about her weight, the second time we went in she had gained a few ounces because I had her on a higher fat/protein kibble. However that was at the tail end of fall and since summer has started she's gone down a bit again.

As far as meat sources, we are going to a mexican butcher shop in Moses Lake tomorrow to see what sort of things they sell and when comadrejaloquita14 mentioned rabbits I had a breakthrough idea. My mom breeds angora rabbits for fiber (pluck the fur every three months spin it crochet it and make a hat/purse/scarf/whatever) and every now and then we get a few babies that never develop the long hair. We could, in theory, butcher the short hairs ones instead of selling them as pet quality rabbits as we have in the past. We actually have a teenage male short hair that we've been trying to get rid of and Mom recently decided since he isn't selling she's gonna have a friend help her butcher it for dog/cat food. I don't see why I couldn't pilfer a bit for the ferret.

That same friend actually breeds actual meat rabbits. And talking about rabbits makes me want to ask, can ferrets gnaw/eat rabbit bone? and about what size(thickness?) bone can they get through, would it be best to butcher a very young (two months) rabbit for the ferret or would a year old one be fine?

[Deleted]

Rabbits are part of the natural diet of a ferret (or maybe it's polecat? Can't remember now ;D). That would be an awesome food source! I think ferrets can eat most of the bones, maybe leave some of the larger weight bearing bones? They also won't eat all the fur (usually). How big are the rabbits? You might need to section it up depending on size because you only have 1 ferret. Shell probably only eat 1-3 oz a day, a bit more during the beginning of the switch. OR you could get a couple more ferrets

A few here breed mice and rats too, and those are also great whole prey options.

[Deleted]

You want mostly adults - more nutritional value. Variety is key, and feeding a mix of ages is best, but the majority of the diet should be adults.

[darkmoonslayer]

Our one teenage rabbit is about 7 pounds, we also have a very young one who is about half a pound tops.

I can't afford vet bills on more than one ferret despite how much I wish to get more.

[Sherry]

Depending on how strong and skilled the given ferret, they can eat most of the bones. Mine didn't eat the skull, or the leg bones, but that was it. Every thing else was dinner

[Heather]

I'm busy searching but all I found this evening was a pair of teeth and 2 ears I'm sure I will find the back feet and the tail somewhere
ciao

[Sherry]

Busy little bees, weren't they ;D

[katt]

Oh she is gorgeous! I love her color/markings!

[darkmoonslayer]

So the place we went to in Moses Lake for meat was kind of a bust. they guy who helped us at the meat department didn't speak English and when we said Liver he pointed to legs. So we need to learn Spanish or find an English speaking butcher shop.

However the chicken breast they had looked SOOO GOOOD even to me. And it was much cheaper then a regular grocery store would have been. So tonight I am gonna look up some phone numbers and see if I can find a local butcher for all our Non-rabbit meats.

Also tomorrow I will have my mom call her friend. Mom is currently too pooped to even sit up straight. And it's only 8pm-ish. Mom has health issues that make her days very tiring even if not much is done.

Now today wasn't all bad. We had two chicken legs and thighs that we cut most of the meat off of and took the skin off of (we weren't sure if the skin would blend or gum up the blender(the blender is rather old and possibly a bit dull)). then we stuffed all the parts we deemed blendable in the blender with water since we don't have any chicken broth/stock that isn't herbed to high h*ll. We blended it and put it in a small dish in front of Sloane. Initially we think we got it too thick, and she mostly ignored it even after I rubbed a bit under her lip and over her gums. So we added more water and blended again, this time while initially refusing to look at it, she started licking it off of my finger when I was trying to rub a bit on her gums. Oh also when blending we did it with warm to hot water so the mix would be about room temp when finished.

She took a few licks out of the bowl then started acting like her teeth/mouth hurt. She used to do this a lot with kibble before having a tooth that was bad removed this last september, so thinking it may be a rotten tooth I looked at all her teeth and they are pretty much pearly white, and her gums are pale and pink.

What she does when she acts like her mouth is bothering her is she squints her eyes and pulls back her lips and then rubs her mouth all over whatever she is standing on or burrows under a blanket and rubs.

Also unrelated to food she was a bit odd when I stuck her on the dresser to eat, she stiffened her back legs so she couldn't stand as I was setting her down which resulted in her almost falling off the rather tall dresser. Thankfully I caught her and other then doing that every time I tried to set her on the dresser she is acting perfectly normal. We wound up feeding her on top of her cage instead. And right this minute she is running around the room romping and frolicking, and occasionally trying to engage the dog.

So yeah some odd behavior today, but she seems willing to try the chicken. Tomorrow hopefully we will be able to get a more nutritional soup for her.

Also the cat at the blended chicken with much gusto. I doubt switching him over will be a problem at all.

[Sherry]

They can certainly be little oddballs ;D Sounds like she'll do well!