Post by gnarlysalamander on Feb 9, 2011 18:17:31 GMT -5
some of you may remember me, i was on the old site a little over a year ago, then dropped off the face of the earth for a while.
firstly, i would like to apologize to spiritualtramp. IM SO SORRY! you were my mentor for a while, and then i disappeared. first we had a total computer meltdown, then an internet malfunction, followed by a slew of personal issues that needed to be attended to that could not allow me to continue to spend the much needed time to work with my fuzzies while they were switching. after all of that died down, i was honestly too embarrassed to come back to the forum after having left for so long with no notice. do i think my excuse is a good one? no. but i felt you deserved an explanation nonetheless.
anyway, a lot has changed since then. last anyone knew, i had 4 ferrets [mickey, jayjay, sammy, and bandit]. unfortunately, we lost mickey to total liver failure back in july. it was a very sad time... he was running around fine one night, and the next day by the time i got home from work he was yellow and could barely move. the vet said there was a chance we could have gotta a very short time with him through medication and such, but with the state he was in i didn't feel it was fair to put him through all kinds of testing and experimentation with the medicine.
fast forward. the three remaining fuzzbutts and i moved to pennsylvania in september. i happened to stop by a petstore to "look"... and well, we all know how that goes. i found a gorgeous albino boy who had been there quite a while, past his "cute baby" phase. i had named him before i made it home, and went back for him the next day. back up to 4 ferrets with the addition of frankie! he reminds me so much of mickey, in a way it makes me sad, and in another way i feel like he was meant to be mine.
not even two weeks later, someone dropped a ferret off in a sealed cardboard box at my work . this little baby couldnt have been more than 10 weeks old, he's gorgeous and of course i wasn't going to let them take him to the aspca [we do not sell ferrets]. so, the grand total is now 5. the baby's name is jaydon.
while browsing through the ferret.com forum, i was lead back to the old site. i've spent the last two weeks reading over the switching threads and info posts and i believe i want to try again, especially after how suddenly and unexpectedly we lost mickey.
i don't think i want to have a mentor this time, i feel very guilty about what happened with the last go around. i'm hoping to be able to just use a mixture of methods everyone else uses, and get some support and suggestions here and there. so far i've been having a lot of success with soupie with everyone other than jayjay. we've been doing chicken and beef. they LOVE the beef! in fact, they'll even eat chunks of hamburger meat with no problem [had been blending meat with kibble, but the blender broke and the hand mixer isn't making it quite soup consistency]. jayjay only gets down what i stick on his tongue. he's very stubborn. even putting something on his nose, he'll use his paw to wipe it off instead of licking at it.
a few questions to start, and i'm sure there will be more to come:
1. i ordered some freeze dried foods of different types to see what they might be interested in. if i were to rehydrate this, how much does it normally end up being? example, if i added water to 1 oz of freeze dried, how much water would i add, and what would it end up being?
2. at what point do people take away kibble? obviously variety is very important, but if they were fine eating one type of meat would it be safe to have them basically live on that without kibble until they were accepting of another type, or should i still feed kibble until they are accepting three types of protein? we're using a mix of evo and zupreem. we tried straight evo for a while, but they never fully adjusted and i was getting worried about dehydration with how loose their poop was.
3. what are the best meats to clean teeth? i think i saw somewhere organ meats because of the texture?
4. is it better to try different types of meat [flavors] and then work up the texture on all of them simultaneously, or would it be better to start with one they like [chicken, beef, whatever, etc] and work them up to RMB of that before starting over with a new flavor in soup form?
man, i hate forums. i feel like i just wrote an essay. anyway, i'm glad i'm back and promise to try harder this time. and just in advance, i'm going on vacation next week so if i disappear again i promise it's not for good!
firstly, i would like to apologize to spiritualtramp. IM SO SORRY! you were my mentor for a while, and then i disappeared. first we had a total computer meltdown, then an internet malfunction, followed by a slew of personal issues that needed to be attended to that could not allow me to continue to spend the much needed time to work with my fuzzies while they were switching. after all of that died down, i was honestly too embarrassed to come back to the forum after having left for so long with no notice. do i think my excuse is a good one? no. but i felt you deserved an explanation nonetheless.
anyway, a lot has changed since then. last anyone knew, i had 4 ferrets [mickey, jayjay, sammy, and bandit]. unfortunately, we lost mickey to total liver failure back in july. it was a very sad time... he was running around fine one night, and the next day by the time i got home from work he was yellow and could barely move. the vet said there was a chance we could have gotta a very short time with him through medication and such, but with the state he was in i didn't feel it was fair to put him through all kinds of testing and experimentation with the medicine.
fast forward. the three remaining fuzzbutts and i moved to pennsylvania in september. i happened to stop by a petstore to "look"... and well, we all know how that goes. i found a gorgeous albino boy who had been there quite a while, past his "cute baby" phase. i had named him before i made it home, and went back for him the next day. back up to 4 ferrets with the addition of frankie! he reminds me so much of mickey, in a way it makes me sad, and in another way i feel like he was meant to be mine.
not even two weeks later, someone dropped a ferret off in a sealed cardboard box at my work . this little baby couldnt have been more than 10 weeks old, he's gorgeous and of course i wasn't going to let them take him to the aspca [we do not sell ferrets]. so, the grand total is now 5. the baby's name is jaydon.
while browsing through the ferret.com forum, i was lead back to the old site. i've spent the last two weeks reading over the switching threads and info posts and i believe i want to try again, especially after how suddenly and unexpectedly we lost mickey.
i don't think i want to have a mentor this time, i feel very guilty about what happened with the last go around. i'm hoping to be able to just use a mixture of methods everyone else uses, and get some support and suggestions here and there. so far i've been having a lot of success with soupie with everyone other than jayjay. we've been doing chicken and beef. they LOVE the beef! in fact, they'll even eat chunks of hamburger meat with no problem [had been blending meat with kibble, but the blender broke and the hand mixer isn't making it quite soup consistency]. jayjay only gets down what i stick on his tongue. he's very stubborn. even putting something on his nose, he'll use his paw to wipe it off instead of licking at it.
a few questions to start, and i'm sure there will be more to come:
1. i ordered some freeze dried foods of different types to see what they might be interested in. if i were to rehydrate this, how much does it normally end up being? example, if i added water to 1 oz of freeze dried, how much water would i add, and what would it end up being?
2. at what point do people take away kibble? obviously variety is very important, but if they were fine eating one type of meat would it be safe to have them basically live on that without kibble until they were accepting of another type, or should i still feed kibble until they are accepting three types of protein? we're using a mix of evo and zupreem. we tried straight evo for a while, but they never fully adjusted and i was getting worried about dehydration with how loose their poop was.
3. what are the best meats to clean teeth? i think i saw somewhere organ meats because of the texture?
4. is it better to try different types of meat [flavors] and then work up the texture on all of them simultaneously, or would it be better to start with one they like [chicken, beef, whatever, etc] and work them up to RMB of that before starting over with a new flavor in soup form?
man, i hate forums. i feel like i just wrote an essay. anyway, i'm glad i'm back and promise to try harder this time. and just in advance, i'm going on vacation next week so if i disappear again i promise it's not for good!
they look so soft i want to use them as pillows! 
But thanks! They definitely are very soft, fur wise. But they've not been "squishes" for a very long time. They are all VERY muscular now, thanks to their diet 