How...

[Deleted]

did you get your babies to eat whole prey? My boys wont touch anything with fur or feathers. Pinkies = yum. Fuzzies = no way. I've chopped mice up into bits, covered them in salmon oil, covered them in ferretone. I've blended them into soupies. Recently I even bought live mice so they could "hunt" themselves. I thought if they did the kill, they would get a taste and be willing to eat them. Wrong! Jack is a natural hunter; super quick and clean kills. Brady decided his mouse was his new BFF and followed it around for 15 minutes gently rubbing his face in its butt. Jack had to step in and take care of the job, after which he looked at me like "ok now what? you got more for me to kill?"


And we just got in an order of day-old quail and of course, no one is willing to try that either. What am I doing wrong?

[Sherry]

I gather they will eat the pinkies whole? And how are they doing with actual meat chunks? Only way I could graduate mine to the next step was mixing everything with their meat chunks til we got to the larger sizes. Those, I had to cut open and fill with 'tone

[Deleted]

Yes, Jack eats pinkies whole and like they are candy. Brady will eat a head or two, but he's not completely in love with them.

They eat chunks of meat well when it's something they really like, ie duck, duck skin, rabbit but they have both gotten pretty lazy about eating chunks, so I've been giving them a lot of ground mixes (to make sure they get enough bone). Jack will be going into the vet next month for another x-ray check-up and I'd love to be able to tell her he's eating mice (believe it or not, she wants him eating them!)

[goingpostal]

How long are you leaving them to see if they will eat it? I know with my hunter, she doesn't eat them immediately, she drags them off and snacks later. Same with the day old quail when I tried that with my crew, they mostly dragged them around until they actually got hungry.

[Deleted]

With the mice-kills, i let them stay in the bath tub for a few hours (at which point no one had made any effort to move them), then I put them on their dinner plate and let them stay for an entire day.

The quail i leave out for 24 hours too. I give the boys off days, where i don't feed them twice a day and always try the whole prey after these days. Even with an edge of hunger they wont go for it

[goingpostal]

Fussy little buggers! Well I would work on getting both of them to eat pinkies well, and then try moving up, chop them open if needed but fuzzies are so easy to eat anyways they are just being stubborn. Baby mice up to 3 weeks old don't last very long at all with my crew. Have you tried day old chicks? I haven't yet with mine but they seem to be pretty popular with ferrets like pinkies.

[Sherry]

Chop them up while frozen(less messy this way), and mix them in well with their favourite meat.

[wtferret]

Make sure they are hungry when you give them the prey.

[Deleted]

grinding up what they aren't eating is pandering a bit too much for me. If they are eating pinkies as whole prey then they aren't adverse to prey just a bit more dense meat. I'd let them get hungry for sure. Try increasing time between feedings. Assuming neither one is suffering from insulinoma; Start by eliminating one feeding pre day up to a point where it's 12 hours between meals or even just once a day. As a predator it will NOT hurt the ferret to go for an extended period between meeals and it will do wonders to trigger that prey drive. Except for initial introduction to meat and an extremely rare treat I don't fee ground raw anything. I'll use it for my freeze dried cubes, but don't offer it as a mea. A hungry belly is a great motivator for a predator.

[crazylady]

Mine only get fed once per day ! if they are used to getting ground or minced food they simply wont eat whole prey ( its a case of why should I chew or work out how to eat it mum will come with it ready prepared ! there not stupid lol ) I feed mine around 7 pm in spring summer they all drag it off to the corner and leave it but when I go in next morning its all gone lol ( I have sneaked a peep and they usually eat around midnight lol ) I second what josies mom wrote a hungry belly sure is a great motivator lol take care bye for now
crazy lady

[katt]

Feb 16, 2011 8:34:47 GMT -5 @jacksmomma said:

Brady decided his mouse was his new BFF and followed it around for 15 minutes gently rubbing his face in its butt.\

I'm sorry but that is hilarious! ;D

Ok to answer your question... I find it easier if I mix the mice into their normal meats. Like MIX it so that the mice get covered with the meat flavor. If they eat whole pinkies try this. Mix their favorite meat (let's say chicken breast for an example). Cu up pieces of chicken breast roughly the same size as the pinkies. Then cut up some frozen or partially frozen fuzzy mice to the same size or better yet, smaller. (look for peach fuzies of you can, they barely have any fur yet) and mix them all in. I wouldn't bother with any oil but you can try. IME that results in just licking all of the meat though rather than eating it. So when you have a good blend of chicken, pinkies, and fuzzy chunks mix it all together for a bit. Might even let it marinate so the fuzzy chunks finish thawing and soak up the chicken flavor. Do not feed them that morning like you normally would. The hungrier they are the better. Take out their food the night before and feed them later in the morning, or don't feed them all day and give this at night. Either or you want them hungry. Put the bowl in the cage and leave it until it is gone. Keep doing this until they eat the fuzzies. Then you start mixing in whole fuzzies, and chopped hoppers, gradually increasing in size. You might even have to do scruff and stuff a few times. Eventualy when they are eating whole (size) you can wean the chicken out until they will eat plain whole (size) prey. Do this for each size, but once you get past the FUR issue (this is the hardest part) it gets significantly easier. Usually.

[Deleted]

Have you considered feeding hairless mice? I know there are some suppliers that sell the hairless variety. Might be a way to get them eating larger mice and then you could slowly introduce the fur.

[Deleted]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I have basically tried EVERYTHING with these brats except the hairless mice and letting them get very hungry...

I will try to find the hairless mice ( I knew there was hairless rats) and see if that proves helpful. I would say that's my best chance,

[Heather]

The problem with feeding hairless mice is that you're missing out on the benefit of feeding prey...the fur. Try it and see if it works, everything is worth a shot. If they do eat the hairless, use it as a jumping stone not a final solution
ciao