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Post by hazelrah on Jun 30, 2011 22:59:04 GMT -5
She ate slivers of chicken in her soup for dinner I'm so excited! Falcor's been busy as always devouring his chicken and licking Oryx's (and the dog's) bowl
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Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2011 23:27:37 GMT -5
Great! Now you can start decreasing the amount of kibble in the soup over the next few days, while increasing the amount of slivers (but not size, not yet) you put in there. See how she does with that
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Post by hazelrah on Jul 1, 2011 8:32:57 GMT -5
Ok, sounds good I was wondering, I read on here sometimes about people incorporating egg in their ferret's diet? What are the benefits of doing so, and how would you 'hide' it so they eat it after you stop feeding soupies for meals?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2011 12:59:23 GMT -5
I feed raw egg, shell included (many people believe that you can get problems, i.e. biotin-related hair loss when you feed just the yolk and whites. If you feed everything, it becomes balanced and doesn't cause an issue). It's another great source of protein + mental stimulation! To get my guys on it, I cracked it open, put it in a bowl, and dribbled a bit of olive oil on it. It took a bit of running to it then running away before they settled down and ate it. But they did I don't feed it all that frequently (every 2 weeks or longer), but you could feed it every week, if it's something you're really interested in. Now, I barely make a tiny seem in it, and I let them really crack it open and get the goodies, and they love that. Um, to hide it after soupies, you might mix it in with ground food (if you feed any of that). If you don't, then it might be hard to "hide" and it's more of just getting them used to it plain (Sherry advocates, whisking yolk and egg together and then microwaving it for a few seconds to take the chill off - reluctant ferts seem to like that).
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Post by hazelrah on Jul 4, 2011 10:21:16 GMT -5
I'm sorry for disappearing for a couple of days, my computer is in the shop so I'm relying on my roommate's I should have more consistent access by the end of the week. I think Oryx has actually accepted the idea of eating her chicken bits; she's been MUCH better about cleaning her bowl and has seemed more enthusiastic about feeding time. I've continued to increase the amount of slivers and decrease the kibble, and she's been perfectly cheerful about moving up on the chicken sliver scale. I waved a chunk in her face to see if she'd take it, but I think she likes to make sure her meals take me as much time to prepare as possible, lolol. So do I just keep going along the same lines, increasing the slivers? Should I increase the size of the slivers at this point, or just continue increasing the amount? She seems quite attached to her kibble, I'm a little nervous about doing away with it all together I'm going to give the egg a go today to see how it goes over. I hope they like it, it'd be fun to change up their meals a little more. Falcor is OBSESSED with his food, it cracks me up! When I checked them this morning Oryx was asleep in the cube like usual, but Falcor had passed out while wrapped around the food bowl
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Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2011 15:16:26 GMT -5
That's fine - it's happened to me before, but thanks for letting me know I think it'd be fine to start incorporating bigger chunks now. Don't make them all that way, have a few slightly bigger than the normal included. Each time she eats successfully, add in the bigger chunks, decreasing both the smaller bits and the kibble and see how she fares with that. We eventually want to get her up to eating inch thick/long chunks
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Post by hazelrah on Jul 6, 2011 22:20:15 GMT -5
Hey, I still don't have my computer up and running , but they promise it'll be tomorrow I had to stealth borrow my boyfriend's computer for a quick update I've been increasing the size of Oryx's chicken bits as you instructed, and it's been going really well! She's up to about 1/2" x 1/2" chunks with no problem whatsoever. There's also barely any kibble at this point, just a few smashed up and swirled about. She's finally catching up Neither one wanted anything to do with the egg though. I'll be trying again tomorrow
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2011 7:03:09 GMT -5
(don't really know what this emoticon is, but I feel it's relevant, seeing as how I haven't had coffee yet. :\ ) WOW, she really IS catching up, that's amazing. Soon they'll both be great little raw eaters As for the egg, you can try a hardboiled egg first. Crumble some of that up, mix with chunks and see if they go for it. I remember I did that with mine before I got up the ~nerve to give raw egg (in the v. beginning [my first year] I had weird hang ups some raw foods .... I've pretty much decimated all *those*, hah). They liked it eventually, but they prefer the raw more
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Post by hazelrah on Jul 7, 2011 9:40:26 GMT -5
HAHA I think that's my new favorite emoticon Yeah, it was crazy! It was like she just got over it a couple days ago. She still isn't really sure how to handle the pieces that she has to tear into more, but she'll eat all the smaller pieces and then kind of work on the bigger ones over time (after carrying them around the room of course ) I don't think she'd eat them without the kibble flavor though, as she never touches Falcor's chicken. Alrighty, well shall have Egg Attempt 2.0 today. Wish me luck!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2011 17:50:14 GMT -5
Good luck! I hope it's went okay
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Post by hazelrah on Jul 8, 2011 8:15:32 GMT -5
Haha, nope! Both still turned up their noses at the egg I refuse to give up though, they will like it one day!!! lol
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2011 12:29:49 GMT -5
Oh no! Have you tried whisking in some olive oil or another oil they like?
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Post by hazelrah on Jul 9, 2011 0:09:14 GMT -5
I did with the raw first try, but not with the hard boiled. I'll try hard boiled + oil tomorrow, and perhaps that will be the magical mixture
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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2011 11:04:48 GMT -5
Maybe! I also used to mix in their ground food, a bit, and that worked, too. I was always so relieved that Hiko fell right in and ate it plain and raw from the get go. I've been absolutely spoiled with my newbie boy!
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Post by hazelrah on Jul 11, 2011 10:42:21 GMT -5
Omg, I spend allll day and night last night thinking Oryx had escaped out of the house and was gone, and then I found her trapped in a tall cardboard box behind the stereo I've never been that freaked out! Anyways, I decided to re-try some more raw egg yesterday, mixed some olive oil and kibble crumbs, and the kids went to town! So that hurdle may have now been overcome. I think Oryx is getting to the inch by inch chunk point. If she ever finds an actual piece of kibble that's not in soup she doesn't want anything else for a while, but she gets over it if I ignore her complaints I think she's just a kibble addict. How do I move from the kibble covered chunks in the soup to plain? That seems like a harder step to me as the kibble taste disappears at that point.
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