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Post by Sherry on Dec 16, 2011 10:46:57 GMT -5
BONUS!!! You may wind up having to put more in the cage for them to eat if they are consistently finishing their meat before the next meal now You ideally want one or two bits left over.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2011 9:26:27 GMT -5
So far I've been feeding them about 5oz per meal. Should this be more? Tonight I'm going to tackle cutting up the cornish game hens. This should be fun. I attempted a chicken and made a mess of the whole thing, so hopefully these smaller hens will be easier to carve up. I need to get used to doing this if I ever plan on having my own farm and raising my own chickens.
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Post by Sherry on Dec 18, 2011 11:22:51 GMT -5
If they are regularly finishing all of it, then yes put more in. For the first 2-3 months especially, they'll wind up eating a LOT more than they'll end up doing. And it really doesn't matter how badly you butcher cutting up the bird- they'll still eat it ;D
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Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2011 8:32:32 GMT -5
It was pretty bad with the chicken. Eventually I just gave the knife to my husband and said "Hack away at it, I'm done!" LoL. I'll increase the amount I feed to 6 or 7oz and see how they do. With liver, they eat it all, nothing left. Things like beef chunks too. Pork and things with bones, there is usually a bite left. I'm going to weigh them this week as I do want to keep track of their weights. I ordered an extra bag of rats for a co-worker's snake with my rodent order. If she ends up not buying the bag from me, then the bag will be for the ferrets. 20 small rats. Twitch LOVES her whole prey so I'm almost hoping my co-worker doesn't need the rats.
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Post by Sherry on Dec 19, 2011 9:47:59 GMT -5
You know something- it sounds like they(and you) are almost ready to graduate ;D They just need to consistently eat some more bone, as well as getting enough heart on the menu You could even substitute whole prey for those two muscle meat meals I'd mentioned earlier
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Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2011 17:28:16 GMT -5
Yep, its hearts on the menu tonight. They LOVE them, and I'm happy to announce I fed them a wing the other night and when I went to fish it out of the bowl the next morning I found only a small 1 inch portion of bone they had not eaten yet (it was competely bare) and it wasn't even the knobby end, so I think they have finally gotten the hang of bones. Not this order of whole prey for the snakes, but the next, I might order some quail for them. I can say that having a mentor was great while I was switching them back over. They were on raw for 2 years, but its amazing what you forget after a while of them being on kibble and it was nice to have a refresher course and help while I switched them. This mentoring program is great. Eventually I'd like to get them completely on whole prey (I'll have no complaints from Twitch on that one, who, by the way, is back to her completely furred self. Looking at her today, you'd never think that only a few weeks ago her back was as bald as a baby's bottom.) We may not go to whole prey until we have our own house because if I switch them over to 100% whole prey, I want to be raising the majority, if not all, of my own whole prey, and I can't do that in an apartment. I won't be on for the next 3 days. I have off of work so I'll report back Monday morning.
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Post by Sherry on Dec 22, 2011 21:30:07 GMT -5
That's fantastic they are doing so well!!! Have fun, and when you get back, we'll get a formal menu drawn up
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2011 7:45:29 GMT -5
Ok, now I'm back. Sorry for the long vacation. What kind of changes should I make to the menu?
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Post by Sherry on Dec 30, 2011 10:30:23 GMT -5
I was just checking through, and couldn't find a menu ;D How are they doing with their heart and organs? How often are they getting meals with consumable bone? How many different proteins are they eating now?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2011 7:47:21 GMT -5
They are getting meals with bone roughly every day. Sometimes I skip a day just to give their jaws a rest, but I'd say 5/7 days they are getting bone. They love hearts and livers. On our next shopping trip I'll be getting kidney. My rat order came in and my co-worker hasn't said anything about buying the extra bag from me, so its officially the ferret's rat bag. They will be getting at least 2 rats per week. I also bought a new bag of mice for the snakes, so the few mice left over in the other bag will also go to the ferrets.
So as far as protein, they are getting these meats
Chicken: -chicken wing -chicken leg -chicken liver -chicken heart
Beef: -beef chunks
Pork: -pork chunks
Turkey: -ground turkey (I will be trying to find turkey necks soon)
Cornish Game Hen: - CGH wings - CGH legs - CGH boneless meat
Rat: -whole rat (small) (will begin offering them other sizes soon)
Mice: -whole large mouse
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Post by Sherry on Dec 31, 2011 10:22:29 GMT -5
That looks excellent Could I get you to set up a formal menu so Heather can take a look over it? Sort of along the lines of: Monday- chickenwing am, chicken heart pm Tuesday- cornish game hen Wed- mice And so on
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2011 15:51:28 GMT -5
I will put one together tonight and try and post it up tomorrow morning. If I don't post it tomorrow morning then I will definitely have it by Tuesday morning. So we are looking for a menu with at least 5 days with edible bones, at least 1 day with organs, and 1 day with hearts. I will also add in mice and rats each week.
I'd like to thank you again for all of your help. Once they've been on raw for a while, I'll try to switch them over to whole prey completely as long as the funds allow it.
I had a question about eggs. I know we can feed raw eggs every now and then, but how often can we feed them (we go through a lot of eggs in our house)? And I have heard if fed raw, you shouldn't feed the white and yolk together, you should seperate them. Is this true?
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Post by Sherry on Dec 31, 2011 16:50:12 GMT -5
A good rule of thumb is one egg per ferret per week The concern is if it's overdone, the avidin in the white could combine with the biotin in the yolk as well as in the body, contributing to a biotin deficiency. Some feed more than this and have no problems at all. However, for ferrets stay away from omega 3 eggs, as these seem to exacerbate the potential problem tremendously.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2012 16:59:45 GMT -5
Sunday AM: Whole Prey: Rat Sunday PM: CGH Leg/Wing
Monday AM: Chicken Leg Monday PM: Pork Chunks
Tuesday AM: Chicken Wing Tuesday PM: Chicken Gizzards
Wednesday AM: Ground Turkey Wednesday PM: Hearts
Thursday AM: Chicken Leg Thursday PM: Beef Chunks
Friday AM: Chicken Liver/Organ Friday PM: Chicken Wing
Saturday AM: Beef Chunks Saturday PM: Chicken Leg
I'll admit this menu was hastily done because I'm not supposed to be on the internet at work. If revisions need to be made, let me know and I'll draw a better one up.
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Post by Sherry on Jan 3, 2012 22:17:56 GMT -5
Are they eating the entire bone from the chicken leg? If not, you may need to add another wing meal in there. Also, for when you get other proteins, you know where to substitute? You've got 4 proteins, so that's good. You can always add more variety here and there. Also got your heart as well as liver and other organ. What organs other than liver can you find?
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