|
Post by cubsfanhaynes on Sept 7, 2011 11:55:35 GMT -5
I think I will add one to their liver mix tomorrow morning. Here is what I have planned for their organ meal:
Two livers One breast Olive oil (tsp) One fuzzy mouse
That I'm thinking I may blend together into mush and sneak a fuzzy into it see of they eat around it or eat the fuzzy too once they realize it's food.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2011 15:08:40 GMT -5
Sounds good Since they're still young you can also try it whole with a slice down the middle. If they don't go for it, you can toss it into the organ soup and try that.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2011 16:40:13 GMT -5
Hey any updates?
|
|
|
Post by corrij on Sept 13, 2011 11:01:36 GMT -5
Sorry life has been a bit crazy for us. Kept meaning to post but it kept being pushed back.
The ferrets are eating well chicken makes up the bulk of their meals, but they do have 2 other meats during the week. We bought some more pork for them to try this week. Steven is going to keep an eye on the litter box after to make sure everything is good.
They will eat organs if it's a mush with chicken. This weekend we blended up 2 chicken breasts with 8 or 9 livers, 2 chicken hearts, evoo, pumpkin and the taurine supplement we bought. It'll make enough for 4 meals.
We found a local slaughter house that I'll be calling Friday when I'm back in town. With some luck we can get organs there.
The weekly break down is roughly 3 meals chicken legs/thighs 1 meal of 2 wings, 2 meal of organ soup, 3 meals of turkey legs, 2 meals of what ever other meat we bought (beef, pork, venison), 2 meals of chicken backs and 1 meal of fish.
After the current organ mush is gone we'll make another batch but up the liver and decrease the breast.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2011 11:15:21 GMT -5
Sounds like they're doing great The organ soup, are you feeding that all in one week, or once a week? If it's all in one week, you won't need to have that much liver weekly. Only 5% (or 10% if you have no other organs). So if they eat about 3 oz a day, each needs about 2 oz of liver a week (so 4 oz total). I'm not sure how big/small your livers are, but my livers are about 1-2 oz each.
|
|
|
Post by corrij on Sept 13, 2011 12:26:15 GMT -5
The get about 1 cup of organ soup a meal and two meals of it in a week. My reasoning being that it's about half organ half breast now so two meals should be the equal to one dedicated organ meal. Once we decrease the chicken breast amount it'll go down to one organ meal a week. If that makes sense?
I'm not sure on the weight amount of the livers. I want to buy a small kitchen scale but haven't had a chance yet. I'm currently only home on weekends. But this job will be done end of next month so I'll probably grab one then. Steven might have a better idea of the weight though. I do know that between the 3 ferrets they consume about 2 lbs of meat/bone in a day.
They ate the mouse blended up in the mush but not on it's own. We're deciding if we want to work on getting them eating whole mice or not.
|
|
|
Post by cubsfanhaynes on Sept 13, 2011 13:37:39 GMT -5
The chicken liver was a 2lb tub and has about ten livers in it.
|
|
|
Post by corrij on Sept 15, 2011 19:53:58 GMT -5
So the big bag of chicken quarters isn't the brand of chicken we normally buy and so far the brats have turned up their noses at it. Any ideas on how to convince them it's food and not poison?
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2011 20:34:44 GMT -5
You could try chopping it up into smaller pieces, pouring oil or something yummy over it.
You could try making it into soup, an pouring that soup over the chunks.
I've gotten large bags of chicken quarters with big piles of fat - my kids didn't like the skin so I cut it all off and just offered the meat.
|
|
|
Post by corrij on Sept 15, 2011 20:58:07 GMT -5
I'll try a thick soup tomorrow then. They've never seemed to have a problem with the skin before but maybe it's thicker or something with this. Silly little brats. At first we were worried they were just getting bored of chicken, but they ate the other brand easy.
I'm calling tomorrow to find out about the organs from the slaughter house. Keep your fingers crossed.
Organs is pretty much the last thing on the list before we 'graduate' right?
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2011 22:02:22 GMT -5
Let me know how it goes I'll need a weekly menu submitted that I'll send to Heather for approval. Well make any adjustments needed and then you'll be graduated
|
|
|
Post by cubsfanhaynes on Sept 20, 2011 3:28:53 GMT -5
Still working on an organ solution though we have been given another avenue to inspect (by the board of all places :-D) there is a Whole Foods in town and I'm going to check that out tomorrow. After we secure an organ source I believe Corri intends to write our meal plan up.
|
|
|
Post by corrij on Sept 20, 2011 11:29:33 GMT -5
I also wanted to mention that it looks like Cyrano and Draco aren't eating as much now. They are still eating but it seems like they might be slowing down. We've had them about two months and they are nearing six or seven I think.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2011 12:02:24 GMT -5
That seems about right for the appetite. They should start eating more again when winter sets in. So just keep an eye on it and make sure they are still eating and going to the bathroom okay.
Let me know how the organ search goes. Are they eating organs whole or in soup?
|
|
|
Post by cubsfanhaynes on Sept 20, 2011 14:15:39 GMT -5
While the local Whole Foods does not stock beef heart (it didn't sell well when they did) the manager of whole meats ordered me a 10lb case ( two hearts) and told me that if we keep them in freezer bags it should be viable for up to 3mos. And it's only $3/lb so I think it's pretty reasonable.
So I ordered a case for Friday. We have been feeding organ soup still. We haven't tried whole organ yet, but having sooo much heart this weekend may be an opportunity for a test.
I'm also in the market for a grinder to start making my own grind mixes. I have been toying with percentages. I have ready access to chicken, chicken liver, turkey, beef heart, pork, trout, venison heart, venison liver, venison kidney, and venison. I have been told that the grinder my step father has will grind bone that isn't weight bearing. So I think I can add spine, wing and thigh bone to the grind, and I was considering leg bone from the turkey and chicken broken in half and stuck into the grind like a garnish that way they get to gnaw still.
Thoughts?
|
|