Francesca4nikolae's Switching Thread/Sherry

[Heather]

HF Forum Username:Francesca4nikolae

1. Where did you first learn about natural diets for ferrets?

I have known about it for a few years now. I have been looking at it for my cats dogs and ferrets for a few years but wasnt ready. I wanted to make sure I was fully 100% ready to make the switch before I embarked.

2. Please describe the type of diet you would like assistance in switching your ferret(s) to. Be sure to include if you are interested in feeding whole prey (live or frozen-thawed) and if you are wanting to FULLY switch to a natural diet or PARTIALLY. If you are unsure what kind of diet you want to put your ferrets on, please express that and we can help you find the best type of natural diet for your ferret.

I want to switch to fully raw. I would have a mix of franken/full frozen thawed prey(We breed mice and rats for snakes that we breed), raw meaty bones and carnicora full carcass commercial patties. Pretty much in the future I want to be able to give them a big variety and work to making their diet healthy and also interesting for them

3. Why are you interested in switching your ferrets to a natural diet?

I want my ferrets to live a healthier life with less risks of food based illnesses

4. Do you understand that switching your ferret to a natural diet can be a lengthy, arduous process? Its not an overnight switch. It can be a commitment of several weeks or even months. Your HF Mentor will be more then happy to assist you in switchng your ferret(s) to a natural diet, but you need to be equally as commited. If you aren't willing to tough out a potentially lengthy switching process, or if you have major life changes approaching (baby on the way, moving, starting school, getting married/divorced, etc) then it might be a better idea to wait on switching your ferret's diet until you have more time. Are you willing to make the commitment?

I am(And my husband as well) fully commited to taking the time to do the full switch.

5. How many ferrets do you currently have? What are their names? Ages? Genders? Do they have any health problems? Are they overweight? Underweight? How long have you had each ferret for?
I have two ferrets, Nikolae(Nika) a male sable who is 4 years old and Francesca(Faye) a female dark eyed white none have any health issues, I have had both for about two years now.

6. What diet do you currently feed your ferrets? (Please include all treats, supplements, etc)

They eat Orijen cat food and innova evo with ferretone

7. Have you ever tried to switch your ferrets to a natural diet in the past? If yes, what happened?
Nika has nibbled on the carnivora chicken patties that I give the dogs and am currently trying to switch the cats onto(One cat has switched one is still holding out) Fay has tasted a tiny bit on my finger but thats the extent for her

8. What additional information about yourself or your ferrets would you like to share?
Nothing much more to say. I took vet tech first semester and have a big interest in nutrition.

9. How often during the week do you have access to a computer?
I have access to a computer almost 24/7

10. Please post a picture of each of your ferrets (if possible).

Hi and welcome to the mentoring program. In a little while your mentor (Sherry) will introduce herself and you can get started on a new adventure in natural ferret care and diets. Please remember to post regularly (daily or as per arranged with your mentor) so that your mentor can assist you move along safely in this adventure. If you experience computer difficulties or are going to be away, please notify your mentor and most of all relax and have fun . Your mentor is here to help you on this journey.
ciao

[Sherry]

Hello there! I'm Sherrylynne, and I'll be your mentor for their switch
First, a little about me. I'm 51, and have my own housecleaning business here in Calgary Alberta. I have 4 cats, ranging in age from 6yrs, to 17(only one would eat raw, unfortunately ). I also have 8 ferrets. Boris and Vincent(rip) came first, two brothers, a sable and albino. Then Sinnead(rip). I got her when she was 4. She passed at almost the age of 8, had adrenal for 3 years, treated with lupron for 2 of those.
After that came my first deaf ferret, Lucrezia. A marked DEW. Then two foster ferrets, whom we fell in love with and adopted- Zeus and Athena, both two years old at that time. Also both adrenal, and on lupron.
After that, a little abused ferret we called Willow. She was the worst fear biter I've had, although now she's becoming a sweetie . Then, Emily. 1 month younger than Willow, and those two have bonded strongly. She's the only one Willow wasn't terrified of.Suki is the last one, I swear! She was a little 8 month old darling the pet store was having a hard time selling, so were getting ready to send her back!
While transitioning the first four, Boris was my hold out. EVERYTHING I gave him was poison, in his mind . Worst little drama queen I've seen yet . Twisting to get away, gagging, retching- he did all of it! Then one day- he ate it! Every single piece on the plate ! Those four haven't looked back.
The next two for transitioning were the fosters. Until we adopted them, I could only supplement with raw. So in order not to cause unnecessary tummy upsets(mixing kibble and raw too closely can cause some problems- more about that later), I'd give them raw one day, and kibble on a different day. So, by the time we adopted, they had no problem with 100% raw diet.
With Willow, I brought her home, and she flatly refused to eat the totally ferret kibble, so I went back to the pet store and got her a small bag of the crap they were feeding them there, and brought it home. I tried to give her some, but she just upset the dish. So- I tried her with some chicken breast. She ate it up! Hasn't had kibble since . Emily came to us as a raw fed ferret, so no issues there. Suki was another kibble head, but caging her in the daytime with Miss Emily showed her how to eat raw. And now- we've added Mr. Frodo, who essentially switched himself second day he was here
That's me and mine in a nutshell

The reason I started looking a raw feeding was something my vet said to me. I was, at the time, giving them small pieces of fruit for treats. She told me that was VERY bad for them, and in fact, some studies have started to link early feeding of sugars with insulinoma later in life. So- I started thinking. Kibbles are full of carbs. It's all those grains/veg/fruits in them. Those are converted to sugars by the body. To me then, sugar= potential insulinoma.
So, I started checking out various diets. I had no idea what an obligate carnivore was at the time. I found out! Not much wonder there was soooo much poop in the box! I may as well have been tossing my money in there. They can't process anything that's not meat based! So I feed meat
Their fur is softer, their energy levels are amazing- no mad rushes then crashing. Even my three year old's teeth are amazing. No plaque whatsoever Healing is faster, and if they do get ill, they have more reserves to rely on than when they were just kibble fed!
And there is a LOT LESS POOP!!!! Yay!
I'm looking forward to helping your little ones get on a much healthier diet, and having fun while we're at it

[francesca4nikolae]

OMG I Just saw my mentor post while sitting at work and put myself on break to run over!! Work forces mandatory overtime on us after victoria day so Ive pretty much been coming home and crashing and hadnt checked the forum and never got an email alert. Will have to look into that! .

Im so glad I got you as a mentor! So a little update on my little ones.

They have been on soupies for a little while now. I will go check my raw diary to get an exact but I think almost a week now. At first Faye would only eat it from my finger, and one day she ate a bit from a spoon but made the switch to eating from the bowl almost overnight. Nika ate soupies from the begining and even nibbled on a chicken wing once(Didnt actually eat it but he licked it) and has eaten a bit of raw carnivora pattie before so I think h*ll be ready for slivers pretty fast, Im mainly pacing for Fay).

Let me know what youd like me to do. I know I need to weigh them. I will be doing this as soon as I get home tonight. Once I clean the FN I will get a video of them eating their soupies. Im so proud that Faye is now eating from the bowl . They are eating alot more now too. Im going to have to start making double or triple batches. I started with two cubes a day and their at 4 cubes a day and I think theill need more soon now that faye is getting into it.

[Sherry]

Hi! ;D sounds like your fuzz are making fantastic progress. Okay, what we want is for them to ultimately eat the soup on their own at a wet ground stage, then start adding in small slivers of meat. In the interim you can always try offering some slivers from you hand to see if they'll accept them faster!

[francesca4nikolae]

nika 820 grams
faye 510 grams

They are eating as we speak and I took two more cubes out to thaw im going to have to make more as I need to start feeding them more. I just had to rush Faye to the vet clinic. I was cutting her nails and she jerked and I cut her and she bled like crazy. I looked like a horror movie when I got there blood all over my shirt and hands and on her too. Im only starting to come down now and trying not to cry. Adrenaline is not always my friend. But she is going to be fine. I also managed to ask what my vets view was on raw and they advised that they do not judge feeding practices. So adleast thats good.

[Sherry]

If that happens again, flour will staunch the bleeding. Scary when it happens- I know! And they do bleed a lot more than you'd think.
For the next batch of soup, make it thicker by adding less water. Let me know how they do with that

[francesca4nikolae]

She is fine now but I tried putting pressure on it using corn starch and flour nothing worked she was bleeding and bleeding. So I rushed her to the vet(47$ cab ride!!) Hands and shirt covered in blood. Not a happy experience. She stopped bleeding just as she was passed to the vet . The vet looked her over and clipped her back nails and just charged me for a nail clip lol

Heres a video of the ferrets eating some soupies. Yes there are birds in the room . Im very carefull with them but mainly my cats and ferrets ignore them. I would be moving them if I fostered other ferrrets though(Im secretary for our local ferret rescue).


Im so glad week is done. Its been a CRAZY week. friday I got the meat for the animals and cut it off and portionned it off.) woke up at 4:50 AM to drive to edmunston(5 hour drive one way) and back to get a Bengal cat for my friend. Then when I got home went to an SCA event and then to my weekly dungeons and dragons game. Sunday I had to run around and do an actual grocery monday I was off took it a little easy then I had overtime most of this week . Im run ragged. Cant wait to relax this weekend with the pets.

[Sherry]

Wow! You HAVE been going crazy with the running around
And yeah- i'd be taking her in, as well. Anyway- good to know that you've some ferret experience! It helps
That soup actually looked relatively thick in the video! In that case, can you start making it with a bit more texture? Not pureeing quite as smoothly.

[francesca4nikolae]

Back from a little day out with the doggies. The ferret society was at global pet foods(The Chair for FLSAC is the manager there) and there was a customer appreciation day So the dogs and I took a walk down. Way too hot to bring the ferrets. If I had a car I would have brought them. Got to play with Wicket Our Fundraising Committee Chairs big Tottally canadians boy. Hes a raw fed boy and so bulky. Love him. It was my first time meeting him in person. Im home now making homemade pizza for ourselves and thicker soupies for the ferrets. Hopefully they take to ticket soupies Ill update later with how they do.

[francesca4nikolae]

Made a thicker soupie and they ate it so far so good .






and a video

[Sherry]

Oh, that's perfect! Offer it like that for another meal or two, then start slicing some slivers of meat about the size of your pinkie nail crescent. Not big enough to chew just yet, but enough to get them used to a different texture, and mix those in with the soup. Just do maybe a half dozen for now to see how they take to them when the fuzz come across them in their soup.

[francesca4nikolae]

So far their eating the thicker soupies like champs. Havent tried meat chunks quite yet. Were almost out of it(And most everything raw right now. We have JUST enough food for everyone to get us till tomorrow. Thankfully friday Im getting paid [img src="http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h352/JW_2012/Emoticons/.gif" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h352/JW_2012/Emoticons/.gif"].gif[/IMG].

[Sherry]

Not a problem When you do get some meat for them, aim to start adding in the slivers of meat to the soup. These guys are doing well enough that I think we can push them a bit

[Sherry]

Updates?