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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2011 19:11:14 GMT -5
I have a question about feeding bones to Tink. Will they chew on the bones whole? I know you cant cook them, but I dont have a meat grinder so I am not sure how to get her necesary bone requirements in her diet... Also can they eat raw eggs, whole? Because I am raising up some baby button quails, and they are going to be laying eggs, and since I dont have an incubator the eggs will just be getting thrown out. They will be very small eggs. Thanks everyone for all your help, there is so much to learn!!
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Post by Heather on Mar 13, 2011 19:25:25 GMT -5
Oh, Tink is going to have so much stimulation and fun. My guys absolutely adored getting pigeon eggs. You give them whole egg shell and all and let them break the eggs themselves. As this is only for a limited time and if she enjoys it, let her have these eggs. She will have so much fun and it will teach her how to eat eggs. Just try not to feed too much (she will get these really gross slimy poops ) Definitely, give her whole bones. If you're presently feeding ground add some powdered egg shell (1/2 tsp to 8 oz to your raw mix and offer her chicken wings, or quail parts and just let her rip and tear at these boned meats. She will probably start eating the whole bone too, if she's eating the meat off the bone. My guys are getting chicken legs tonight, they got mice and quail parts last night (didn't have enough quail to allow them a whole meal of quail) ciao
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2011 20:06:15 GMT -5
Definitely! I do a raw egg every 1-2 weeks. They definitely enjoy it!
If they don't go for whole bones at first, you can crush them with a hammer/mallet. The marrow often entices ferrets to eat the bone.
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Post by taratee on Mar 13, 2011 21:10:22 GMT -5
i do eggs every now and then but we dont get eggs much so its a big treat i had to syringe feed them the first one for them to understand it was yummy as i had to do with the tone. if you want a meat thats good for starter bones chicken wings worked WONDERFULLY for my guys i smashed up the bigger bones and they chewed through the rest. once my guys tasted the marrow on the inside they were more then happy to eat the bones to get to it
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Post by goingpostal on Mar 13, 2011 21:50:49 GMT -5
Mine won't eat eggshells, they just drag them all over the room and make a mess, I usually throw a whole one minus shell into their ground organ mix weekly and add eggshell powder to make it complete.
On the button quail, are those fairly easy to raise? I was doing some reading on them earlier actually since they are so small and could be kept inside. How noisy are they?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2011 22:09:25 GMT -5
Ditto on the quail question.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2011 22:17:16 GMT -5
Mine are only babies still, just getting their feathers in, and I am keeping them as pets lol I am having a little bit of a hard time getting over the fact that Tink could/might if she had the chance kill all of the other pets I own lol. They seem easy to keep, make little cheeping noises as babies they need a heat lamp, I clean the papertowels out every/every other day, and clean their water bowl at least once a day. I have read that they do not usually sit on their own eggs so if you wanted to hatch babies you would most likely need an incubator... I am still learning about them, these are the 1st ones ive ever owned. They cant perch so they need floor space, and adults are usually 4 1/2-5 inches.
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Post by katt on Mar 14, 2011 4:32:38 GMT -5
I never could convince Koda eggs were edible. And he would always eat anything I put in his food dish until relatively recently. He will eat it if it is mixed into soupies or other foods though. I haven't tried with Kenai yet...
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2011 22:39:05 GMT -5
we've raised button quail and my mother in law still does... the ferrets love to eat them and their eggs and I give them to the dog live... they love it!
Make sure that the water dish you have is either very shallow with little water in it or filled with marbles and then filled with water, if not... they will drown themselves. Button quail are not the smartest of animals and will fall asleep in their water dishes...the marbles help keep their heads from being submerged. Full grown the females are pretty quiet but the males can and will get loud they kinda make a "chappaquittic" type of sound or at least that's what I think they sound like. My husband calls them stinky chickens... as babies they're not bad but they do kinda get stinky when they are full grown. I personally won't keep them inside. Check your local farm auction for incubators you can usually get them pretty cheap thier if not check ebay, that's where I got mine.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2011 22:40:35 GMT -5
oh...and you yourself can eat the eggs too. I've been told that they are tasty but have never been brave enough to try...
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2011 11:15:26 GMT -5
I had a single female button quail a few years ago, and in the mornings and evenings she would give a fairly loud, peeping call. It was cute, but I wouldn't want to sleep in the same room as it. They require either a very tall enclosure or one with a soft top, like fine mesh or cloth. When startled, they fly straight up and will smack their heads on whatever's there. And they tend to startle often... Like Rose said, not real smart!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2011 22:54:39 GMT -5
Everyone else gave good advice on bone. Mine always get either CGH or chicken wings as bone source. They have been on raw 1 1/2 years so I don't need to smash anything for them. I just give them mouse sized chunks. Sometimes half that if they are acting lazy and letting too much go to waste.
Mine LOOOOVE eggs. I give them 2-3 scrambled whole eggs raw. They don't like when the whites aren't scrambled well they make funny faces. I don't have to mix anything else in but i'll mix a little water in to make it all last longer otherwise they will eat it in seconds. Edgar has picky days when I give him liquidy stuff and I need to spoon feed it to him. He realizes he loves it after a few licks.
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Post by joclyn on Mar 29, 2011 15:16:42 GMT -5
cornish game hens, chicken wings and chicken necks and duck necks are what i use to make sure they get their calcium requirements. turkey necks too - although, the one end of the neck has vertebra that even oberon can't chew up, so, i don't give turkey necks too often because of that.
the cgh that i get, purdue brand, usually have the necks/gizzard/heart/liver tucked inside and i give that as a separate meal. since the cgh are so small (about a pound) there's really no need to cut any of the bones - not even the spine. they can work through them very, very easily.
the chicken necks i can sometimes get at the grocery and there are a few places online that you can order them from. duck necks i've only ever gotten online. chicken necks are absolutely the perfect size for a meal for a fuzzy!! no need to do any cutting at all as they can easily chew the bones - even those with smaller mouths. duck necks pretty much the same although, they are larger/longer, so, would need to be cut in half if you only have one fuzz to feed. the vertebra are a little larger than chicken - still, very workable from a ferret point of view!
wings are super easy to get at almost any grocery - i do cut through the larger bones in a couple spots just to make it easier for the ferts with the smaller mouths to get going on them (and sometimes the wings are actually pretty big, so, even the smaller bones need cutting sometimes too).
the other thing i use for bone is rabbit. if it's a small rabbit, say a pound or less, they easily eat all the bones with no assistance from me. larger rabbits they can eat the ribs and leg bones easily and some of the spine. really large sizes (like you would get from online ordering) the bones can easily be too big for them to deal with unless it's rib bones. when i use that stuff, i almost always see the spine pieces left.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2011 21:27:10 GMT -5
Which grocery store do you get your cgh from Joclyn? I have been getting mine from wal-mart and they smell a little off recently and have never included organs. Very rarely they do have necks though. The only other brand I have seen is Tyson and I don't know if they have the neck/organs or not.
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