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Post by Heather on Mar 8, 2011 0:44:47 GMT -5
Name:justinHF Forum Username: WHITEBOY
1. Where did you first learn about natural diets for ferrets? browsing for the best food diet
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. RAW WIFE DOESN'T WANT TO SEE MICE AND OTHER CREATURES BE EATEN
3. Why are you interested in switching your ferrets to a natural diet? I WANT THE BEST FOR MY FUZZBUTTS
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 switching your ferret(s) to a natural diet, but you need to be equally as committed. 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? YES I UNDERSTAND
5. How many ferrets do you currently have? What are their names? Ages? Genders? Do they have any health problems? Are they overweight? Underweight? 1. PANDORA IS 20 WEEKS AND DEAF BUT HEALTHY, 2. AXEL IS 8 WEEKS AND HEALTHY
6. What diet do you currently feed your ferrets? (Please include all treats, supplements, etc) EVO FOR FERRETS AND I MAKE RAW SOUPS MORNING AND NIGHT TIME( JUST CHICKEN,WATER,OLIVE OIL, EGG SHELL. )
7. Have you ever tried to switch your ferrets to a natural diet in the past? If yes, what happened?NO
8. What additional information about yourself or your ferrets would you like to share? SHOULD BE EASY I JUST NEED HELP ON THINGS TO PREPARE THEY LOVE THE CHICKEN SOUPS
9. How often during the week do you have access to a computer? DAILY
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
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Post by Sherry on Mar 8, 2011 21:56:28 GMT -5
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 9 ferrets. Boris and Vincent came first, two brothers, a sable and albino. Then Sinnead. I got her when she was 2. She's now 5, and adrenal. She's on lupron, and I've decided against surgery for her. 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. Although Boris would still be a kibble head if I let him. 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. 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 ;D |
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Post by whiteboy on Mar 8, 2011 22:06:32 GMT -5
awsome glad i have some1 to help me just in time when i decide to finaly make the jump. for the past two days i been feeding pure raw no kibble (since the dog ate it). day 1 was pork chunks. day 2 is chicken liver. and tomorrow we plan on doing some chicken. and i just had 1 question right now. what is chicken gizzards considerd we saw some at walmart realy cheap and couldnt decide what it is considered. o and we plan to be buying all our meats at walmart since thats all we have i might get a hog or 2 from hunting but nothing big or soon realy. thx and glad to have your help
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Post by Sherry on Mar 8, 2011 22:15:28 GMT -5
Wow! This was fast Anyway- gizzards are good in that they are a muscle meat, and ferrets seem to love chewing these rubbery thing Fist- what we are aiming for as a balanced diet are: 4 days consumable bone 2 days muscle meats 1 meal liver/other organ The other meal whatever you have left over! Here are basics of all the above: holisticferret60.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=meat&action=display&thread=146So- you are giving pork chunks and chicken livers so far. How are they doing with it? Are they actually eating it, or just licking at it? How much have you personally observed them eating? Main reasons I'm asking is ferrets, like cats, can develop something called hepatic lipidosis. This is damage to the liver. It develops when they either don't eat at all, or don't eat enough to sustain them. It can happen VERY quickly. The one advantage ferrets have over cats is they can actually repair the liver in this instance when enough food is reintroduced to them. Also, it makes a difference where we go from here |
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Post by whiteboy on Mar 8, 2011 22:23:11 GMT -5
i filled thier dish with it and it was all gone within a few hours. they seemed to love it but thier not to picky. the basic list we have now is a package of chicken wings, chicken livers, and chickn gizzaeds. plus we mix up cause i eat alot of meat myself and we give them a meal of raw unseasoned untouched realy meats like pork chunks and beef is what the plan is right now.
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Post by Sherry on Mar 8, 2011 22:50:48 GMT -5
Perfect!!! How large are the chunks? You are going to have to keep an eye to make sure everyone is eating enough, because some will lick and lick, but not actually pick up a piece and chew/swallow it. I had one(my last transition, actually), who had me fooled. She was my 9th switch, so I knew what to watch for. I still didn't catch on that she wasn't swallowing the meat til she lost a TON of weight If they are all eating the smaller chunks fine, try them with a wing. Hook it to the side or top of the cage, and slash the meat from the drumette, till it's basically hanging off the bone. Or- you can do the same with a thigh or drumstick. Let me know how they do with it! |
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Post by whiteboy on Mar 9, 2011 19:52:33 GMT -5
we did raw chicken breast today and they arre eating just fine guess i got lucky they arnt to picky as long as its food. they still are vary young kits so i guess this will be easyer than i thought. the hard part is me learning what i can and cant feed and whats going to be a good diet. in a few days is when i get paid and we go shoping and will pick up some wings,gizzards,necks, maybe a game hen if they have 1 and some beef and pork chunks. but thats around the 15th till then they eat what we eat thats raw. i have more chicken thawed for them but if ground beef ok for them to eat? and we realy dont have anything with bone right now so if soume ground up egg shell ok till then in a soup? thx
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Post by Sherry on Mar 9, 2011 22:30:58 GMT -5
That is fantastic!!! Ok, basic diet is:
4 days bone in meats
2 days muscle meats
1 meal liver/other organ
other meal whatever you have left over!
If you want to split it up, that's 8 meals consumable bones, 4 meals muscle meats(heart needs to be at least 1 of these). Organ is liver, lung, kidney, spleen, brain, etc.
Minimum 3 different proteins. Those would include pork, chicken, beef, lamb, cornish game hen, turkey, quail, rabbit, whole prey, etc.
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Post by whiteboy on Mar 10, 2011 8:35:42 GMT -5
awsome so today we will be trying a whole chicken wing and see how it goes. i been diceing up all the other meats into half inch cubes. but im sure it will go well they go nuts when i fill thier dish or even touch it to clean it. seems to be going well thx for the diet break down i might try getting a few feeders this week to see how they react but since thier young and havent even seen a mouse im not to sure they will like them. axel might iv seen him play with a toy duck i bought and he attacks it shakeing by the neck but pandora has never even touched a toy if its not a tube she dont touch.
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Post by Sherry on Mar 10, 2011 9:28:51 GMT -5
You might wind up doing what I had to do with the mice I started with pinkies, and chopped them up while frozen, and mixed the bits in with the regular meats. Once they were eating those, i just chopped in half, then whole ones by themselves, and slowly up the scale. When it comes to fur, they sometimes need to to open up the belly, and squirt in some oil or ferretone if you use that Oh, the things we're willing to do for these brats ;D With the other meats, you can start making them a wee bit larger as well. Have you considered using a feeding den, or hanging the meat for them? Some can't resist it when it's hung up ;D |
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Post by whiteboy on Mar 10, 2011 17:13:40 GMT -5
hhmmm id have to figur out how to make a den but i like the hanging idea and il start just cutting the brests in halfs so each get good bit to wrestle with.
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Post by Sherry on Mar 10, 2011 19:04:32 GMT -5
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Post by whiteboy on Mar 14, 2011 20:34:38 GMT -5
just thought u should know everything is going great. they love thier new diet and iv never seen them move so fat when i open the cage to give them some food. last nigh was gizzards and neck tonight is some chicken wings tomrrow is pork and so on for the week. thx for the help
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Post by Sherry on Mar 14, 2011 21:00:25 GMT -5
Not a problem! Alright- I think we need to set up a formal menu plan for them, since it's going so well What I need is: Mon.... Tues... Wed... Etc. What are they now eating for each meal? Please list whatever protein, and whether or not it's bone in. Also include heart(when and how often), as well as organ meats(what and when). That way, we can tweak the menu to have as balanced a diet as possible! |
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Post by whiteboy on Mar 14, 2011 21:11:23 GMT -5
MONDAY: 2 raw chicken wings (one each)
TUESDAY: 1/2 cornish game hen (to share)
WEDNESDAY: 1 cup boneless beef chunks
THURSDAY: Other half of cornish game hen
FRIDAY: 1 cup boneless pork chunks
SATURDAY: 1 raw turkey neck
SUNDAY: 2 chicken livers, 2 chicken hearts, 6 chicken gizzards, and 1 raw egg
the basic list i found and plan on going off of. might make little changes like te neck to chicken neck and the hen i will have to hunt down walmart didnt have any. but this seems like a decent list to me butim open for all sugestions.
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). I also have 9 ferrets. Boris and Vincent came first, two brothers, a sable and albino. Then Sinnead. I got her when she was 2. She's now 5, and adrenal. She's on lupron, and I've decided against surgery for her.
. 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!