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Post by katt on Jan 14, 2012 13:47:42 GMT -5
ESP little Ellie. (btw your Christmas picture of Pippin is adorable). If Ellie will eat from the bowl, let her eat her fill rather than taking the bowl away. Keep doing what you're doing for the other 2. With Goomba's being so stubborn, try adding a little more ferretone and less chicken. I'd rather get them all on soup now and deal with organs later. I thought we were standardizing things with the recipe but that's a guideline for a balanced soup in case someone stops mid switch. Soo...that means we get to do things more MY way! So, you can go as far as removing the liver entirely (we WILL be adding it back in later obviously). Let's see how Goomba's and Pippin do with less to no liver and more chicken. Finish your current batch of soup first though and see what progress they make on that. Let me know-how they did today. I'm traveling all day but I'll be back in full force tomorrow.
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Post by kpaz on Jan 14, 2012 15:39:12 GMT -5
Today is going really well. Last night I mixed soup in with the kibble and they all ate a little bit of it, even though Goomba waited till it was mostly dried up and smelling like kibble again. Today I did the same routine, and today both Ellie AND Pippin drank from the bowl . Goomba had no gags today, but won't drink from the bowl yet. I added a little more soup to the kibble than yesterday. Just a tiny bit more, hopefully they'll eat it all
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Post by katt on Jan 14, 2012 17:58:48 GMT -5
Oh good fuzzers! In that case, keep the recipe the same. Let the other 2 drink as much as they want and leave a bowl of soup out during the day (and night). As soon as Goomba catches up we'll start to remove the kibble. You and your crewmare doing good so keep it up.
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Post by kpaz on Jan 15, 2012 19:55:38 GMT -5
Today Ellie drank a whole bowl and Pippin drank from the bowl but only drank about a fourth of a bowl at the most (the bowl holds about 3/4 of a cup. Goomba won't drink from the bowl and it seems like none are interested in the coated kibble today.
I'll do this today so I can make it a habit. I don't know if I can answer everything, since they don't have specific meal times with the kibble and I'm not able to watch them all day.
Goomba, 1281g (1276 before starting), I highly suspect he only eats at night when I set out the regular kibble. Stools are smaller than normal, with a little seediness to good consistency. Sleeps most of the day, but active and curious during playtime. Maybe slightly more active than before Been kind of a recluse lately, sleeping in weird and remote spots. He's been extra sweet toward Daniel (aka the Goomba whisperer) so we'll see how it goes once Daniel goes back to school on Tuesday.
Ellie, 865g (878 before), she will eat the coated kibble unless it's too thick and will drink from the bowl. Drank a about 2 thawed soupy cubes today. Stools have been smaller, seedy, and more orange than usual. Still the most active, very playful, learned to levitate and likes to push things off the shelf and onto my face at night. Seems to be awake more often.
Pippin, 1068g (1060 before), will east soup covered kibble and will drink from the bowl. Drank about 1 thawed cube of soupy today. Stools are seedier, slightly darker than usual, but still look ok. Activity levels seem to be the same. He's kind of loner, so he hasn't been any more or less playful (he isn't really playful at all, especially with humans).
Weekly diet: 1/11: Original soup recipe mixed with kibble, handfed, plain kibble left out in the evening 1/12: Modified soup recipe: extra chicken, kibble, +ferretone, hand fed, mixed into kibble, plain kibble in the evening 1/13: 1 cube thawed soup +tone mixed with kibble, hand fed, kibble in the evening 1/14: 2 cubes thawed soup +tone mixed with kibble, hand fed, ate coated kibble in the evening 1/15: 3 cubes thawed and fed to Ellie and Pippin/ hand fed to Goomba, 3 more cubes thawed with half mixed into kibble and half in a separate bowl plain. Half of the soup in the bowl is gone; I don't know if someone is drinking it or it's just evaporating. The covered kibble hasn't been touched, or if it has, only barely. I will put out more fresh soup and have a lighter mix of soup and kibble tonight so Goomba doesn't starve.
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Post by kpaz on Jan 15, 2012 20:00:50 GMT -5
I'm really worried about the upcoming week. Daniel has been helping me out tremendously, but goes to school in another city and lives on campus there. He'll be leaving tomorrow. It might be hectic getting a new schedule set up, but I'll be working to figure out what works best.
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Post by katt on Jan 16, 2012 6:04:44 GMT -5
They are doing well. Let's see what you schedule rearranges to, but go ahead and bypass the soup-soaked kibble. Give Ellie and Pippin a bowl of soup. For Goomba, see what soup you can hand feed him. Then let's try a smaller step for him. After hand feeding him some soup, give him a break for a bit. Then see if you can get him to eat some kibble soaked in warm water. Just enough to make it soft, but not total mush. And warm is best. You can do this by pouring a little hot to warm water over the kibble and letting it soak for a few min. (make sure it is only warm when you feed it to him of course, not hot). Try scruff n stuff to hand feed to bowl feed. Play with it a bit and see how far he'll go. Then leave the bowl out (just use a small amount so you have less waste) and see if he eats any. Let me know how that goes.
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Post by katt on Jan 16, 2012 6:06:46 GMT -5
Oh and for the other two, leave out a bowl of soup. So soup for them and soaked kibble for Goomba. Again, use small amounts so you can refresh them every 4-6 hours or so with little waste. Continue hand feeding little bits to ALL of them throughout the day if you can.
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Post by kpaz on Jan 16, 2012 17:15:28 GMT -5
So I've been printing and reading my syllabi and I just realized that two of the classes I signed up for are graduate level, and I'm definitely not a grad student Also, I'm in organic chemistry with a chemistry lab, and I have two plant labs for my major. I'm freaking out really bad at the moment. The graduate level classes are online so hopefully I can just do all of that at home and still monitor the ferrets in the afternoon and get them eating right. I really don't want to leave the mentoring program, I just hope I can handle everything I'm going to try the soft kibble and soup after I finish organizing all these papers, I'll let you know how it goes.
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Post by kpaz on Jan 16, 2012 22:11:05 GMT -5
I offered Ellie a fresh bowl with a thawed cube and she drank the whole thing. Offered another and she drank almost all of that one too before skirting off. I used the original recipe cubes. Pippin drank a little bit of a single thawed cube, then ran away and was kind of gagging five minutes later and rubbing his mouth all over the carpet. Goomba didn't want anything to do with any of it, but ate some covered kibble that was soft.
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Post by katt on Jan 17, 2012 12:54:52 GMT -5
Your schedule should not need to interfere with the switch, it just might make the process slower is all and that is fine as long as you are willing to be patient and stick with it. Pippin gagging later could be totally unrelated, he would have been gagging right after if it was from the soup. Perhaps he had a hair in his throat or something. Who knows? lol Keep feeding them soup in the morning, and before bed. Don't worry so much about through the day when you have class. A LOT of people can't be home during the switch because of work or school. Most people in fact. Will Goomba eat softened kibble WITHOUT soup? I want to try to ge him eating kibble/water soup. So start with Just kibble and water. Get him used to a after texture and we'll slowly sneak the raw in. During the day while you are gone, leave a bowl of soup and a small bowl of soft kibble (assuming Goomba will eat it) in the cage.
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Post by kpaz on Jan 17, 2012 15:18:24 GMT -5
He used to like eating his food watered and mushy more than dry but it's been a while. I'll see I'd that still holds up tonight. I fed them this morning and it wa the same as usual. Pippin is starting to drink without me having to hold him and offer it
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Post by katt on Jan 18, 2012 14:13:34 GMT -5
How did it go?
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Post by kpaz on Jan 18, 2012 18:36:36 GMT -5
Hey sorry I haven't updated since yesterday. Things have been a bit of disaster. When I got home from school I fed them some soup and made some soft food for Goomba, but he was asleep. I was doing homework and my stomach started aching, not like when you know you're going to have an upset stomach, but just this weird ache. It got worse and worse until I couldn't move at all, and I was about to be taken to the hospital but finally I started vomiting and getting it out of my system. I was up literally all night and had to go to school for 7:30 so I wouldn't be dropped since it's the first day of those classes. I'm finally starting to feel ok and can walk around without feeling incredibly nauseous.
So, basically my mom thinks it's from feeding raw and not being careful enough. She dumped everything out and put regular kibble out for the day. I've been careful with cleaning everything and washing my hands, and I personally don't think any of it was related to the raw diet. I have some online quizzes/homework to get done in the next couple of hours, then I'll make thaw some soup for Ellie and Pippin and soften some kibble for Goomba.
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Post by kpaz on Jan 18, 2012 22:17:46 GMT -5
Ellie and Pippin each ate a cube of the thicker soup, but won't actually touch the goopy part of it. Goomba was sleeping half way out of his cave with his big pink tongue hanging out so i put a tiny little bit of the soup on the tip of his tongue. Then I clipped his nails, and he woke up. His little eyes got enormous when he pulled his tongue in to yawn and realized there was some yuck on it, but since it was in his mouth he swallowed it. He looked like he was trying to chew peanut butter ;D Of course, he proceeded to take my hand in his mouth, throw it out of his cave, and retreated back into the depths. He was VERY pleased about his kibble soup, though, and was butting heads with the others when they tried to join in. I guess he forgave me for the soup, because he let me pet his back, which he usually gets annoyed about. Or maybe he was just too preoccupied with his kibble-soup
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Post by katt on Jan 19, 2012 5:24:51 GMT -5
I'm sorry you were feeling sick. But I'm glad you're better! So, basically my mom thinks it's from feeding raw and not being careful enough. She dumped everything out and put regular kibble out for the day. I've been careful with cleaning everything and washing my hands, and I personally don't think any of it was related to the raw diet.Unless you were somehow making direct contact with your mouth and meat-residue...eating off of the meat cutting board without washing it, licking your fingers or eating finger food after hand-feeding, or licking the meat, ( ) then the risk of you getting sick from feeding the ferrets raw is very very low. That's one of the great incorrect myths about raw feeding unfortunately. Just be sure to wash your hands after handling raw meat, and wash all dishware thoroughly before preparing human food on it. It's not any different from you cutting up a chicken for your own dinner. lol
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