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Post by tss on Dec 2, 2008 19:20:49 GMT -5
Hang in there, it takes time for some fuzzies to move ahead. You could try giving RJ some bone-in wing chuncks. Here is instructions on how to split them up. get a chicken wing and some meat shears. Cut the wing at all 3 joints, you can then cut the tip into 2 or 3 sections. Take the "flat" section of the wing and cut it in half LEGNTH wise, you will then have 2 sections with bones. Cut each of those sections into two or three pieces then cut the drumette into two or three.
Stitch may show some more interest in it too, since that will expose the rich marrow.
Have you thought of trying the baby food method?
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Post by whimsy on Dec 8, 2008 21:21:32 GMT -5
Baby food was actually one of the first ideas I had, but when I looked for it in the local grocery store there was none. There is, however hearts and livers, maybe I'll try those in addition to your bone suggestion. We actually do have a whole chicken in the freezer right now, I'll go ahead and thaw that in preparation.
Lately I've been sticking bigger chicken chunks in their food bowl, which I think is a no go as its continually being emptied (edit: I mean flipped over and emptied >>). Of course, it isn't secured at the moment (the other feeder we had that was secureable I didn't like because it was kinda hard to clean), so it may be boredom and not rejection as to why they keep flipping it.. but we'll see. In the meantime I'll try to keep the chunks on the smaller side ... though do some ferrets not like the mushy chicken? I kept thinking about it and could it be a texture thing too?
As well I'll check the stores I normally don't shop at for some of that baby food.
In a lighter note, we rearranged the place for christmas and the ferrets are digging it! Even Mr. Taciturn (stitch) had a really fun time checking all this new stuff out. My roomies got them a kitty stocking for christmas haha. I'm thinking of wrapping up some boxes for them so they can have fun breaking through the paper.
Also, on an unrelated note, we're going to be chopping down a tree for Christmas. Any tips on keeping the buggers out of the tree water?
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Post by tss on Dec 8, 2008 21:40:08 GMT -5
I think that once you get baby food it will help them progress. most ferrets go cray over it.
It may be a texture thing, that is a big issue for ferrets going straight from raw to chunks of meat. The texture is soooo different.
As for the tree water I'd try asking in the general ferret section, I don't celebrate Christmas and have never had a tree.. Except for a fake one of which they dug the moss out of the pot.
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Post by whimsy on Dec 16, 2008 14:19:16 GMT -5
Still no luck finding the baby food. I might have to ask my mom to go on base for me (dad is retired air force, but as I'm no longer dependent to them I've lost my base privelages, darn). If I remember right, the gerber food section is massive in there.
Chicken bones. . .went okay. Not spectacular, they sorta sniffed it and nibbled at it. On a good note, they're taking better to the mush chicken. I still leave a little kibble for them in the morning, but at night it's straight chicken. Stitch is becoming more friendly to it, but I think that's because I'm not giving him anything other than chicken at night. . .feast or famine, y'know?
And thanks for the tip about the general forums, I will do that.
On a side note, I now know that RJ loves snow. When we brought the tree in he dashed outside. I was stuck on the wrong end of the tree and couldn't grab him quick enough, so luckily my friend grabbed him before he could do more than jump in headfirst. That's some burrow instinct for you! I think he was shocked once he realized how cold it was, heh heh heh.
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Post by tss on Dec 19, 2008 12:37:27 GMT -5
Even if your fuzzies are just nibbling on the bones that is a VERY good sign. Ferrets can really scare you sometimes, the way they slip out the door behind you so quickly.
It's been a few days since you posted. Do you have anymore updates?
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Post by whimsy on Jan 2, 2009 15:17:25 GMT -5
Yes! I am really sorry that I lapsed, preparing for the holidays really got me turned around. So! I have stopped feeding kibble. Bwahaha, I noticed that after adding ferrettone, some olive oil and some sesame seed oil to the ground chicken, and instead of drizzling it over mashing it INTO the chicken, they really started eating it. So, out of curiousity, I completely removed hte kibble and they are EATING THE CHICKEN!!! Woohoo! I defrosted the rest of the chicken bits (winglets etc) and put a big chicken wing in, with a few chunks of cut meat in on New Years Eve. . .well, the next day I found that everything had been stored somewhere, and spent some few minutes figuring out where all of the meat had gone. Eh heh, I think I may have put too much in... A second wing last night met with better effort. I used less ground chicken breast, and part of the wing was chewed off this morning and it hadn't been dragged anywhere thankfully. So! Grocery trip today...should I start adding in other kinds of meat? I still have some baggies of frozen ground chicken breast, so I can maybe mix in other ground meats? As well, should I try out some organs? I'm excited they're finally accepting the meat, I've noticed a little bit of a weight drop from both of them though they're still bright eyed and active.
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Post by tss on Jan 3, 2009 15:00:56 GMT -5
It's good to hear that they are doing so well!!
Have you tried splitting a wing up like I recommended??
You can go ahead and add other meats, you will need to feed at least 3 different kinds regularly before your fuzzies can graduate. You can either try ground or just buy whole meats and chop them up. It's easy to find ground turkey and beef, sometimes even pork so just try whatever you want. You can go ahead and get some organ too, chicken liver is a good start.
Weight dropping off can be normal, kibble can cause excess body weight from the carbs.. Just make sure that they don't drop a lot of weight, If they do they might not be eating enough.
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Post by whimsy on Jan 3, 2009 18:45:51 GMT -5
Hah, I totally forgot to cut it up. I remembered on a thigh bone and .... yeah, the knife wasn't gonna cut through that. >> I put down another thigh today, so I cut off part of the meat on either side. Stitch has turned into a ravenous fert: suddenly he don't care. There's a sudden turnaround, as Stitch has taken to the chicken without a doubt, and RJ is being more picky now with the bone. Are there any meat scissors or products that will cut through a leg bone like that?
They also started showing some stashing behavior with the meat outside of their normal cage (ewwwwww), so we took their old cage and put the food in there. I'll have to start getting up a little earlier to put them in the feed cage for an hour before I leave. It is okay for me to do that, right? They won't have any food in their normal cage for the 8 hours I'm at work.
Question: how long do most ferrets take to eat? Seems like these two only eat for about five minutes before they're zooming away or trying to stash it. I figure while they're out I'll leave the meat out in the feed cage with the door open for a few hours so they can go into the feed cage and nibble when they want to. What is the recommended time to leave chicken out before it becomes ... well, bad?
Also.... we might be getting a third ferret. Since early Dec there's been an influx of ferrets in the paper, and, well, I doubt most of the owners know there's a ferret shelter around here which would mean the fuzzies in question would be facing euthanization. We have a FN 142, so space isn't an issue. Most of the ones in the paper come with their own cage, so keeping them separate for the first two or so weeks won't be difficult.
Would it be better to wait until these two are fully switched before getting a third?
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Post by tss on Jan 4, 2009 20:17:15 GMT -5
GAH, I typed my post and the forum signed me out and ate it!! If you get some really good shears then they should cut through chicken leg bones, I use shears that I bought for 1 or 2 dollars and they will only cut wings. If you have a harbor freight then get yourself one of these www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=97251They work REALLLLLY well and double as a knife too... Just keep them super sharp, harbor freight also have cheap sharpeners www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=94620(print the pages out, the stores prices are usually more but they match online prices). I do have one of those shear/knife/gut hook things and I love it. Feeding them in the old cage is fine and you can leave their meat out for around 24 hours.. My ferrets have been known to hide something and eat it days later, while it doesn't make them sick I wouldn't let them do that intentionally. My ferrets only take about 5 minutes to eat unless I give them something like a beef or deer tendon, or larger bone. In some ways it would be better to wait for another ferret and in some ways it would be better to go ahead and get one. I say wait and see if you find one that you fall in love with, I could have turned my babies down as I had with many other ferrets but I fell in love with them at first sight.
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Post by whimsy on Jan 4, 2009 21:40:00 GMT -5
Thank you very much for all the advice You have no idea how nice it is to know if I have any questions I can get them answered quickly! We don't have the store in question, but I'll look around to see if I can find anything similar. If not, I might try to order.. I'm in Alaska so there's always the chance they refuse to ship to AK. *sigh* Oh well. I'm glad I can leave the chicken out so long. They tend to have leftovers (I'm still trying to figure out how much they eat, and I'm seeing that from day to day they eat different amounts @_@ ). I feel bad throwing the meat away. As for the third... that's a good way of going about it. We'll have to go look at some of the ones offered in the paper. I know with RJ and Stitch it was impossible for me to say 'no' to them.
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Post by tss on Jan 4, 2009 22:25:46 GMT -5
Your welcome :-) I would have replied sooner, I saw your post Yesterday but lately I just haven't had the time to sit and make long posts.
Harbor freight does ship to AK, is just says that there is an extra fee but I'm not sure how much of one there would be.. We're lucky, they've got a store a mile from here.
Be careful with picking a new fuzzie, don't let the initial cuteness cause you to make a rash decision. Maybe look at a few before choosing one. Take ones that have special needs into consideration, my Weezer is deaf and he is just as sweet as my other babies.. He has caused a few heart stopping moments though, we can't squeek a toy to call him to us so if he is hiding (like in a bag of cotton balls or a pillow) we panic trying to find him.. It just comes with owning little tazzie devils.
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Post by whimsy on Jan 12, 2009 12:48:07 GMT -5
I have yet to squeaker train Stitch or RJ yet, so a deaf boy or girl wouldn't bother me none. Our flat is pretty small, and the only area really they have to hide around is underneath the couches. Living room/kitchen/hallway is all we let them roam in, and the kitchen cupboards I keep duct-tape shut (little rounds of tape on the door against the wood so that it's too hard for ferts to pull open). It's been a little too cold for me to want to go out lately, I think I belatedly realized this when I sat down to look at the paper and think about calling people to ask to check out the ferts...and then didn't want to hop in the car and drive to places unknown. Ha! K, for some reason the grocery stores have been out of chicken hearts and livers, so I got ground turkey, veal liver and beef heart. It was the first time I've seen veal livers or beef heart, but I figured something is better than nothing. Now, do hearts count as muscle or organ? Oh yeah, I tried to feed them duck gizzard and all the organs and it was received with lukewarm reception...then again I tried feeding them whole. I think for awhile I'm going to have to grind everything and work up from there, prolly mixing organs with ground meat. So far the turkey has been received very well. Tonight I'm going to try mixing veal with the ground turkey, and I'll be cooking a turkey too so I might mix in some turkey organs and perhaps knock off one of the wings before cooking it.
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Post by tss on Jan 12, 2009 23:15:56 GMT -5
I have a cabinet in my room (where the ferrets roam), we keep some grainy dog treats in there and it is a pain in the butt when the ferrets climb the drawers and munch on the treats.. Nasty poops come soon after.
Hearts are muscle meat.
Your fuzzies will probably love the veal, I know mine go crazy over it.
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Post by whimsy on Jan 19, 2009 13:32:44 GMT -5
You were right, the veal goes with absolutely no problem. Hehe. The heart I think I might have to put in the blender, because chopping it seems to not be so liked. When I first put it out there was a looot of sniffing but not even any licks! So I had to get some on my finger and smear it onto their mouths, and even then it was a huge chore for them to eat it. They did eat a good enough portion for me to be satisfied though.
Okay, so aside from livers what other types of organ meats should I be looking for?
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Post by tss on Jan 20, 2009 11:52:07 GMT -5
Ferrets are pesky critters aren't they?? They love one thing and hate the next, then sometimes they decide to love what they hated..
Beef kidney can be pretty easy to find, wal-mart sells it and thymus sometimes. I'm not sure if you have them in AK but orential markets normally have some of the harder to find organs.
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