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Post by sherrylynne on Aug 24, 2009 18:19:02 GMT -5
Saphire, give it a few days. Get yourself better, and post back then. Not a problem! Look after yourself, girl, and I'll talk to you again in 4-5 days.
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Post by saphire2815 on Aug 26, 2009 19:48:35 GMT -5
Thanks for the patience, it's been a crazy week I feel better now. Head Cold, a take over of the company I work for and fear of possibly loosing my job! All in three days! It feels likes two weeks has gone by. Said Goodbye to my old boss Yesterday, said Hello to my new boss today, was reassured my job would stay intact, I just hope they aren't blowing smoke up everyones A$$. Stay Positive is the Mantra of the day. So with the cold and the crazy stuff I never got to the store to buy wings, my my kids grandma sent home a huge package of bone in chicken breast. So I cut up one of the breasts and noticed the rib bones were not any bigger than the wing bones so I threw one in a pile of raw meat and Baylee chowed down on it. So I gave another the next day, and she did it again, and she is now searching out the bones. I can't wait to get her a wing. I've stopped feeding them in the living room, because they were just shoving pieces of meat all over and not eating and now when I put them in for the day, and night I put some raw in their cages and just under 1/2 c Kibble. The good eating Group is starting to get back into the raw, but they refuse soup. LOL I am now hiding it in the dry duk soup mix, slowly adding more raw and less dry, it seems to be working. Sneaky little ferts! But the breakthrough happened with Briar, he walked up to the raw/dry soup mix this morning and took a few licks, then proceeded to beg for treats! LOL He's such a smart little guy!
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Post by sherrylynne on Aug 26, 2009 21:37:21 GMT -5
That is excellent! Yay for Briar, the smart little devil . For the "good eating" group, try leaving of the soup for now, and just give them some small raw pieces, with bone when possible. You can get back to the soup in a bit. If it wasn't for Butter, I'd have you try leaving the kibble out. Once they are eating enough of the raw, including Butter, you could THEN leave out the kibble, and just make sure there is enough raw in the cage to last through. For the others, keep on keeping on! With your more recalcitrant ones, keep scruffing and dabbing, or finger feeding, or spoon feeding, depending on where they are right now. They WILL progress, but we'll keep the fastest progress for the "good eating" group right now.
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Post by saphire2815 on Aug 28, 2009 12:12:29 GMT -5
Well as much as I wanted her to jump back into the swing of things, Bon Bon is just having almost nothing to do with the Raw. The Super Eater is now Baylee one of the late comers, she just took so natural to it, my boys have noticed she searches out the bones and eats those first then. I think next payday I'll get her some wings. What would be the best way to introduce her to them? I've put Biscuit with Blaze, Bacon, Briar and Bandit. They seem to be getting along well and these are the 5 biggest ferrets in the larger cage. Biscuit is a good raw eater so I have been putting raw next to soup in this cage, Biscuit and Bandit have been eating this stuff, all the raw bits get eaten and the soup gets licked at, but never finished. I've also noticed Bacon and Blaze have started tasting the soup. Briar's Taste the other day I think was just a ploy to try and get me to give him a treat 'cause he hasn't tried it again. LOL
So small cage number two has all my small ferrets, Bon Bon, Baylee, Barlee, Butter and Thyme. Butter really hasn't been to interested in eating lately. I just make sure he gets some soup a couple times a day. It's like he goes through phases where he eats and plays, then the opposite, still pushing through. Bon Bon and Thyme were so traumatized by the bad batch of soup that they are almost refusing raw, I can get them to eat small amounts but they rather have kibble. Barlee I think has been on the fence. And Baylee is doing great! So I have one great eater in each cage, so I'm hoping as you said before we can work on the monkey see monkey do trick.
But I have noticed a reduction in kibble eating again, and activity levels are again climbing, so I just might not be seeing them eat 'cause I do just put some in their cages day and night and it has been getting eaten 'cause I stopped putting it in the middle of the living room.
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Post by sherrylynne on Aug 29, 2009 10:34:28 GMT -5
Ok, group 1(the larger ones): Fantastic for Biscuit and Bandit! I'd start upping the size of the chunks a wee bit for them. And maybe toss a couple smaller pieces of a different kind of meat. You need to get them eating something different, so they don't imprint too strongly on one kind. And if you make the new pieces smaller, they're more likely to eat them, because let's face it- ferrets are lazy by nature . Mine will pick the small pieces over the big ones every time! Less work. With Bacon, Blaze and Briar, try warming the soup slightly. Not enough to cook it, just to take of any chill. And with Briar, try the scruff, dab the nose thing a few times. With Baylee, try her with some wing tips first. Chop them up into pieces maybe an inch long, and mix them with her regular meat, see how she does with that. With Butter, try to make sure he's eating at least something every 3-4 hours if you can. With insulinoma, it's really important to keep his blood sugars regulated. If he goes too long without eating, he'll get nauseated, and not want to eat, which will make him more nauseated, etc. My Vincent had an incident with choking on a piece of ground meat, and it put him off raw, too. I had to give him some time, and start over again with him. Don't push them too much for a couple of days, then just start over. With Barlee, try him with some tiny slivers of a couple of different meats. And by sliver, I mean maybe the size of the curve of your nail. That's also a way I got mine to try different meats. They think hand feeding tiny pieces are the greatest treat out there . The pieces are small enough they don't really feel the need to run and stash it, so frequently eat it right there, or at least close by!
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Post by saphire2815 on Aug 30, 2009 20:13:31 GMT -5
Well Biscuit and Baylee love the wing tips, and yesterday when I went grocery shopping with my paldry budget for 1 more week, wings were on sale! Woo Woo! $3 off a package so it averaged out to .55 a pound! Can't get better than that I got 9lbs of wings for less that $5! I decided that I was going to chop all the meat into small bits to try and make it easier to convince everyone to eat it. I'll also get some other flavors when my budget grows on next payday. So I found that if I take the diced meat and mix with my dry duk soup mix I get with some water I can hide the raw with it. It totally worked! Butter was chomping down on the diced pieces. And today OMG! Briar ate his first piece of raw meat without me scruffing him! It was a huge hit today! And it's easy I can have my kids do it. So we can try and get Butter to eat more often, and for the first time since the bad batch Bon Bon walked away from Kibble! Woo Woo! It takes like forever to dice up all the meat so this won't last long, but for now if I can get everyone to eat than it's totally worth it for now. Also with the meat diced I find less of it all over the house LOL! So I'm going to let the good eaters have their big pieces when they are in their cages during the day and at night. Less waste. Also we found Banana's Momma! Yay! Happy Dance!
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Post by sherrylynne on Aug 30, 2009 21:59:49 GMT -5
Sounds like you had an absolutely wonderful day all the way round! Yay for Banana, and double yay for your wonderful fuzzies! For now- just keep doing what your doing. YOU have made wonderful progress!!!
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Post by saphire2815 on Aug 31, 2009 20:54:03 GMT -5
Well Baylee, Biscuit and Bon Bon are chomping down on bones. They were really getting into the wing tips.
Briar I have figured out with the soup chopped meat mixture he takes the pieces of meats, chews a bit and spits them out. Oh well, at least this way he's taking it in his mouth willingly and I know eventually he'll actually eat it.
I don't know I think I just want to really focus on the ones that are eating good. It's really hard to track who is eating what, I want to continue to offering to everyone, there are a few who like the raw, but not completly into, Thyme, Bandit and Barlee, I think they can be the next group. Butter I am just keep offering and raw, he likes to lick at it.
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Post by sherrylynne on Aug 31, 2009 22:22:50 GMT -5
Hey, sometimes it's a lot easier to just focus on a few at a time. When I started this, I only had 3, then got a kit part way through. The fact that you are working so very hard to get all your babies on a healthier diet is an amazing thing to me. If I'd had more than one Boris, I honestly don't know that I'd have made it. So, if you'd like to work with one group at a time, that's not a problem! That way, you can give more attention to the stubborn ones as well. Just keep offering the others some as well, so you don't have to start from scratch again. Sound good?
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Post by saphire2815 on Sept 3, 2009 12:16:21 GMT -5
Ok, I've just been too tired to post at the end of the day so I'll do this during my lunch here at work. So when I get home at night, I get swamped by ferrets. I think almost everyone is liking the Raw, just not enough to want to eat it as an entire meal. So I'll offer everyone raw, but focus changing over one group at a time. So the last couple of days/nights I've been holding out until I put them away to give the raw because I found if it isn't chopped I find it all over the house. I have started just cutting the wings sections into quarters so they get bone and meat. I have found the wing tip portion gets completly eaten, and the rest the bone gets cleaned and chewed on. Biscuit, Baylee and Barlee are the ones chewing on the bones, and Bon Bon eats the tips, so I think my first group will be these 4. And of course with everyone else being offered, who knows if any will join them, but get the easy guys first, and then work on the stubborn ones later. This weekend I am going to get an eating Den, I just don't like finding bits of food all over the house anymore. I was ok with it in the beginning, but I really want to know how much is REALLY getting eaten. I was thinking of getting a large container so I can just put them in with the plate, let them eat. And then when they are done eating, tip it on the side and now I have a fun and interesting ferret toy for everyone . Well thats it for now, I gotta get back to work.
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Post by sherrylynne on Sept 3, 2009 19:36:13 GMT -5
That sounds like a good plan. What I wound up doing with mine to get them to exercise their jaws more with the wing bone is to cut length wise along the bone, so it's split in two, the long way. It's a bit of a pain, I know, but you only have to do this for 2-3 weeks, then they'll be able to handle the middle bones fine, and after another couple of weeks, they should be able to handle the drumette. Mine are spoiled, and I still chop the drumette in half across with the cleaver, but I really don't need to, because they are capable.
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Post by saphire2815 on Sept 4, 2009 12:06:42 GMT -5
Ok, so I tried your suggestion with the wings, and it worked, Barlee and Baylee at ALL the bones last night (Barlee I think ate the most he was so into it last night getting at the marrow his mouth looked bloody LOL). Biscuit is a bit lazier and didn't go for more than the easy to eat wing tips. I put more in the cage this morning to finish off the wing pieces I saved for today. I get inconsistant results on when they eat more. Sometimes at night, sometimes during the day. :/ Bon Bon just like to eat the wing tips and cut up pieces of meat and the soup. I think everyone gets some of the soup though, other than Briar, because an 8lb bag of kibble lasted a month, it use to be double that before.
Today I'll get some pork to start adding into the chicken.
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Post by sherrylynne on Sept 4, 2009 18:24:00 GMT -5
When you add the pork, cut it a bit smaller than the chicken pieces. Since they can be such lazy little monkeys when it comes to chewing, they should go for those first
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Post by saphire2815 on Sept 6, 2009 18:21:10 GMT -5
Ok, so I got the Eating Den, but it seems they just want out of it to go hide their food. So today I didn't give any breakfast and I took out the kibble. This evening I put some food in the den and Put Biscuit, Baylee, Barlee and Bon Bon in it, and everyone but Bon Bon went to town. So I guess I just have to make sure they are hungry to get them use to the idea of eating in the bin. The leftovers will go into the cages tonight. Everyone else had Kibble and I made a soup for Butter that he is really liking. The creamier the soup the more he likes it. I added a little bit of pork, and ground beef to the mix. Small bits, lets see what's left over. Another day done, I'll let you know of any news next time
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Post by sherrylynne on Sept 6, 2009 20:20:21 GMT -5
Feeding dens really do take some of them a bit to get used to, it seems. Only one of my original four ever really liked them. The two youngest girls started using their sleeping den for it, so I gave them an extra, and they both use it. Zeus and Athena, I won't, because I have to keep an eye on how much Athena eats. When she gets stressed, she stops, so has to be hand fed. If they are eating in it, they'll get used to it, and prefer it. I'm glad Butter likes his creamy soup . And adding the new meats to the old will soon work, so not to worry there! Sounds like everything is on track with this group!
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