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Post by sherrylynne on Sept 24, 2009 18:43:18 GMT -5
Wow, your guys are really starting to come around! Kudos . Got to admit- the ones like Briar can really tug the ol' heart strings, can't they? . He'll come around, too. Just going to take some more intensive convincing
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Post by saphire2815 on Sept 28, 2009 11:41:02 GMT -5
Well, Butter had a sugar crash on Sunday, fortunately I caught it quickly rubbed just a little syrup on his gums waited 10 minutes and then he ate the soup quite heartily. He's doing much better. Now I'm scrambling to get some $$ to get him to the vet this week, I was hoping to hold off until next week after I get paid. But I don't know if I can handle seeing that again, or how many times his little body can handle it. I thought he was doing so well, he's been eating soup, he had visibly gained weight, his drunken gait had decreased and he started playing with me some. I've recently noticed he has a hard time climbing up the cage levels, so I rearanged the FN so he can stay on the lower level. I'm glad I'm doing what I can to reduce the risk for the rest of the bunch to have this problem unfortunatly I got Butter too late. So for Everyone else, they are doing good. Biscuit wants nothing to do with kibble and he has become very demanding when it is time to eat, and he absolutly loves it when I hand it to him like a treat. LOL We caugh Bon Bon hiding under a blanket and eating raw, so it seems I have a larger population of raw eaters than I thought. Everyone is moving along.
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Post by sherrylynne on Sept 28, 2009 14:27:43 GMT -5
That's a scary thing with Butter, poor boy! Glad you caught it. Guess leaving the kibbles out isn't going to work with him at all. They can be funny when they hide to eat. I've got 3 who refuse any sort of den, two who insist on it, and 3 who really don't care . I guess Bonbon is one of the den feeding ferrets
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Post by saphire2815 on Sept 30, 2009 12:56:39 GMT -5
Well I wasn't able to get the $$ together to get butter to the vet during the week, but I do have an appointment on Saturday. With some rearranging of some bills I will Hopefully I'll be able to get him on the road to feeling better.
Well biscuit likes Hamburger, but he doesn't like thinly sliced steak. The food did not get touched last night when I added some steak to it. I use thie pre sliced stuff I buy to make taco's with. But everyone was hungry this morning and will probably clear the plate today.
No more new news to report.
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Post by sherrylynne on Sept 30, 2009 23:10:11 GMT -5
The steak is too much of a different texture right now for him. Sort of like my guys with their rabbit . They adore it, but when I finally found some frozen/thawed newborn rabbit, they very politely took them, stashed them, then turned to look at me like, "Ok mom, that was interesting, but where's breakfast?" It's good that he likes the hamburger, though. It's a different taste/texture than he's used to, and it helps to expand the taste buds, which is what you need to do with them. The more they get to taste, and eat, the more willing they'll be to try other meats.
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Post by saphire2815 on Oct 5, 2009 9:06:09 GMT -5
No new news other than myself and both my boys have a real bad cold, according to the minute clinic that is, I think it's the flu so I have kept our exposure to the ferrets to a minimum for the last 5 days. Also my computer crashed so I had to set up the computer my dad sent me a couple months ago. Thankfully I had a back up computer! LOL but I had to find all my links.
Will update again when I'm back up to par.
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Post by sherrylynne on Oct 5, 2009 9:22:43 GMT -5
Not a problem! Get yourself and everybody well again, and I'll talk to you then.
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Post by saphire2815 on Oct 7, 2009 12:10:40 GMT -5
Well I'm back to work, not at a 100% but much better than I was before. Unfortunately due to my illness Butter's vet appointment was postponed to this Saturday, but since his crash we have been making a more concerted effort to keep him fed, and I even changed the kibble I have been using to EVO and it seems he is again feeling better. This morning he was running around, played a little tug-o-war with me and was playing with Briar a bit. It seems everyone knows he isn't as strong so they don't play as rough with him, it's so precious. I'm afraid I'm going to get him to the vet and he's not going to have low blood sugars. Arg! His appointment is like 3 in the afternoon, so I'll make sure he has been fasting for 3 hours, but I don't want to do that to him This morning Thyme was caught with a jerky looking piece of meat. So I think just having the Monkey see Monkey do thing is really taking off. I have Biscuit and Barlee who are almost exclusive Raw, since I changed to the Evo I have caught Biscuit eating it, but the second I put raw in front of him he quickly dumps the kibble. He absolutely adores when I hand feed him the raw too, no piece is too big or small he just wants me to hand it to him. Baylee, Bandit, Thyme and Bon Bon eat a combo of raw and kibble. Of course with them eating raw, it's less kibble to purchase for the entire group, so now I can afford the more high quality stuff. Bacon, Blaze and Briar have been in a cage all their own and not being offered raw, and they are perfectly content with that, and since the switch to Evo they have had more energy, so they are benefiting too. I feel like I'm in a rut, chicken is the cheapest meat out there so I find myself buying plenty of it and skimping out on the rest. Shoot I even eat a lot of chicken 'cause it cost less than everything else I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever be able to completely offer the varied diet as I am suppose to. :/
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Post by sherrylynne on Oct 7, 2009 22:37:10 GMT -5
You'll get there! Just do what I do- keep an eagle eye peeled for sales, last day meats, talk to friends and get slightly freezer burned stuff. Check out the ethnic markets, particularly the asian ones. Buy the cheap cuts of everything(ie: pork steak, instead of chops, beef stew instead of roast). If you have any butchers around, sometimes you can get the less "usefull" parts that wind up in the garbage. Just tell them you make your own pet food . Most people are far more sympathetic to that than to raw feeding(unfortunately). You can still give chicken as the bulk of the week's meals. Just try to give, for example, pork and maybe turkey for 4-6 meals.My menu is by no means set in stone. They have 4 bone in days, 2 muscle meat days, and an organ day. Whatever I can find cheap is what they get on those days. AND you'd be amazed how many meals you can get out of a whole turkey . Neck and wing tips chopped are bone in, as are ribs. All the rest is muscle meat. When you consider they only eat 1-4 oz each a day, a turkey is a steal.
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Post by saphire2815 on Oct 11, 2009 8:05:02 GMT -5
Same group still eating. Nothing new.
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Post by sherrylynne on Oct 11, 2009 11:27:24 GMT -5
I know this can be frustrating. We'll get you over the hump, don't worry! You've come a long way since the beginning. I'm thinking try removing the kibble when you put the raw in, for maybe 30-45 minutes. That amount of time shouldn't hurt Butter, and you can always feed him the soupies while the others are munching away on the meat pieces. With the others who are still kibble heads, can you get some freeze dried foods? Here's a link: www.caseyshiddenpantry.com/food.html At the very bottom of the page, there's a sample pack to try out various kinds. What sometimes works quite well is to slightly crush the kibble, and mix it well with just a wee bit of freeze dried raw. That way, they'll get the taste of the freeze dried whether they want to or not, because with the kibble crushed a bit, they can't pick it out. It will also give you a head start with their switch.
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Post by saphire2815 on Oct 12, 2009 11:31:10 GMT -5
I'm feeling comfortable where I am at, and financially I'm having a real hard time getting over this hump. I'm thinking of re-homing a few, at least two. But now that I'm getting such a good group who munch on raw, it makes the re-homing idea harder. I know of a girl who was looking for a ferret several months ago that is a raw feeder and she lets her ferret free range the house. Baylee is doing well with the conversion but she absolutly hates the cage and makes a ruckus all night long. She would probably love having a free range home, but still benefit from a good diet. I sent the girl an e-mail this morning to see if she is still looking. I have no idea who the second would be though.
The commercial freezdried is really way too expensive for me to consider. Ferret math is a dangerous thing.
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Post by sherrylynne on Oct 12, 2009 11:43:15 GMT -5
I know where you are coming from there. And please don't feel bad if you have to rehome some. It happens sometimes, and can be for the best. The only thing to be careful of is breaking up bonded cage mates. Let me know what happens, ok?
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Post by saphire2815 on Oct 14, 2009 11:40:14 GMT -5
This morning Butter took from the Raw food dish! He has been doing so much better lately, he ran around for a full hour yesterday! Unfortunatly I got a speeding ticket so finances for Butter's Vet visit got reallocated But he is doing really well, and I think he has started eating from the raw dish, I just hadn't noticed until this morning Yay! I got a hold of the girl who was looking for the ferret, she is still interested in a friend for her fuzzy, and had not yet found one, so we are talking. She has a girl, so we'll see Baylee may not fit due to the girl dominance thing, but we'll see. It's going to be a couple weeks before anything happens anyway. It seems that the majority are snacking on the raw. So everything is going pretty good. Biscuit just LOOOOOVES to be fed by hand, he gets this look of pur bliss when I give him his food, that my boys have started doing it! LOL And he will slurp up anything we give him by hand. Thats all for now.
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Post by sherrylynne on Oct 14, 2009 19:35:45 GMT -5
Yay for Butter!!!!!!!!!!!!! And mom has to learn to slow down . Why do you think I adore my cruise control? It really is wonderful news that most are at least snacking on raw. Are you still slipping in some other variety of meat for them? If so, how are they taking to it? Next step is to up the size of pieces for them. Give them the usual, with just a few pieces cut a tiny bit bigger. They should start snapping them up without realizing they are learning to eat bigger bits. And it may be time to start introducing either liver, or wing tips chopped up small as well. You're choice which you'd rather do first!
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