ls84
Going Natural
Posts: 102
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Post by ls84 on Feb 14, 2010 13:14:49 GMT -5
I've posted before about trying to get my ferrets and cats on whole prey, but have not been successful with the frozen mice and rats in my fridge. I think I am going to be picking up a live mouse at the store today to see if it helps their instincts kick in. I have a few snakes, so my plan is to try out the mouse. If the ferrets are not successful in killing the mouse I will use it as snake food so it doesnt go to waste. My question is, what size mouse should I try out? I was thinkin a hopper or a fuzzy. I do not want to use a adult mouse because I don't want to feed a live adult mouse to the snake if the ferrets dont kill it. I only feed frozen thawed so their is no danger of an angry mouse biting my snakes. This way no matter who ends up eating it its at a safe size.
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Post by lnsybean44 on Feb 14, 2010 17:08:44 GMT -5
I do not feed live but what I understand is that you want to start small. Generally it is recommended to start with pinkies and work your way up. If you over match your ferret you may end up with a bloody mess on your hands and will have to take care of the mouse by yourself, and quickly.
As far as switching to whole prey, what steps have you tried so far? Some animals have a problem with fur at first so, again, pinkies are a good place to start. If you cut them open the smell might kick some instinct in. You can also try dicing it so they get used to the taste. Then work your way up in size/age/furred-ness.
I hope that helps.
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Post by sherrylynne on Feb 14, 2010 17:58:25 GMT -5
Not having fed live before, most seem to start with the hoppers because of the sudden movement being more likely to trigger hunting instincts. To get mine on frozen/thawed, had to chop the pinkies in several small pieces and mix with the regular meat, then worked up to whole pinkies on their own, and slowly upward in age/size.
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ls84
Going Natural
Posts: 102
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Post by ls84 on Feb 15, 2010 0:05:07 GMT -5
I have tried the thawed-mouse-dance, cut open mouse, cut open pinky, and chopped pinkies in the food. The chopped pinkies in the food I thought would do the trick but even after trying each day for two weeks they still ate around the tiny mouse chunks. I am going to try blending the pinky smooth into a soup, but they tend to like the soups chunkier, so we will see if this will work.
I have two 2 year olds that I recently adopted who took to frankenprey right away, yet my 11 month old wont TOUCH any kind of meat that isnt dehydrated or rehydrated raw.
How long can I "starve" my raw fed ferrets so that they are hungry enough to try something new? For example, so my two bone eaters will be tempted to try mouse, and so my young guy will possible try bone-in meats? So far I have never let them go longer than 10-12 hours, and even then they know if they refuse food and wait that I will give in and feed them what they like. They will literally run around the cage trying to spot me from across the room, and if I leave so they cant see me, only then do they go back to the food dish to "check it out" more.
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Post by sherrylynne on Feb 15, 2010 10:50:52 GMT -5
You can"t. They really shouldn't go longer than that. If there is a hidden insulinoma(not developed enough to show symptoms yet), going without for too long could bring it out. They can also become nauseated if they go too long without food. Only other thing I can think of is tossing in the cut up pinkies, cut open mice, or what have you, maybe with some oil or tone on them, cover the cage for the night, and leave them with just those.
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ferretfreke
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Raw and Whole Prey Feeder[/b]
Posts: 235
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Post by ferretfreke on Feb 15, 2010 22:24:37 GMT -5
Feeding live was the only thing that worked to get mine to finally try eating whole prey and realizing they are food. I offered chicks and mice live and they have been very open to all sorts of whole prey since. They will now eat frozen/thawed now too. I started with a fully grown adult mouse cus I knew a pinky wouldn't excite them enough and adults was all the petstore had at the time. It actually spurs mine on when they get bit by the mice. They like a good fight and chase Good luck I hope it works.
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