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Post by Heather on Jan 10, 2010 20:37:22 GMT -5
Whewwww, thank goodness I'm glad to hear that everyone's back to normal ciao
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Post by tiggyeaj on Jan 14, 2010 23:18:37 GMT -5
Sorry it's been a few days. I'm so frustrated. I haven't been able to get her to eat ground meat since before she ate that vet wrap. If I can't get her to eat ground, I can't get her to eat organs. I've been going back to the begining, making soupy ground/water mixtures and giving her some off of my finger (she won't take it off of a spoon). She shows no interest and won't eat a bite for a whole day until I give in and give her a piece of chicken.
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Post by Heather on Jan 15, 2010 0:27:48 GMT -5
Have you tried her on whole organ meat? Just a couple of slivers, nothing major. Pork liver is firmer than beef, chicken has about the same texture as pork. She's associated the discomfort that she suffered with the ground meats. I understand your frustration. You could try some syringe feeding, you know how? Syringing through the side of the mouth. Or you can try your soupy thick and scruff and stuff (I'm not fond of this method but have used it myself on a particularly stuborn little girl), you could even try this for feeding the liver. Be careful using this method as it does stress them. Is she eating whole meats? boned meats? You could try thin slivers of kidney. I found my guys actually like this meat more than liver, again the texture thing I think. Let me know how things go. ciao
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Post by tiggyeaj on Jan 16, 2010 20:32:46 GMT -5
I will try the slivers of organ meat on Monday--I have gizzards, heart, kidney, and liver for her to choose from. Hopefully she'll take to at least one. My other concern is that she seems to be losing weight. I've been monitoring how much she eats a day, and it's normally around 2 oz of chicken meat/bone/skin. Maybe she's not getting enough fat? I'm trying to get her to eat the ground beef again. I'm going to test her blood glucose when I get back from our trip on Monday, because she also seems a litlte lathargic.
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Post by Heather on Jan 16, 2010 23:00:59 GMT -5
Up the amount that she's eating. Do you have a scale to weigh her on? When you're doing the switch, it's nice to be able to keep track of weights. One of the things to recall is that they drop a lot of the pudge (unless you're Napoleon) and this can make them appear smaller or carrying less weight but they're not. Now my guys are getting ready for the change of the season too, they've all dropped an once and they're not eating near as much. Good luck with the meat trials on Monday....you could try getting her to eat some fattier meats too. ciao
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Post by tiggyeaj on Jan 18, 2010 23:30:18 GMT -5
OK, she's withing normal weight (1 lb 10oz), but she still feels boney. Maybe not enough muscle? I offer her between 4 and 5 oz of food a day, but she doesn't always eat it all. We got in late from our trip last night and didn't have any food thawed out, so I thought I'd try giving her a raw egg. I mixed it with a little FerreVite and she ate it like a champ. Too many eggs cause rat tail right? It's official! Muddy will soon have a new friend. Whodini (I think a name, or at least spelling, change may be in order) is a 2 y/o male. He's at least mostly blind, according to the previous owners' vet. I waved my hand about 2 inches from his face and it didn't register, so I wouldn't be surprised if he can't see at all, or maybe only registers light/dark. He has a clean bill of health and is a chunker (compared to Muddy)--I think he must weigh 3x as much as Muddy! I don't have pics yet, because he's staying with my sister for the next two weeks until I can get the ferret area organized enough for him (it's pretty messy right now). My sister's house is otherwise ferret free, so would this count as his quarantine period? I'm so excited!
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Post by Heather on Jan 19, 2010 1:14:25 GMT -5
Congratulations....I had a Houdini...a few years ago . He was a little sweetie. Muddy may be a greyhound type ferret vs a pudgy type. Your little boy would be about 3x the size of your little girl and may even appear bigger if she's a smaller marshal's type. My little marshals girls are quite tiny. Babushka weighed less than a pound, Calypso only a few onces heavier. Natasha though she's very fuzzy, doesn't carry much weight and Pooka...well poor Pooka is naked, so we can see all she has or not, poor wee thing. Adrenal is horrible but she's starting to get some coat back, she has a beautiful mohawk and some fuzzy pants and she's always had a fuzzy tail (she never lost that). She looks very skinny but has a plump little belly and carries good weight for an adrenal (they loose some muscle tone as the disease progresses). You may yet see Muddy put on weight, though this is the wrong time of year for the most part. My guys are already starting to shed their winter pudge. I can't wait to see some pics of your newest addition ciao
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Post by tiggyeaj on Jan 21, 2010 22:00:28 GMT -5
Poop. More car problems, so can't go get the new baby for about another couple of weeks (wheel bearings need replacing). But, I know my sister is taking good care of him. Muddy is still being stubborn with her organs. She's eating turkey now though. She ate a turkey neck (only left one vertebra!) and today at a turkey tail (I'm confused by that packaging label ). So now our freezer and fridge is full of: turkey necks and tails, chicken drumsticks and thighs, ground beef and turkey, eggs, beef kidney, and chicken livers. If only I could get her to eat the last two, I wouldn't be so worried. I'm just afraid of how long she's going without the nutrients in organs. I'm going to have to try a different soup recipe every day until we hit on one she likes.
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Post by Heather on Jan 22, 2010 1:09:49 GMT -5
I'm sorry that your new little one will not be home for another couple of weeks. It will give your little one more time to get her diet figured out. Will she eat ground meat?? I've found that my guys will very willingly eat organ meats mixed up in the ground mixes. I through the liver and the hearts in the food processor and hit liquify. I then just poor the amount needed in the ground meat mix and then it's done. I've found that they eat it without blinking an eye, these are the same ones who wouldn't touch the organ meats in their altogether That's great news. Turkey tails... Why not...just be careful, they are really fatty and your little one won't be bouncing around she will be rolling around if she eats too many of them all at once Keep it up, you're doing great ciao
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Post by tiggyeaj on Jan 23, 2010 1:38:37 GMT -5
I managed to get her to eat ground turkey today (I'm planning on using this as an organ soup base). Problem: the package says it has "natural rosemary flavor." How problematic is this? She won't eat the other type of ground turkey I tried to interest her in, despite it being left in her cage for 12 hours.
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Post by Heather on Jan 23, 2010 15:25:54 GMT -5
With rosemary That's the same type of ground turkey that I can get Why can't they just leave well enough alone. They have to list the ingredients, check for salt or sodium or any of it's derivatives. Well, well.....guess why they stick it in your turkey...it's a preservative that will help destroy pathogens...says a lot for our ground turkey doesn't it They're even more worried about ground turkey than ground chicken for salmonella I could find no problems using it but use it sparringly. Try and wean her toward the pure turkey if you can, it will be better for her. I don't like meats that have been seasoned for ferrets but if you're only using a bit once a week to get the organs into her, I can't see a total problem, especially when you see what goes into ferret kibbles Great work, you're moving along ciao
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Post by tiggyeaj on Jan 28, 2010 16:47:44 GMT -5
No sodium listed on the turkey, just the rosemary flavoring
So we've been doing well. I'm getting her to eat VERY small amounts of beef kidney in a turkey soup. She also likes cornish game hen. I hack it into 4 or 5 days of serving and freeze. The only problem is that for some reason she's been throwing up after eating the CGH, not every time however. I think she may be eating too fast?
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Post by Heather on Jan 29, 2010 1:01:07 GMT -5
It could be she's also eating too fast or too much These are both possibilities. What would happen if the pieces are larger? Would she eat slower do you think? Check to see there might also be large quantities of fat in the serving I've had ferrets, cats and dogs throw up chunks of fat when they first start switching because their bodies aren't used to consuming fat in its pure form. Keep an eye on her and see if you can locate a pattern to her behaviour or to something she does or eats on these occasions. Moving along...great work. ciao
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Post by tiggyeaj on Feb 2, 2010 21:34:50 GMT -5
Sorry it's been so long. Life conspires against me--I've been travelling and sick. On the upside, I picke-up Noodle (formerly Whodini) this weekend (he's been at my sister's for 2 weeks and has a clean bill of health). He and Muddy have been doing just great--no drama in introducing them! He's so sweet and has been getting around very well, despite his blindness. Muddy is still refusing to eat more than small amounts of liver mixed in with her ground turkey, so I've been giving it to her as the morning meal three days a week. This way she's getting a whole liver. Noodle ate some ground turkey off of my finger and lapped at some of the juices that came off of a turkey neck, but otherwise shows no interest in eating raw. He's on that 8 in 1 junk now. His teeth are a mess with plaque build-up. How is the best way to make sure he's getting enough food (until he accepts raw) without letting Muddy access to kibble? The little stinker still goes after any stray cat, dog, or hedgehog kibble.
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Post by Heather on Feb 2, 2010 23:07:13 GMT -5
Congratulations on your newest. Is he totally blind? Congenital, accident?? There is nowhere that its said that you have to feed the liver all at once. What you're doing is great. If it works, go for it. Ahhh, they say that adversity is the mother of invention....I say not...I say ferret creates many more inventors ;D Kibble eaters in among the raw eaters....such things present such a pain which is why I usually work very hard to get them to switch as fast as possible. What I've found that I do is I pick a time where I will be home. I then remove the kibble and start hand feeding with the only available food being the raw. At noon, if my little fuzzy isn't being very receptive to raw eating, I then confine my little holdout to a cage and let him have a lunch of kibbles. I give him half an hour to eat all he wants. Then the cage is locked up and he's out on his own again. I've found that if they're running with raw feeders and you are offering them the raw on a spoon every half hour or so with kibble only being offered a set times during the day they quite often switch within days. I've had a couple who were not as receptive but for the most part if they would take raw food from my finger and then from a spoon within the first 24 hrs they were switching with days. I know hand feeding is time consuming but that way you know that he's getting exactly enough food and your little Muddy isn't eating all the kibbles ciao
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