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Post by Heather on Mar 7, 2010 17:49:01 GMT -5
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: Shay HF Forum Username: My un is randombananas, although the screen name is Shay ^_^
1. Where did you first learn about natural diets for ferrets? Yahoo! Answers
2. Please describe the type of diet you would like assistance in switching your ferret(s) to. Be sure to include if you are interested in feeding whole prey (live or frozen-thawed) and if you are wanting to FULLY switch to a natural diet or PARTIALLY. If you are unsure what kind of diet you want to put your ferrets on, please express that and we can help you find the best type of natural diet for your ferret. I'd love to switch over to a full raw diet. The only whole prey I'd be willing to feed for now is frozen mice. I suppose we'll see as time passes though
3. Why are you interested in switching your ferrets to a natural diet? The health benefits seem incredible, and it makes so much more sense to feed them real food than kibble.
4. Do you understand that switching your ferret to a natural diet can be a lengthy, arduous process? Its not an overnight switch. It can be a commitment of several weeks or even months. Your HF Mentor will be more then happy to assist you in switchng your ferret(s) to a natural diet, but you need to be equally as commited. If you aren't willing to tough out a potentially lengthy switching process, or if you have major life changes approaching (baby on the way, moving, starting school, getting married/divorced, etc) then it might be a better idea to wait on switching your ferret's diet until you have more time. Are you willing to make the commitment? Very willing. I'd love for them to start this diet as soon as possible!
5. How many ferrets do you currently have? What are their names? Ages? Genders? Do they have any health problems? Are they overweight? Underweight? I have two little boys, Doc and Otter. Doc is 2 and Otter is 1. They don't have any known health problems, and neither is underweight... if anything Doc may be slightly chubby.
6. What diet do you currently feed your ferrets? (Please include all treats, supplements, etc) I feed them 8 in 1 Ultimate, boiled eggs sometimes, and Bi-Odor odor eliminator.
7. Have you ever tried to switch your ferrets to a natural diet in the past? If yes, what happened? I have not, unless egg counts. In which case, it's taking them a bit warm up to it.
8. What additional information about yourself or your ferrets would you like to share? My ferts are great about kibble switches, but I'm not sure if they'd be as great with raw, simply because they might not recognize it as food. xD
9. How often during the week do you have access to a computer? Every day, unless my internet stops working. It doesn't happen very often, or for very long when it does.
10. Please post a picture of each of your ferrets (if possible).
So far I don't have any great pictures of them. D:
Hi and welcome to the mentoring program. In a little while your mentor (sherrylynne) will introduce herself and you can get started on a new adventure in natural ferret care and diets. Please remember to post regularly (daily or as per arranged with your mentor) so that your mentor can assist you move along safely in this adventure. If you experience computer difficulties or are going to be away, please notify your mentor and most of all relax and have fun . Your mentor is here to help you on this journey. ciao
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Post by sherrylynne on Mar 7, 2010 22:14:54 GMT -5
Hello there! I'm Sherrylynne, and I'll be your mentor for their switch First, a little about me. I'm 51, and have my own housecleaning business here in Calgary Alberta. I have 4 cats, ranging in age from 4yrs, to 15(only one would eat raw, unfortunately : . I also have 8 ferrets. Boris and Vincent came first, two brothers, a sable and albino. Then Sinnead. I got her when she was 2. She's now 3, and adrenal. She's on lupron, and I've decided against surgery for her. After that came my first deaf ferret, Lucrezia. A marked DEW. Then two foster ferrets, whom we fell in love with and adopted- Zeus and Athena, both two years old. After that, a little abused ferret we called Willow. She was the worst fear biter I've had, although now she's becoming a sweetie . Then, Emily. 1 month younger than Willow, and those two have bonded strongly. She's the only one Willow wasn't terrified of. While transitioning the first four, Boris was my hold out. EVERYTHING I gave him was poison, in his mind . Worst little drama queen I've seen yet . Twisting to get away, gagging, retching- he did all of it! Then one day- he ate it! Every single piece on the plate ! Those four haven't looked back. Although Boris would still be a kibble head if I let him. The next two for transitioning were the fosters. Until we adopted them, I could only supplement with raw. So in order not to cause unnecessary tummy upsets(mixing kibble and raw too closely can cause some problems- more about that later), I'd give them raw one day, and kibble on a different day. So, by the time we adopted, they had no problem with 100% raw diet. With Willow, I brought her home, and she flatly refused to eat the totally ferret kibble, so I went back to the pet store and got her a small bag of the crap they were feeding them there, and brought it home. I tried to give her some, but she just upset the dish. So- I tried her with some chicken breast. She ate it up! Hasn't had kibble since . Emily came to us as a raw fed ferret, so no issues there. And, I just recently got a little 8 month old kibble head named Suki. She's now munching bone with the rest! That's me and mine in a nutshell The reason I started looking a raw feeding was something my vet said to me. I was, at the time, giving them small pieces of fruit for treats. She told me that was VERY bad for them, and in fact, some studies have started to link early feeding of sugars with insulinoma later in life. So- I started thinking. Kibbles are full of carbs. It's all those grains/veg/fruits in them. Those are converted to sugars by the body. To me then, sugar= potential insulinoma. So, I started checking out various diets. I had no idea what an obligate carnivore was at the time. I found out! Not much wonder there was soooo much poop in the box! I may as well have been tossing my money in there. They can't process anything that's not meat based! So I feed meat Their fur is softer, their energy levels are amazing- no mad rushes then crashing. Even my three year old's teeth are amazing. No plaque whatsoever Healing is faster, and if they do get ill, they have more reserves to rely on than when they were just kibble fed! And there is a LOT LESS POOP!!!! Yay! I'm looking forward to helping your boys get on a much healthier diet, and having fun while we're at it ;D To start, try cutting some chicken breast up into kibble sized bits, see how they take to it. If not- you can coat it with powdered kibble. If that doesn't work(and it may not!), we'll go with soup. Let me know how they do
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Post by Shay on Mar 14, 2010 18:25:51 GMT -5
Wow, sorry for not replying for so long! I had some small vacation plans, but now I'm free! Okay, so I tried cutting up some chicken. Otter inspected it a little bit, but Doc wouldn't really go near it. I tried mixing in some ferretone, to see if that would make much of a difference. Otter would lick it, and I think he tried some. As far as I know, Doc didn't really take much notice though. I'm not 100% sure on who ate what though, since I left it in overnight ^_^ I'll try again tonight, but my guys quite dislike soup I've tried it with kibble and everything, but I just get that snooty little upturned nose Less poop sounds WONDERFUL. There's so much of it! XD I was starting to wonder alternative things to do with the poo though, seeing as I feel as though I'm throwing away so many plastic bags to get rid of it. Tonight I'll roll some chicken up in the kibble and maybe add a bit of ferretone to butter them up a bit! Also, I've heard that microwaving the meat to defrost is bad... is this true?
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Post by sherrylynne on Mar 14, 2010 18:36:14 GMT -5
If they don't go for that, I'll show you a way to get them to take soups. It's a good idea to have them eating that on a regular basis anyway, for the times when they get ill, and don't want anything else.
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Post by Shay on Mar 16, 2010 16:06:48 GMT -5
okay, thus far, no interest. D:
Or if there is, it isn't much. I can never see if they're eating it, since once the cage door is open the last thing they're thinking about is food. xD
But for the most part, I don't see much gone D:
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Post by Shay on Mar 16, 2010 16:11:21 GMT -5
should I try to add more ferretone or something?
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Post by sherrylynne on Mar 16, 2010 17:51:27 GMT -5
No, I don't think it would make much difference. They simply don't recognize it as food. Alright, different tack. First, take their kibble out the night before, when you go to bed(or in the morning before you go to work). That way, they'll work up a bit of an appetite. And no- it won't hurt them! A healthy ferret can go up to 12 hours without food when they are on kibble. You'll give them the meat soup mix when you get up/home. Try pureeing up some chicken and broth or water, to make a very soupy mix. Once that's done, you can freeze any leftover in ice cube trays. You'll only start with small amounts to begin with. Scruff your ferret, support his bottom on your lap, and dab a wee bit on his nose. He'll lick it off. What we need to do is to get them to taste it, over and over again. I know they don't like soups, but they do need to get accustomed to it. And it's also possible they don't recognize that as food either. Ferrets imprint very strongly on certain foods, and to their minds, everything else is basically poison. It's this instinct that would keep their wild cousins alive, and it's this instinct we have to overcome. You will most likely see gagging, twisting, wretching, coughing, spitting, etc. They can really be little drama queens , but they will, sooner or later, start to lick it off your finger. That's when you can start using a spoon. Just try to keep in mind that this diet will make and keep them so much healthier! I actually have a video of my major drama queen being convinced he likes ground lamb. Wish I'd have thought to get one of me trying to get that blasted soup into him! I wound up wearing it as often as not
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Post by Shay on Mar 16, 2010 18:42:34 GMT -5
Got it! I don't want to deal with trying to get them to eat the food in the morning, since I run late anyway, and there's no way I could make myself wake up earlier than I already do (My school district is insane and has decided that it's reasonable to start the school day at 7 am) So, I will take out their food tomorrow morning! And then at night (or when I get home) I'll introduce them to the food and the chicken cubes! Any suggestions as for ratios/should I add some ferretone to the mix? And, I don't think I've said this yet, but thank you for being my mentor! I don't think I'd be able to switch my sharks without you!
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Post by Shay on Mar 16, 2010 21:19:59 GMT -5
Woo! Big break through! I made a soup of chicken breast (with skin), raw egg (including the shell), oil, and water. Neither of them took much interest until I started adding a bit of ferretone. Otter will go for it with very little ferretone and is actually pretty enthusiastic about it! Doc takes quite a bit more ferretone, but I feel that I could wean him off of it. Does that sound like a good idea (the weaning off of ferretone)? I got some pictures, so I'll post those a bit later! ):
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Post by sherrylynne on Mar 17, 2010 20:22:40 GMT -5
Hey- whatever works! You can also start weaning them off 'tone entirely if you want. A number of ferrets really like salmon oil, olive oil. I do use tone for nail trimming day, but that's it. I don't like the fact of BHT and BTA in it. Both known cancer causing agents. But I figure once every couple of weeks shouldn't do too much harm(I hope!). And that breakthrough is amazing Just keep doing whatever you need to right now, til they take it willingly from at least your finger/spoon. Then we can worry about phasing out the lure(tone)! Hopefully, they'll be taking it well within a few days. When that happens, start putting in less and less tone.
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Post by Shay on Mar 18, 2010 20:22:18 GMT -5
Drat. xD I tried the 'starving' them method. And when I tried to thaw out my soup, it ended up turning back into chicken They didn't eat any of it (since it was a solid), so I'll just avoid microwave defrosting from now on! So, I'll let them have another good day of kibble to keep them well fed, and then I'll try again with the method of getting them to eat soups not from my finger. Until then, I'll keep weaning them off the tone soup on my finger. Olive oil and salmon oil is definitely something to try! BPH and BPA sound pretty bad, especially since this is a really popular product. it's too bad more owners don't know about the risks! So, I just wanted to check that this is an acceptable soup (I added a bit more than meat to make it tasty xD) I don't know exact ratios that I used, but the ingredients were: chicken, olive oil, raw egg (with shell), and water. Plus whatever tone that I add to it while they're eating. All blended up and nice and smooth I'll check back in in a day or so once I've seen if they'll eat the liquid soup on their own!
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Post by sherrylynne on Mar 18, 2010 21:38:46 GMT -5
Sounds good to me! Like I said- whatever it takes Just be sure to remove the kibble several hours before they try the raw soups. If they have a bit of an appetite, they'll take to the raw a bit better. And not a good idea to let them go more than about 12 hours without food. Ferrets, as well as cats, can develop something called fatty liver disease when they go without food for to long. At least with ferrrets, it's reversible with food.
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Post by Shay on Mar 22, 2010 19:42:13 GMT -5
This are going wonderfully! I took out their food for about 5 hours or so before putting in the soup yesterday (still with a bit of ferretone), and they went right for it! I went in the next morning, and the bowl was licked clean -- even though they had kibble available! So today I just decided to put in a bowl of the soup for them (even though they've had kibble all day,) and yet again they went right for it! So now the trick is, how do I work my way up to solids? They still seem a bit grossed out by occassional chunks. But they eat them sometimes. ^_^
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Post by sherrylynne on Mar 22, 2010 20:06:23 GMT -5
That's wonderful news!!! They are developing a taste for the meat- major step Just cut them really tiny, like the size of ground beef, and use quite a few. Cover them in the soup, and give it like normal, see how they do with that.
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Post by Shay on Mar 25, 2010 20:24:31 GMT -5
so far not much interest in the chunks. >___< It's possible I cut them too big, I'm not very good with a knife haha ^_^ Although they're licking them a bit. So I guess I'll just have to cut smaller next time?
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