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Post by cristina on Jun 23, 2010 17:13:22 GMT -5
yes skin is good too, one of my guys LOVES skin lol, its the first thing she takes! but yea you can cut them up and cut off the meat too, to get her to eat it
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Post by bassicmleodies on Jun 25, 2010 14:14:57 GMT -5
Alright, the wings are coming along well. She is starting to get into it. I have a question about whole prey. You had mentioned buying in bulk, six months at a time. I curious as to if you can give me an estimate as to how much space that occupies. I have a limited amount of freezer space, so two months worth integrated with raw meat might be a better option for me. What do you think about live prey? How difficult of a switch from dead whole prey to live prey is it? I'm curious about it, but I'm not sure if that is something that I really want to pursue.
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Post by cristina on Jun 26, 2010 12:23:26 GMT -5
Well I can tell you it does take up a fair amount of freezer space, so buy what you think your comfortable storing, I don't know how to explain since I dont know how big your freezer is as well as what you will be ordering so basically I just guess for myself (I only have limited freezer space so I usually get mice (small) and other small things, my guys arent big in variety so I have to keep it more simple)
Now for live prey, my guys have attacked our pet rabbit lol, but didnt do much damage, they went for her ears mostly...now I dont know what exactly you want to try but I would start out with small mice....only two of my guys like to kill mice, although they are hesitant eating it after, but they are fairly new to the idea so they should get use to it, plus I dont offer them live prey b/c to be honest I personally cant handle watching them kill another animal...but thats me....though I have given them mice before...just not a fan haha
You can feed both if you want (dead and live) together, especially in the beginning, since they may not eat their kill in the beginning...sometimes it takes a few tries for them to understand after they kill, they can eat it....which is why I suggest starting with mice and see how they do. I cant tell you how difficult it is to switch from one to the other since I havent personally gone through it with myself or with a newbie....but if its something you want to persue, I can help you seeing as there are many people on the site that do feed raw and they will be happy to guide us
Just let me know what you think/want to do
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Post by bassicmleodies on Jun 29, 2010 12:13:19 GMT -5
I guess my only other concern with live prey is, will it affect there "mood" so to speak, will they become more hostile in the long run?
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Post by cristina on Jul 2, 2010 11:29:08 GMT -5
many people think that if you feed live prey it will make your ferret aggressive, this is not true. Its their natural instinct....it wont turn them hostile, so dont worry about that!
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Post by bassicmleodies on Jul 5, 2010 18:43:02 GMT -5
Hello,
They're eating the wings pretty consistantly. Between the two of them a wing lasts about a day. They leave quite a bit of waste on it. I'm going to start striping more off the bone, but otherwise I think they've got it.
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Post by cristina on Jul 7, 2010 16:36:48 GMT -5
Thats great! Yea sometimes they need a little time to realize theres alot of meat on wings....I usually strip most of it for my guys too
ok so now we need to see if they eat more bone....this is why I suggested corish game hens (they can eat all the bones in them) since they are small and the bones are pretty easy for them to eat...although chicken necks work well too.... let me know what you can find around you to make sure they eat all kinds of bone (not just wings) Then after your pretty much ready to graduate!
Keep up the great work!
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Post by bassicmleodies on Jul 15, 2010 3:55:38 GMT -5
Alright, I will do the necks and the cornish hen this upcoming week. So far they've got the wings and ground rabbit for bone content. What about fish bone? That is about the only other boney meat I can think of aside from steaks and bird.
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Post by cristina on Jul 15, 2010 22:47:53 GMT -5
Ill have to get back to you about fish..I know little fish are good, I feed my guys these really small almost minnow looking fish I get from the grocery store, bit its a once in a while thing....let me ask how often they can have fish
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Post by cristina on Jul 19, 2010 18:50:04 GMT -5
Ok so I spoke with Heather about feeding fish and here is what she said: "My guys eat raw salmon but there is no reason why they can't eat any raw fish as long as it's frozen for a min of two weeks. The problem that is often encountered though is that canned isn't raw. Another raw fish that my guys have had on occasion is halibut and talapia and they've tried shrimp and lobster but both those items were cooked, so they didn't get more than a nibble as the salt content is huge." So yes its ok to feed any raw fish, just watch the salt content and make sure its really raw...not canned or anything If you do try feeding fish, let me know how it goes
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Post by bassicmleodies on Jul 25, 2010 18:44:11 GMT -5
Sorry it's been a while. I just kinda woke up today. They've been getting lots of chick and rabbit, both with bone, but their solid waste seems to be more on the liquid side. I don't think it would be diarrhea, just not enough fiber. Any thoughts? I've used a little pumpkin puree earlier this year with the shedding of their coats. I've been curious as to if you think I could use that to supplement the fiber considering they aren't consuming coasts of prey and bones, just eating off of them. I haven't had them for very long, and I just recently decided to take our relationships to the next level. Thanks so much for being here as a source of information. I am grateful.
Christopher
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Post by cristina on Jul 26, 2010 11:48:32 GMT -5
No problem...thats what Im here for!
The problem with poops on the softer side can either be them not consuming enough bone, or maybe they are passing a virus through their systems (for instance, my guys all had ECE a year or two ago and even though they got over it, sometimes it (since its a virus and they will always have reminants of it in them) makes their poop "soggy" for a couple days to a week then goes away, but even the common cold virus can do this too.....so wait a week to see if it passes as long as its not pure liquid then your ok...also if you want to add ground up egg shells this provides them with more calcium that should firm up their poops as well (dry them out and grind them until almost a powder and give a tsp a day in soup or what not and you can see if this helps as well (I use ground egg shells once a week in my guys soups to make sure they get an adequate amount just in case they arent getting enough from bone)
Let me know how this goes
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Post by cristina on Aug 3, 2010 16:39:29 GMT -5
Hows their stools? still liquidy?
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Post by cristina on Aug 26, 2010 14:44:03 GMT -5
how are things going??
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