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Post by miamiferret2 on Jan 7, 2011 10:07:37 GMT -5
i need feedback. i brush my ferret's teeth about once per week. he is very young. less than 1 year old. he eats freeze dried raw and gets soupies twice a day for breakfast and dinner. his teeth are all pearly white, except one... on his left side, his back tooth has a greyish color. towards the gum it is white as it should be. but where it curves and leads to the pointy edge of the tooth it is grey in that little curve. i'm not sure if i'm describing it correctly. taking a photograph is going to be difficult since it is a back tooth. i thought i was doing the right thing by brushing his teeth. i think i do a good job. i do the best i can. i have a little cat toothbrush and i brush his gums and his teeth while he keeps trying to eat the toothbrush. it is very difficult even with my husband holding him. what are your thoughts on this grey spot on his tooth? the same tooth on the other side is perfectly white. i always understood that grey, yellow, etc. on teeth means tartar build up. any ideas on how to get rid of tartar buildup? i heard once to give them velcro and let them chew on it for a little while and that will clean their teeth. but i don't want to give my ferret velcro to chew on! i have finally succeeded in having him stop eating cloth! i don't want him regressing.
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Post by miamiferret2 on Jan 7, 2011 10:08:37 GMT -5
when i get home today i'm going to try to scrape it off with my nail. that should be interesting...maybe i'll put linatone on my finger or something.
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 7, 2011 12:47:29 GMT -5
Since he doesn't eat bone in meats(although even that's no absolute guarantee), likely the only thing that will keep them up is a dental cleaning at the vets. And yes, the greyish area is likely tartar
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Post by miamiferret2 on Jan 7, 2011 13:26:34 GMT -5
i'll try the bone in meats. what should i use? a chicken wing? skin and all? he's a fatty and i think he'll eat just about anything. he'll be 6 months at the end of january.
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 7, 2011 13:29:14 GMT -5
Chicken necks, wings, anything like that. And don't forget- they do have to build up the jaw strength to chow down on bones. If you like, once he's able to handle those with ease(there is a learning curve to them eating bone, and if they can get away with it, they simply won't do it, lazy sods ), you can move on to cornish hen, turkey necks, etc.
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Post by shilohismygirl on Jan 7, 2011 14:01:48 GMT -5
Oooh! Gizzards are great for getting teeth clean too if he won't eat bone in.
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Post by miamiferret2 on Jan 7, 2011 15:22:28 GMT -5
Awww man!! I just went to the grocery store and i bought chicken wings. I saw a package of gizzards and chicken hearts but I decided that since he's never eaten real raw (not freeze dried) that there is a chance he won't eat the wing so why bother. By the way, how hard is it to get them to eat the raw meat? Like I said, he's still very young and willing to "experiment." hopefully this will be easy. I just want to clean that dang tooth!!
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 7, 2011 15:32:25 GMT -5
You can always try chopping bits of the meat off the drumette and giving it to him. You can also try giving him the wing tip to chew on, see what he does with it
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Post by miamiferret2 on Jan 7, 2011 15:33:56 GMT -5
Maybe the wing tips would be good to start. that doesn't seem so bad to chew through right?
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Post by miamiferret2 on Jan 7, 2011 15:36:38 GMT -5
Oh how funny! We simultaneously wrote the same thing about the wing tips! I'll log back on when i get home. Hopefully fatty bombatty will eat the wing... Thanks for the advice!
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 7, 2011 15:38:30 GMT -5
Not a problem And wings tips are definitely great starter bones. I feed mine all commercial raw in the mornings, since I've got a couple of very lazy eaters . In the evening, they get either bone in for their teeth, muscle meats, or whole prey.
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Post by miamiferret2 on Jan 7, 2011 16:04:38 GMT -5
I will take pictures of him with his first wing ever. I wish I knew how to upload pictures on this site.
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 7, 2011 18:08:59 GMT -5
Do you have a photobucket account? If not, it's free to join and store the pics. Once you do, upload your pics to there. When that's finished(I now store mine at the size of 640 X something or other ), scroll over the picture there, and click on the IMG code. It will copy, and paste it in your reply box here.
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Post by miamiferret2 on Jan 7, 2011 20:07:23 GMT -5
No I don't. I'll open up an account. Well sherrylynne, the dog loved the raw chicken. I was very surprised that Sonny the ferret turned his nose up and refused eat it. I cut the skin and meat off the bones. I dices it up into tiny pieces. I tried to rub linatone on the chicken. I even scruffed him and stuck some tiny chunks to the roof of his mouth. He swallowed them. He did not spit them out or gag, but he had no interest in eating the raw chicken on his own. Should I not have given him skin? I froze mostly all of them one each in tiny zip lock bags and I have one for tomorrow as j plan on trying again...any tips??
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 7, 2011 20:43:09 GMT -5
Persistence? He doesn't recognize it as food because it's in a different form, and smells different than he's accustomed to. Are you interested in doing a switch? You can still continue to feed commercial, but he'll need to recognize the meat/bone as food before he'll touch it. If you are, try adding the small bits to the existing food he has. Likely, he'll not notice the difference. Then just slowly decrease the commercial, while increasing the amount of meat, as well as the size of the bits.
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