Matilda, Penny, Oliver, and Baxter go raw!

[wmella85]

i have tried egg shells. the problem with it is that they refuse to eat when i put the shell dust on. im getting concerned.

i am offering some young chicken wings. so we will see how that goes.

i need another suggestion/option.

[wmella85]

oh, your not missing out on anything with the kidneys. the smelled horrible. like pee, go figure. lol. none of mine would eat it. made the whole house smelly. i dont think that i will be feeding that again.

[wmella85]

so last night dinner was chicken livers sprinkled with eggshell dust and duk soup. delish!!! i didnt see them all eat, but this morning the bowl was almost empty.

breakfast consisted of du-da-da-da CHICKEN WING WITH BONE!!!!!!!

now here is the big surprise, Olliver was crunching i up! he got very excited every time he'd crunch the bone his tail would get a little more poofy, til the end of the meal whre he was so hyped by the expeience his whole coat was standing on end.

baxter and penny just picked at a bit of wing, hen got in the hammies and went back to sleep.


so at least its a start.

[Forum Administrator]

Yiiippppiiieee!!!!

We've got a bone eater!!!!! Excellent!

Now as for the ferts running to the fridge when it opens I have a serious (but kind of funny) warning. my guys bolt to the fridge every time I open it. Be sure you don't accidentally close a fert in the fridge (I've done it...oops).

As for searing the outside of the meat: why? Is she worried about YOU getting sick or the ferrets? I wouldnt do it, no reason. They are more then capable of handling the raw meat. And as for you....just be sanitary and wash your hands and you'll be fine. Cooking degrades nutrients. I wouldnt even cook the meat...not even searing the outside.

Did you get my pm about syringe feeding powdered eggshell mixed with babyfood? I had to do that with Sams and De until they got the hang of eating the shell (De) and bone (Sams).

Keep us posted! Im so excited for you! I hope the others get onto bone soon!

[wmella85]

i do check, i have two crisper drawers that are taller than Baxter at his most extended-ness. so they are safe. plus i am uber parinoid/aware of the kids when i am doing things i dont want them to get into/out of. but its super cute still! baxt comes and circles my feet like a kitty. i end up giving him a little piece of what will be their dinner that evening. so its a thing now. i open the door, he gets a treat. lol.

as for searing the meat, im not doing it. A) out of pure lazyness, im not going to lie. B)they are made to eat raw meat.

i think she is concerned about surface being contaminated, frozen chicken should be fine. i freeze all their meats before they can have any. that should be fine right?

I did get your pm, and they do hate me now. lol. i need to get a mortor and pestle. i cant get it any more fine then i have it now. there was lost of spitting and dirty looks, but they got their calcium. and they seem to be eating bone now i hope. but i am going to keep up with the syringe feeding until i figure out that they are all eating bone.

[Forum Administrator]

My cat took FOREVER to learn how to eat bone. She also wouldnt eat egghsell coated meat. So every day she got a syringe full of eggshell and babyfood. She HATED me. I did this for FIVE months and FINALLY she is eating bone on her own! I couldnt be more proud.

[wmella85]

so everyone is eating bones with no problems, i think that we are almost switched. what is the next step for us. increasing the size of the pieces? i am cutting the wing into maybe 1/2 inch to inch sized segments at the moment.

[mustelidmusk]

WOW!!! You're really coming along nicely!!!

I'm stepping in quickly here while Giuli's out on vacation...You want to be feeding bones, muscle meat, and organ meats. Yes you can offer lrger pieces of the hicken wings. Liver, heart, and gizzard r good choices. If they're already eating these, you'll need some different meat sources such as beef, lamb, pork, venison, bison, mice etc.

Rabbit and chicken (smaller birds) have bones that are small enough and soft enough for ferrets to eat. I would not offer bone from the larger animals unless it's ground up. The larger animals have denser bone, which is not appropriate for ferrets.

Once you have a lot of thi variety , including organ meats, going on, yo'll want to come up wth a feeing schedule so we can help make sure the diet is well balanced!

Keep up the great work!!!
-jennifer

[josiesmom]

HEHE- I can just picture Oliver all poofed up while devouring his bone! Must be his inner carnivore was truly pleased! Great job! keep at it! Cornish Game hen is always well received and easy for them to eat ALL the bones!

Cheers,
Kim

[wmella85]

they actually so eat organ meat. so far they have no problem with beef heart and chicken livers. i have some beef liver lined up for them on monday.

the only thing that i can say about this diet, is that it has caused ALOT of squabbles. baxter feels that he is large and in charge, sooooooo he insists on trying to steal everyones meal that they are in the process of eating. i was awakened at like 4:30am a few nights ago to high pitched bloody murder screaming. i flew out of the bedroom to find baxt bullying oliver (who is deaf, so when ollie talks he speaks loud enough that he can hear himself) in a deathmatch over a section of chicken wing.


i pulled them apart, oliver was really shaken up, he was visibly shaking. soooo sad. he picked his chicken up and lept out of the cage onto me and proceded to try to eat on myshoulder. he is not small so this did not work.. and you know he had to be reallllllly upset because he is a private eater. poor baby. so i set him down and kept shoving baxt away while ollie inhaled his meal. hindsight, i shoud have let them work it out while i observed. but it was 4am and i was tired.

so we have had ongoing fights every meal time with baxt. matilda isnt taking any of his crap though. he trys to take her food, she latches onto his neck. he hisses and she growls. i have never heard these sounds before. terrifying. lol. my sweet babies are not so sweet anymore.


crazy raw-meat eating carnivores. all this blood and tissue has gone to their heads!!!

[wmella85]

and thank you for stepping/chiming in. i can use all of the positive motivation and reinforcement you can give me.

[josiesmom]

oh dear! Sorry the Baxter man is being such a bully! You may want to try to offer them one or two extra pieces. So if one gets stolen the empty ferret can scarf up another piece from the stockpile.

Deaf ferrets do tend to holler the loudest! Are you feeding everyone in the same area? If adding extra pieces doesn't seem to work, then you'll need to either separate Baxter form the crew and let him eat on his own, or let Oliivander have a place to himself.

THe only time I've had problems with "choking" has been when ROman thought it necessary to inhale his food from the others. I have since eliminated this by constantly switching around who eats with whom. Except that Faylene ALWAYS eats alone. I always put in extra pieces because there is always someone who wants what the other has.

SO far the squabbles have been kept to a dull growl or two- except in the case of mice. Then its all out war! When they get mice, they each get fed in their own den.

I am so happy your kids are showing such interest in the raw foods and doing very well! You should be proud of yourself! To encourage more eating and less squabbling, don't leave food in their cage over night. Encourage them to eat the entire meal at mealtime by removing any leftovers when they get up from the dinner table.

Leave dried or freeze dried items for over night snacks- these generally don't create squabbles like real meaty bones do! It won't take them long to figure out they get the good stuff during meal time and they need to sit down and eat and quit their fussing.

Cheers,
Kim

[Forum Administrator]

I am SO proud of you! So here is the next few steps:

1. Get your babies eating chicken wings, legs, thighs, and necks
2. Make sure they are eating:
Atleast 4 days a week of raw meaty bones (like chicken wings and legs)
2 days per week of boneless meats (like beef chunks, etc)
1 day per week of organ meat (I like to also toss in a chicken neck on this day to add some extra calcium and fiber (to firm those poopies that get runny from the liver)

Try to feed ATLEAST 3 types of meat per week (like beef/pork/chicken) if you are already feeding a variety of meat, bone, and organ then its time to post your weekly feeding schedule! You are almost ready to "graduate". Just give me a basic idea of what you do (or would) feed your guys each week. Josiesmom (and I) will review it and point out and changes we think you should make so that we are sure your babies are getting all the nutrients they need. Just post it like:

MONDAY: Chicken wings
TUESDAY: Beef cubes

You get the idea

I cant wait to review your schedule! Once its reviewed we'll go over a few more things and then thsi thread will be moved to the archive and you'll officially graduate! Then from that point on you will post any natural diet questions in the "raw" "whole prey" and "general feeding" sections. We will run an "in depth" checkup/review with you at 3months, 6 months, and 1 year onto raw But hopefully you'll stick around on the forum so I wont have to hunt ya down and find ya

[Forum Administrator]

Oh and as for the squabbling I have found that once ferrets get older and/or they are on the natural diet longer they *usually* mellow out and stop squabbling Just remember they never fought like that over kibble, did they? How sad that they were eating food that wasnt worth fighting for! They are living the life if they are finally eating food that they are willing to "b*tch slap" someone over

[wmella85]

i will work on the feeding schedule tonight.


the kids are really starting to get the idea of ripping. i have been seeing alot of head shaking when they are eating the bigger peices that i give them. so thats good. Mattie isnt being sooooo dainty about eaing anymore.


the only problem with scheduled meal times is that ollie eats at very different times as the rest, like when everyone else is asleep... i am going to look into building a remote feeding cage with dens for them this week. im sure that will at leat lessen the squabbles.

thanks for the input!!!!