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Post by kilasxxrattery on Aug 27, 2008 11:10:45 GMT -5
My boys made their first kill last night. We decided to try and feed them a hamster and they did pretty good for their first time, I guess you could say. The hamster kept faking that he was dead and the ferrets weren't doing a good job at killing him so my boyfriend had to dispatch the hamster after he was chomped on several times and was still breathing - but my boys actually ate him! I can't find any remains in the ferret cage this morning so I'm assuming they ate him anyway.
I'm so proud of my little guys!
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Post by Heather on Aug 27, 2008 11:57:49 GMT -5
They are such good little fuzzies That's great that they ate their kill, even if they didn't quite get it right. Have you thought of maybe starting them on something smaller like little mice...hamsters are quite large? I rather made that mistake too when I first started with prey. My guys did so good with mice that I fed rats (I have a supplier who breeds them to feed to her snakes, I get what she doesn't need), which weren't a problem the first couple of times. Unfortunately, my supplier then gave me a couple that were too big for her snake...they were too big for my guys to make a clean kill either I felt really horrible, and haven't done live prey since. I plan to start breeding my own mice for my guys (they've hunted mice on their own in the house and been very successful, I've just not gone out and got them any live for canned hunts) Good luck and again congratulations to the little hunters ciao
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Post by Forum Administrator on Aug 27, 2008 14:31:18 GMT -5
Don't worry, my guys are terrible hunters too BUT like your babies they will eat the food once its been killed. Congrats on them eating it! That's great! Do you know WHO ate it?
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Post by kilasxxrattery on Aug 27, 2008 15:22:28 GMT -5
They are such good little fuzzies That's great that they ate their kill, even if they didn't quite get it right. Have you thought of maybe starting them on something smaller like little mice...hamsters are quite large? I rather made that mistake too when I first started with prey. My guys did so good with mice that I fed rats (I have a supplier who breeds them to feed to her snakes, I get what she doesn't need), which weren't a problem the first couple of times. Unfortunately, my supplier then gave me a couple that were too big for her snake...they were too big for my guys to make a clean kill either I felt really horrible, and haven't done live prey since. I plan to start breeding my own mice for my guys (they've hunted mice on their own in the house and been very successful, I've just not gone out and got them any live for canned hunts) Good luck and again congratulations to the little hunters ciao It was a little dwarf hamster and the guy kept playing dead so the ferrets thought it was dead and were trying to eat it ALIVE! That's why I had Chris dispatch him so he wouldn'y have to suffer through that. Johnny just kept licking the little hamsters head and ears and shaking him once and awhile - poor little guy's head was soaking wet from ferret slobber! We're gunna get a couple of mice next week and see how they do with those and we're also gunna start stocking up on supplies so we can breed our own mice instead of having to the pet store all the time.
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Post by kilasxxrattery on Aug 27, 2008 15:24:57 GMT -5
Don't worry, my guys are terrible hunters too BUT like your babies they will eat the food once its been killed. Congrats on them eating it! That's great! Do you know WHO ate it? I think both of the boys ate him - taking turns or something. They were both interested in eating him and playing tug-a-war with him. I had to separate them for awhile because they were fighting over it and since Johnny was trying harder than Lotus - we let Johnny have first go at eating what he wanted, then Lotus got a turn. Little D was not interested in it at all. When the night was over - I put the hamster in the their cage and this morning I couldn't find any remains anywhere.
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Post by Forum Administrator on Aug 27, 2008 15:25:33 GMT -5
Sounds like a great plan. I'd love to breed my own mice, but I'm not allowed to in my apartment. On a side note, it might be a good idea to include other animals then just mice in your ferret's diet. Rodentpro.com carries rats (which Im sure you dont want to feed ) but they also have rabbit, quail, guinea pig, chicks, and mice of course. I use them for my whole prey and I am very pleased with their products
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Post by josiesmom on Aug 27, 2008 15:28:19 GMT -5
When you select your mice for the next effort- try to get hoppers. They are young enough they won't fight back. Sometimes when the mouse stands up and bats back at the new hunters it puts them off their hunt. The hoppers aren't quite self aware enough yet to fight back, but they are active enough to keep the ferrets interested!
They'll learn, have faith! Cheers, Kim
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Post by whipple on Sept 9, 2008 9:42:16 GMT -5
The first mice I offered were young adults, or hoppers that have just stopped hopping. I figured they might have issues *catching* the dang things. Hoppers are insane little things!
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