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Post by karmaghost on Jul 15, 2008 19:42:20 GMT -5
Frank is eating the pork chunks now but he doesn't get very excited about it. He does really love the chicken liver though.
How much liver should I give him? As much as he'll eat in one day?
I have been weighing him every sunday since I brought him home. At first he was gaining 40g per week (around 12 weeks old). The weeks that I've introduced him to new raw foods he won't eat for 24 hours some days so he's been averaging 20g per week. I'll keep weighing him weekly so once he's not being introduced to new foods all the time I can see how much he's gaining. He's definitely a healthy weight at the moment and i think he is starting to get more beefy/muscular.
Frank is a chocolate sable and when I got him his undercoat was very yellow. Now you can see most of the yellow has grown out and his undercoat is snowy white. He's really looking great!
Frank also has boundless amounts of energy. I definitely think he's happier eating raw foods.
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Post by Forum Administrator on Jul 15, 2008 20:22:11 GMT -5
Moniter the amount of liver you feed, too much can cause vitamin A toxicity (like if you gave him all he wanted to eat EVERY DAY). Limit it to a little bit (split 1-2 chicken livers over the course of a week if you must feed daily) or 1-2 chicken livers once a week in one big meal.
Im glad you are seeing an improvement in muscle tone, energy, and coat! Its great, isn't it?
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Post by karmaghost on Jul 21, 2008 12:42:57 GMT -5
Frank has been happily eating raw lamb mince the last few days. I think raw beef is the only thing he hasn't had yet. I also got some Elk and Buffalo mince from the butcher last week.
I am very happy to announce that Frank gained 40 grams this week. That means he's back to gaining the same amount as when he was eating kibble. Now I get to wait and see if all this raw meat can get him gaining more weight per week than on kibble.
I want Frank eating mice/whole prey so my husband and I are going to try giving him a live mouse in the bathtub. We'd like to find out if Frank has that killer instinct or not. Plus I still can't get him to eat the frozen pinkys I bought.
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Post by Forum Administrator on Jul 21, 2008 20:03:04 GMT -5
Excellent! I would try and work him up from a mince to big CHUNKS of lamb and other meats. Hunks of meat (especially meat on the bone) works to clean a ferret's teeth, wheras minces dont do much to scrub the teeth (they take little work to eat). Buffalo is acutally BETTER then beef, its higher in protein and fat. VERY good for ferrets. Elk will make a yummy treat too  This is your goal with raw feeding (on a weekly basis aim for:) 4 days per week (atleast) of raw meaty bones (think chicken wings, legs, turkey necks, cornish game hen, etc) 2 days per week of boneless muscle meat (you can add 1 crushed eggshell if you like for extra calcium) (think large hunks of lamb, beef, etc) 1 day per week of organ meat (think liver, kidney, lung. Altough not techincally organ you can also give gizzards and heart as well as a whole egg---shell and all---on this day) The other key is to include as much variety as possible (and you are doing excellent job of this. The more meats you can put him on the better!) Good luck with the mouse. Using a live mouse has helped my ferrets to progress to whole prey. Dont worry, you'll get him munching on mice. Just like switching from kibble to raw, raw to whole prey takes patience and dedication. |
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Post by tss on Jul 24, 2008 11:43:34 GMT -5
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Post by Forum Administrator on Jul 26, 2008 4:36:33 GMT -5
Hmmmmm  I stand corrected. Thank you Maria! I wonder why I was thinking it was higher in fat? |
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Post by karmaghost on Jul 30, 2008 16:47:30 GMT -5
Hello Maria! Thanks for all your help.
Frank is doing really well. He gained 64 grams this week!
My husband and I bought a live mouse from Petco today and introduced it to Frank. Frank dispatched the mouse very quickly in the bathtub but didn't bite through the skin. So I put Frank back in his cage with the dead mouse and cut a slit in the body so frank got a taste of the meat when he was playing and shaking the mouse.
I don't know if he's eaten it yet but he did drag it off to his special corner where he usually chews up his chicken wings. So he does associated as food I think.
I've been trying to keep a food diary so I can make sure he's getting a balanced diet but its not complete. Sometimes I forget to write things down.
We did let Frank play with a bunch of crickets in a box and he ended up eating all of them! That was about three days ago. So Franks first live food was a cricket. lol
Do crickets count at bone-in meat? I don't plan to feed him crickets all the time but he does really love them. My husband said he ate 8 of them last night!
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Post by tss on Jul 30, 2008 18:07:31 GMT -5
It's really good to hear he's doing so well, I'm sure he will munch on the mouse. It takes time :-)
Crickets are so small they are just snacks, they would count as meat but not really bone because they are very low in calcium. It would probably take a few dozen to even make a meals worth so they aren't worth feeding as a MEAL but just a treat.
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Post by karmaghost on Jul 31, 2008 1:23:36 GMT -5
I just checked in on Frank and he has demolished the mouse! YAY! All that's left is some bit of organ - maybe the stomach and the tail.
He also just ate a chicken wing tip.
Now that he's tasted and eaten a whole mouse will he eat the frozen ones? Or should I give him a live mouse a couple more times over the next few weeks until he gets the hang of it and then start with the frozen ones? I'm want to order a bunch of frozen stuff from rodentpro but because the shipping is so high I want to order a lot at once.
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Post by tss on Jul 31, 2008 11:19:36 GMT -5
Great progress! That means he is completely switched!
I'm sure he will probably eat the frozen thawed mice but just to be safe you should probably go the the petstore are get a frozen one. Freezing does alter the flavor a bit.
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Post by Forum Administrator on Jul 31, 2008 18:17:57 GMT -5
You can toss him a frozen mouse or give him a few more live ones, whatever works for him. Keep up the great work. Keep offering new foods and keep working on the mice. Pretty soon we will review your "weekly feeding schedule" to make sure that he's getting a balanced diet |
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Post by charmantpapillon on Aug 1, 2008 22:31:04 GMT -5
I know a lady who has snakes.. her snakes are very picky and wont eat dead mice.. unless they have been blow dryed (warmed and dry.) try that.. it might get him to eat a dead mouse. (i dont know if it'll help but i'm trying to be helpfull)
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Post by tss on Aug 6, 2008 10:07:08 GMT -5
How's frank doing now??
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Post by Forum Administrator on Aug 12, 2008 2:24:10 GMT -5
Yes, I'd like to know how little man is doing as well |
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Post by karmaghost on Aug 13, 2008 19:14:43 GMT -5
Frank is officially switched to frozen whole mice I can't believe its been two weeks since my last post! whoops. We bought one more live mouse and fed it to him 1 week after the first one and then 2 days later we bought another which he also killed and ate. So then I bought 6 frozen fuzzies at Petsmart (expensive fuzzies!) and 4 large adult frozen mice and we kept giving him the fuzzies all day Monday which Franks LOVES. He eats them in under 30 seconds. Monday night he ate an adult frozen mouse and some chopped up pork. Tuesday we gave him more pork and a turkey neck. Today (Wednesday) so far he's had one large adult mouse. I've got two more for him defrosted for when he wakes up. Frank is going to be 5 months old on sunday. It seems like he's stopped gaining weight, but I'm worried I'm not feeding him enough. He's very happy and healthy, so I'm not too worried Over the last few weeks I have discovered Frank would eat about 100 grams of raw meat per day. When I feed him whole prey, since a lot of it is bone and fur should I esimate that he'd eat more than 100 grams of mice? |
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