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Post by Forum Administrator on Aug 16, 2008 22:42:56 GMT -5
Its no problem, we just want to see you (and all the other newbies) succeed  |
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Aug 17, 2008 20:32:23 GMT -5
Today, I was cuddling with Ernie and I noticed that he is getting nice and "gooshy" in his tummy again! He used to be VERY gooshy when we got him in December, so it was very nice to feel a little bit of this again. The heavy whipping cream is really helping, thank you for the suggestion Giuli!
The past few days Ernie has been eating ground chicken mix with heavy whipping cream, which makes it very wet.
Ramona and Ernie have been eating ground chicken mix with a little bit of water to make it easier to pull out seperate chunks.
On Friday I bought a freezer. It's a white chest style from the 60's. According to my man its the kind in scary movies that hold human bodies, but I think its really cute. I'm painting it all red then accenting it with lime green and aqua... it is going to be hot! Tony is going to spray on a few of his stencil, too... I'm really excited. I have to sand/paint and clean it out before I can start filling it up but I've been/will be so busy. We will see how it goes.
Once I'm done I will be able to start adding variety to the fuzzies meals and starting mixing proper proportions! YAY!
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Post by Forum Administrator on Aug 18, 2008 1:42:32 GMT -5
Yay! You have a freezer, I'm so jealous lol  Good luck with the kiddos. I can't wait till they start eating WHOLE raw foods. Hooray! |
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Aug 18, 2008 11:11:35 GMT -5
Yeah me too! Haha.
At least with the freezer it will be SO MUCH EASIER to store meat. I feel horrible... my poor vegan boyfriend has meat falling out of the fridge on him when he opens the door! Last night I put Ernie on his stomach right after he (Ernie) ate and Ernie wiped his face on Tony's stomach!
Tony: "LYSOL LYSOL LYSOL!" Poor Tony.
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Aug 18, 2008 19:08:07 GMT -5
I went to Trader Joe's on my way home to pick up something special for the kids. Their prices were ridiculously high and they had very, very little selection! Instead of buying a pound of pork for eleven dollars, I bought them a half dozen organic eggs.
When I got home I whipped up an egg in a bowl and let them try it. They had eaten breakfast at 10 and weren't expecting another meal until tonight, so they probably weren't very hungry. Ramona and Didjer were eager to try; Didjer's whiskers dipped into it as he lapped it up. Ernie tried it too but didn't seem to care for it much. I poured it into their dish and mixed it around with the little bit of ground chicken that they had left from this morning. Ramona went to town on it.
That was about fourty five minutes ago. I just went back into the room to check how much was left and Didjer is eating away at it and pulling out the meaty chunks. As for Ernie, at least he tried it.
So now they have tried:
chicken meat (Everyone likes)
chicken heart (No one likes, will tolerate mushy and hidden)
chicken liver (Will tolerate mushy)
New Seasons ground chicken mix (Everyone likes)
cornish game hen (Didj and Ramona like, Ern will tolerate)
beef liver (No one likes, will tolerate mushy and hidden)
pork liver (No one likes, will tolerate mushy and hidden)
egg (Ramona and Didj like, Ern will probably tolerate)
heavy whipping cream (Ern LOVES, Ramona and Didj like too)
Question: I have heard different answers about eggs, how much is okay to feed per ferret per week. Is it one? Whats the deal with whites vs. yokes?
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Post by Forum Administrator on Aug 18, 2008 19:38:37 GMT -5
You'll get differing opinions answers (as you mentioned). I think that eggs should be fed no more then 1x per week. I personally would prefer if they were only fed in the spring, thus mimicing the polecat's natural diet  Eggs don't make up a huge portion of a polecat's natural diet (but then again neither does beef and we feed that to our furkids so  . Others feed eggs weekly with no issues. The reason you don't want to feed egg daily and for long periods of time is because the egg whites contain avidin, which binds to biotin (essentail for healthy skin and coat) and thus depletes it. Biotin deficiencies can occur if eggs are fed daily for months and months. I've heard people say that they've done this and not had any issues, BUT like I mentioned I really would be hesitant to feed that much egg. |
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Post by Forum Administrator on Aug 18, 2008 19:39:06 GMT -5
Ah, what about bones? Is anyone eating bones? Like whole cornish game hen bones (not smashed bones)?
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Aug 18, 2008 20:34:43 GMT -5
Oh yeah, Chicken bones. They didn't eat much cornish game hen because I only bought one then Ernie started going down hill. Didj and Ramona love chicken bones, mostly the cartalige on the ends. Ernie isn't really eating it but there are tiny ground bones in the New Seasons ground chicken mix so he is getting some for now.
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Aug 18, 2008 20:36:04 GMT -5
And thanks for the answer about eggs. I don't plan on feeding more than one a week.
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Aug 23, 2008 0:54:40 GMT -5
Things have been going well still. Ernie is still s l o w l y gaining weight. Today I bought Ground Ginuea Hen (how do you spell that!?) and ground lamb. The ground hen was at a local natural pet store, which is a pretty neat place that I just found. The have a hug selection of HIGH QUALITY kibble and THREE freezers of raw food. The hen was $5.09 for 2 lbs so about $2.50/lb. Does that sound like a decent price? The package doesn't have much information about it except that it has no preservatives so I am going to contact the company for more details. The ground raw lamb was from new seasons; it's a product that comes and goes according to an employee. I bought 1 pound. For dinner I tried giving them the ground lamb. The were interested but wouldn't eat it. Then I mixed a bowl of half ground lamb, half ground chicken, and a splash of heavy whipping cream. Ramona and Ernie chowed down on it! Didj wasn't to sure about it but did eat a little. We are still working on the freezer. Yesterday Tony sanded it and did two coats of primer... he is so nice Next it has to be sanded again and then painted. Once it is finished it will have to sit for a few days, then we can plug it in and start loading it up! I will post pics when its done. It will be beautiful! I'm excited because I get to really start adding variety and work on improving their diet. Hopefully I can get them eating NONground food soon!!!!!!!! |
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Post by Forum Administrator on Aug 23, 2008 3:15:11 GMT -5
guinea hen? Never heard of it so I can't say if it was a good price or not. I'm happy to hear that the freezer is almost ready! I'm excited because I just cleaned out my freezer to make room for an order from rodentpro. The ferts have been eating raw for the past few months because we ran out of whole prey, but I've been broke and I've FINALLY been able to order some prey. My poor tiny freezer. Wish I had one like yours. I open my freezer and bags of dead mice and chicks fall out I'm happy to hear you are preparing to get them off of ground and onto whole raw foods. Let me know when you are ready and we'll progress from there with advice and what not. |
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Aug 27, 2008 1:42:19 GMT -5
For the past few days they all have been eating half ground raw lamb and half ground raw chicken, with a tiny bit of water. Sunday they all shared an egg as well.
Today they had chicken backs for the first time. I cut up pieces about the size of 1/3rd my pinky finger. Didj and Ramona went to town, they ate them like they were candy!!! Ernie gave a few licks then went back to bed. When Didj and Mona were done I made Ernie his mushy 1/2 and 1/2 ground. I did the same thing for dinner, but Didj and Mona didn't eat so much, they were probably full from pigging out earlier! I noticed that the chicken backs I bought (pet food freezer section of New Seasons) still had organs attached... I believe. It had mushy stuff that looked the color of liver. The only chicken organs I have seen are liver and hearts. Is this normal?
Once I use up more of my ground lamb and chicken I am going to start adding in the guinea hen and see how they like it.
Also, the past few days they have been gassy when they poo, which was almost constant with Natural Gold kibble. Could this be from adding lamb to their diet? Have you experienced this at all with lamb or other meats?
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Post by Forum Administrator on Aug 28, 2008 16:08:18 GMT -5
Lamb can cause gassy farts and loose stool. Its rather fatty. Lamb (especially ground) and ground chicken are lower in taurine then other foods, so I advise working them up to whole raw foods sooner rather then later.
How are they doing with eating bone and chunks of meat? If possible I'd like to see you weaning them off the ground and working them up to bigger pieces.
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Aug 28, 2008 23:14:11 GMT -5
Didjer and Ramona are doing really well with bone and chunks of meat, Ernie still won't touch it. I feed twice a day, and for the past few days I have given them chunks of chicken neck for about a half hour or until the chunks are gone, then given ground chicken/lamb. Didj and Ramona go for the chicken and Ernie isn't interested. In a half hour the chunks are gone or close to gone. When I give them the ground mix Ernie eats his share (but spits out any pieces that he thinks are too large) and Didj and Mona eat a few extra bites to get their fill. As for switching off of ground, I think Didj and Ramona will be fairly easy, at least to get them on to chunks of chicken... I don't know about other meats. Ernie is still spitting out anything bigger than the VERY TIP of my pinky (SMALL), so I am going to try adding TINY pieces of cut up chicken and hopefully I can very gradually switch him bigger and bigger, does this sound good? I am also probably getting some jumbo frozen mice from a girl on craigslist.com who ordered too many. Hopefully this will go over will with Didj and Ramona, I'm not even going to get my hopes up for Ernie. At least he is at a weight I am comfortable with now!!! |
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Post by mustelidmusk on Sept 3, 2008 23:58:58 GMT -5
The pla of incresing the size of the meat chunks ounds good. Also, if you can get Ernie to play tug-of-war, get him wound up in a play ssession. Get him tugging on a peice of fabric. then, swap in a strip of meat and ply tug-of war with the meat. start playing wit him like this - he'll get more comfortable biting into larger pieces of meat.
Have un1
-jennifer
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