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Post by Forum Administrator on Aug 25, 2008 13:38:13 GMT -5
Just wanted to pop in real quick. Jennifer will be in to specifically address all of your questions/concearns. Don't worry if it takes a while to switch. Jennifer is here for as long as you need her. She specializes in difficult switchers, so you are certainly in good (and patient!) hands. I trust that she will make the experience fun (like always!) so hang in there as long as it takes. The results are well worth it. I can't wait till your kids "graduate" to whole raw. It will be a proud day indeed!
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Post by mustelidmusk on Aug 26, 2008 20:46:29 GMT -5
Hi! I'm back, and the Bash was awesome !!! Lot's of cool products to buy, lots of adorable ferrets, tons of fun!!! Does hersy like the olive oil??? if so, you may want to try putting a little olive oil on some of the wet foods. Oil is very different from water. If you can coat tiny bits of the raw meat with the kibble crumbs or dried meat crumbs to make it barely wet at all, she may go for it. mash the dry foods into the wet meat so the mix is mostly dry food. See how that goes. If she balks at it, add a few drops of olive oil and see if that helps. You can continue to force her to eat a little bit of raw. I did that with my brats twice a day for a while. They get over it - plus, they eventually start eating the raw. Ferrets are very forgiving little beasts - and they'd rather have the attention and be force fed a few bites of raw food than be ignored Yes, this can take time, and you haven't been at this very long - no worries, you'll get there with Hershy. Let me know how the dry food with very little fresh raw works. I have my fingers crossed for you! -jennifer
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Post by suds on Aug 27, 2008 18:13:34 GMT -5
Hi Jen Glad you had fun at the bash where are the photo's ? The past few days I been feeding them freese dried mixing in tiney tiney peaces of raw , I been mashing the freese dry crumbs in it with a meat hammer lol . Hershy still try's her best to pick around them ( cut a quarter size peice beat the crumbs in it then cut as tiney as I can) I will try the olive oil next, I already tried it with the lax she goes nuts for the stuf and it did not work . I been hand feeding JD small peaces of meat raw and cooked he takes it no problem yesterday we had baKED CHICKEN AND HE STOLE THE SKIN OFF MY PLATE AND ATE IT ! I been working on getting them used to a feeding schedule ,I put a litle in there bowl in the morning , I put a little in there bowl when I come home , and a little again befor bedtime I almost have the amounts perfect to where there is only little left and today was mostly crumbs , and now they meet me at the bowls in theese times , they both love the wysons and beef patties but tolerate the chicken patties wich is surprising , I am going to try and get to the fish market and see if I can find some small fresh sardines or anchovie's and try that . so the beef patties are what I will use for Hershy. I wil try that for a week if she still is stuborn I will then start to scruff her and force to eat at least once a day . BTW JD is getting slimmer but way more muscle and Hershy is getting a fatt litle bely on her so I been driving her crazy makeing her run by chasing her alot lately . she was always more a liad back explorer and climber but I dont want her to get too fat ,its Ironic becuase a few weeks ago I was worried she was to thin haha .
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Post by mustelidmusk on Aug 27, 2008 21:24:40 GMT -5
Well, my photos suck I have a few that I'll try to get posted in a week or two - I'm still on the 12-/14-hour work days!!! I'm still laughing about chicken skin It's great that hershy will eat the beef and Wysongs (which is mostly beef. Get her hooked on the dry foods, and we can try moistening it again in a little while. Sounds like things are going well. Your kids will probably pack on a little weight in the Fall, so a little belly staring up this time of year is not uncommon. I'm thinking I may have to change my one little girl's name to "GoodYear" The fresh sardines and /or anchovvies should be fun to try (got a bath tub to feed them in??? I can just smell fish on the carpet in my mind... mt brats got up on the desk and swiped a big bag of freeze-dried salmon treats...all the podery stuff was in the carpet and it just reeked!!!! The brats have their own room with carpet that needed to be replaced 10 years ago!!!) Just make sure they're fresh, unsalted/unspiced/no preservatives/oil/etc. Keep up the good work - and the enrichment - its great for them mentally and physically!! -jennifer
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Post by suds on Aug 28, 2008 6:05:58 GMT -5
OMG! Hershy keeps trying to climbe to the bag of kibble , so lastnigt as a treat I put a handfull in there cage I woke up this morning and it was not touched! Now at least they are smart enough to not want the kibble And yes the skin was nice a crispy I was saveing it for last I turned my head and when I turned around I seen JD running across the floor happy with his prise that he stole lol. its my fault becuase i let them both always check out my dinner I encourage it and of cource you can not have a glass or cup full with out them both sticking there heads in it trying to tip it over I found cups with lids a great thing haha .
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Post by mustelidmusk on Aug 28, 2008 9:11:11 GMT -5
Hershy may actually prefer a small amount of raw meat rather than soup. Hard to tell. warm the soup to make it slighty warm - not hot. One of my boys hates cold food - picky little bugger!!! Some ferret LOV cold food, so you can tery cold soup f you've been warming it up. Warm food smells stronger, which is why I thing some ferret like cold.
May sure Hershy is getting at least a teaspoon of the soup everytime te soup is served....the reason for this is that switch ferrets get hooked on taste - not smell. If the taste does not get on the tongue, the ferret will not learn to like the meat. Apprently, there are taste buds that taste protien...this is whay ferrets can switch to raw diet even though they've imprinted on kibble. I learned this at the Buckeye Bash in Bob Church's preentation. Cool stuff!
-jennifer
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Post by Forum Administrator on Aug 28, 2008 15:30:35 GMT -5
OMG! Hershy keeps trying to climbe to the bag of kibble , so lastnigt as a treat I put a handfull in there cage I woke up this morning and it was not touched! Now at least they are smart enough to not want the kibble . Thats becase he's on to you now, daddy He KNOWS what food is and he now realizes that kibble most certainly should NOT be for eating. Rolling around in and playing in, yes. Eating? No. What a smart little woozle!
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Post by suds on Aug 28, 2008 19:47:04 GMT -5
May sure Hershy is getting at least a teaspoon of the soup everytime te soup is served....the reason for this is that switch ferrets get hooked on taste - not smell. If the taste does not get on the tongue, the ferret will not learn to like the meat. Apprently, there are taste buds that taste protien...this is whay ferrets can switch to raw diet even though they've imprinted on kibble. I learned this at the Buckeye Bash in Bob Church's preentation. Cool stuff! -jennifer I tried it very cold , room temp, and warm the only way I could get it in her is to force feed her with a seringe , but now with this little info about taste buds I wont feel bad using it. I will work on it this weekend, I was thinking of trying beef in the soup to since she seems to prefer the freese dried beef pattie's . and yes woosels are very smart always a step ahead of us humans lol
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Post by suds on Aug 30, 2008 20:28:15 GMT -5
so today is enrichment day is what I call saturdays, lastnight I put only a little food in there bowl (chicken patty) when I woke up I let them out of there cage did not refill there bowls about a hour later I let them do the great escape its so much fun watching them think they excaped my room they run down the hall and stair's dooking and dancing, they where xploring and playing for 2 hours then I took Hershy outside for a walk and again she excaped from the harness grr so icaught her took her inside and tok JD out he so great behaves better then most dogs on a leash . so its been about 4 to 5 hours of lots of fun with out eating , I defrosted a chicken cube mixed a half cooked egg in it slightly warmed in in a bowl of hot water , put it 2 bowls got both ferts in the cage put the stuff on my fingers JD licked up no problem and of cource Hershy smelled then ran away so I put 1 bowl in the cage for JD he ate it all no problem , help hershy tried to get her to lick it from my fingers or spoon for a few minutes then I finally scruufed her and put some on her toung she was not a hapy camper if looks could kil in be in big trouble lol, I finaly got the suringe and fed her 5 mouthfulls that way then let her down and gave them some freese dried beef patties, tonight before bed I took a mouse pogo and put some olive oil on it and broke it up and JD nearlty took my finger with it lol, Hershy took a few licks then Finaly she actually ate it !!! I will try a few tiny peaces of meat tomorow with a drop of olive oil and se what happens oh is shrimp ok for them ? I am making shrimp luguini tommorrow I could hold a peace or 2 of raw shrimp to try with them but never seen anbody say they fed or did not feed shrimp.
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Post by mustelidmusk on Sept 1, 2008 10:56:04 GMT -5
hi, i'm out of town with a crummy connection! Shrimp are Ok as treats. as with all fish and raw, if it's going to be fed raw, it should be frozen for a few weeks to kill any potential parasites. -jennifer
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Post by suds on Sept 3, 2008 18:06:18 GMT -5
just a quick update , each day they get freese dried beef or chicken in the morning , when I get home the bowl is empty I feed JD raw chicken soup with a spoon the he eats off the bowl , Hershy I use a suringe I make sure she gets at least 8ml down (I wear about 10 ml) she is getting to the point she runs and hides when she see's the bowl in my hands so now I have to be sure she is in the cage first so i can grab her . then I give then the wysons A1 with tiny peaces of raw meat in it Hershy still picks around them as much as she can , JD eats it no problem , I still put pea sise raw meat on a dish and stick in there feeding den stil they both only smell it no takers Hershy wil lick only lick the olive oil or lax off it when i Put it on (I only try it every 2 or 3 day's with lax or oil) with kibble crushed in it they dont go near it ... I wil continue this for a while, next week I wil start trying to moisten the freese dried beef and see what happens
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Post by mustelidmusk on Sept 3, 2008 23:42:31 GMT -5
If hershy is hiding, you can take a break from the syringe feeding...Sometimes a break is good. There are times my kids get bore with the menu. A fewdays with the Wysongs only always results ina renewal of interest in fresh raw when it's offered again. I recommend cutting back on the amount of kibble. Both kids know they can eat the Wysongs. A little kibble is fine, but you don't want them getting full on kibble. If hershy can keep herself full on ibble, she'll never switch If your kids don't lke the olive oil, you can skip it - some ferrets really like the stuff - i was hoping Hershy would like it. What meats are you feeding now??? have you tried playng tug-of-war with any meat strips lately? Get those enrichments out in the form of new smells so Hershy keeps up her interest in what you have to offer. Keep up the good work, you're now entering the frustrating zone where you kids will eat stuff one day and then be fussy the next day -jennifer
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Post by suds on Sept 4, 2008 18:05:01 GMT -5
lastnight I put some olive oil on some chicken pogo treats . they would never eat them before and they went crazy over them , so i know they like olive oil I will suringe Hershy today and tomorrow then give her a break for a few days I realy want to try and make a soup from beef since I know she likes the beef patties it mite have a better chance then chicken soupi dont know untill its tried . BTW JD is doing great he is now looking for the bits of raw meat inhidden in they wysons
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Post by mustelidmusk on Sept 4, 2008 22:26:30 GMT -5
It's great that they seem to be ejoying the olive oil on the pogos. As you may have already guessed, the plan will be to back off slowly on the olive oil on the pogos until they like the pogos without the "salad dressing" You may want to try some ground beef with a lttle olive oil mixed in it. put a few small pieces of ground beef on a plate and put a coupl drops of olive oil on each piece. Start with a tiny amount. If they don't eat it, you can try to the beef-based soup you wanted to try. You could also try to mash a tiny bit of the beef ino the wygong's shredded food with the litl bit of olive oil, it might work better than a soup for Hershy. As always, remember to offer bits of meat during play time. Tug-of-war with meat strips has always been a favorite game in my house!!! Another thing Hershy might like is crickets from the pet store. Put a cuple of crickets in the bath tup with Hershy - she'll probably love that game. Also put a couple of tidbits of meat in the tub as well. Even if she doen't eat the crickets or the meat, it wil be hysterical watching her play! -jennifer
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Post by suds on Sept 6, 2008 9:10:58 GMT -5
hehe they now eat the pogo's Mouse and chicken with out the olive oil , I let them go in there snack jar and they both grabbed a pogo instead of the junkie bandit chicken treats !! wooohooooo! I will continue to put little bits of raw in with the wysonsA1 JD eats it even if hershy picks around it , Today I wil try a little olive oil on some ground beef again and see if she takes it . Great Ideal about the crickets I will try it next weekend , We are getting our new rescue dog (shirly?) from the SPCA today so this weekend will be kinda devoted to getting her settled in and I want to keep things nice calm and quiet around her as much as possible this week.. I also want to try and see what they will do with a hopper my luck they wil think its another ferret playmate lol and the cat gets a good snack from it then But I have faith in JD that he wil know what to do
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