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Post by mustelidmusk on Oct 1, 2008 21:33:39 GMT -5
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Post by suds on Oct 3, 2008 16:30:48 GMT -5
I am curious to we find out in the next 24 to 48 hours lol keep your fingers crossed !!
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Post by mustelidmusk on Oct 4, 2008 16:24:04 GMT -5
It's nice to that Hershy's nice and plump right now so you don't feel guilty by letting her get a little hungry. There are times whe my ferrets get a little picky, and I just let the kids go for a day to let them finish up any freeze-dried raw in the bowl plus anything they've stashed. It cleans up the room and it re-kindles their appetite. As they get older, I won't do this since there always is a risk of insulinomic crashes, even though the risk is most likely much, much lower on a kibble diet.
Fingers ae crossed that she'll just start switching. If she eats the fresh raw, keep her away from the freeze-dried for the next several days if she continues to eat if you can do so. Godd Luck, 'mm dying to hear what she does!!!!
-jennifer
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Post by suds on Oct 5, 2008 13:40:15 GMT -5
well I did not see Hershy eat once from the bowl, lastnight I put a few peaces in her mouth which she was not happy about lol. so I put some olive oil on the meat and mixed it up with some wysons A1 crumbs and she did try a few peaces < JD took a while but he ate it with out the olive oil  . I been keeping them separated for the most part so I could see who was eating what. and Heshy ate very little so far but she eats the gizzards when I give them to her which was 3x's so far this weekend. and only gave her 2 kibble size peaces each time as a snck . I will wate untill this evening if she donet eat more I will give her the freeze dried again I dont want her to go to much longer with out a belly full of food. |
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Post by mustelidmusk on Oct 7, 2008 9:07:21 GMT -5
I'd try cutting down a bit on their "yummy food" in general, and then do some food witholding on weekends (or whenever it's convenient.
A lot of ferrets are really stubborn because they get everything they want. An slow, small deficit of food coupled with an occasional fast will usually work. Obviously, you want to watch their weight to make sure they don't lose a bunch of weight.
I was hoping Hershy would just go for it!
Keep up the good work!
-jennifer
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Post by suds on Oct 7, 2008 17:04:50 GMT -5
I was hopeing too . the past few days's I been giveing them freeze dried in the morning only in the evening's giveing raw nothing else .JD is starting to put on his winter wieght now to and is a little snorker lol , he will eat the raw I keep hoping Hershy wil just decide to give up and eat it she knows its food but waits til morning for the freeze dried. possible she sneaks a peace or 2 during the night but doubtful. so far she dont seem to be loosing much wieght so I wil continue with this schedule for now. yesterday was chicken thigh meat, tonight will be pork.
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Post by mustelidmusk on Oct 7, 2008 23:56:30 GMT -5
Cut the meat into tiny kibble-size pieces and smash as muc crumbled freeze-dried into it as you can.
in the morning, offer the meatballs. If she ignores them, mix a a little freeze-dried in with them. In the evening put some of these meat balls into the raw food, and sprinkle a little freeze-dried into the raw as well. Let's see what happens with this approach!
-jennifer
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Post by suds on Oct 10, 2008 17:37:49 GMT -5
not much has changed so far she ignors the meatballs . I will start the fast again like last weekend and only offer raw to her . JD eats everything and anything I cant believe the amount of food he can eat !! Heshr is 2lbs2 oz. JD is 3lbs 9ozs AS OF today |
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Post by suds on Oct 11, 2008 9:58:09 GMT -5
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Post by mustelidmusk on Oct 11, 2008 13:03:09 GMT -5
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Post by suds on Oct 12, 2008 16:17:54 GMT -5
ok so far they both been eating chicken thigh meat,beef and a few gizzards the past few days .Hershy has not put her nose up anything yet !!  so far all has been good I do a dance each time I put the plates down and see Hershy go into the box and eat. I guess I should continue the same size cuts for the rest of the week then start increasing them ? I am not going to give any freeze dried or wysonsA1 for a while I am afraid if I do Hershy will only eat that and not the raw. Jen I can not believe that all of a sudden she just decided to eat the raw after all the fighting. maybe its because she needs to fatten up for winter is what helped ? just strange how out of the blue BAM! she starts eating it.. |
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Post by mustelidmusk on Oct 13, 2008 9:23:43 GMT -5
WOOOOHHHHHOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Way to go Hershy!!!! hat size is the raw food??? Ar they eating meat chunks??? If not, slowly increase the size of the meat pieces - we need to get them gawing on good sized chunks in prep for eating bone. I understand the surprise......a lot f ferrets just decide to start eating raw one day, whichmeans that they were just being BRATS when they were refusing to eat  . So stick to your plan (no freeze-dried for a while except for a treat here and there.) Once we're comfortable that Hershy's hooked, we'll work on variety and including organ meats bone, and differnt meat sources! I'm VERY dproud of you guys - you' and your brats are doing extremely wel with the switch!!!! -jennifer |
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Post by suds on Oct 14, 2008 16:19:48 GMT -5
they been eating peaces about the sise of my pinky tip (I have big hands though  ) yesterday they had chicken thigh and leg meat for breakfast and beef cubes for dinner and gizzards for over night. this morning they had the rest of the beef cube. tonight I am going to try some veal since I am making veal scalopini for dinner I saved some to the side for them .... I will put some chicken in to just incase Hershy doesnt want anything to do with I dont want to push my luck  . I talked to a butcher today she is going to save the scraps and get me some chicken and turky knecks,livers,hearts and what ever else she can get her hands on cheap. they dress alot turkey's and chickens and was just throwing away all the goodie's I will get them for free as long as i pick them up weekly . wooohooooo. now if I can just find mice for free my pet food budjet will be nearly 0 lol |
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Post by mustelidmusk on Oct 16, 2008 0:29:48 GMT -5
This is GREAT... try some different foods with them (liver is really good in terms of nutirents), You may want to offer some wing tips and/or the part of the wing that has two bones in it. cut the wing piece n half along the length of the piece...this will give you two long strips. the wing piece that has 2 bones will give each ferret a bone to work on. Hershy may surprise you. Worst case, she'll reject it, so have some regular raw food ready for her. She may surprise you. She is expanding her menu now, so she may just go for it! Have fun!!! -jennifer |
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Post by suds on Oct 16, 2008 18:39:15 GMT -5
Heshy loves veal she went crazy over it!! she would not let JD near the dish it was on! I had to give JD some in another den out of the cage so he could taste it lol He was sleeping when I put the food in there cage so Heshey got first dibs and as soon as JD woke up and went to eat she chased him away I never heard her chatter that much before lol so I think I definetly got a little meat eater now!! I am still amaised !!!! such a quick turn around ...
I will try the wings this weekend. there poos was a rainbow of runny goo the past few days (was expected) so I got some human grade bonemeal and coated the meat last night and today hoping it firms them up a little I tried crushed eggshell powder but Hersh would not touch the peaces with it. but so far eats with the bonemeal . I will try and order the antlers you mentioned in other threads this weekend to have as another source of calcium plus I wanted to get some hard antlers for Berckley to chew on ( our new rescue a 90lbs big 2 year old baby massive , bulldog mix) .
any other suggestions to firm up there poo that I am missing so far ? I dont want to give them freese dried or Wysons A1 for fear they will regress lol
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. She handled the gizzard just fine. Maybe once she's into the meat hunks you can step her backwards into soup! Stranger things have happened.
I thought I was dreaming ( Iwas half asleep lol) finaly she got hungry enough or tired of holding out a true breakthrew wooohoooo . I will put the same things again this evening and then again tonight hoeping its not a one shot deal .. 
