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Post by mustelidmusk on Sept 11, 2008 16:00:21 GMT -5
Try grinding the skightly larger-sized ground duck when Adam is very hungry, but put less soupy mix in with it so he can't fill up on soup. If you free feed kibble or freeze-dried raw between the wet raw feedings, provide only enough for a snack in the middle of the night - you want the bowl to be empty in the morning. Hopefully, Adam will be hungry enough to eat the slightly bigger pieces of meat!!!
-jennifer
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Lynna
Going Natural
Posts: 106
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Post by Lynna on Sept 19, 2008 9:24:59 GMT -5
I ground up the duck chunks a little more for him and he would try a little but never finish all of it and I only put the min amount of water in to get the blender to grind it up. So it was just enough to cover the bottom of the dish. He's be resisting alot with this. I tried giving him another mouse when he was hungry. He had gone a few hours with out food and I dipped its hind part in vivify but he carried it around and licked it but didn't eat anything. I got him to kinda try and tug it from my hand and it ripped a part of the belly open but then he ignored it so I mixed it in with the duck. After that he still ate a little.
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Lynna
Going Natural
Posts: 106
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Post by Lynna on Sept 22, 2008 7:13:50 GMT -5
I gave him the duck again. Theres two different kinds that I have; a fine ground (which he loves) and the course ground (he doesnt like as much but will have a little) I've been giving him the course since he had no problems with the other and cut the water to just enough to heat up the meat. Last night I added a hopper and a section of a chicken neck but he only had a little. Earlier that day I noticed his fang was missing a chunk out of the bottom part and I can see the white in the middle of the end of his tooth so I didnt try to force him to only eat that and gave him kibble to see if he was having any problems eatting and he didnt seem to but hes going to see the vet. I didn't find the missing part of his tooth anywhere since I had already vaccumed before I saw it but hopefully they won't have to pull it.
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Lynna
Going Natural
Posts: 106
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Post by Lynna on Sept 24, 2008 23:09:07 GMT -5
tried giving him a few peices of balled up raw(pea sized) covered in kibble dust with some crushed taurine sprinked on and a few drops of pedialyte. he dismissed it at first and ate all of it when scruffed.. I discovered that on accident when I tried to scruff him to put a small bit in his mouth to get him to taste it but he woofed it down so i tried another peice. I put the bowl up to him directly after he woofed down the rest but nothing. So I continuted to feed him from my hand slowly getting closer to the bowl but he was still being a brat lol. I was fine with that as long as he was eatting everything. I hand fed him while my fingers were touching the bottom of the dish until the larger peices were gone and left the dish on the floor for him to take care of the rest on his own.
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Post by Forum Administrator on Sept 24, 2008 23:23:27 GMT -5
Progress! Wonderful! Keep this up! Eventually you can increase the size of the chunks and reduce the added pedialyte, kibble, and taurine (wait to do this until he really shows enthusiasm eating on his own). Go slow and steady. Increase the chunk size ever so slightly every day.  If he refuses to eat then you know you increased the size too fast, so reduce the chunk size and try again. I am very excited for you and him! Eating chunks is a big step! |
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Lynna
Going Natural
Posts: 106
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Post by Lynna on Oct 9, 2008 12:04:04 GMT -5
I gave him some raw before I left last week and wasnt as successful as the last time I posted and couldn't feed him any while I was in pa..too long to stay cold in the car. I tried looking for good raw meats back there but they didn't have anything. I couldnt even find a small package of one or two wings. Oh well thats what we get for living in a small "town"
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Post by Forum Administrator on Oct 9, 2008 13:37:10 GMT -5
Don't worry, its normally for them to be a little less excited to eat. Its a normal cycle, one day they are excited, the next time they aren't, then they are back to beginning to eat. Eventually it evens out and they stop protesting and just jump on their food. It gets better, I promise. So what is he currently eating at this moment?
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Lynna
Going Natural
Posts: 106
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Post by Lynna on Oct 12, 2008 14:32:30 GMT -5
I tried giving him a pinky again and he refused to try it. today I gave him chunks of a hooper to try and mix it up from the normal duck but he had a little and then went to sleep and overall wasnt very interested. I'll be trying the chucks of duck again later since he has the most responce with it.
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Post by Forum Administrator on Oct 13, 2008 13:29:14 GMT -5
Sometimes trying a bunch of different foods with these guys is the way to go. My ferrets will "hunger strike" if I try to feed them the same food each day *rolls eyes*. Hang in there, be creative, and keep trying. You'll get to him eventually. Let us know if you keep having trouble with him, if so, we can probably come up with some good ideas to get him eating these foods.
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Lynna
Going Natural
Posts: 106
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Post by Lynna on Oct 22, 2008 7:46:10 GMT -5
When I left for pa I forgot that i left the duck in the frig to thaw out a little and it went bad! So i had to throw 3lbs of meat away. I remembered he loved the freeze dried lamb that chris (pear) gave him so I went out and bought a small package of lamb chops. They look like 3 VERY small mini steaks but cost 10$. I also bought wings and mini drum sticks. I've tried giving him another two pinkies and some week old quail since I last posted. Hes still being a butt about it and doesn't want them even when they're covered in vivfy and I tried putting kibble dust on the one pinkie but he just licked off the kibble.
Any how, I cut off some small peices of the lamb and covered them in kibble at around 9pmish. He didn't even want to try the lamb. I had to scruff him and get him to take a few peices. He wouldn't even take any from my hand. I got him to eat about 1/3rd of the small dish I had made and he hadn't had anything to eat since 4pm so I know he was hungry. I left it out over night and he hadn't touched anything. I don't think he woke up at all during the night since he was still in the same spot next to me when i woke up and i actually had to wake him up before i left for work.
I'm going to be trying the lamb again tonight. Hopefully with better results.
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Post by Forum Administrator on Oct 22, 2008 15:07:44 GMT -5
Okay, here is the plan. The original mentor I had assigned you just kind of disappeared on me  So we need to hook you up with a new mentor. Let me review your file and I"ll have you a new mentor assigned by tonight. Sound good? |
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Lynna
Going Natural
Posts: 106
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Post by Lynna on Oct 23, 2008 6:20:03 GMT -5
yeah I'm alright with that.
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Post by Forum Administrator on Oct 23, 2008 21:37:53 GMT -5
Hmmmm....lets see, who should be your mentor? *ponders*
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Lynna
Going Natural
Posts: 106
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Post by Lynna on Oct 25, 2008 19:36:22 GMT -5
Ok this is going to be a large post but...
The other day i tried giving him the finely cut up lamb with some kibble sprinkles and he didn't want it, not even from my hand. I had to force him to eat some. I ended up getting him to eat all of it but it took a lot of work. Oh and I took the portion of lamb and put some vivify on it in the zip lock baggie and some small amount of pingford red on the other side hoping that the smells will attract him more to the meat, almost like a ferret marinade.
The next day I gave him blended lamb with a few drops of pedialyte, taurine, powdered kitten milk replacer , a small portion of whole egg, warm water and some slipper elm (to try and firm up his stool). I was hoping the kitten milk would make him more willing to try some and hopefully this will get him used to the taste so that I can slowly ween him off of it. I'm guessing hes been so stubborn because it's a new flavor. Well he ate ALL of it in one sitting. He just went to town gobbling it up like a little piggy.
Yesterday I gave him the same thing with out the pedialyte, pingford or egg and only enough water to get it blended and less km. With both i only used pulse so it wouldn't be finely ground up. I had to use the knife to get most of it out of the blender! that how dry/thick it was. He ate it as soon as i put it down but left maybe 1/3-1/4 on the plate. I can't tell if he ate more during the night since it was all small and dried out. In the mornings I've been letting him have a small amount of kibbles and some freeze dried treats so he wont be starving but he will be hungry enough to eat the raw in the evening until he fully takes to it.
Today I'm going to try and stay with the same as yesterday so he might be more receptive to this "stage" before I reduce more. Any thoughts? I'm happy that hes actually eatting pretty much all of it and that I'm not having to fight him or hand feed.
he has gotten a few seedy poops and loose stools. So far his stools have been watery but not shapeless mush like they have gotten before. I was considering getting the pineapple or papaya extract to help with the digestion.
**tonight I gave him it again and there was only enough water to keep the meat moist and dissolve the km. It was kinda in two clumps and it was hard for him to chew off a piece since there was a lot of sinew? (the white stuff thats chewy) So i had to use a knife to pull it apart into bite size portions for him. After that it was easy to get him to eat all of it except for the huge chunk of sinew.**
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Post by mustelidmusk on Nov 16, 2008 11:59:16 GMT -5
Hi Lynna,
It sounds like Adam is starting to make some real progress here. "Pear" told me that Adam has been being stubborn with the switch, so I though I would pop in to see how things are going.
Great news that Adam is starting to accept the meat!!! leave gristle and sinew in the food, but cut it into small pieces. Adam needs to get used to different textures of meat so he can learn to eat bone - but he's not yet ready to tear thing apart. The first step is to get him to like the taste of meat. Once Adam starts to accept he meat, he'll pick up the pace and be easier to deal with. Putting eat on the tongue is a good way to start since ferrets have a taste bud for protein. Ferets never re-program their imprinting - they develop a taste for meat instead. SO, it's essential to get thay meat on the tongue.
As Adam begins to eat the meat on his own, back off n the "goodies" you're using to enhance the flavor. Don't work about chunks of meat and tearing through flesh until hes hooked on the tast of meat.
As far as seedy poops go, I thing a bit of ground egg shell should help out a bit....rinse the egg shell and alow them to aire dry. Grind them finely (I use my tiny food processor) and store them in the fridge. I put a BIG pinch in the wet food at each meal and mix it in with the meat. This should hep with the poops.
The papaya (papain) or pineapple (bromelian) extract will not hurt, so you can try this if you wish. When I use this, I take meat to be erved the next day out of the freezer and put it in the fridge for thawing. I sprinkle the powdered extract on the meat and lt them sit over night. The action of the extract powder helps to break down some of the proteins before the meat is eaten. You can mix the extract into the meat. I can help with absorption. Over time, you'll want to cut ack a bit on the extract to let the stomach adjust . In Apple's case with the IBD, Apple may need to continue with the extracts since he has a difficult time with digestion.
-jennifer
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