Adam going raw

[Forum Administrator]

Lynna, I am assigning mustelidmusk to be your new mentor.

[mustelidmusk]

Hi Lynna,

How is Adm doing with his transition. I'm hoping his recent willingness to try bite of meat has turned into a trend! Please let me know how things are going so we can figure out what to try next!
-jennifer

[Lynna]

I crushed up he papya and put in on the meat in the ziploc bag a few hours before giving it to him. I gave him some lamb last night and he started to eat it but it's hard to tell how much since this morning it was all dried out..looks like he left quite a bit though.

[mustelidmusk]

Hi Lynna,
Many apologies for my slow reply - I was on the road all week and expected to have web access - HA! That didn't happen

Anyway. I recommend feeding smaller bits of raw initially - I typically put out about 7 kibble-sized peices of meat (either whole pieces or ground mix). Put them on a small flat saucer. Ferrets seem to prefer small bites at first since they are used to picking up bite of food rather than chewig into things. There's another thng about ferrets and other wild animas - they don't feel comfortable stcking their heads into deep bowls....this is especially true when they smell the raw meat. Part of this has to do with cleanliness - raw meats caked on the face = more bacteria. Also, have you ever noticed how ferts tend to squint/close their eyes when they eat??? This is a protection thing associated with eating prey - which may not be completely dead. A ferret will not want to put his face deeply into a carcass because 1. the carcss may still be alive, and 2. the wet meat on the face is unhygeinic and difficult to clean off the face. So, the flat plate for feeding typically works better.

If only a few pieces of meat are being eaten. You can offer a few bits of plain raw and some raw that has kibble crumbs caked on the outside like bread crumbs. This will help keep the meat from forming that dry crust, and it may encourage Adam to eat more than just a few bites. I Adam like ferretone or olive oil, a drop on eat bite of meat would help as well. It's possible that Adam just doesn't want to "dig in" when eating the raw meat once it's a bit dry.

Try these approaches and let me know how Adam respods.

-jennifer