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Post by moonlightsedge on Jan 11, 2009 1:39:20 GMT -5
I am wondering how to convince my ferrets to accept mice as food. I tried one tonight, live, one of my babies went pretty wild and killed it right away and started eating it right away but the other 4 wouldn't even touch it. I am wondering if they might be a little more interested if I put some tone on the mouse before letting it into the tub? Should I go on more of a one on one at a time or a few ferrets to one mouse so they might get the idea? My biggest thing is I have one foster who has IBS and I am wanting to try whole prey for him a few times a week because it is hard to find any type of food with out chicken in it around here and the evo which I can get is really pricey(at $80/25lb bag)
So also if I am using just mice how many times a week would it be ok to feed it? And how much would a ferret eat at one time? Mya ate everything but the head and one shoulder and it was a hopper(just ready to wean I think he mentioned) They have there food availale all day so I see how much they eat at the end of the day but they nibble here and there not all in one sitting so it is hard to judge how much they should eat at one time. I think I will let them out to play for a while before offering next time make sure they should be hungry first. Just want them to get interested first, I am having a fight to get them to eat soup to so it's not that surprising, what is surprising is which one pounced I expected my big boy to go after the mouse first not My sweet lovable doll Mya.
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 11, 2009 11:19:47 GMT -5
I got mine interested by chopping up frozen pinkies into little pieces, and put tone on, then worked to whole ones, and just kept increasing the size. Once they all recognize it as food, you shouldn't have a problem with live feedings for any of them. To the best of my understanding, you can feed about 90-95% whole prey, if you vary the ages. And an adult ferret would generally eat 1-2 adults for a meal
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Post by harrisi on Jan 11, 2009 11:40:14 GMT -5
I have found some ferrets wont except live feedings (hense we hunt with these ones) wich worked out for me because I hate feeding live (unfortuneatly some of ours will ONLY eat live..grr) but anyway, if you are having problems with f/t food aswell then try cutting a mouse open for them and using a freshly killed one or if you can get a freshly killed mouse then thaw a mouse and then warm it up in warm water, this usually gets them to take it.
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Post by suds on Jan 11, 2009 15:48:46 GMT -5
if you are wanting to do live prey its best to start off small and work your way up to adults the order is pinkie's ,fuzzys,hoppers,weanling , adult and senoir. some naturaly take to killing prey the first time and some never will do it or become efficent in it. Put 1 ferret and 1 mouse in the kill area and let the ferret do what comes natural, if they dont get interested in the mice then put a second ferret in to help out. once the kill is done its not uncommon for them to carry around the mouse as a prise and want to stash it lol. You can try 2 things to get them to eat it 1 is cut the tummy to expose the meat and put ferrotone on it . or you can cut it up in a few peaces and put ferretone it that way to.
If you going to use frozen prey start with pinkies like Sherry sugested t then once they eat the pinkie then skip to a hopper thaw the hopper in the fridge them put it in a baggie and summerce it in warm water (not hot) to bring it up to body temp with out cooking it cut the belly to expose the meat put a little tone on , also can try a little tug a war to with the mouse on a string .
work your way up to adult , for refernce my female will eat 1 to 3 adult mice per day and my male will eat 2 to 4 adult mice per day . Are you useing them as a supplement or for enrichement ?
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Post by moonlightsedge on Jan 12, 2009 2:55:44 GMT -5
I am looking for supplementing their food with the mice due to one of my fosters having Irritated Bowel Syndrome, Hard to find foods with no chicken in them and the 2 I have are both pricey and it still worries me that they don't get everything they need and if I am adding it for one I should add it for all of them. I have hoppers right now, though only one has been eaten, one boy killed his but I think he was not comfortable enough to eat it. I have a hard time convincing my littlest to eat anything new even with tone so I thought to try live first, though I suppose I might pick up a few pinkies in the next day or so to try. So I will start small and go from there.
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Post by suds on Jan 15, 2009 18:54:44 GMT -5
Jen (mustelidmusk) A mentor as well as Chris (pear2apple) both have great first hand knowledge about IBD and the differnt food available out there that are chicken free if you PM them I am sure they can give you a list of foods and help you .
And yes sometimes you have to start small and work your way up then again other times with live prey there instinks kick in and they go to town on the mice after stashing there earned prise for a bit lol Gooduck !
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Post by moonlightsedge on Jan 16, 2009 0:53:45 GMT -5
Well I got each of them a fuzzy today, four out of 5 have had their chance (my littlest hasn't yet)and only one girl ate any(same one as last time)
I started with the live because none of mine will try new foods even with tone. I can't even get them to take any soup. So I thought live would encourage some instinct to kick in. One out of five is sometimes a good result but I would much rather all five of mine taking to it like the one did. Well I'll keep trying it's not something I am going to give up on I believe it really is the best choice for them. I'm willing to try chopped up if that will work to but that worries me to because they are such picky eaters...
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