Penny, Boomer and Mimi!!! in transition to raw!

[Forum Administrator]

No worries, I dealt with this when my cat switched to raw. She wouldnt eat bone and she wouldnt eat ground eggshell on her food. Here is what I did:

Mix a little ground or blended meat with the needed eggshell, add a little ferretone, and a litter water. Put into a syringe and have them eat this mixture. They normally don't even realize they are eating it I know its a pain to do that every day, but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. i did this with my cat for SIX MONTHS until she'd eat bone Hopefully it wont take the ferts that long to get onto bone. I say in the next month or two they should be on bone, so hang in there.

How big are the chunks they are currently eating?

[cristina]

The chunks are pretty small still, the next batch of meat Im going to make a little bigger and see if they will keep eating it. The size of them now is about the size of a fingernail (thats the biggest they would eat alot of).

I will try the syringe feeding mixture, at least I know I can force them to at it now lol, so it makes me feel a little better.....how much should I feed them, like a tbls or tsp? (I have egg shells very finely ground in a container)

[Forum Administrator]

1tsp each 1x per day I've done 1 tbsp before and sent my b/f's poor ferret, Mizu to the vet due to serious tummy ache

[cristina]

Im having a set back... ...Penny is just getting over a cold and of course during the time she didnt feel good she wouldnt eat much so I enticed her with extra crumbled kibble, which she ate much of.

So now I have a dilemma, she is on strike and not eating her normal chunks with ground turkey and a very small amount of kibble. She has gone from 1.10 to 1.07 so she has lost weight since the switch to raw, which kinda worries me because she seems soo skinny although the vet said shes healthy.

This is taking so long, I can barely get them to eat an amount that makes me comfortable. Is it normal for ferrets to take this long? I mean they are only a year old I thought this switch would be easy! oh and she will pretty much only eat the ground meat, she may have a chunk or 2 every so often, she just doesnt like it and its hard to get her to.

[Forum Administrator]

Just because a ferret is old or young does not mean they will eat the food A loss of 0.03 oz may startle you but if the vet says she is okay, she probably is just fine. I'm sure she's not eating much so thats probably why she lost weight.

Lets try a sneakier approach to get her to switch. This is what I used for sams when he was still alive. You say she's eating ground turkey? Do this: Take a turkey tenderloin (or any piece of turkey). Grab a pair of scissors. Cut the turkey up with the scissors until its almost mush (mince it). In actuality you are making a ton of teeny tiny chunks ( ) now, here is the key. You get her eating that with the ground kibble in it (if you have to go back to adding more ground to get her to eat it, just do it. The key is to get her eating bigger pieces, we can worry about weaning her off the kibble coating later). Now, once she eats the super smooshed up turkey mince, eat day you make it you will make it every so slightly less cut up That way you arent adding in foregin chunks into the ground food, but instead you are changing the size of the ENTIRE food. Does this make sense? It worked incredibly well for sams and I think it will work for her to. Give that a shot and if you have questions just let me know.

I know it seems like its taking forever to switch, but in the long run its worth it I swear! Once they are switched you dont have to go through this anymore There are a million and one tricks to getting a ferret to try raw, and since she is already eating raw that is a big step!

Try the minced turkey. If this method doesn't work we will go with another method. The key is finding the right method for your ferret. By posting regularly and letting me know what is or isnt working we can find a better method as quickly as possible

To keep weight on her and to entice her to eat you can add 1/2 tbsp (or less) of heavy whipping cream (buy a carageenan free brand!) to the ground mix. This will provide added fat to keep the weight on her as we switch (heavy whipping cream is high in fat and calories, sugar free, and low in lactose ) Many ferrets find the stuff irresistable and it makes for a good bribe .

I hope this helps. Give me feedback and well go from there.

[cristina]

I couldn't find any heavy whipping cream without carageen (sp?), but I did find an organic half and half with no gelatin or preservatives, will that work???

[Forum Administrator]

What are the ingredients in half and half? If its just cream and fat then yes, you can use the half and half.

[cristina]

It says its grade A milk and cream (Im guessing thats y its called half and half lol), d**n I got the wrong thing....it has milk in it too

[Forum Administrator]

You *can* try and use it if its sugar free. Does it have sugar in it (added or natural?)?

[cristina]

under the ingredients it says: "grade A milk and cream" only, it says below nothing else is added so its strictly a dairy product with no added ingredients.

[Forum Administrator]

Idealy you should use heavy cream, but using just a teaspoon or a half tablespoon of this stuff shouldnt hurt. I would go ahead and give it a shot. If they start to get the runs though, you will need to switch to heavy cream (which is low lactose or lactose free---can't remember which).

[cristina]

ok they are eating the small chunks of chicken with crushed kibble....Im still a little uneasy about Penny's weight, but I cannot find heavy whipping cream without the carageen (sp?)...I've been to every grocery store in a 20 mile radius and I even checked ALL the health food stores around here , I know a brand that would be perfect though I cant find it in any stores around here, any help?

Oh yea and I think we may have another switch on the way Im looking to adopt another fuzzy from a shelter by me!!!

[Forum Administrator]

I'm happy to hear that the fuzzies are eating the chicken chunks with crushed kibble. Be sure to keep supplementing with that eggshell. As for the cream, I like people to purchase carageenan free cream because of the following reason:

holisticferret.proboards80.com/index.cgi?board=gen&action=display&thread=1140

Now if you use it for a few weeks is it going to cause issues? Well no, probably not, but I'd rather be safe then sorry, honestly. I think the best thing we can do for Penny is to keep her eating. If you are feeding chicken BREAST chunks, switch those out for chicken THIGH chunks, which are fattier and have a higer calorie count.

[cristina]

OK so the cream is totally out now....they seem to be eating all types of chicken and turkey chunks, so now my question is what do I start next....gradually lessening the amount of kibble mixed in, or make the chunks bigger?
The chunks are pretty much the size of jelly beans right now. So which should I start to do now?

Oh and another question....are brown eggs ok to use? Most of the white eggs I find are stamped and I'd rather buy eggs that arent stamped then pick out the stamp, so are brown the same and ok to use?

[Forum Administrator]

That is wonderful that you already have them eating two types of meat!

I would increase the size of the chunks, and then once you get the chunks to about the size of a human thumb I would start to wean them off the kibble coating. Ah! I'm excited!

Brown eggs are just fine to use. I used to think there was a difference in the nutrition content of brown eggs vs. white eggs but apparently they are exactly the same. One thing I would recommend when buying eggs is to locate eggs that are "omega 3 enhanced" (meaning the chickens were fed feed that has a good amount of omega 3 in it), but if you cant buy those, no worries, its just an added plus

So......when do I get to see pics of your little ones eating their natural food?