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Post by Forum Administrator on Nov 11, 2008 23:46:17 GMT -5
Yay! Looks like you've got a bunch of good news.  Chunkier soup AND a butcher! What a good week for you, this is really good news. You can use the tone as a bribe, that is just fine. As always with tone be careful not to feed TOO much (too much Vit A can cause them to OD). I am very excited about your progress. Keep posting, and don't forget I LOVE pics  Especially pics of ferrets starting to eat raw foods |
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Post by tink80 on Nov 12, 2008 1:22:30 GMT -5
thanx!!! i am excited as well :-)
i can take pix (i always have a camera snapping away anyway)but the soup is not pink yet with the mix so it might be kind of anticlimactic..LOL. you should see them doing the hoover action with the chunks though, a pic of that might be worthwhile! i giggle like a kid when i watch them now!
i went ahead and ground up the raw and put em into cubes ahead of time last night so i can thaw out a small amount at a time for when i'm ready to add. which reminds me, tomorrow is first day of 25% completely (all cooked is out of the house!). i don't think it'll be an issue as i've seen both of em chow on that mix a few days ago when i had some leftover. assuming all goes well, i was thinking anywhere from several days to a week before i start adding. what is the regimen of days per different percentage to start out with (then go backwards as needed). maybe i'm getting ahead of myself, i'm just excited is why.
BB is still having liquid poop but it's a healthy dark brown and it seems to be only after soup. i always thin their soup out with water so tomorrow i'm gonna substitute pedialyte just for prevention purposes (though he looks fine).
thanks for all your help and being patient with me!! :-)
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Post by tink80 on Nov 12, 2008 17:41:33 GMT -5
so today was day one of the 25 (technically day two but that was last weekend)..they both were too excited to eat when they got out (my mistake) and took a few bites then went bonkers war dancing, LOL.
today was their weekly egg yolk and i added some pumpkin as well for hairball season. they can't resist this and two hours had gone by. they were eating it and i pulled the ol' switcharoo and dipped some of that in the fork and mixed in their new soup, then as they ate the last of the plate, put the soup on top before they walked away..and they ate it :-)
kinda cheated but at least they ate it before naptime :-)
i gotta remember to bring their soup out LATER...hehehe.
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Post by tink80 on Nov 12, 2008 21:25:33 GMT -5
good news! we apparently have ANOTHER option before us.
okay, you're probably gonna kill me but i had this weird feeling when the boys woke up tonight they wanted soup. being worried they might end up eating too much cooked of one meat and not get kibble if they filled up on just that today (already had a serving this morning), i thought "well if you guys want soup you are gonna have to eat it this way". i ground up some kibble with 1 RAW turkey cube. they went nuts for it! i have no idea which morning or evening method is better but it's good to know i have more than one option with them! baby bear was making his piggy noises and they were running off with mouthfuls to hide and i made sure they were actually eating it once they were hidden and they were!
so another small victory over here :-)
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Post by tink80 on Nov 13, 2008 5:09:36 GMT -5
i gave 25% again tonight and added in a bit of leftover raw w/kibble so prob around 30 something percent..baby bear ate it all.
the reason i am feeding soup so often is b/c i'm a little concerned with baby bear's blood glucose which will be checked on the first. (posted about head bobbing in medical section). so anyway they were so ready to pass out after that, LOL. monkey licked some of the raw w/kibble and some very very thinned out raw too...i think they were sooped out, LOL. but they are always open to try it now if it looks like soup..at least a lick or two even if they reject it later so it's nice they are broadening their horizons.
the weekly pumpkin happened to firm up the poop though i'm not relying on it daily. they seemed to have firmer poops all around though today and a bit more energy.
that's all for now.
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Post by tink80 on Nov 13, 2008 22:32:42 GMT -5
served the 25% w/ a spoonful of raw/kibble leftovers to each today at their separate soupy times. both ate well. (yay for ground turkey!)  |
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Post by tink80 on Nov 14, 2008 11:47:12 GMT -5
once again this morning ate the 25% with an additional small spoonful of raw (w/o kibble powder in it now), a plate for each :-) *edit* sidenote: everyone is peeing more these days i'm assuming that's good b/c they are more hydrated with all the soup offerings (2-3 times a day b/c of BB's (less frequent i'll add) head bobbing and my own experimentation/excitement and hope they will be very used to it). now if only they'd stop all this healthy peeing in front of their door in their "nursery" and use the big ol boxes everywhere instead (and yes i made them a nursery awhile back, it's winnie the pooh ) |
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Post by tink80 on Nov 15, 2008 1:32:42 GMT -5
so someone (i think monkey) passed some hair today and they already had their max weekly of egg yolk so i gave a little pumpkin...and i added some raw to it..
basically i am adding a little bit raw to everything , LOL!!! :-)
i'm doing whatever i can to get em used to the taste and they don't seem to mind :-)
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Post by Forum Administrator on Nov 15, 2008 23:54:16 GMT -5
Way to go! Sounds like you've got some improvements going on. That is great news. Its good that you are slipping in raw whenever you can. good idea! And yes, the increase is urine is TOTALLY normal. Once they get used to the soup and raw food they will probably stop drinking as much as they normally do (that is normal to) and they will get moisture from their food AND water. They will pee more then they did on just kibble, but they will also drink less. In time, they will pee less then they are now. All this is normal as their bodies adjust to food that is higher in moisture. |
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Post by tink80 on Nov 16, 2008 2:46:23 GMT -5
maybe i am just imagining this but their energy level is up! :-)
they are getting thirty to forty percent raw in soup twice daily and raw in anything else i can slip in (egg yolk or the occasional pumpkin).
today both plates were licked clean and both were excited to eat instead of "meh whatever".
only thing is i have to wipe some on their gums after they smell it and then it's "oh yeah, i like this stuff!" and it's hands off from there :-)
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Post by tink80 on Nov 16, 2008 3:56:09 GMT -5
*sidenote/question*:
monkey's poop is DARK brown (not black, just very dark brown)..is this b/c the raw too? i'm thinking it is.
*also*
he had a hairy poop the other day and i really think he got some hair out that maybe had been lingering (not a hairball, just..."extra")..due to your nifty egg yolk tip that i've been using he got it out so thank you very much for that! :-)
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Post by tink80 on Nov 16, 2008 23:17:23 GMT -5
added a pinch of ground beef to their 30ish percent raw turkey soup tonight..everyone ate well (they both want to eat soup morning and night now instead of seperate soupie times). and no vomiting from monkey this time so i guess you were right about the previous times he vomited *phew* no beef allergy i think anymore. if baby bear's glucose ends up okay, do you know if it's okay to feed soup this often? i would assume so, they'd just eat less kibble during the day cuz they'd be full up. just wanna make sure i'm not gonna turn em into sumo wrestlers feeding both kibble and soup x2 at the same time, LOL :-) this morning they played almost three hours straight before getting tired  |
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Post by Forum Administrator on Nov 17, 2008 1:24:06 GMT -5
sidenote/question*:
monkey's poop is DARK brown (not black, just very dark brown)..is this b/c the raw too? i'm thinking it is.
The blood in the meat will turn poop dark brown. You will get used to raw fed ferret poop. It looks ALOT different from kibble fed ferret poop. The color varies more frequently then kibble poop (makes sense because raw feeders feed a variety of raw foods). Egg yolk can cause yellowish poop, liver causes black poop, beef can cause dark brown poop. Get the idea?
*also*
he had a hairy poop the other day and i really think he got some hair out that maybe had been lingering (not a hairball, just..."extra")..due to your nifty egg yolk tip that i've been using he got it out so thank you very much for that!
A raw diet, and even better, a whole prey diet really seems to help ferrets flush hariballs out of their systems. IT worked wonders for my cat, who has never had a hairball...in her LIFE. She was put onto raw when I got her at 10 months old. (shes about 1.5 years old now).
Isnt that egg yolk trick nifty? It breaks down the hairball instead of just greasing it up.
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Post by Forum Administrator on Nov 17, 2008 1:30:30 GMT -5
added a pinch of ground beef to their 30ish percent raw turkey soup tonight..everyone ate well (they both want to eat soup morning and night now instead of seperate soupie times). and no vomiting from monkey this time so i guess you were right about the previous times he vomited *phew* no beef allergy i think anymore. if baby bear's glucose ends up okay, do you know if it's okay to feed soup this often? i would assume so, they'd just eat less kibble during the day cuz they'd be full up. just wanna make sure i'm not gonna turn em into sumo wrestlers feeding both kibble and soup x2 at the same time, LOL :-) this morning they played almost three hours straight before getting tired Here is what I would recommend. If you are wanting to do kibble AND raw I'd do it this way. I would work to get them off the raw soupy and onto a complete ground raw mix (one that contains meat/bone/organ). Here are some good choices: *Hare Today, Gone Tommorow (google it): They offer a wide variety of ground meat/bone/organ mixes. I buy from them because De (who is 8 years old) can only eat ground raw due to oral issues. They are fast, affordable, and have such an awesome variety of meats. *Stella and Chewys Frozen and Freeze Dried Raw Patties: Alot of people like these. I would recommend checking them out *AFS (Animal Food Service) Ground Raw Patties (google it): I have good things about AFS *Nature's Variety Medallions and Patties: Many forum members feed NV and like it. The key is that if you are feeding a raw daily, the raw needs to be balanced, otherwise the whole diet will not be balanced. To make the raw side balanced you need to: Include raw meat/bone/organ in the soup, and in the proper ratios Feed a vareity of meats. I would go about it this way: Feed kibble for breakfast (I would recommend mixing the kibble with freeze dried raw foods, or even better REPLACING the kibble with freeze dried raw foods). Check out Caseys Hidden Pantry for a bunch of good freeze-dried raw foods. Feed ground raw for dinner (work to get them OFF the soup and onto the ground raw. Select a product that contains meat/bone/organ. Feed atleast 3 different "flavors" of meat each week). I am biased an recommend Hare Today---they are cheap and have alot of variety Ideally if you could then get them from the ground raw onto WHOLE raw, then you could get them on a diet of 50% raw and 50% kibble. From there it would be up to you whether or not you'd want to keep or eliminate the kibble. Either way its YOUR choice, so do what you are comfortable with. That is my advice. OH, and no I dont doubt that you are seeing an increase in energy. Raw really seems to "perk up" carnivores. Its amazing what GOOD food can do for an animals enegery stores |
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Post by tink80 on Nov 17, 2008 2:05:27 GMT -5
thanks for your reply. well actually to be honest i am not sure if i want to do supplemental raw or completely raw yet. at the time being i guess you could say i'm "trying to get as much into them as i can and they will put up with". i was leaning toward supplemental but if they really take to it and i can get another freezer into the garage then i'll go all the way. kinda just depends. my boyfriend bought me about five months worth of kibble (evo and natural gold) b/c i was trying to stock up on stinkweasels before they ran out (i got the last bags!) b/c i'm on low income (disability). i *do* want to finish it and not really buy anymore dry food until it runs out. but i'm also not opposed if say they aren't eating it anymore b/c they're eating so much more raw that they don't need it. does that make sense? :-) *sidenote*: we are going through a lot less kibble these days anyway, i have an easier time with my food allowance from the government which means i'd have an easier time buying meat than alloting my cash budget for freeze dried. so i guess what i'm saying is.. i have no idea!!! LOL!! i basically can't afford those other good foods you suggested at the moment (unless i win the case my attorney is working on and is pending) but i do have a supply of that kibble and can afford on the seventh of each month to stock up on raw. sorry, very confusing my situation. :-) :-) :-) p.s.! thanks for all your helpful answers to my questions |
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