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Post by weeksl08 on Jan 15, 2009 23:40:27 GMT -5
The rabbit was a ground, with fur. They've not graduated to whole yet, but they are getting where they eat larger chunks without just stashing it all. As of now they will eat anything that swims or flies! They love chicken, duck, turkey, and any fish that we eat. They have been playing like crazy since I came home!!! We go to the vet in the morning for check ups I will let ya know everyone's weight
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Post by Heather on Jan 16, 2009 0:02:56 GMT -5
Fantastic....your guys are doing wonderful. Congratulations. I can't wait to hear how your guys do at the vets ciao
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Post by weeksl08 on Jan 16, 2009 18:52:23 GMT -5
We LOVE our new vet! He was wonderful!!! He explained everything wonderfully, and her really knew what he was talking about! He also was very polite and loved playing with my babies! Bella weighs 1lb 10oz, Liberty 1lb 15oz, Constantine 2lb 9oz and Gus is 2lb 11oz! The vet said he's never seen such healthy coats; I told him it was the raw meat they eat His response, which made me very happy, was to just make sure they get enough tuarine I was So proud of Bella, 4 strangers handled her and she didn't nip at ANYONE! She was such a good girl! Everyone in the office fell in love with them. An owner who was there with a dog didn't realize that ferrets needed to go to the vet! While I was waiting to check out I educated her on ferret health, and diet . All in all, it was a great visit! It was cheap too: $159 for 3 exams, distemper, and rabies shots!
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Post by Heather on Jan 17, 2009 1:52:19 GMT -5
Great stuff. There's nothing like a ferret friendly vet to make things a lot smoother. Sounds to me like you and your guys made quite a hit. As long as you're feeding heart with your meals you will be covering your taurine levels My guys love it, it ranks along with the gibblet thing....something worth making an enemy over Bella was indeed a good little girl, I really wish that I thought if I brought Mr Squiggly in that he wouldn't bite anyone. I know he's still not there though. He's getting better though. I don't think he's bitten anyone this week, though he really loves to stalk and bite my husband (I think it's because he hops around, it's just more fun than Mr Squiggly can pass up ) What are your plans about getting your little ones to start eating whole meats? Have you tried whole gibblets and whole chicken hearts...I know that my guys love them and that's what I used to get my guys to eat larger meats. Talk at you later. ciao
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Post by weeksl08 on Jan 17, 2009 20:44:39 GMT -5
They eat whole hearts just fine, but we haven't really tried a whole lot of anything chunked bigger than a nickel other than that. I'm not sure I want to go whole so for now we're not progressing too much. I give them chunks of whatever meat we're eating (if they like it of course) and whole hearts and that's about it. I need to order more hearts from hare today, I forgot to when I ordered their last order of food. I've had time over the break to really work with Bella and I guess it has payed off She has become a lot more lovable and will even let us pet her now, which she never did before.
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Post by Heather on Jan 17, 2009 21:01:53 GMT -5
You feed ground bone to your guys right? I can't remember if you bought a grinder or if you bought premade ground food from hare today. If your guys eat whole hearts I would imagine that they would take fairly easy to whole meats too, but that's up to you as long as you're feeding some form of bone and offal along with your meats, even if it is ground. You're reaping all the benefits of raw except maybe the teeth cleaning, but if you're feeding gibblets that will certainly help with the teeth cleaning. It's amazing what a little extra time can do for reforming a chronic biter I've found that sometimes that's all that's needed. Other times it goes a little deeper and extra care, time and some specific work is needed to get them to mind. I will check in with you later ciao
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Post by weeksl08 on Jan 17, 2009 21:54:44 GMT -5
We order whole ground with organs and bones included from heare today. I also order ground chicken feet and ground chicken organs and give those every now and then by themselves. I feed them hearts as treats/suppliments and sometimes i get giblets for them too
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Post by Heather on Jan 18, 2009 12:12:54 GMT -5
Ok, I thought that's what you did but I didn't see bone and I just had to ask No, you and your guys have been doing great for quite awhile now. I still haven't heard back from Giuli regarding switching your status because I really think that you guys have fulfilled the first part of your programme. I will see what I can find out. Giuli's computer fried and she's not been on very often but I will PM her and see if there's anything in particular you have to do to graduate to the next stage ciao
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Post by weeksl08 on Jan 18, 2009 15:06:01 GMT -5
lol! Thanks Gus and Bella were a QUICK switch and the other 3 switched in 3 weeks, so I think I was lucky as far as that goes!
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Post by Heather on Jan 20, 2009 0:21:21 GMT -5
I'm going to post part of Giuli's post to me as I think it's important and I don't want to leave anything out. **All i need is for her to post a copy of her weekly feeding schedule (if she hasn't already). I'd like to see what meats they are eating. I would also suggest that she rotate the ground meats she feeds (this is what I do for De, my 9 year old that eats ground raw). I think you already do this and you already use one of the brands that she likes so that's an easy one. So all she needs is a posted schedule of what you feed per week.... **I like the following brands: 1.) Hare Today, Gone Tommorow 2.) Nature's Variety Raw 3.) Primal Raw (I have not yet tried this, but I recommend buying the products for cats that contain the LOWEST amount of added veggie matter) 4.) Bravo! (also an option, but it seems to be too expensive for too little variety. I don't plan on buying it). The reason I recommend rotation is because grinding and freezing DOES reduce certain nutrients, so feeding commercial raw foods (like bravo, NV, and primal) helps to "round thing out" because they also add a vitamin/mineral supplement to their foods to make up for nutrients lost through freezing and grinding. What I do is order something different each time De goes through a batch of food. I also recommend feeding ATLEAST 5 different types of meat when feeding a GROUND raw diet. The final thing I can think of is that when eating HARE TODAY ground raw, a ground raw ORGAN meal needs to be given weekly. They sell ground organ mixes. Their ground meats DO contain meat/bone AND organ, but not enough organ IMO, so I would supplement De's diet weekly with 1 homemade (or bought from hare today) ground organ meal. I would also recommend that she give her guys jerkey treats. Vitalife makes duck, lamb, pork, turkey, and chicken jekey. Its all natural, no preservatives, no seasonings, and human grade ingredients (sometimes I steal and eat my ferret's duck jerkey lol). This will help to a.) provide more variety in the diet and b.) serve to help clean teeth (although not as well as bone). That is all I can really think of. I would pass that info onto her, see if she can do those things and if so, let me know and its time for her to graduate! So, If you can get that information together, you're ready to graduate. You're there sister....you and your furbabies are absolutely "Fantastic" Looking forward to hearing from you ciao
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