|
|
Post by Heather on Aug 9, 2008 21:58:50 GMT -5
That's fantastic that May's coat is coming back in. I'm waiting for my two little old ladies to put on their plush thick coats from their transitioning diet  Babushka looks to me that she's going to be the one to start with the coat first. It's coming in very dark. If you don't have any bone in your mix (you're using egg shell, right??) You can put your chopped up meats in a food processor to grind it up finer, if your guys don't like the chunkies. Don't put bone in your processor as it makes a horrible mess of the blade...can you say I've already tried it  . You can worry about grinding a coarser grind once your babies are more accustomed to eating the raw meat. Good luck with your mix, I will be interested to hear how it went. ciao |
|
|
|
Post by weeksl08 on Aug 9, 2008 22:51:42 GMT -5
That chopper was a joke so I took it back. I am going to save up for a nicer food processor at a later date. I notices hare-today has fine ground, ground, and coarse ground, so once I'm able to get them on that, I think things will go smoother.
Once I start trying new meats, whats the best way to do it? Mix it with the chicken first or what?
|
|
|
|
Post by Heather on Aug 10, 2008 8:05:09 GMT -5
I've never mixed....but you could. The reason being is that my old fart cat (siamese 21 yrs) projectile vomits everytime I mix proteins so I never have. That being said, it doesn't mean that you can't. It just works out that way in my household. Samurai is a quirky old dude and has auto-immune problems caused by a reaction to his rabies shot that almost killed him. So you could try it. I would at first see if they're willing to eat it without mixing because if they will it's a whole lot easier on you  Readily accepted proteins in this house seem to be chicken (obviously), rabbit (they're insane about), turkey (ok, some will some won't), quail (is to die for, better yet we will kill each other for), beef, pork and lamb (some will some won't, and not a large number will), rats and mice(most will, some of my old timers won't). Strangely enough, one of my oldest boys is one of my best hunters. ciao |
|
|
|
Post by weeksl08 on Aug 10, 2008 20:22:15 GMT -5
I got some chicken liver today. May wanted to drink all of the juices/blood from the package. I got her to lick at some cut up liver (mush.) The others are not crazy about it though. Are gizzards considered an organ? I got them to eat gizzard and heart mixed with thier ground chicken/egg mix:) They licked the bowl clean yesterday!
|
|
|
|
Post by Heather on Aug 10, 2008 22:31:51 GMT -5
Great!! Don't be surprised about them not eating liver as a meat....it's consistency I think. My guys like your Mayhem, will drink the blood without any problem but I've found most of my guys prefer it mushed in the rest of their meal...they're not fond of it on its own. So rather than battle them about this minor technicality, I just add it to their meal. I think gizzards are considered a muscle....more like a gristle meat Heart can be used as a muscle meat or an organ it depends on who your arguing with That's fantastic that you've got them to eat their offal mix. I found that my guys really enjoy their hearts and gizzards...it's the one meal that results in lots of screaming and swearing and the notorious game of "keep away" I alway offer more than enough gizzards and heart for everyone (usually 2 or 3 per fert) but one furbaby will get a mouthful and all the rest seem to think that one is better than all the rest. So then you have ferts chasing and hissing at each other. Excellent exercise Great job....keep it up. You're well on your way. ciao
|
|
|
|
Post by weeksl08 on Aug 11, 2008 8:41:59 GMT -5
I put out a second bowl of "soup" around 8 last night with the liver. I feld May about half a jar of baby food about 10. This morning i noticed when I walked in to the kitchen (at 7:30) that May came galloping out of the food cave. I looked in to see how much food was gone and half a liver was out of the bowl. Apparently when she got hunry she went for the liver I may go ahead an add some to this afternoon's soup. Not much soup was gone this morning but I think they slept most of the night. |
|
|
|
Post by Heather on Aug 11, 2008 10:46:56 GMT -5
Be careful feeding too much liver, you will get some really loose poopies....really bad It will also be very dark, sometimes even tarry (looking like ulcers or internal bleeding dark) Once you start feeding raw, keep track in your mind what you've fed. When I feed rat, and they eat the internal organs the stools can be very loose and very black because of all the blood they're consuming. As they get into the meat and bone then their stools solid up, and they become more normal in colour. Too much liver can also cause a vit A imbalance. The thing that you have to remember though, it's balance over time.....so if you do a feast of liver at the beginning of the week then you wouldn't feed it again for the rest of the week and maybe into the following week. At the moment because some are and some aren't...I wouldn't worry over much unless Mayhem is eating it all herself . One of the things to consider if there wasn't much eaten last night was how much they ate during the day. I have nights where the guys eat practically nothing during the night....then there are others when they're busting to get out of the room so that they can get into the cat food. Keep and eye on them and I will check back a little later. ciao |
|
|
|
Post by weeksl08 on Aug 11, 2008 12:48:40 GMT -5
They ate a whole bowl full during the day and practically nothing at night so that makes sense.
Ok, I just revamped the soup mix and I may have made a boo boo after reading your post here. I added another pound of chicken, 6 more gizzards, and half a container of liver along with 8 eggs. I beat it all up and gave them some, froze the rest. Considering how much chicken and gizzards are in the mix, the liver maybe makes up about 1/10. Is it still ok for them to eat this everyday? ( I made enough for what looks to be 10 days.)
|
|
|
|
Post by Heather on Aug 11, 2008 13:26:04 GMT -5
How much is 1/2 a container? Half a pound? Less? The easiest way to look at it is, how much does a whole chicken have. Taking into consideration, nutritional loss for freezing and refreezing. I usually look at 2 lbs of meat and bone (you would be using egg shell here), 1/4 pound of hearts and about the same maybe a little more of liver. I'm terrible I go by look these days, I haven't measured anything (except the puppies food and he has to stay within a 3 - 5 lbs limit per week of growth, so careful monitoring of intake is required). I buy pkg of hearts and gizzards. Sometimes there's a lot more gizzards then hearts and I have to open another pkg and add more hearts. The liver comes in approx 1 lbs pkg. I split that in half. I actually use the gizzards as a treat meal, so it's entirely separate. So when everyone goes to bed then each family group gets a handful of gizzards to fight over. Reading over your post, I think you're ok. The thing is that it's all about balance over time, not immediately (I mean you can create a mix that does that, my cat food it that way, everything is balanced at every meal) Right now, because you're still transitioning, you will find that your balance will be a little segued for awhile but that's ok. Once your guys get a little more comfortable eating this mix, I would start backing off the eggs. Right now though you're using the eggs to be the liquid to create the soup, so that's ok. In the end you want to have about 2 or 3 eggs per 2 lbs of meat mix. ciao |
|
|
|
Post by Forum Administrator on Aug 12, 2008 1:56:17 GMT -5
Howdy, just popping in to do a check up Happy to see things are going well. So are your little ones currently eating just a soup? Or have they graduated to chunks yet? Bone? Just wanting to make sure I've got everything straight. |
|
|
|
Post by weeksl08 on Aug 12, 2008 12:55:39 GMT -5
Constantine will eat chunks, but no one else will. No one will eat bone yet. I've added some tiny chunks to the soup that are the same size as the gizzard chunks and they haven't noticed yet So I will start increasing the size of the chunks in the soup. Next batch of soup will also have much bigger chunks of heart and gizzard, with less egg, only egg yolk. ((Which works out because I don't eat yolk, or shell, so they eat what I don't and visa versa )) They are eating a regular amount again. I started serving them in a cat water/food bowl thing so there is 2 places to put food since Constantine doesn't like to share. This is also much lower than the ceramic bowl I was using and it has made a difference. As of right now I am putting a huge spoon (tablespoon) full of soup in each side. It was gone when I got home so I gave some more. I will check every few hours. May will only eat a few licks off of my finger so I'm mixing a little of the runny part of the soup wit hthe baby food that I feed her. I'm hoping to increase the soup until theres no baby food left. I want her back on what the others are eatig ASAP! |
|
|
|
Post by Heather on Aug 12, 2008 13:33:06 GMT -5
That's the way to do it. Keep adding soup to the baby food. It looks to me that you may have to buy at least one more jar of baby food. My little Mischief was the only furbaby that I've had that will eat baby food. I actually started making my own baby food as I couldn't get the meat only stuff here. It actually made sense, I never fed the jarred stuff to my skin kids why would I feed it to my ferrets Mischief had IBD and would have attacks where he would stop eating. I would make him baby food feed for a week, and then start adding my raw soupy mix to it until he was eating totally raw again. Eventually, I didn't even have to take it to the baby food, I would just make up my soupy mix and feed him by spoon until he would eat on his own. He eventually died of lymphomas but we managed to keep him alive for almost 2 yrs. At the time he was one of my oldest ferrets at 8 yrs. ciao |
|
|
|
Post by weeksl08 on Aug 13, 2008 16:19:34 GMT -5
May is off the baby food:) I fed her, her last bowl of it this morning and when I put the soup out for them when I got him, she was the first to pounce on it! Yay! So all 3 are offically on soup, and Constantine seems to be the only one eating chunks that are not mixed in the soup. I added a few breast chunks to the soup and they along with the oran meat chunks all get eaten.
|
|
|
|
Post by Heather on Aug 13, 2008 22:41:41 GMT -5
Yay!!!! Mayhem...way to go girl!!! Sounds great....maybe you can start increasing the size of the chunks in the soup or thickening up the soup (more meat to the egg...you can freeze the extra amount that you're going to get) That is of course unless your guys eat it all before you can freeze it Looks like your guys are moving along nicely. Good work I will check in with you again in the morning. You're moving along nicely ciao
|
|
|
|
Post by weeksl08 on Aug 15, 2008 9:47:03 GMT -5
May is eating A LOT! I am giving out almost, but not quite double the soup since she started eating again. I am almost out of the batch I made! I will have to make a new one probably saturday!
|
|
