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Post by Forum Administrator on Oct 6, 2008 21:09:00 GMT -5
Okay, so I'm here now. First of all that is great that they are eating a raw soupie! I thought it was just wet kibble, so it was a VERY pleasent suprise to find that it was raw meat!
As for Nyx, do what works best for her and you. There are no set "rules" feel free to make adaptations as needed. Keep up the great work little stinkers! I am so proud! I can't believe they got onto a raw mush so fast!
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Post by cloudtickler on Oct 7, 2008 17:36:43 GMT -5
I'd forgotten to add a few updates ago that we'd started using the blender to mash up the kibble because it was sooo much easier. At one point a few days later, Z added a chicken thigh.
So this last batch, it made sense to us to increase the meat to kibble ratio, and the group did great!
This morning, I opened the cage to fill their kibble croc, and Z put the mush croc on the other side. Khadgar, Rexxar, Jaina, and Onyxia all stopped eating the kibble to go after the mush. Z and I were so thrilled we just sat and watched for a few minutes.
We're now out of mush (the batch we made only lasted a few days, since we didn't want to waste a bunch of food if they didn't eat it)
So I'm going to make another larger batch today hopefully.
Nyx has been rebelling against the litter box again but I caught her yesterday, and hissed at her for a second until I could open the cage and put her in the litterbox. I hope this reminds her. :/
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Post by Forum Administrator on Oct 7, 2008 17:49:40 GMT -5
That is great! Keep doing what you are doing, they are progressing wonderfully. As I said earlier I'm really suprised they are progressing so quickly  |
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Post by cloudtickler on Oct 8, 2008 14:51:59 GMT -5
We need to make another batch of mush. (I know I was suppose to do this yesterday but I fail.)
Should I keep them at the same ratio of kibble and meat for a little while longer?
We were adding about 1 cup of kibble. (The recipe I put together is on page 3 near the bottom)
4 are willingly eating mush currently: Nyx, Rex, Khadgar, and Jaina.
Arthas will eat it if there's no kibble and he really gets hungry. (But he will sit where the kibble bowl is kept if I've taken it out for awhile before going to the mush bowl..)
Bo will eat it if someone else is, but wont go near it otherwise. Z put a little on his nose to remind him of it's numiness factor, and Bo wigged out. -He ran around the cage like mad, wiping his head on anything and everything, and then stayed in the ladybug for 1/2 hour. It was pathetic!)
We know he likes the stuff, but something about eating it in the cage, unless he has competition, will make him not go for it.
Nyx likes eating out of Rex's mouth... She's such an oddball! We're still giving her ample eat alone time as well, but she seems to be regulating herself again. No regurgitating for several days. (Though she is going back to rebelling against the litterbox.)
Other than the above mentioned issues, I think they're doing great.
I thought they were going to give me a lot of stubbornness on this!
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Post by Forum Administrator on Oct 8, 2008 21:11:21 GMT -5
Sounds good, I would slowly work on cutting back the amount of kibble. Do it by 1/4 a cup less each batch  |
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Post by cloudtickler on Oct 9, 2008 6:11:31 GMT -5
I know we're suppose to be making the switch slowly so that my kids don't rebel. But something about that makes Zach NOT want to do this slowly. When I got home from work at 10:30 tonight, he was jumping about all excited. Apparently, he'd offered them a few kibble-size pieces of raw beef, and Khadgar ate three small pieces. One of the others ate one piece but I can't remember who he said it was... And Jaina tried to eat a piece several times but kept spitting it out.
I re-explained to him why this process needs to be slow, and thurough. Yes, I constantly get the urge to encourage them to try actual chunks of meat.. But I don't what them to start to refuse it. They've already proven to me that they have stubborn streaks..
Am I being *too* careful here? Should I relax and just let him try occasionally? Or should I "stick with the plan" and get them to a full raw meat soupie before progressing with chunks?
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Post by Forum Administrator on Oct 9, 2008 13:44:14 GMT -5
Oh no, its perfectly fine to give them a little bit of meat from a "few steps ahead" and see what they do with it. The best way to go about things is to continue to give them their soup/glop and then every now and then give them the chance to eat the chunks of meat. If they like the meat chunks then slowly start mixing in the chunks of meat into the soup. The key is that you dont go "cold turkey" and just rip the soup/glop away from them and feed them nothing but chunks. They might like the chunks at first and some of the ferrets might do just fine, but others might freak a bit and even though they ate the chunks they might go on a hunger strike until they get their soup back. It really is what works best for your ferrets. Let them have a constant (the soupy) and then expiriment from there. If you give them the option of soup OR the chunks then they will have a familiar thing to fall back on and they wont go into "I want to have a hunger strike mode". I'm really proud that they took to the meat chunks! I would advise start adding chunks of meat to the soupy. Over time, gradually reduce the amount of soupy offered till they are just eating chunks. You can put chunks of various size into the soupy, ones as small as a finger tail, and ones as big as a thumb |
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Post by cloudtickler on Oct 10, 2008 2:53:40 GMT -5
New batch of soupie/mush:
Recipe:
1 raw boneless skinless chicken thigh
1/2ish cup zupreem kibble (my 8-1 ultimate is hiding..)
1 raw egg (+shell) to add some liquid
1/2 cup raw beef chunks (shoulder roast)
1tsp watered ferretone
Success with no convincing on our part:
Jaina, Khadgar, Arthas
With some convincing:
Bovane,
Rexxar (which was weird cause he usually inhales this stuff! but now he's going to town on it.)
And Onyxia!
They've all (except Bo) been eating around the kibble pieces. That's just fine with me!
We did leave some of the chicken as slightly chunky, but no takers on the chunks yet. (Even if offered by hand.) Considering this is their first day of chunks, I'm not feeling disheartened.
In fact, I'm feelin pretty pleased!
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Post by Forum Administrator on Oct 10, 2008 21:19:05 GMT -5
Excellent! If a few days pass and you still dont have any takes ont he chunks, next time make the chunks HALF the size of what they currently are. Your crew is doing great! I am so proud. Eating a round the kibble pieces? Smart babies! |
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Post by cloudtickler on Oct 12, 2008 15:34:16 GMT -5
Made a safeway run yesterday, and found 4lbs of chicken with gibblets for $5.10! Score! Chicken here is usually 2-2.50 a lb. It hurts, a lot. So I'm stocking up on cheaper meats when I can find em. This was in the 'about to pass the best if used by date', which is where we find most of the good deals for us and the ferrets.
My power went out last night and has yet to come back. So we had to give the kids just kibble and I was not to thrilled by this. (They wont eat cold mush and I don't blame them) I did wet it down just a little to make myself feel better.
I have a gas stove so I know i could warm the food in a pot of hot water or something.. Can you think of a better quicker way to do this? I had just been microwaving it for 3-4 seconds. (We give them 2 large tablespoon lumps at a time.) But I may not have power for another day or two... I have no idea on this.
Seattle is warm right now but it will get back into the 30s overnight again. Last night we just left the ferts in the playpen in the living room with a TON of blankets. (Full explanation of what happened is on the ferret.com forum in the general section.) If I still have no power when I get home from work, I'll prob send the group over to my moms house for the night.
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Post by Forum Administrator on Oct 13, 2008 13:28:01 GMT -5
I would heat it on a pan on the stove. I dont have a microwave and that is what I do for De's food I'm sorry to hear you don't have power, that blows! I hope you dont have a bunch of frozen meat in the freezer! I had just ordered $400 worth of rodentpro prey when the power went out for two days! I was aweful! I had to bring the stuff to my parents house because it would have all gone bad. Very stressful. |
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Post by cloudtickler on Oct 15, 2008 2:37:40 GMT -5
We did have a bunch of meat in the freezer, but it was cold enough that everything was still mostly frozen when the power returned. (Except my eggo waffles. They re-froze in a weird shape which made em hard to toast.)
Two steps forward, one step back here in ferret food land. I took them out to play in the living room at noon, and gave them a small amount of kibble and the regular amount of mush (in two diff dishes) and they wouldn't touch the mush. The kibble was gone by 1pm and they stayed out with me until 11:30pm and *still* wouldn't touch the mush. Z was voicing his frustrations more than I but we were both a little vexed by the whole show of it.. We got some of this stubbornness yesterday too.
-As a side note, we hadn't added any chunks to this batch. It was straight from the blender and smooth, but with chunks of kibble which on Saturday they were eating *around*.
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Post by Forum Administrator on Oct 15, 2008 13:16:20 GMT -5
Wait eating around the chunks or eating around the kibble?  |
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Post by cloudtickler on Oct 15, 2008 15:33:51 GMT -5
We hadn't put the chunks in yet, because we were met with some resistance on the regular soupie this weekend. (This was the batch that we made a few days ago, where the kibble didn't get very blended so the only chunks in there are kibble pieces.) On Saturday, the group was eating the soupie but eating around the kibble chunks. For the past few days, they wont eat *any* of the soupie. Just the plain kibble that we give them in the mornings. And if that kibble bowl stays empty in the evening they get upset and pout at me. They're refusing the soup now.
*I* am patient, and will wait out this temper tantrum. Z, on the other hand, feels like maybe we expected too much out of them and should just go back to feeding them the kibble. It's my choice in the end but he's getting frustrated with the meat we're using in this mush going to waste. (And the time it's taking us to deal with their attitudes.)
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Post by Forum Administrator on Oct 15, 2008 18:04:01 GMT -5
Are all your babies healthy? If so I would just give em soup and let them suck it up. If you offer them the kibble when they refuse the soup they will keep doing this to get what they want. I think the power outage cause a slight relapse. They HAVE eaten the soup and they WILL eat it again, but I think its time to put the foot down. Fill up their soupy bowl (not with a *ton* of soup, but with a bit) and let it sit for 6 hours. After 6 hours if no one has touched this, replace the soup. After 24 hours of this and NO kibble I am pretty sure they will start taking to the soup with gusto. You can warm the soup slightly, crush some kibble on top of it, or do anything else you can think of to bribe them. Your kiddos are doing wonderfully, and have actually progressed quite quickly, this type of relapse is common during the initial phases of the switch, and you *can* get through it, its just about *how* you approach the situation.
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