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Post by Heather on Aug 10, 2008 22:21:01 GMT -5
Congratulations It is indeed good news. Now, I think for a few days, you should leave them at the same stuff. Let them get used to eating this as a food. After they're consistently eating this, then we'll make "slight" change to more raw. I think with a group this size and with this many personalities that taking this step by step is probably better, than moving swiftly and trying to make huge shifts in their diet all at once. If you only had one or two fuzzbutts, you might be able to move a little faster, but all things being equal you could have just as easily hit a lone ferret who decided to be a hold out and being very difficult about switching. Excellant work I will check in with you in the morning and see if you have any takers on your overnight feast ciao
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Post by Forum Administrator on Aug 12, 2008 2:08:17 GMT -5
Im happy to hear that you had this breakthrough I am very proud! I KNOW it can be hard, I know it can be frustrating, and I know its not fun, but I really think if you stick it through you CAN get your little ones onto ALL raw (if this is what you want) I second Heather's suggestion to stay on this stage for a bit and then work from here. Go babies go! I can't wait to hear how things turn out.
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Post by ferretpalooza on Aug 13, 2008 19:52:52 GMT -5
I just got back from Atlanta. They had soupies with tiny raw ck chunks (I cut some up for my husb to put in the soup). About the same as when I left. They eat about 3/4 of the chicken. I leave the leftovers in overnight. Half of the rib strips got eaten. Im going to stick with this till the weekend and see where we are then.
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Post by Forum Administrator on Aug 13, 2008 21:30:28 GMT -5
Sound like thing are going well! Hope you continue to have progress
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Post by Heather on Aug 13, 2008 22:35:18 GMT -5
Sounds good...do you know who's eating what or did you just get in? Hope you had a good trip. I would definitely leave things as they are for the moment. Let's find out who's eating what and then that will give you an idea as to who needs to be worked on. It won't hurt the rest to sit for a little bit on the same food and may actually work to your advantage as they move closer to looking at this as being food, instead recreational snacks I will check on you again tomorrow morning. Ciao
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Post by ferretpalooza on Aug 14, 2008 10:17:10 GMT -5
I had just gotten in last night. My son and I drove to Atlanta for a big huge music fest so I was whipped!!!! Buster is the biggest holdout at this time. Bubba will eat all the pieces of beef if you hand feed them, but someone cleaned the meat bowl while I was gone so he must be eating some on his own and maybe someone else helped him a little. I had a little left over ground beef and put it in the soup with the chicken last night. Boudreaux didnt eat cause he didnt get his private bowl, but Chuckie had his feet in the middle of the bowl fishing out all the ground beef!!!!! Bubba likes his beef chunks so I put more in and got a little rib bone out of the freezer and cut slits in the leftover meat. Ill leave that in there a couple of days and see if anyone bites. Max, Sully and Killa were just soupies babies last night. Buster is hanging back looking at everyone like they are crazy!!!It looks like the ones we need to work with are Max, Sully, Buster and Killa. All four would eat the ground beef mix with egg/cream after scruffing so Im going to get some more and work with them tonight on that. If I can be assured that they will all eat some type of meat, Ill take the kibble back away. The kibble comsumption is down at least 50%, (of course most days they are getting soupies with meat in it twice a day vs the once a day they used to get it....little piggies!!!! LOL). I guess the ones eating meat are staying fuller and dont need it as much? ? So now I can put little slices of beef in the cage and chicken and ground meat in the soup and about 95 percent will get eaten. Definitely some progress!!!!!!!! Im psyched!!!!! Especially since I got out of town and got to take a break, everything always looks new again......ha ha ha Thanks for the cheers!!!! **Just had to update. I sat and watched them when I gave soupies this morning. Ive been giving it to them in the pen around their cage so they dont run off and I can monitor whats going on. Chuckie was also carrying away pieces of chicken under the shelf and eating them.....and coming back for more. Sully was right with him so she is eating chicken chunks now too. I think Boudreaux got pissed about he hamburger in the soup cause he sniffed his bowl, gave me a dirty look and walked away...ha ha Chuckie was actually in the cage playing with Bubba the baby after he ate!!!! He's not much of a player at all so he is definitely getting more energy. So we have Buster, Max and Killa left to go, although Max is eating just little lite bites of the chicken so he is halfway there!!!!!
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Post by Heather on Aug 14, 2008 12:31:52 GMT -5
Sounds great. I would put them in a holding pattern for now, nothing new. We will stay with what we have and try and convince the hold outs that we're really and truly not trying to poison them A lot of people who are in the process of switching have discovered that their kibble consumption drops dramatically... One of the reasons is that with raw, the fuzzies are actually processing the food they're consuming. So they're not as hungry and they don't have to eat as much. Most of the kibble that you feed a ferret comes out totally unprocessed. With the raw diet they're actually using what they're eating, hence they don't have to eat as frequently. Now, one of the things you will observe is as your guys get more accustomed to eating the raw, they will start to eat more and you will begin to think you can't feed them. This part of the transition is temporary...their little bodies start craving the good stuff...that's a win win situation for you. During that time I give them as much as they want to eat. You may have to continue to do the feed scruff thing for a little bit to get your hold outs to eat better. If you could get them to eat (a fair amount) both in the am and pm then I would remove the kibble. At this time, it still appears that they're eating a substancial amount of kibble. I had to take the kibble away from little Babushka otherwise I would never have got her to eat the raw diet. She just refused to recognise it as food and it was setting her furry companion Pooka back. As I was home during the day, I removed the kibble and hand fed her 3 x a day. Once I was getting more into her (even though it was through scruffing her) I removed the kibble all together. It took about a week, maybe a little longer and she was eating without being scruffed. I would sit her on my lap and let her eat it out of the bowl or off the spoon. Once I was sure that she was eating whenever she was out and about then I stopped hand feeding her. I still check, as she does sleep alot and because of that seems to forget that she gets hungry. If she sleeps through her hunger, then she won't eat, so I have to feed her again. Her age and the fact that she's almost blind presents some difficulties that you probably wouldn't have to deal with in a younger ferret. Sounds to me like Max is probably going to follow the rest of the business, albeit grudgingly You have to love the stubborn holdouts....You know when you're serious when you're willing to starve for you convictions So you have two furbabies that have dug in their heels...ok...I think that stuffing them might be the only alternative left...silly little sods. You know you really are doing fanastic....you've almost got your whole business converted, that's awesome I will check in with you again later tonight and see how you've made out. Talk at you later. ciao
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Post by ferretpalooza on Aug 14, 2008 23:51:39 GMT -5
We had egg/cream mix tonight and everyone ate some with ground meat. Buster is definitely my biggest holdout but I did get him to eat a little with scruffing. Everyone else ate well. I think Ill stick with the beef slices/soup with chicken and ground beef in a.m./and egg-cream with ground beef at night for a few days and see if Buster will come around a little and everyone else will start eating a little more heartier and not just picking.
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Post by Heather on Aug 15, 2008 0:52:46 GMT -5
Give it the weekend....see if you can get your little stick in the mud, Buster to eat a little more willingly. Sometimes even watching the others will entice him too. It will also give the others time to get accustomed to eating the same things for a period of time. Good luck, I will check in tomorrow. ciao
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Post by ferretpalooza on Aug 15, 2008 21:30:35 GMT -5
I couldnt let them out to play this morning because of my schedule. so I made a bowl of soup with ground meat and raw chicken. I also left a small play of sliced freeze dried chicken, beef and beef liver. When I got home, noone touched the freeze dried and most of the soup was gone so I took all the left overs, added an egg and fresh cube of soup and some cream and sat down with a plate of goop. Everyone ate something. Liver is not going over at all......ha ha I scruffed Buster and made him eat chicken covered with goop. He fought for a while but I kept putting it between his back teeth till he would chew on it so he had to chew the texture. Soon he was sitting in my ars eating little pieces on his own. He would run away and keep coming back.....ha ha ha I always had to scruff to get him started but then he would sit as long as I hand fed it. Thats fine. All the ground meat and chicken got eaten so the soft meats are going first. I made each one of them put sime beef slices in the back teeth and bite down on it. We'll just continue this and recycle leftovers and see if they wont start finishing the soup in the pen on their own. Their poo is looking a lot better and formed. Its not all over the back of the pans as much either.
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Post by Heather on Aug 16, 2008 4:41:46 GMT -5
Wow, great stuff That's great that you got even Buster to try and eat some, even better that you got him to sit and eat it without spitting it out. You may have to keep offering him this in this manner for the next couple of days but you're making great headway with him. I can remember sitting a few late nights when I was trying to get Lady Babushka to switch and thinking why am I doing this, I have to be crazy....she's 9, what benefits is she going to reap from me doing this. Now I watch her up and about (all she would do was sleep when she was eating kibble), and last night fighting over a chicken leg with her sister and I know that I did what was right for her ...And no, you don't have the only ferret that wants to stay a vegetarian It's great that they're eating a lot of the soup on their own. Good headway. Don't be surprised about the liver....I have more than a few that don't like it either. That's why I put it in the blender (makes a liquid) and add it to my ground mix (it's all about texture on this one, I've fought with too many dogs about it not to think that ). That way I know that they're getting it and I don't have to fight with them to eat it. Great that their poops are firming up...you probably won't get consistently firm poops until we get some bone or egg shell into them (or are you adding some now?) Anyway, great job I'm off to work, I will catch you later. ciao
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Post by ferretpalooza on Aug 16, 2008 16:26:39 GMT -5
The last batch of soup I added 4 eggs and shells. Now my batches make 9 ice cube trays at a time but I wanted to see if they would take to it. Never had a hesitation so I will start adding 9 or 10 next time. It does get defrosted in the microwave but I dont defrost till it is hot, just barely warm so the only loss of vitamins is the freezing process. I usually give them 7 cubes of soup at each sitting with whatever else I add. I used 3 cubes of the raw blend this morning to 4 cubes of the cooked chicken and cut up a lot of ground beef and raw chicken to make it real chunky. They ate 3/4 of that after playtime. Ill take the rest tonight and add more raw meat, egg and cream to make a goop and we'll play the goop game again. I have to tell you. Max has always been my worry ferret. He goes through losing major amounts of weight at least a couple of times every year, usually pumpkin cleanouts help but in the past 4 months he has gotten so bony and only would play about 15 minutes before he went back to sleep. They are usually out from 2-4 hours twice a day. My Max boy gets out now and chases the dogs around, runs across the room and tackles piles of ferrets, he's putting weight back on and is not near as bony as he had gotten. He is only 3 but I was really worried because he had a dental this year and I had them do a full blood work up. Nothing abnormal. All checkups never came up with anything wrong, he just never looked very healthy and active. That boy is like a new ferret now. He is one who is sitting at the bowl just eating chucks of the chicken and raw. Sully is eating great, Chuckie is eating great. Boudreaux is off and on but he is real skiddish since he was abused before we got him so when he is on....he is on. He has his days when he doesnt want to be around other ferrets and people but Im not worried about him cause I know he is eating this stuff and if the kibble disappeared, I feel confident he would eat. Ill keep working on Buster and I havent seen Killa eating a lot so Ill be forcing a lot more on him too. Bubba has started backing off a little but will eat if you hand feed him. I suspect he is eating some in the pen that I dont see. He is only 5 months and stocky and chunky and is not losing weight or energy as less and less kibble gets eaten so Im not really concerned with him. So now its chunky soup in the morning, left over goopy soup at night and I always keep a bowl of thinly sliced freeze dried beef during the day.
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Post by Heather on Aug 16, 2008 23:16:04 GMT -5
Looks like you've got a good handle on who's eating what and who's not. That's good. It looks as though most of your business is totally on board. Bubba should have been your easiest switch....the little beast I'm glad to hear that Max is starting to show signs that the diet is agreeing with him. It can be quite amazing when you've got a ferret that runs the fine edge of being healthy. It's not a cure all but it can do wonders for that ferret that isn't really thriving on their present diet of kibbles. So I'm understanding it that you have Killa and Buster who are not quite sure about the diet yet? Keep playing the way you are and making sure that your two little holdouts are getting enough food. Unfortunately, this is also where you could start loosing track of little ones who are eating ..... because you have a couple who are giving you grief about the food, there may be trouble if you miss one of the hard core raw ferrets if they decide to go off their food. This is always a problem when they first start eating raw. Some do and others don't but I just want to give you a heads up just in case. Just keep an eye on them, keep a mental note as to who you see eating. If they're eating and you see them eating you're ok, but if you don't see them then you might have to make them eat, even if you're actually topping them up. In total you're doing great. I will check in with you tomorrow and see how you're doing with your new little carnivores ciao
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Post by ferretpalooza on Aug 17, 2008 9:22:11 GMT -5
Yeah, thats what Im seeing with a couple, they were packing it on at first but slowing down a little. I dont know if some of it is they dont need to eat as much. I havent seen and increase in the kibble consumption. I may order some of the wysong food to start supplementing the kibble in an effort to get the kibble out of there but it is so expensive I dont know if I want to start it with 7 ferrets. Im still considering that and continuing to put raw chunks in . I cut up a lot of the freeze dried chicken and beef and put it on a tray with kibble crumbs on it. I can see it will be a slow go but they are making progress.
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Post by Heather on Aug 17, 2008 10:35:56 GMT -5
The thing is that consistency is the key. I think your guys are being very predictable so I would keep doing what you're doing. You may get a couple who suddenly back track but that's to be expected. Then you just resort to feeding them by hand a little bit. The thing is you will find that it's not near the fight to get them started again. It's a little more difficult when you've still got kibbles being offered. If you check out the threads of some who have large businesses that they are switching they're running into like problems. So I wouldn't worry too much. You will get this, it's just going to take awhile. I'm not sure about the wysong. I decided that it was too expensive for the numbers that I had in house. I also was horrified at what I had to pay for for the size of the bag. Now up here, that stuff goes for $40 a bag and a bag is no bigger than a bag of potato chips (remember it is dehydrated) but still It's a little startling when I can buy a case (50 lbs) of ground raw chicken for $20. That being said, like kibble everything is in it. It's truly a personal choice ( I considered it enough to buy it ) Anyway keep slogging. You're doing great, let me know how today goes. ciao
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