Jack shows them how to switch to RAW

[lovethefluffies]

1. How many ferrets do you currently have? What are their names, ages, genders, and do they have any health problems (this is VERY important)?

Farcus, 3 1/2 years, male, had adrenalectomy on left gland in June 2008
Lolly, 3 1/4 years, female, no health problems
Jack, 6 months, male, no health problems
Zoey, 6 months, female, no health problems


2. What are your ferrets currently eating? Include their main diet, plus any treats or supplements (such as duk soup).

Eating Total Ferret kibble, although Jack will also eat ground chicken and bones; none of the others will.


3. What kind of diet do you want to switch to?

Raw diet

4. Why do you want to switch to this more natural diet?

We realize it is more natural and healthy and will improve their health and longevity.

5. Where/what/who got you interested in natural diets?

Speaking with others who do the same as well as much research.

6. Please list the current weight for your ferret(s). Do they appear overweight? Underweight? How is there muscle tone?

Farcus, 1 1/4 pounds, lean, good muscle tone
Lolly, almost 1 pound, normal, good muscle tone
Zoey, 1 pound 4 ounces, normal, very good muscle tone
Jack, 2 pounds 5 ounces, normal, excellent muscle tone.

Jack was raised on a farm in the Midwest where he apparently ate whatever prey was available (mice, small animals, etc) and he is quite vibrant and strong.

7. What is the condition of your ferret's teeth/gums? (can you get a picture?)

Teeth and gums on all are good.

8. Describe the texture/color of your ferrets coat.

Farcus has a mostly soft and shiny coat.
Lolly has a soft and relatively shiny coat.
Jack has a very soft, fluffy shiny coat.
Zoey has an extremely soft and shiny coat.

9. How often does your ferret go to the bathroom?

On average about every 45 minutes to an hour.

10. Does your ferret's feces and/or urine smell?

Yes, at times quite a bit,

11. Smell your ferret. How strong is their odor?

All of them have a mild to moderate musky smell. Not unpleasant (at least in our minds).

12. On a scale of 1-10, 1 being completely lethargic and 10 being "through the roof!" what is your ferret's energy level?

Farcus: 6
Lolly: 5
Jack: 11
Zoey: 9

13. How excited is your ferret about meal time (when fed kibble)?

Very excited, very much like it.

14. Have you attempted to switch from kibble to a natural diet in the past? If so, what methods have you tried. Be specific.

Currently trying with mixed results - Jack will eat the raw but not every day. Otherwise, we have taken their kibble away
for a day or so and then put out the raw for them and saw that only Jack would eat the raw while the others would sniff at
it very briefly and move on. We've also sprinkled the raw with Ferret Tone with no further success.

15. What other information about your ferret(s) would you like to share?
They are lively, playful, very human-socialized - they like to play both with us and each other.

16. If you can, please post a clear photograph of EACH of your ferrets directly below:
Don't have any current pictures (as we don't have a camera).


17.

[lovethefluffies]

Last night I fill out the form and posted it. This morning went to update my progress and saw that when my form was blank, sorry about that. I will re post the info,

love the fluffies

[Forum Administrator]

I'm excited to get started working with you Let me review your form and then I'm going to try and match you up with an appropriate Holistic Ferret Mentor. I'll also get you started on the switch. Please be patient, we'll get started as soon as possible

[lovethefluffies]

Hello Again,

Today I went out and brought Chicken put in the blender with some kibble and put it out for them. My sweeties still were not interested so being that we removed the kibble yesterday and felt that Farcus and Lolly were not running around like they normally do we forced feed both of them. Lolly afterwards ran away but farcus ate a few more bites from my husbands finger Afterward he ran around for a bit. Jack and Zoey still have lots of energy so we did not feel the need to force feed them. To back track yesterday after fasting them we gave them a chicken mince from Stella and Chewys. today when I saw that no one was really eating I decided to switch it up with the blended raw chicken and kibble, and a touch of chicken broth. I will give you another update in the morning. I am hoping to see an empty bowl but it is hard when I am not always there to see who is and who is not eating.

I can not wait to get rid of the kibble I can not deal with the smell of it. It is horrible in the bowl and worse in the litter pan. For too long I thought that was my only option. I can not wait to have a good-bye kibble party.

Lovethefluffies

[lovethefluffies]

Jack of course is eating and the food bowl looked like some bites were taken so I am not sure who else did.
I am supposed to stay at my parents tonight, which I forgot about.
Question?

I wanted to know if for one day I leave them out kibble while I am gone how much would that back track them. I need to leave this late afternoon and will be back tomorrow early evening?

thank you,

[hillcrestferrets]

Hi! Please bear with me. My office is moving this week, maybe, so our internet connection has been up and down and I won't be regularly available until next week at least.

I've been feeding raw and prey for 10 years now, I'm actually one of the first ferret breeders to make the switch and raise them from birth on raw. Now nearly everyone is doing it. LOL.

So, you have a good start with Jack. You might try two things:
1. Give them chicken baby food as a treat to introduce new tastes.
2. Make a batch of Bob Church's chicken gravy, the cooked version, as sometimes they take to cooked easier than raw.

Once they get a taste for the cooked version, you start cooking it less and grinding it less until you get to raw chunks. One way to fool them!

Try not to force feed, I think it just makes them feel the food is a punishment and not a pleasure, so offer food as a treat.

I'll be back with more, but have to get back to work today. And again, I apologize for my temporary communication glitch.

Ann B.

PS - Please ask questions! It's easier for me to answer than think up stuff to say.

[Forum Administrator]

Enjoy your new mentor, lovethefluffies

[lovethefluffies]

Hello Ann and Giuliana,

Well we decided that it was worth the double trip to come back home tonight. So one question that I have when you are having someone else watch them what do you have that person feed them?

We hire a pet sitter to come in for an hour each day that we are gone.

Anyway, I agree that the force feeding is not a good idea but it had been about 24 hours since I they ate and they were looking a little sluggish, so that is the only reason why we did that. I did see Lolly eating some of the kibble and raw chicken tenderloin on her own tonight so we are very happy. She is a very picky eater so the fact that she was eating on her own was a huge success.

I think they did not like the chicken patties that we got because it does have some organ meat which I know is rich tasting.

Tonight I have to make another batch of food. Last night I mixed the kibble with a piece of chicken and a touch of chicken broth in the blender. It was more of a soft crumble mix. I was wondering should it be more wet?

I am so happy about this change. I am a nutty crunchy type that shops at "whole paycheck".
My husband and I are so trilled to be able to do the same for our babies.

Make a batch of Bob Church's chicken gravy, the cooked version, as sometimes they take to cooked easier than raw.

Tell me more about that, where can I get that? What is it?

I looked at the baby foods but all of them had either pasta in them or lots of veggies so I was not sure. Mind you I was looking in whole foods,but I can go to the regular supermarket if I know what brand to get.

So you are a breeder that is too cool. I was told that Jack and Zoey came from a farm in WI
The guy raises them to help with the rodent problem as he says
"cause that is what my grand-pappy did" I will post a photo of my kids since I just got a new camera. Jack is so much bigger and stronger than my first 2 that are Marshall ferrets. And his and Zoey coat are unlike any thing I ever saw. There heads are shaped differently. I love them all. I can talk about them for hours.

Thank you for helping me with the switch. And thank you Giuliana for getting me in touch with Ann.

Avigail (lovethefluffies)

[Forum Administrator]

No problem, Avigail. I'm happy to have you "hooked up" with a mentor. Ann is great and I've known her for a few years now (via NaturalFerrets). I have confidence that she'll be able to guide you through the switch and get your kids started onto a better diet. Good luck!

[hillcrestferrets]

Hi - quickie, we are in the midst of packing insanity. Gerber's Stage Two Chicken and Chicken Gravy is what you want for baby food.

I put my modified version of the chicken gravy recipe on my website: www.hillcrestferrets.com/pages/NaturalDiets.html

You don't need to use rabbit, and gradually you phase out the kibble. :-)

I do leave kibble available to mine, they do not, generally, eat it unless they are hungry because I'm away. But ferrets on a natural diet don't need food available all the time - they are ok with specific feeding times, so you don't need to worry so much once they have switched.

You can still leave a kibble option available to them while you are switching, especially when you have someone else with them. I have ferret sitters for when I'm gone longer than 24 hours who are also raw feeders, so there's no issue with the food, I just leave the meals in the fridge. I did even have a regular pet sitter agree to feed raw to my ferrets - the natural diet option is much more popular and you shouldn't have a problem finding a pet sitter to feed what YOU want. :-)

Jack sounds cool. Ferrets were originally brought over to handle the rodent problem, so that makes sense. He'll be easy to switch and hopefully the others will follow.

All the best,
ann b.

[Forum Administrator]

Yup, I dont have issues finding a natural pet sitter either. Even my mom, who doesnt want to raw feed her own dog, is more then happy to raw feed my babies while I'm away.

Another option, if you want to kick the kibble completely is to offer a freeze-dried raw food in place of kibble (in addition to regular raw). This can be left out much longer then regular raw, and I can't think of any reason why someone would have an aversion to feeding it for you. You can feed it dry or reconstituted with water. Only down side is it can be a bit expensive, but really all you'd have to do is give it to your ferrets every once and in a while (like a treat) and then when you go away, you can have your petsitter feed that.

Some good brands include:

Stella and Chewy's
AFS (Animal Food Service)
Wysong
DONT use Nature's variety freeze-dried (there are pumpkin seeds in it that can cause a blockage).

[lovethefluffies]

Hello Ann and Giuliana,

Thank you both for the tips for when we are going away. We do not have family that are wiling to look after them in the area, but you are right that the service will feed what we want to give them. I saw the dehydrated foods by stella and chewys.

I will take a look at the recipe you posted as well.

Quick update they are all doing beautifully.

Last night I added more liquid to the mix as well as some more raw chicken and I have seen them all eat on their own. i noticed that they prefer it to be more soupy and wet than dry. Lolly is still shy about eating in front of me but that is okay she does lick the food off my finger so I know she will eat when no one is looking. I am just so happy to see them eating. I can not wait until it is all raw. The smell of the kibble make me want to just hurl.

On another note I was reading the post about the private bathrooms. Since we could not cut the cage due to lack of tools we built the bottom floor as the bathroom and have the second level as a complete floor covering the whole width of the cage with there numerous blankets and beds. The babies can get to the bottom level via the built in tubes that come with the cage. The love it!!!! Thank you I will have to post some pictures since we have the roof as a triangle will hammocks and a food level. Huge success. prior to use reading that post we were really to scream with the number of accidents they were having. I am defiently finding the info posted truly helpful. So happy to be a member.

Have a great night,

Avigail

[hillcrestferrets]

Sounds like you are doing well! Once they are really comfortable with the cooked food or the raw mix you are doing, it's time to start adding chunks. But don't rush it - they will get there in time.

I'll have more hints and stuff for you next week. I must apologize - we are moving our office this week and it is more than likely I will not have internet access until Monday. :-(

Hang in there and just do what you are doing over the weekend to keep getting them comfy with the food, and I'll check in with you no later than Monday. Sooner, if I get access!
ann

[lovethefluffies]

Thanks, I am just so happy with their progress.

[lovethefluffies]

so there are still eatting the mush. I have noticed that when I add less liquid that they do not eat as well as they do when it is more like a soup. Any suggestions?

So I brought the EVO for cats the other day. I figured that if I still have to mix in the kibble that would be better than the total ferret. It smells better at least. Yesterday in the afternoon I gave them just some of the new kibble to help them recognize the smell when it is mixed with the raw. They liked it of course, and I hope I did not have them take a step backwards as a result.

I have noticed a major increase in energy so I am happy.

Have good one,

Avigail