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Post by Heather on Apr 14, 2009 22:58:34 GMT -5
His mushy poopies are probably caused by him not wanting to chomp on bone. The whole poopie thing seems to regulate itself once he starts munching on bone regularly. You can try some pumpkin if you like and maybe adding some finely ground egg shell to try and firm up the poopies. You use 1 tsp of ground egg shell to 1 cup of meat. I don't know if your little guy eats ground meats at all but I found that's the easiest meat to use when trying to get them to eat the egg shell. You just mix it all together add some pumpkin and you should notice a change in the poopies. You're going to see a wide variety of colours as far as his stools go, the greener they are the faster and the less absorbtion of nutrients is occuring. Seedy poops mean that the fat from the meal isn't being absorbed, again usually caused by the rapid transit of nutrients.
Let me know how it goes at the vets. Good luck, I will check in whith you later
ciao
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Post by ccretarolo on Apr 14, 2009 23:25:04 GMT -5
The vet gave him a clean bill of health. I was lucky enough to find a raw friendly vet in my area although he wants to vaccinate on a regular basis if I start taking Ozzy outside.
His weight actually came in at 13.5 ounces. Not surprising considering that my kitchen scale was only $20.
I ended up having to force feed him some chicken to get him to eat... I'm not sure what's going on but the vet told me not to worry about it unless Ozzy completely stops eating for more than 12 hours. He did lick some 95% meat canned cat food off of a spoon and then off of some chicken so that will be my last resort if he ends up going off his food.
He's also been throwing up quite a bit of bile. It seems more like acid reflux than anything else though.
Right now, there's the meat off of a chicken leg, a little bit of kibble, and some canned food in his cage with him. If he doesn't eat that without me force feeding him, I'll go back to ground pork mixed with some canned food.
I'm hoping that I'm just being overly paranoid and that he's sneaking small bits of food when I'm not looking. I'm going to start being a little more diligent about weighing his food before I give it to him and after I pull it out of the cage.
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Post by ccretarolo on Apr 15, 2009 13:58:39 GMT -5
Breakfast was half a chicken neck and a half ounce of ground pork. I'll double check his box later but I'm pretty sure he ate it all.
I found a reptile shop that raises their own prey in my area so I'm going to go and get a few mice from them later today. The bf and I don't go through nearly enough eggs to justify putting eggshell in the food every day so I'm hoping he'll eat whole prey to get some decent bone content.
Now I need to go and get ready for the day. Today is mine and the bf's first anniversary so we're going out to our favorite BBQ place. We would do something special for dinner but we have my bf's son this afternoon/evening.
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Post by ccretarolo on Apr 15, 2009 19:12:03 GMT -5
So, I'm really mad at the guy I was planning on buying whole prey from. He first tried to tell me that a ferret is a mongoose/weasel hybrid... Then he went on a tirade about how feeding any mammal whole prey will turn them wild and aggressive (he's a reptile guy). I was hoping to stay away from Petco feeders but that looks like my only choice now.
Ozzy seems to have just gone through a little bit of rebellion when it comes to chicken wings. After about an hour of playing, he decided that the chicken in his cage was ok enough to eat.
Also, his poops are now completely normal although he's decided that he doesn't like his litter box so much anymore. I found poop in his hammock this morning which means that I'm going to keep the hammock out of the cage until Ozzy has at least an 80% litter box hit rate.
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Post by Heather on Apr 15, 2009 22:53:20 GMT -5
What is it with reptile people. One of the ladies (who actually owns some snakes and is on a reptile support list) actually created some information from this list regarding ferrets. They just totally trashed her about her ferrets and that ferrets are supposed to eat kibbles and crap.... You can't tell me that snakes are the only creatures that eat mice   I've got a little ermine living in my garage, she's (gender is unknown, I call her she and hubby and son call "him" Ermy) absolutely the most awesome mouse hunter. I used to hit the auto door on the garage to open the door and you could see mice fly everywhere...it was so grosse. I believe she/he moved in a month or so ago because suddenly I don't have to worry about mice anymore. I thought I saw her/him last summer when I thought I had lost one of my furbrats and almost snagged her up instead (now that would have been a handful  ) I'm sorry that you had to deal with this too. I had to deal with it when I went to a pet store and told them I was going to use the mice for my ferrets...they were appalled and refused to sell to me. Unfortunately, for them...I know the owner  (I work with the ferrets that they bring in to sell, and teach them bite inhibition and manners). You know Ozzy might have had a touch of some flu bug. It's not uncommon. Naughty little boy pooping in his hammy....was that before or after you had been to the vet? If it was after it might have been him opinion of your vet He may have been testing to see if you might provide him with something that he would have liked better but I think maybe his tummy was upset. Good luck, I hope you find a good prey supplier. I decided with the number of furbrats that I have, to raise my own mice. I've now got enough to feed them about everyother day a good feed of mice. ciao |
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Post by ccretarolo on Apr 16, 2009 2:00:51 GMT -5
I decided that I'm going to go to Petco tomorrow for a couple of mice and just tell them that I have a python. I really want Ozzy to get some whole prey sooner rather than later so I can talk to my dad about large scale storage.
I decided that I need to have a heavier layer of wood pellets in his litter box though. His pooping outside of the box has mostly been when there isn't enough litter or when there's too much poop in there. Of course, I'm sure he didn't approve of getting his temp taken at the vet so I think that was why he pooped in the hammy.
He was the center of attention at the vet's office otherwise. The vet techs insisted on showing him off to other clients and he was the model of a well behaved boy. I think I'm going to eventually take him out during warm weather just to show him off and correct misconceptions about ferrets.
Today was organ day so he got a half ounce of liver along with 1/3 of a chicken wing and 1.3 ounces of gizzards. I still need to get down to an Asian market to get some pork organs... I think he's getting a bit braver when it comes to chomping on bone. I do want to get him whole prey mostly because of the bone content though.
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Post by Heather on Apr 16, 2009 2:12:44 GMT -5
Sometimes lying about where the prey is going is better  but it's really too bad. My guys work as ferret ambassadors all the time and really enjoy it. I've spent more time correcting misconceptions than anything else. From evil smelling ferrets to nasty biting creatures. I have a lot of fun correcting the whole misconception of "rodent"....here have a look at these "toofies" and tell me what rat is going to have these . Truly speaking, prey is the best but sometimes one has to feed frankenprey so it's good that our guys know how to eat it and we're familiar in how to balance their diet if the need arises. Some people can't bring themselves to feed anything that looks like an animal or they've had mice and other rodents as pets. I look at them as being food for my furbabies. They have a good life here and they're well fed but I don't handle them much and they don't have names (that's just way too many name ) I've sold some as pet (every now and then I get some spotted ones) and sold others to snake people but for the most part my guys eat most of them. Good luck in finding your guys some edible prey. I will check in with you tomorrow. ciao |
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Post by ccretarolo on Apr 16, 2009 4:04:09 GMT -5
I wish I could afford to feed all prey but it's just not possible at this point in time. I really wish I could get larger amount of chicken necks but I can only get them in whole chickens or in 10 pound bags.
I'll probably end up giving whole prey two days a week. Then bone in meat one day with organs, one without organs. Then the other 3 days will be boneless meat. I'll adjust this schedule as needed though.
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Post by Heather on Apr 16, 2009 11:59:04 GMT -5
Is your guy eating 3 or more types of meat? Why don't you create a weeks schedule of how and what your guy is going to eat. We'll take a look at it and see where it needs tweeking. From the sounds of things it's looking really good. If you're guy will eat the meats that you place in the schedule then I can forward it to Giuli and we can get you and Ozzy into the graduate program  I would try for 3 types of meats, plus your prey that way you have more than covered the necessary requirements of protein. Ozzy's appears to be eating his proteins really well. The hardest thing is gettting them to eat bone and Ozzy appears to be doing that fairly well. Think about it Talk at you later ciao |
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Post by ccretarolo on Apr 16, 2009 12:14:21 GMT -5
Monday: 1 mouse (hopper or larger), 1 ounce chicken or turkey gizzards.
Tuesday: 2-3 ounces gizzards, 1 ounce boneless chicken.
Wednesday: 1/2 chicken neck, 1 ounce boneless chicken, 1/2 ounce organs.
Thursday: 2 mice
Friday: 1-2 ounces chicken hearts, 1 ounce beef chunks.
Saturday: 2/3 chicken wing or 1 full chicken neck.
Sunday: 1 ounce chicken hearts, 1-2 ounces pork chunks.
At this point, I'm not entirely sure how much Ozzy eats from day to day so I have more of a range of how much I'll feed him. I'm sure that I'll figure out exactly how much he's eating once I implement my schedule though.
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Post by Heather on Apr 16, 2009 14:53:11 GMT -5
Your amounts are going to be up and down as your little guy starts growing. At some point you're going to wonder where all that food is going I also found that amounts change seasonally as well. My guys eat as though everything is there last meal around Aug and this continues to about Oct. Their intake levels off and then they actually cut back sometime around March and they start loosing weight. That has usually levelled off around now and they may loose again around June and July depending on how hot the weather is and how active they are. Right now though, Ozzy's intake will probably increase so amounts will fluctuate that's not a problem. ciao |
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Post by ccretarolo on Apr 16, 2009 17:51:16 GMT -5
Ozzy's eating his first mouse! I went to Petsmart and bought a bunch of medium and large mice for him. I gave him one of the mediums to start with and as soon as he got a whiff of it, he grabbed it and went into the feeding den.
I'm sure it's going to take a while for him to get through it so I'm just going to leave him alone with it. He gnawed through the head pretty quickly though.
Now I'm considering giving the cats some mice...
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Post by Heather on Apr 16, 2009 22:34:39 GMT -5
Great stuff Give little Ozzy a great big hug. He's doing awesome. He's even eating the most vital portion first too...great stuff. Are your kitties raw feeding? It's always worth a try, cats aren't near as economical hunters as ferrets....cats like to "play"with their foods . Ozzy's doing so well. I will check in with you again, later ciao |
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Post by ccretarolo on Apr 16, 2009 22:41:49 GMT -5
The cats have been raw fed since January. It started because Calypso desperately needed to lose weight and Hermes consistently had unformed stool for a month. Since I started raw feeding them, Calypso has lost close to 2 pounds and Hermes hasn't had any diarrhea at all.
I tried giving a mouse to Hermes but he just insisted on playing with it. I ended up cutting it into quarters and giving it to Calypso. At least there's one thing she'll chew properly...
I'm going to give Ozzy 2 more mice for his dinner tonight since they're only about a half ounce each. I'm also going to throw in a half of a chicken neck just to see if I need to be feeding him more.
I'm also going to look into ordering mice now that I know that Ozzy and Calypso will eat them. While pet store prices are alright for now, in the long run I want to be able to save some money.
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Post by Heather on Apr 16, 2009 23:18:15 GMT -5
Fantastic, so this is nothing new for you. Great stuff. Unfortunately, you may have to let him play with his dinner to get him to eat it. Merlyn will eat his mice but he prefers to play with them first. Samurai....well though he is a siamese cat...I don't think he knows that he's a cat Looks to me like you've got at least 2 prey eaters in your house, and you know you might yet get Hermes to eat them yet . Good luck ciao |
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