techgirl
Gnawing on bones
"my dog is not food aggressive, he just doesn't like it if you go near his food when he's eating"
Posts: 54
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Post by techgirl on Jun 20, 2009 17:21:40 GMT -5
Today was a busy day. She ate a small amount of moistened kibble with some Primal beef and salmon diet. Again she will only eat it off my fingers. I got her new cage today so unfortunately she hasn't gotten outside time today. I just offered her moistened kibble with ground chicken and she licks it off my finger. I wish I knew her feeding schedule so I can better my chances of her eating. Can I leave dry kibble mixed with ground chicken it overnight and freshen it in the morning before I go to work? I'll be gone for 10 hours. I just upgraded her cage from a 30L X 18W X 24H to a 30L X 18W X 60H!! I originally went to purchase a 36H but saw the smaller cage and saw the length and width matched and offered to buy both cages if she knocked $20 off the total and she agreed. So I now have this huge cage for a whopping $65 dollars. It was easy to put together and I won't feel so bad when she is kept confined sometimes when I'm at work and the boyfriend is out doing something that day. I'll post pics later on the new cage.
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Post by suds on Jun 21, 2009 6:44:47 GMT -5
Wow sounds like you got a nice deal congrats on the cage . Just becarefull of ferret math with a bigger cage they seem to look empty with just 1 fuzzbutt you can leave the ground mix and kibble in the cage . I dont recomend leaveing wet kibble for more then 5 hours it gets rancid and stinky quickly, but the ground mix should be good untill you return home . play with the amounts to get a good feel on how much she eats during differnt times so your not wasteing to much food . if you come home and the bowl is empty add a little more the next time , if there is alot left over add less . I find mine eat the most over night. and in the early morning during they day they mostly sleep waiting for me to come home so they dont eat that much . She will adapt to your schedule since she is alone her world is you and she will make sure she has plenty of energy and mistchif in her when you normaly play with her the begining is a slow methodical practice so dont dispare just slowly add the groud meat to her kibble I sugest to also try a few peaces of ground beef and turky in the beginning as well so she gets used to differnt taste and smells .
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Post by suds on Jun 21, 2009 7:13:05 GMT -5
Here is a estimated time table for differnt foods to be left out of cource temp and humidity are big factors but in our area it seems pretty accurate .
Wet Kibble: 4-8 hours (depending on the temp) Ground meat: 12 hours or less (depending on the temp) Meat chunks: 16 hours or so (depending on the temp) Bone-in meat: 24 hours or less (depending on the temp) Whole prey: 24 hours (if the prey has been ripped open) 36 hours if the prey has been untouched
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techgirl
Gnawing on bones
"my dog is not food aggressive, he just doesn't like it if you go near his food when he's eating"
Posts: 54
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Post by techgirl on Jun 21, 2009 17:42:32 GMT -5
Today before I left for work I mixed kibble with Nature's variety Lamb and she must have eaten it because there is poop in the box. I will offer ground chicken and kibble tonight before going to bed. You're right about the ferret math. I did comment on that now we could have more. BF shot me a look I'm just happy right now sticking to my one. Got my Revolution today so I will be applying it to her tonight along with everyone else in the crew and their frontline.
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techgirl
Gnawing on bones
"my dog is not food aggressive, he just doesn't like it if you go near his food when he's eating"
Posts: 54
|
Post by techgirl on Jun 21, 2009 19:18:38 GMT -5
Well she actually ate straight ground chicken off my fingers!! Even took some little bites and stashed some in a box in her playpen!! I'll take that as a good sign. I also picked up some ground beef along with some beef, chicken, and turkey baby food in gravy jars in case she was going to be really stubborn. Should I leave plain ground meat out now? I am going to leave ground chicken and beef out tonight. I did notice her stool was loose tonight, this is a first.
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Post by suds on Jun 22, 2009 5:45:25 GMT -5
great news she is doing very well with new things If she is stashing it means she at least likes it . you can try and take the kibble away and put the ground meat in place of it and see if she eats it . If she takes to it then we can skip a few steps . if she dont then we just continue with adding it to the kibble . yes you will see looser stools with more wet foods being eaten. its normal as well as a rainbow of colors . also will see less amounts over time since she will be able to absorb a good percentage of the nutrients . Another thing you will see is much more urination untill her body learns how to deal with the wealth of moister in raw foods .
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techgirl
Gnawing on bones
"my dog is not food aggressive, he just doesn't like it if you go near his food when he's eating"
Posts: 54
|
Post by techgirl on Jun 22, 2009 14:15:53 GMT -5
This morning I offered a mix of ground chicken and ground beef and she wasn't too keen on it. Unfortunately today won't be an out day due to mega cleaning and I have to work tonight. I will offer ground chicken tonight and mix in a small amount of dry kibble crushed up and see how that goes.
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techgirl
Gnawing on bones
"my dog is not food aggressive, he just doesn't like it if you go near his food when he's eating"
Posts: 54
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Post by techgirl on Jun 22, 2009 15:13:19 GMT -5
ok I lied, she did get playtime today for a few hours. I got done cleaning way earlier than I thought. She just had a bm and it was really watery and loose. How concerned should I be with that? She is bright and alert and not dehydrated. I can always pick up flagyl at work tonight to have on hand just in case. I have found that if I put a litterbox in the playpen, she won't use it. But newspaper is working well. I have Culturelle, a probiotic that is great for diarrhea on people and animals(I love this stuff!!). Is that something I can use? I know you can use 1/4 capsule on small cats, 1/2 on small dogs. I use 1 capsule on my 50 lb. pit Once a day. I take it daily for immune support. Or do you prefer Feline Forti-flora? I have never used it and would need to find out that dose. I can also add ground eggshell tonight to her mix to see if that helps. Take care
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Post by suds on Jun 22, 2009 17:45:47 GMT -5
She has been eating more raw watery stools are what I warned you about befor. Add more eggshell it should help firm them up. they will always be much wetter then kibble poo's I wouldnt worry much unless she is not acting normal or it looks like birdseeds .
Did you start adding the ground mix to her regular kibble in the cage ?
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techgirl
Gnawing on bones
"my dog is not food aggressive, he just doesn't like it if you go near his food when he's eating"
Posts: 54
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Post by techgirl on Jun 22, 2009 18:05:29 GMT -5
You did warn me. It's always different when you see it though. I am leaving ground chicken with ground up kibble in her cage. I can't really tell if she's eating but I see poop, so it means she's eating something.
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Post by suds on Jun 22, 2009 18:26:06 GMT -5
and yes we are trained watery poop is bad for ferrets so we all panic at first good hopefully in the next couple of weeks we can remove the kible then start working on meat chunks
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techgirl
Gnawing on bones
"my dog is not food aggressive, he just doesn't like it if you go near his food when he's eating"
Posts: 54
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Post by techgirl on Jun 23, 2009 16:17:05 GMT -5
She is eating the ground chicken with the ground up kibble nicely. She is active and happily playing in her playpen. She actually ran to her bowl and ate some this morning when I changed out her food. That's a first. Tonight I will leave ground beef with the ground kibble and see how she likes it. It will be later this week for me to get some ground turkey for her to try.
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Post by suds on Jun 23, 2009 17:22:50 GMT -5
She knows what the good stuff is
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techgirl
Gnawing on bones
"my dog is not food aggressive, he just doesn't like it if you go near his food when he's eating"
Posts: 54
|
Post by techgirl on Jun 24, 2009 14:41:27 GMT -5
Well I found out she will not touch ground beef!! Didn't toch it at all during the night(there was no poops at all). I offered nature's variety lamb with ground kibble and eggshell powder and I think she ate some because I found some poop in the box this afternoon. I am noticing that the poops are smaller and not as frequent than when she was on kibble. I just gave her a sardine and she did eat some of that and stashed some in her playbox for later. Hopefully tonight she will eat some. I don't think she is eating alot of food, but some. How much do they eat? I weighed her and she now weighs 1 lb 10 oz from her 1.5 pounds when I got her. I expect that to be normal from her resistance to the change. Still active, still happy.
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techgirl
Gnawing on bones
"my dog is not food aggressive, he just doesn't like it if you go near his food when he's eating"
Posts: 54
|
Post by techgirl on Jun 24, 2009 17:44:59 GMT -5
well I got a surprise today! My friend stopped by and had some fuzzies that he was going to give to his snakes. Without thinking we winded up talking so long that they all thawed out. He decided to see if Geisha would have any interest in it and she snatched it from his hands and hid it. We both winded up forgetting about it and talking some more. He left and I finished up with feeding the rest of the crew and doing dishes. I finally decided to put Geisha back in the cage for the night and was cleaning up her playpen and found the remnants of the mouse. She had proceeded to eat all the skin off the head and had disemboweled her but it doesn't look like she ate anything from that, just found intestines hanging out. She had stashed the sardines under the towels and hadn't touched them from when I offered them. I offered her ground chicken and ground beef with ground kibble and mixed a little sardine in this time. Hopefully she'll eat that overnight.
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