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Post by cristina on Jun 19, 2009 14:56:32 GMT -5
I found the site where I get the dehydrated fish, its actually minnows. www.petextras.com/index.htmlI also get the calamari strips and mouse ball things and I grind all of these up and use it as a supplement that I add to their weekly soups. (I also get the chew strips of like emu, venison, and such....only 2 of my guys like them, but they are very healthy as well) |
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Post by briannahurst on Jun 19, 2009 15:01:58 GMT -5
Will the cube hammocks would work insted of a box?
(http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753264)
do you thing the aggression will ever like slow down or stop?
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Post by briannahurst on Jun 19, 2009 15:05:29 GMT -5
If im going to oder them should i wait till they become mor used to other meats? theyve never had anything seafood like....besides gracie but that was a while ago.
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Post by cristina on Jun 19, 2009 15:23:02 GMT -5
It doesnt matter you can order them whenever u want, plus they are dehydrated so they dont really go bad.....also if you grind it all up and mix it with duk soup they wont even know its fishy  With aggressiveness with food, it all depends.....I truely think if they are seperated it will be normal and they'll be just fine, when you think about it, in a small cage eating (I know they arent that small but to a ferret trying to eat it is) they like to take their food and hide when eating it so they arent really able to in a cage. You can use the cube things but you may just want to use boxes or cardboard since it will get wet from the juice from meat and its easy to throw away when it gets gross. Its up to you though |
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Post by briannahurst on Jun 20, 2009 12:23:46 GMT -5
OKay ill just go with the box. So yesterday night when i was feeding them i took saybor out and i took her in the basement to show my sister her aggression. I had the wing in one hand and saybor in the other. She was like squiming really bad trying to get the chicken when i was holding her. I set the chicken on the ground and i reached my hand over her face and she the top of my ring finger. she wouldnt let go! and im trying to pry her teeth off me and and i had to bite her on the neck really hard to get her to let go.(i know its gross) then by the time i got her of my finger was bleeding really bad and she was eating the chicken.   They all eat the chicken and every bone except the biggest bone (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://mediatheque.epfl.ch/albums-actualites2/albuo74/chickenwing_darkfield.jpg&imgrefurl=http://actualites.epfl.ch/presseinfo-com%3Fid%3D546%26newlang%3Deng&usg=__VNR1d2Fg-7C1Nu7CkLfNuuSzgIM=&h=2412&w=1670&sz=815&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=A7peQewtQbnxbM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=104&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dexray%2Bof%2Ba%2Bchicken%2Bwing%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4GGLJ_enUS309US309%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1) its the one in the middle they never eat for some reason but thats the only bone i ever find. |
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Post by cristina on Jun 20, 2009 13:23:31 GMT -5
While they are eating you should leave them be, they are after all animals and since she already has an aggression issue this doesnt surprise me, but I am sorry she bit u ! believe me I have had my share of bits (I have a deaf boy)!  It may not be that she is mad and wants her food, it may be an anxiety issue especially since your in the process of switching....its not like kibble that looks plentiful and that shes use to, she may see it as "I have to get my share and go before I starve" (obviously she wont starve lol) and they are all still getting use to the new way of feeding so this may not last, she may get over it when she gets comfortable with everything thats new for her When you think about it she may have viewed it as she was being teased by someone much bigger than her, which is why she may have resorted to biting you......so I would try to separate her with her own few pieces of meat and take them all out of the cage and do this for a bit and see if anything changes with her. about the middle part of the wing.....the bone is thicker and there are 2 so they may take a little to like the whole wing all together.....mine still leave the middle cut too sometimes  Are they eating the bone yet though? |
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Post by briannahurst on Jun 20, 2009 20:31:46 GMT -5
Yeah, i didnt blame her for biting me. i think she was freaked out and just wanted HER meat. i still love her  Im pretty sure they are eating all the bones besides the middle ones now. sometimes i see the middle bones edges chew up but they dont eat the whole thing. they used to not eat any but little by little they eat more bones. so I think we should just continue free feeding them wings for a week and see if they are eating the middle bone. I find the middle bones all over their cage!! Why do they have to eat bones? like is it just part of the raw diet? If im feeding them outside of their cage do i still need the boxes? |
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Post by cristina on Jun 21, 2009 19:14:46 GMT -5
If your feeding outside the cage its up to you whether or not you think they need them....it makes a nice hide out for when they eat and ferrets love that, so its really your call. Bones are essential to their diet....if they dont eat bone and only eat raw meat, thier bones will become weak and theres no intake of calcium so it can cause dangerous results.....but obviously they are eating some bone and thats all they really need right now. Mine didnt eat bone for a while and I had to start supplementing ground egg shells so they could get calcium while they were getting use to eating bone (but it took me months to get all 3 of mine to eat bone, its ok to go a little without it in the beginning) And actually now that I think of it, my guys dont really polish off the middle bones as much as the other parts! I think Im going to cut the middle piece down the middle to see if they'll eat it.....thats kinda funny though! |
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Post by briannahurst on Jun 23, 2009 18:40:32 GMT -5
HOw long have you been feeding raw to yours?
they are doing really well eating their bones and im trying to "talk them into eating it" by leaving all their bones in a pile or in their hammock it seems to be working.
How did cuting the bone in half go?
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Post by cristina on Jun 25, 2009 13:01:00 GMT -5
I have been feeding raw for about a year now, cutting it did make it easier...but they LOVE the tips of the wings! Getting them to eat bone may take a little, it will just sort of "catch on" all of the sudden....another good source of bone is cornish game hens, just cut them up into pieces (but not too small) and leave the small bones in and see how they do. |
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Post by briannahurst on Jun 25, 2009 21:03:23 GMT -5
Its really hard for me to find differnt meats besides pork,beef,turky,seafood and chicken. My uncle goes hunting for deer alot and so i told him to save me some deer for my ferrets  Yesterday they had steak i pput five big chucks in their cage and guess who ate it first!? Gracie did! i was so shocked. then about ten minutes later i came in and saw asher eating it. I dont know if saybor ever ate it im guessing she did. But they seemed to like it. I Guess i should cut the bones in half then....... And i found out saybor has a hideing spot its under a bed in their cage. I have some chicken livers they will eat tomarrow. and can they have shrimp? like the kind we would eat? |
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Post by cristina on Jun 26, 2009 15:05:49 GMT -5
Ill check on the shrimp, Im not 100% positive b/c I have not fed shrimp b4 (only dehydrated) but Im guessing its ok, Ill ask though. Beef bones are going to be too big for them, so unless they are small ones then I wouldn't put any big ones in b/c there is a posibility of them chiping a tooth on it, although I have personally never heard of this happening, I was told to stick with the bones of the prey they would normally eat in the wild since they are smaller and softer on their small mouths. (there are some beef bones I do give though like ox tails and small stew bones that are pre-cut small) Im not sure if you have a Kroger or meijer by you or not, but usually you can find cornish game hens everywhere. (they are pretty small, they look like a really small turkey) Tyson packages 2 in a pack thats a pretty good price, though I bet if you aske around you can find some, I didnt know about these until I started feeding raw! |
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Post by cristina on Jun 26, 2009 18:42:58 GMT -5
Ok heres about the shrimp.... Yes you can feed them raw shrimp (not cooked) and make sure to rinse it well because they are naturally pretty salty, although only feed this I'd say once a week....Heather said they are bottom feeders so they may pick up some sort of contamination but nothing that can hurt ferrets maybe unless you fed them alot, so make it either a snack (if they like it) or feed for either a morning or evening feeding Hope this answers your question |
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Post by briannahurst on Jun 27, 2009 6:47:31 GMT -5
Im just giving them meat not bones on a deer. I never knew about the cornish hens i thought you had to get those at a farm store or something . But ill fer sure be able to get some! w0w i wonder if theyd like shrimp  i guess ill have to see. Is chicken pretty much the only bone they eat? |
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Post by cristina on Jun 27, 2009 12:12:44 GMT -5
Yea its pretty much chicken, and mice/rats, quail, pheasant, some duck bones....just small animals mainly. But yea you can get cornish game hen almost anywhere, like I said before...I didnt know about them either Another meat idea (if your stores around you have it) is lamb meat, and duck....sometimes they tend to pop up occasionally in my kroger so keep an eye out for "different" meats |
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