Kayla & Eden's Big Switch

[halbear]

Hey Heather! I am trying the meat mixed in. The only meat that I have successfully fully introduced, other then the chicken, is the turkey. They will eat the turkey on its own. Since the last time I talked to you, I have tried the mouse twice with pretty good luck. The first time I did a 50-50 mixture of mouse and chicken and surprisingly they ate it with no hesitation. The second time I added a bit more mouse with the chicken, maybe 60-40, and they didn't seem to enthralled but with a little bit of coaxing they ate it. Tonight, they are going to have plain old chicken, because they definitely like that the best. This weekend, I am going to try rabbit. It's in the deep freezer, so it will probably take some time to defrost.
So to answer your question, I am introducing the meat gradually. Also, I don't mix the new meat in every day because I don't want to overwhelm them, and I typically only use approx 1-2 new meats a week. Is this the best way to do so, or do you have any recommendations? In any case, all is well other then the fact that Kayla's hind leg weakness is seeming to get worse. I don't know what to do.... I thought the potassium supplement she is on was helping a bit, but now I'm not too sure its having much of an effect on the hind leg weakness.
Well, I hope all is well with you! I will talk to you soon! Take care!

[Heather]

Hi there
You are doing so fantastic with your guys, sorry gals That's great that they're starting to eat their mice, even if it's still not straight up mice. Good work Good luck with trying the rabbit, I would be very surprised if they don't eventually like it, most of my guys think it's fantastic.
I was so hoping that Kayla was going to recover when you discovered the potassium deficiency.... is it possible that it's related to her underlying issue...she's insulinoma right? My vet (and I've read some vet articles too) maintains that there are many issues that can cause rear end weakness in ferrets and that it's a common underlying issue. The so called indication is that they're not well. I know that my Mayhem never did recover total use of his legs after his stroke. The vet discovered that it wasn't the stroke, but cardiac problems that caused his rear end weakness.
I wish you luck with your rabbit feeding and I really hope that you find a solution for your little furbaby, Kayla. Good luck
ciao

[halbear]

Hey Heather! Yes, I sure am proud of my little ones!! They are def doing very well with the new meats! Yes, I think eventually they will get accustomed to eating all of the different meats. Maybe they will not favor the chicken soo much, but I think that they will always be partial to the chicken because they started on the chicken and that was all they ate for the first several months.
Yes, Kayla does have insulinoma. I too was hoping and praying that her hind leg weakness was due in part to a potassium deficiency. Ya, I guess I never really realized that the hind leg weakness could be attributed to so many different conditions. I just always thought it was a symptom of insulinoma.
I pray for my little girls every day, and I can only hope that they will get well and stay strong and healthy. I love them soo very much.
They are doing well with eating right now, so I will give you an update soon! I hope all is well with you and your little fur babies! Take care!

[Heather]

You're doing fantastic. Let's try the menu thing again and see where you're at. One weeks menu is all I need and we will look and see how your little ones are doing and see if we need some tweeking. I think they're doing fantastic and you're probably reaping more stable blood sugars from feeding raw. I wish I could offer some insight into something that would help Kayla but it's could be so many things
Have great week, give your girls a big hug from me
ciao

[halbear]

Hi Heather!! I will post this weeks menu on Saturday or Sunday, but so far this week they are doing great!! They have been successfully eating the chicken and rabbit mixture, and they are also going to try a couple of new meats this week, lamb and pheasant.
The girls are doing very well though, I am quite proud of them. The only thing I worry about is the bones in the meat. Eden mostly refuses to eat them, but every now and again she will chew up a couple of bones. Kayla on the other hand will mostly eat the bones, unless they are too big, but she doesn't chew them up she just swallows them whole. I don't know what I should do about this. Other then that, they are doing fantastic with regard to their diet!!
I will post this weeks menu soon! Have a great rest of the week!!

[Heather]

Congratulations, sounds to me like your guys are ready for graduation. I have a couple of fuzzies who either eat a lot of bone or who don't. Sounds like you have the ultimate for getting the bowls clean though I think you may be surprised as to how many of those little bone chunks Eden actually eats....is her stool really runny, now it will be more liquid than Kayla who obviously appears to enjoy a good crunchy meal Don't worry about her swallowing them whole, her system is built to handle them. The only time you might have to worry is if she has a partial blockage or something like that. Do you still add pumpkin to your mix when you make it up? If not you might consider adding a little pumpkin every now and then just to make sure everything goes smoothly If you have some real concerns that Eden isn't getting enough bone in her meal (cheating and spitting it out), you might try adding some finely ground egg shell, to a little bit of soupy and give her some individual attention and spoon feeding her this special concoction...you wouldn't have to do it often...maybe a couple of times during the week and only if she appears to be really "not" eating any bone material.
I'm so proud of you guys, you've done wonderful and your little ones are showing that patience really pays off. Too fantastic.
ciao

[halbear]

Yay!! We finally did it, get out the caps and gowns, graduation here we come!!!!!! J/K
Yes, the girls have definitely come a long long way! Honestly, we could not have done it without you, nor would we be where we are today if it were not for you. I would like your address, because there is something I would like to send you, you can PM me if you like so that it is not posted here.
As promised, I recorded this weeks menu:
Monday: AM & PM- they ate chicken for their meals
Tuesday: AM-they ate chicken, PM-they ate a 50-50 mixture of chicken and rabbit
Wednesday: AM & PM-they ate a 50-50 mixture of chicken and rabbit
Thursday: AM-they ate a 50-50 mixture of chicken and rabbit, PM-they ate a 60-40 mixture of pheasant and chicken
Friday: AM-they ate a 50-50 mixture of chicken and pheasant, PM-they ate a 50-50 mixture of chicken and lamb
Saturday: AM & PM-they ate chicken for their meals (boy they sure do love chicken!!!)
Sunday: AM-Kayla ate a 80-20 mixture of lamb and chicken, Eden refused to eat that much lamb, so she just had chicken. PM-they are going to have turkey

I know they have been eating alot of chicken, but I'm trying to weed out the chicken slowly. When they get used to eating the meats by themselves, then they will get chicken every 3rd or 4th day or so. Otherwise, they seem to be doing great!!! I haven't had too many problems, other than with the lamb that one time. Next week, I'm going to do rat, turkey, pheasant, and rabbit, with some chicken of course!!
Yes, hopefully Eden will eat the bones more often. She crunched up two big bones today!!! I was soo proud of her!!!!!
Yes, I still add the pumpkin when I make up my chicken mix, I haven't made a batch in awhile because I ordered 7lbs of chicken from haretoday, but they are almost out. From here on out, I am just going to make my own chicken and possibly quail, and order the rest of the meats from hare today. All the other meats from haretoday have been wonderful, but the chicken I was not too impressed with because some of the bones are gargantuan.
I will definitely try the egg shell if I see miss Eden spitting out the majority of the bones.
Well, cool!! I'm so glad that everything has worked out well!! Please let me know if there is anything you recommend that I be doing different or if my menu should be tweaked a bit. In any case, I'll talk to you soon! I hope you had a great weekend!!!

[Heather]

I will post your menu to Giuli. She's been busy I think, I've not heard a lot from her but keep updating. She will get hold of me if she thinks there needs to be any tweeking on your diet. It looks good to me. A lot of chicken but I also know that you're working on upgrading it to less and less and more of the other proteins. You and your guys have been doing really great. Great job
ciao

[halbear]

Thanks Heather!! Ya, my girls definitely love their chicken, but I am trying to slowly weed that down. They are eating turkey by itself, so that is definitely progress. Slowly but surely we are getting to eating the meats without the addition of chicken. Thank you for your feedback!!! I look forward to talking to you soon!! Take care!!!

[Forum Administrator]

Everything looks to be in order here. Now that you've completed the switch and had your feeding schedule reviewed, its time for you to officially graduate from the HF Mentor program and for us to retire this thread to the "newbie switch archive"!



No one (yourself included) will be able to post in this thread anymore once its been moved to the archive. Please begin posting your diet-related questions in the "whole prey" "raw" or "general feeding questions and discussion" area. We encourage EVERYONE that is archived to continue posting. Feeding a natural diet is a learning PROCESS, there is much to learn after making the switch. There is always lots to learn, and lots to share with the newbies on the site. If you feel comfortable offering the newbies advice, then by all means go ahead. The more help we can get, the better. If you'd rather lurk and not post, thats cool too, its just always nice to have our graduates stick around.

We (your mentor and I) will run a detailed "check up" with you (via PM or email) at the 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, and 1 year anniversary since "going natural" just to make sure all is going well and that you arent having any issues.

Congrats on all your hard work and on your graduation!!!

[Heather]

Awesome work, you've done it I don't know if you're still checking in but you've got it. You and your precious little girls have graduated. It's been an absolute pleasure.
ciao

[halbear]

Hey Heather!!! Long time no talk!!!! Yay! We made it!! I can honestly say that I couldn't be more proud of my little ones, and I have you to thank for that. We would not be where we are today if it were not for you Heather! I would really like to send you something, but I need your address. Please PM it to me.
I also wanted to give you an update on my little ones. They are successfully eating turkey, chicken, rabbit, and pheasant on their own!!! They are doing wonderful!!! I can't believe how far they have come!!!
Thank you Heather so very much for everything you have done for us! You have been great! I couldn't have gotten a better mentor!!! I wish you and your little ones the best of luck in life!! I hope that we can stay in touch! Take care Heather, and thanks again for everything you have done for us!!
Cristina, Kayla, & Eden

Giuli,
Thank you so very much!!! I am very proud of my little girls!! I definitely plan to stay around! I absolutely love this website! Finding it was a blessing in disguise! Heather has been absolutely great!! Truly the best mentor!! I look forward to talking with you both in the future!!!