|
Post by Heather on Aug 16, 2009 16:53:29 GMT -5
That's painful....look after your bruised toe and I will check in on you tomorrow You don't have to tell me about busy weekends ciao
|
|
Emilee
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Posts: 240
|
Post by Emilee on Aug 17, 2009 10:33:38 GMT -5
I think I might be switching gears. Mom found I was planning to buy like 15 pounds of raw at a time and she thinks I'm crazy, anyway, so I'm looking at feeding *just raw*. I have to find out what I have available to me and see how much it will cost. If not maybe I'll do the same thing only instead of ground, do raw every day. (Supplementing)
I'm going to keep trying to get them to eat the ground I have because I was thinking it might be easier to add chunks of turkey to the ground meat and less noticeable to them.
|
|
|
Post by Heather on Aug 17, 2009 12:33:22 GMT -5
That's how I do it. I start out with a soupy type ground mix and then move on to adding whole meats. I have an advantage though, ferrets do a lot of monkey see monkey do....so what happens is the newbies see the older crowd munching and crunching and then they have to see what that's all about. My guys get a raw ground mix, frankenprey and prey. I feel that it's my best bet on rounding out their diet. You can get by with just feeding commercial ground if you want, but they don't get the teeth cleaning that's needed and their jaws don't get the work out they should. That being said, it's still a hundred times better than feeding kibbles. Congratulations on 'switching gears' I personally think it's a whole lot better but I'm also of the mind that even a little raw is better than none ciao ciao
|
|
Emilee
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Posts: 240
|
Post by Emilee on Aug 17, 2009 15:17:46 GMT -5
Yup I think I might just go for the regular whole prey model raw. It's not too difficult and I think as long as I get a notebook or daily planner and write down what was fed I'll do okay. Ground soup was a fail today, too, but I'll keep trying tomorrow. I keep dabbing it on their noses and they're getting a taste of it.
|
|
|
Post by tss on Aug 17, 2009 15:30:59 GMT -5
Hi!! Your ferrets are adorable!!
My name is Maria and I am your mentor.
I started feeding my dogs a raw diet in October of 2005, and once I got my first ferret (Weezer) in October '07 I started feeding him a raw diet too. I am currently raw feeding my 4 dogs and my 4 ferrets (Lillian, Ravi, Lakota and Lucy). Weezer passed away in June. He was my most stubborn switcher..
You said that your ferrets will eat kibble blended with water, what I recommend is removing all of their food for about 4 hours. Blend the kibble and water, but add a pinch of ground turkey as well.. Just a pinch, no more then that for now.. Let me know how it goes
|
|
Emilee
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Posts: 240
|
Post by Emilee on Aug 17, 2009 15:37:52 GMT -5
Hi Maria! I'll try it out tomorrow! We're having lots of toe issues here today! Cut Jasper's quick by accident.
|
|
Emilee
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Posts: 240
|
Post by Emilee on Aug 18, 2009 11:42:54 GMT -5
Tried about 1/4 of a cup of soup with about 1/2 of a tablespoon of raw turkey mixed in and JUST enough 'Tone for them to be able to smell it. Neither were too hungry so I'll try again in an hour, but Jasper went nomnom and ate quite a bit out of the bowl. Tootsie went nomnom a little but she doesn't like the stringy things in the raw and it stops her from eating any more.
|
|
|
Post by tss on Aug 18, 2009 13:55:40 GMT -5
That is a good start!! Do you actually put the kibble and water in the blender?? If so you can put the turkey in there too. At this point we are just trying to get them used to the flavor and smell, not the texture yet.
|
|
Emilee
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Posts: 240
|
Post by Emilee on Aug 18, 2009 14:08:46 GMT -5
Okay next time I'll blend it all together and freeze. I have quite a bit of servings of the soup, though, with no ground. And the servings are too little for the blender. T_T
|
|
Emilee
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Posts: 240
|
Post by Emilee on Aug 20, 2009 11:53:37 GMT -5
Tried it again and it was a no-go. I think I'm going to wait maybe 5 hours instead of 3 so they'll get hungrier and take it.
|
|
Emilee
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Posts: 240
|
Post by Emilee on Aug 21, 2009 17:52:19 GMT -5
No new news from here.
I am still REALLY considering a whole prey model diet- but just supplementing once a day. Would it still be the same bones 2x a week, organ 1x a week, and muscle meat 4x a week but just in smaller amounts?
|
|
|
Post by tss on Aug 22, 2009 23:20:41 GMT -5
I'm sorry I hadn't gotten back, I had family pop up without notice.. They've been here since Thursday.
For now you just need to keep trying, they will take to it.. Maybe you could also try cutting some meat into tiny pieces, if you cut it that will insure that there is no stringy pieces.. Just cut maybe 1/2 a teaspoon with into really small chunks, like the size of minced garlic. Crush up a few teaspoons of kibble and mix it in with the meat.
When you say "a whole prey model diet" are you talking about adding mice? If you feed one mouse a day you would be fine doing bone X2, organ X1 and meat X4. But yes, in smaller amounts
|
|
Emilee
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Posts: 240
|
Post by Emilee on Aug 23, 2009 15:45:50 GMT -5
Ummm, I think it's usually referred to as Frankenprey- no whole animals. It would get too expensive. Just bones, muscle meats, and organs separately. I'll try cutting some little chunks. Would chicken breast be okay? We have some that we didn't like (texture was different) and mom's been trying to get me to feed it to them.
|
|
|
Post by tss on Aug 23, 2009 23:26:37 GMT -5
Ooooh. See, that confused me! Sorry.
If you are using the ground hare-today products which include bone then the whole bone X2, organ X1 and meat X4 a week is fine..
Chicken breast is perfect!!
|
|
Emilee
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Posts: 240
|
Post by Emilee on Aug 24, 2009 9:27:17 GMT -5
Okay! I'll thaw that out today and cut it up.
|
|