first tastes...

[gnarlysalamander]

so after work today, I picked up some chicken hearts and some pork for my babies [the pork was mainly so if it failed miserably i would be able to use some of it... can't say I'm too fond of hearts ]

my boyfriend nearly had a heart attack when i mentioned using the blender... so i chopped the heart up really tiny and 'breaded' it with their kibble.

once again, Sammy was interested and ate quite a bit of what i offered her . Bandit took a few tastes... he seemed rather unsure about it. JayJay licked the piece that didn't have any covering on it, but didn't eat any of it. I still consider that a success, cause normally he's running away from anything he's not familiar with. ...Mickey I set him in front of the bowl and he looked up at me with the "are you kidding?" face and walked away. I guess he's going to be more of a challenge. OH ! sorry.. I'm kind of writing this as I do it. I haven't gotten any olive oil yet, but I put a few drops of ferretone on a good sized piece of the heart and Mickey seems to have changed his mind


Oh gosh Sammy just ran off with a chunk of a heart *chases her so it's not left on the floor*


alright, well I guess I'll wrap this up and report back later tonight when I see how they like the pork. My boyfriend is going to throw a fit when he sees a half eatten heart in the fridge

[Heather]

Sounds like a reasonably successful attempt to me. If they're really small pieces you can also do the pick up scruff and stuff. They'll probably spit it out but then you do it again. They might surprise you
I'm sorry that your BF is giving you trouble...is he vegan? We have some vegans on board who feed thier furbabies raw and prey...their ideas on it is that ferrets are meant to eat meat, we eat what will make us healthy so they help their furbabies stay healthy by feeding them what they need to eat. Look at kibbles as being McDonalds or fast food. Great for a snack but it will kill you in the end...that's what kibbles are. It's just a thought
ciao

[spiritualtramp]

Sounds like a great first attempt! Far better than some of my own hahaha

As an aside, I'm a strict vegetarian and have been my whole life - but like Heather said, raw and natural diets are healthwise best for the fuzzy ones which is why I have no problem doing it. I tend to buy them organic and local (if possible) meats which satisfies my own personal beliefs on the livestock and agriculture system of the country, which is mainly why I am vegetarian. Also, I have a whole set of knives and a blender just for the ferrets meat... the blender especially is gross after pureeing a liver or a heart (strings haha ew!)

[gnarlysalamander]

I was at one point a vegetarian for about 5 years, which is why I don't think I'll ever be able to bring myself to feed the whole prey . My bf isn't a vegetarian, he's just convinced it's going to cost us an arm and a leg to keep up with and that once I start leaving the meat in the cage it's going to be a huge mess . He also had a "wtf is this?" moment when he opened up the fridge and saw the chicken hearts . Can't really blame him, my reaction was probably just as amusing to a passerby when I actually opened up the package and started trying to cut it ... I've always had a bit of a "fear" for raw meat. But I think it'll be okay if I use that den method everyone has been talking about to avoid the mess, and just as they need to be conditioned to it eat, I'm sure I'll get over the gross factor soon enough .

The only one I think I may have to resort to the scruff & stuff method is JayJay, simply because he doesn't like ANYTHING. I can hardly even get him to eat treats. If the others are willing to at least taste it I think we can just progress slowly so they're not traumatized or anything


We didn't get a chance to try the pork last night... Work ended up keeping me an extra few hours and by the time I got home I just wanted to go to sleep. But we're going to try today around 230 when I get home from the animal shelter

[gnarlysalamander]

okay here we go... again I'm going to type this as it's happening lol.

I'm gonna try the pork this time, along with yesterday's leftovers...

So Sammy dug right in. I don't think she's going to be a problem at all. Bandit licked it for a good while, the big piece I hadn't cut up yet, but he didnt go for any of the little pieces. Mickey I THINK ate a single bite... he seemed more interested yesterday though.

I tried the scruff&stuff with JayJay, of course he spit it back out but it worked out alright when Bandit decided to eat the piece he dropped.

Well I view that as a success. Right now I just want to get as much of a variety in them as possible and go from there. Sammy, I think, is going to be a piece of cake.

[sherrylynne]

It does sound like a pretty good start! You should have seen mine Even to get Boris to willingly accept a raw soup it took like it seemed forever And he's still fussy with new meats. Here's a vid of me trying to convince him he likes lamb, using the scruff and stuff method:

Believe it or not, he's been eating raw/whole prey for over a year
Your guys are doing well!