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Post by Heather on Jul 5, 2009 23:10:21 GMT -5
It would be very unusual for you not to worry about your furbabies diets  You're doing well. I find with bone that it's as much grazing, I leave it for my guys to chew on. Sometimes it takes a couple of days for them to get through a sizable amount of bone. Leave them with the bone and meat....it's there for them to eat, don't add any more meat to their dinner until later. See if they're so well fed that they don't have to pick the bones clean and to chew on the bones. I don't like them to go hungry but you're not really leaving them to go hungry...not really  Space in a freezer, hmmm, sounds like my house. I have 2 large freezers and they're both full and most of it is for the furbabies . One of the ways you can assure yourself that you're doing well and are covering all your bases with your furbabies diet is to draw up a menu for a week. Post it and we will look at it and see where you're at  If things need to be changed we can see about making changes and if not then you will be that much closer to graduating ciao |
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Post by crystalineshadow on Jul 10, 2009 16:55:23 GMT -5
Well, it looks like you were right, I was feeding them too much. I cut my chicken backs down into smaller pieces (so that they could each take one to their favorite place to eat it if they wanted) and gave them a few and it took them most of two days, but they ate it bone and all. Now that I have smaller pieces I'm going to experiment with how much meat they need to finish it in 24 hours but not go hungry. I still find it odd that they eat so much more of the boneless meat then the bone in (they seem to be eating about 4oz of bone in meat in a day, but will go through about 7oz of boneless). Thankfully having the meat cut into smaller pieces means that I have room in my freezer to stash more meat.
As for a menu, I've written up and posted one of those twice now. Basically I make a mush with 3oz liver, 1oz hearts, and 3oz other meats and feed them some of that every night along with their regular meats. Whenever I am trying out something new or making adjustments I feed them chicken but I make sure to give them duck and pork once a week as well. Since the store that I was getting the duck from hasn't had any the last two times I went in there, my new menu will probably look like: chicken, chicken, duck, chicken, chicken, pork, chicken, chicken, turkey. I feed mostly the backs and wings although I occasionally feed duck legs, duck thighs, and turkey thighs as boneless meats. Currently my pork is completely boneless and I also feed chicken gizzards occasionally. I'd say they are usually getting boneless meat once or twice a week and I really don't foresee it ever going beyond three times out of eight days.
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Post by Heather on Jul 15, 2009 1:18:09 GMT -5
I think you will find that the boneless is easier to eat. I think that fuzzbutts are generally lazy by nature. I was talking to someone who fed mostly prey and once her guys started eating prey they started refusing all bone outside of the prey mice. Unfortunately, for her they were mostly young mice and her fuzzies weren't getting enough calcium (they actually got very ill, and remedial action was required) She has since adjusted her feeding methods. I rather throws out the theory that your guys actually know what is good for them  . So you menu might look something like this: Monday...chicken necks?? Tues .... chicken meat Wed.....duck bone plus daily feedings of soupy containing liver, heart and muscle meats. I think that your guys are really ready to graduate. Your furbabies will eat 3 different types of proteins, they're eating bone, and offal. I know that you've written this up in the past but if you would mind awfully much writting up your menu in this fashion I will submit it so that you and your guys can graduate It just allows me and Giuli to see if your getting enough bone or muscle meats in your guys diet. From what you've described to me, it sounds to me that you've got all your bases covered. I will be looking forward to hearing from you. Sorry about being so long getting back to you, but my internet has been giving me some trouble and I've not consistently been getting on. ciao |
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Post by crystalineshadow on Jul 16, 2009 17:21:25 GMT -5
No problem about taking so long to get back to me, I actually haven't been on for a few days myself. My menu is on a nine day cycle, so here goes:
Day 1: Chicken - Boneless if turkey back, otherwise back
Day 2: Chicken - Back
Day 3: Duck - rotate back, wings, and boneless
Day 4: Chicken - Boneless if duck back, otherwise back
Day 5: Chicken - Back
Day 6: Pork - Boneless
Day 7: Chicken - Back
Day 8: Chicken - Back
Day 9: Turkey - rotate back, wings, and boneless
The 'back' listed is actually a mixture of the neck, back, and ribs of the animal (possibly also including the wide thigh bone) all cut into chunks about the width of my thumb. When I pull it out to thaw I try to make sure that there is a selection of pieces with spine bones, rib bones, meaty portions, and skin in each days food.
They also get a daily helping of organ soup. (Weekly batch contains 3oz liver (usually beef, occasionally some duck or turkey), 1oz chicken hearts, 3oz meat (usually ground turkey, but when I use duck or turkey liver I put in the entire handful of giblets that comes with that creature and top it off with ground turkey if needed), 1 boiled egg, 2tsp ground eggshell, 2tsp olive oil, 1 cup water, and sometimes up to 2 raw egg yolks.)
Following this schedule they get boneless meat three days out of nine and once every couple of months (aka whenever I buy beef) they will get boneless beef in place of boneless chicken for however long it takes them to finish off the trimmings.
My only worry with this plan is whether they are getting enough boneless meat, because honestly we go through enough whole chickens in my house that I could feed these three nothing but chicken backs for five or six days a week and still not run out.
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Post by Heather on Jul 16, 2009 23:36:05 GMT -5
I will post your diet to Giuli and see what she says. I think when you start to think about it, you may be ok. If not, even offering a few extra chunks of whatever meat is being served would probably be ok. It looks not too bad to me. I will see what Giuli says I will try and get back to you shortly. Please feel free to continue to post and ask questions. Giuli seems to be tied up right now and has been a little slow at responding to questions. ciao |
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Post by crystalineshadow on Aug 28, 2009 20:55:41 GMT -5
Alrighty, time to try the menu again. Since I last typed anything here I've added two new ferrets to my business, both male and both under a year old (about 5mo and 9-10mo now). They switched in about 24hrs, so I didn't really feel the need to mention them here. Because of the new guys I have gone to giving the organ soup twice a week instead of daily to help make sure that everyone gets some (before they came everybody was awake and eating at food time but now they stagger it out a bit more). With the requested change to add more meat (and less bone) to their diet, I will be feeding them like this:
Day 1: Bone In Chicken
Day 2: Boneless Chicken
Day 3: Other Meat
Day 4: Soup (1/2 batch)
Bone in chicken consists of necks, backs, ribs, and wing tips.
Boneless chicken will be thigh meat and occasionally boneless turkey if I run out of chicken.
Other meat - this is a rotation of pork, duck, and turkey. The pork is always boneless. The duck and turkey consists of necks, backs, ribs, all wing portions, thighs, and the legs from the duck (basically everything except the breast meat and the turkey legs). As a result it comes out to be boneless about half of the time and bone in the other half.
In an eight day week we have:
2 days soup
2 days boneless
2 days bone in
2 days that are on a 5 meat rotation with 3 boneless and 2 bone
which comes out to about 3 days boneless, 3 days bone in, and 2 days of soup.
The soup days are lighter feedings than the others which encourages them to clean up any scraps that they have stashed reducing the leftover meat and making it easier for me to clean out the cage the next day.
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Post by Heather on Aug 28, 2009 22:57:32 GMT -5
Sounds to me like you've got quite a system going. I like it...but we will have to put it pass the boss I will forward it to her and see what she says. I will get back to you as soon as I can. Congratulations on your newest additions....got to love switching baby ferts....tummies with teeth Talk at you soon ciao |
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Post by crystalineshadow on Aug 30, 2009 23:02:37 GMT -5
While I still have the ability to add to this thread, I am going to post my current soup recipe. This way I'll always know where to find it later.
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Purchase 1 package beef liver (as close to 1.25 lbs as possible) and 3 packages chicken gizzards & hearts. Liver should come in 4 slices, separate chicken into 4 even piles.
For each weeks soup, put the following into the blender:
1 slice liver
1 pile gizzards & hearts
2 cups water
2 tsp ground egg shell
4 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp (1/8 cup) KMR powder
3 raw egg yolks
Blend well and separate into two containers.
NEVER AGAIN try to blend two weeks worth of food at a time (even if I did only use 1 package chicken parts and 3 cups water for both batches).
Once my youngest is over a year old, I'll stop adding the KMR.
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Post by Heather on Aug 31, 2009 23:48:29 GMT -5
I posted your updated menu to Giuli...hopefully she will check it out shortly. I'm sure that she's really busy getting ready for school but hopefully she will let me know.
ciao
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Post by crystalineshadow on Sept 1, 2009 0:18:12 GMT -5
I understand that Giuli is pretty busy right now and I'm really in no big hurry. I mostly just wanted to post my new soup recipe so that I would have it written down somewhere that I wouldn't end up throwing away before I need it again next month, lol.
I know that you guys have too many switchers and not enough mentors at this time so if you haven't already feel free to pass my mentor along to someone who needs her.
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Post by Heather on Sept 1, 2009 0:25:51 GMT -5
No problem....it's me for now ciao |
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Post by Heather on Sept 21, 2009 0:31:26 GMT -5
I'm going to graduate you ok? Your menu's good you've upped the amount of meat. Things look good. As your present mentor, I'm going to offer my congratulations...you've done a great job No one 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. Maybe, even mentor We (your mentor and I, in this case Giuli and or 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. Congratulations, and good luck I hope that I will still be seeing you around ciao |
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