Tikki, Mis, and Coco Switch!

[Zoshi]

I'm so sorry about the lack of updates, but here we are.

Tikki will reliably eat the bone of chicken wings (smaller ones right now) and chicken backs. I'm guessing she'd do fine with chicken necks as well, but we haven't gotten any yet since we've got a large stock of chicken backs and chicken wings right now. She is also eating pork pretty well, not as well as the chicken, but she's eating eat. Beef and Veal are still poison, apparently, and even if I put them in her mouth to chew on, and it looks like she's swallowed, she manages to spit them back out.
She eats liver quite well, and heart meat, but she's not too keen on it when it's mixed with the sweetmeats.

One thing I've noticed that makes me happy: it used to be that whenever Tikki woke up, she'd be shivering a lot. Now, I read that this was because a ferret's temperature drops during sleep, supposedly, and they shiver when they wake up to bring it back up. Still, even when she was up, sometimes I'd pick her up and the pads of her feet would be cool (compared to Mis and Coco's, who have warm feet). Now, whatever the story, ever since she's been eating the raw, she no longer does the shaking when she wakes up, and her feet have a constant warm temperature. Whatever is happening, it seems like she is better able to regulate her body temperature now.

[luci]

That's great!

[Zoshi]

Just a real quick update:
Tikki is eating pork just fine now. She and the kids are getting game hen wings, thighs, drumsticks this week.
I still need to work on the beef/veal with Tikki, she's starting to at least lick it when I give it to her, so I"m hoping that she'll slowly get convinced to eat it. She likes liver, but she's not won over on the rest of her organs, so I'm working on that as well.
That's all for now.

[luci]

Wonderful! As soon as you have her eating three kinds of meat, organs and bone post a sample menu for a week and we'll get you graduated!

[luci]

How are things going?

[Zoshi]

I'm sorry about the break again, hectic times seem to like to come to us unexpectedly.

Well, we've been doing pretty well with the meats these last weeks. Tikki is eating beef, not enthusiastically, but she's eating almost all of the beef I give her. She eats all the pork I give her as well.
Organ meals were going good, but now everyone seems too lazy to chew them. I tried making a chunky soupy this week, but not one of the three was too interested in it. They ate some, but not a lot. For the three of them, they usually get two to three chicken livers (of regular size) as half the meal and a mix of veal kidney and sweet breads as the second half.

Today, however, Tikki had a bout of vomiting. She was fine for most of the day, ate all of her chicken this morning (some chicken breast meat with ribs attached), and then suddenly, just a half hour ago, she vomited up little bits of chicken. It went on for about ten minutes, and I gave her some ferret lax after which she calmed down and went to wipe her chin on her bedding.
She hasn't done this since the beginning of the switch, and I'm not sure just why it would happen (maybe she had hid a piece of meat and ate it after it had started going bad? It's possible, I guess).
Since she's started eating her beef, and right now is eating pretty much everything I give her, I was going to start introducing the three fuzzies to the idea of sharing the cage together. Tikki is still separated from Mis and Coco since I wanted to be sure she was eating everything. I think I'll wait just a bit more, just to make sure she's feeling all right, and see if this was just a one time thing.

She hasn't been lethargic, and she's been eating well, sometimes it seems she eats more than Mis and Coco. We'll see, I guess.

That's pretty much all for now.

Here's a quick write out of the kid's menu as it is now:

Sunday:
Organs: Liver, Kidney, Sweetbreads
Evening: 1/2 wing each

M - W - F:
M: Wings, 7ozs for all three
E: Chicken breast meat, 6 ozs

T - Th
M: Pork, 7ozs
E: Beef, 7ozs

Saturday:
M: Wings, 7ozs
E: Pork, Beef, or NV Rabbit, rotation


Hope everything is all right with you.

[luci]

How much time went by between eating and vomiting?

[Zoshi]

I gave the morning food at around 8 AM. I took them out for a few hours at 11, and they went back in the cage at 2-2:30. I'm pretty sure she still had a piece of chicken left over from the morning, but I don't know if she ate right away or if she went to sleep first.
She vomited around 3:30, so it had to be around an hour to half an hour between eating and vomiting.

[Heather]

How are things going? Any further signs of vomiting? How did the cage switching or combining go?
ciao

[Zoshi]

There's been no more vomiting from Tikki since that one incident. I'm still not sure just what it was, but she's dancing and dooking and climbing everything, so she's feeling good.

It's getting a little cooler lately, but everyone is actually eating less than they ate when it was warmer... xD I can't figure them out.

I've started the cohabbing slowly, yesterday I let Tikki into the kids' section for a couple of hours. She explored, Mis tried to lay on her, Coco followed her around, and then they fell asleep. Today I'm going to let the kids be in her section for a while, to see how she takes them being in her section. I'm also going to set things up so that I can let the ramp down later(they're in a FN 142, Tikki in the upper half and Coco and Mis in the bottom) and see how they do with the full cage to run around in together.

I can't wait - we have an extra cage section that my dad and I want to connect to the side of the bottom section, to stretch out the floor space and give them more room. We have the plans ready, we just need to do it.

Over all, it's going fine now. Tikki still prefers pork over beef, but she's eating some beef. I might be able to pick up some Natures Variety Rabbit this weekend, and give the kids NV Rabbit on Saturdays, to give them an extra bit of variety.

[luci]

Excellent! It sounds like you have a happy crew. Sleeping in the same area seems like a good sign.

The vomiting must've been a one time incident in this case. Actually, the only time my ferrets have ever vomited was when I first got them. Ghia puked up a couple of hairballs. So maybe it was just a bit of irritation from the food or fur or fuzz or whatever.

Do you want to wait to graduate until you've integrated everyone in case someone decides to get upset about the changes?

[Zoshi]

Well, the kids have pretty well accepted each other. They spent last night together, and today I found all three of them sleeping together in the large hammock. They had breakfast today with no problem, and dinner as well. Everyone is eating and playing with each other just fine.

I really hope that the vomiting was a one time thing. Tikki is doing great ever since, running around and playing and eating fine.

I feel pretty good with the way things are going; they seem a lot more relaxed now that they're all together in one cage. Tikki especially, she always seemed a little concerned that she couldn't find Mis and Coco when they went back to their cages. xD

So, what can I say? I think I'm ready!

And I just want to say, thank you so much for all your help Luci! I really appreciate it and I learned a lot from you. <3

[luci]

Nice! Please post a week's sample menu and I'll have the powers that be (Giuli or Heather) review it and officially give you the graduation go-ahead.

So proud of you and your crew! Especially little Tikki. She was a bit of a challenge. I'm so glad that you stuck with it.

[Zoshi]

Awesome! Here's the menu:

Sunday:
AM: Organ Medley: Chicken Liver, Veal Kidney, Sweetbreads, Veal heart + Pumpkin
PM: 1/2 Chicken wing each

M-W-F:
AM: 1 Chicken Wing Each
PM: Chicken Breast chunks

T-Th:
AM: Pork Chunks
PM: (Beef or Veal or Lamb) Chunks

Saturday:
AM: NV Rabbit
PM: Chicken Wings or Necks

or Whole day of various cuts of Rabbit (legs, back, etc)

Evening meals on Tuesday and Thursday I change up depending on how often I can get lamb or veal. I'm trying to get at least one week of veal and one week of lamb during the month.
For saturday, I'm going to be getting NV Rabbit definitely, but I'm also going to get some frozen rabbit (carcass, no fur or organs) since they're available at a nearby store, so I want to make Saturdays Rabbit days.

They also each get one 1000mg gel of salmon oil M-W-F.

Oh I'm so excited. I'm so happy with everyone! The kids weren't much of a problem, but you're right Luci, Tikki was such a stubborn little girl. I'm so happy she finally realized that meat was yummy, and not icky like she thought at first. They're all so happy on their new diet, and doing so well.

[Heather]

Congratulations....you have graduated...yay!!!
I just picked up the notice from Luci. This is so fantastic . I know that you've had some really difficult times and that your one little one has given you some trouble , but you worked hard and now you have finally succeeded in winning the round. I will get Luci to pop in and give her congratulations on your graduation and then I will retire this thread to the archives.

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) 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