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Post by pleasureis1 on Jul 6, 2009 22:31:32 GMT -5
OK, so seriously, how many mice should 1 little 12 week old ferret be eating?!?! LOL In 1 day, he's easily eating 2-3 med rats, at least 1 mouse, plus chicken, plus whatever little bits of kibble he decides he wants... (I just have been keeping it available to him since he seems to want to whole prey anyway... ) Am I over feeding him? He seems hungry, not wasting anything... I know I need to get more balance with some other things and am placing an order wth rodentpro tomorrow... (any suggestions on some good things?)
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Post by sherrylynne on Jul 6, 2009 23:00:59 GMT -5
Think about growing boys- that should tell you! I wouldn't worry about overfeeding right now. He's a big, healthy, active boy, so he's going to eat more than the others by far. And odds are, he's on a growth spurt . Again! If he eats too much, or too fast, it'll come back up again. It did with mine if they overdid it. Poor Lucrezia actually looked sick for a while after she overdid it on the smelts, even after throwing some of it up! She seems to think they're candy, to this day . Unfortunately, I'm not overly familiar with rodentpro. They can't ship to Canada, so I've not been on their site very often. You could look at chicks, guinea pigs, rabbit, quail, as well as the mice and rats. As far as how many kinds of whole prey? It depends on what you'll be feeding him for other meats, like chicken, beef, pork, lamb, etc. They need at minimum 3 different kinds of protiens. So, chicken, cornish hen, and chicks are one type of protein. Mice, rats, and guinea pigs are three different kinds. The more variety you can afford to feed, obviously, the better. The advantage to something like rodentpro is that despite how expensive the shipping is, it's the same price for 50 mice as for 5000 mice. So the larger the order you can manage to place, the more you've saved on shipping. A lot of people will go in together on an order, just for that reason. And who knows? After watching him go to town on the whole prey for a while, the others just may get the idea that these furry/feathery things are yummy! What's his name by the way? I saw his pic on ferret.com, but didn't see his name!
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Post by pleasureis1 on Jul 7, 2009 8:03:21 GMT -5
How do I get him to stop taking his mice and rats into the dirty litterbox to eat? I've tried leaving it a little ditry, keeping it extra clean... Either way, he drags his mice into the dirty litterbox to eat... GROSS!!!
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Post by sherrylynne on Jul 7, 2009 10:21:17 GMT -5
Have you tried using a feeding den with him? He probably takes it there for privacy and security, as well as to make sure no one else will touch it! From what I understand, it's not uncommon for animals in the wild to defecate on any food they can't eat, for that reason. Here's a link to making a feeding den: holisticferret.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=enrich&action=display&thread=230Hope this helps to get him out of a bad habit!
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Post by pleasureis1 on Jul 10, 2009 8:23:51 GMT -5
ok, So, I now have 2 play groups... In the cage are Amber, Rico and Atreau. These guys are all eating chicken soup when forced and still get kibble at night... This is also the group that is trying to kill the new little guy (we're working thru that too...
In the play pen, kibble has been banned and we have the new guy, Constantine, who wll eat pretty much ANYTHING, Princess, Celeste, Trinity & Tank who are all REALLY happy on Chicken soup. Im going to start addig some actual chicken chuncks to this group and start really moving forward with them. I'll still continue to work with the others to get them totally off the kibble, but, I hate to have a few slow down the progress of the rest...
Besides starting to add larger chicken to the plate, is there anything else I should be doing?
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Post by sherrylynne on Jul 10, 2009 21:25:18 GMT -5
I'd try mixing in the small pieces of chicken into the soup, and depending on how they take to it, maybe try several pieces simply topped with the soup, sort of like a plate of fries with gravy on it With the group of three who are so stubborn, just keep on as you are for now. Sooner or later, they'll realize the soupies are actually edible! You are doing really well so far, and so are they. Especially for switching so large a group!
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Post by pleasureis1 on Jul 10, 2009 21:49:08 GMT -5
I only have 1 REALLY stubborn one, Amber... Atreau would actually be with the kibble free group right now if he weren't so intent that Constantine should be part of the meal. I got some pretty good scratches yesterday from him trying to get them apart and am not overly eager to repeat that right away. I'm thinking that for Constantine's sake, I should let him grow a little more so he can at least defend himself. Introductions will be slow with those 2, and Atraeu isn't even the Alpha, Amber is... The amazing thing, Atreau came from a house of 7 ferrets, lives with 9 other (including my 2 temp fosters), and the only one he seems to have an issue with is Constantine. I really don't understand it. It's all good though. It's not like I havent delt with this before, so, Im not worried. Just whining a little... Rico is on the fence as far as the raw food. I have the feeling he could go either way with the proper prodding if he could deal with Constantine. He'll get over that soon enough knowing him though. I think hes just following Atreau's lead.
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Post by sherrylynne on Jul 11, 2009 10:51:48 GMT -5
Whine all you want! That's what I'm here for . It's possible that because Constantine smells different(not neutered) the other 3 have a problem with him. And yes, waiting until he's a little bigger certainly won't hurt. Since they are getting the soupies regularly, Amber is eating some I gather? Even though it's with coaxing? That being the case, she will, one day, quite suddenly, start eating it on her own.
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Post by pleasureis1 on Jul 15, 2009 12:12:05 GMT -5
I'm still here.. I just feel like I dint have anything to report... They're all eating a really thick chicken paste with chunks when I hand feed them, but, only a couple of them will eat it when it's just in the bowl. I tried being stubborn for a couple days and not hand feeding a few of them (the crew I had taken kibble away from), and Princess started loosing weight. So, now I'm back to hand feeding and giving kibble at night.
I'm just having trouble getting past this point. they're really doing good with the hand feeding. Even Amber will take several spoonfuls after some coaxing.
Any suggestions? (since they've proven to be more stubborn than me, I think I've lost that approach... )
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Post by sherrylynne on Jul 15, 2009 19:47:58 GMT -5
Lets try switching it up a little bit. Start with hand feeding some small plain cubes of meat. Make sure it's in an area where they can't just take and stash them where you can't easily see what they're doing, like a bathroom. See how they feel about that. If they won't go for it yet, then I'd start increasing the number and size of chunks, and reducing the "paste". And yes, they will definitely "outstubborn" you from time to time They're such little brats
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Post by sherrylynne on Jul 20, 2009 11:40:16 GMT -5
So how's it going with the hand feeding? Any updates?
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Post by pleasureis1 on Jul 21, 2009 12:22:18 GMT -5
SLOWLY!!! A couple of them will nibble on the edges, and then get impatient and loose interest... The others look at me like im crazy and want to know where the lickable stuff is... I'm still working on it though. They're definitely getting better about eating the ground chicken out of he bowl though, so thats serious goodness! SOMEONE ate the ground hamburger I put in there last night (I kept some out when I made dinner), so, they're starting to try different things too. I'm being patient, I knew this wouldn't be easy with a crew so large, so, I'm not getting discouraged. Atraeu is also starting to fight with Constantine over his mice, so, while I dont think he's fighting over "food", more a show of dominance and Constantine protecting "his food", it's at least exposing them more to whole prey. I've caught Celeste and Trinity sniffing at the mice too. They're making progress, just most of them slower than the few.
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Post by sherrylynne on Jul 21, 2009 18:10:19 GMT -5
One way I got mine to try mice was chopped up pinkies. I just mixed them in with the regular meat, then increased the size of pieces until they were eating them whole. As for the meat chunks, you may have to try mincing some just a wee bit larger than ground. Pain in the but, I know, but it could be the step they need. If ground is this big [], make the pieces this big [ ]. That way, they're still small enough not to be intimidating for them, but gets them one step further along. Even better if you have a meat grinder. Just use the blade one size up. And yes, it may take some of them a bit longer, but we'll get them there . You're doing great so far!
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Post by pleasureis1 on Jul 21, 2009 19:32:01 GMT -5
I just ordered 100 lrg pinkies from rodent pro (with a bunch of other stuff too), so, I'll try that. My shipment should be here on Thursday!
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Post by sherrylynne on Jul 21, 2009 23:23:58 GMT -5
That's exciting! Let me know how it goes!
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