Calcium Supplements?

[konotashi]

I can't seem to get Tesla to eat bones, and I'm beginning to worry about the lack of calcium in his diet. Where can I get calcium supplements, and what supplements are okay for ferrets?

Or, how could I get him to eat bones?

[sherrylynne]

He's probably not going to eat any bone until he's actually been chewing some meat chunks. He's got to start building up his jaw strength for the actual bone. You can start him off with wing tips from chicken. If an entire wing tip is too intimidating for him, chop it in half.
They can go without bone for a fair while, but if you're concerned, add 1tsp powdered eggshell per pound of meat.
If I need to use some eggshell because one of mine has decided they are too lazy to bother with the bone for a while(you know from the really loose stool), I use a clean coffee grinder to grind the eggshells that I keep just for that. Just take the shells from your breakfast eggs, rinse them out, let them totally dry, then grind them up.

[konotashi]

I've been getting him up to some pretty good sized chunks, and he's been eating those up. I'll throw the whole chicken I bought in the fridge tonight and try and offer him a wing tip tomorrow night.

Is eggshell a sufficient source of calcium? How long could he safely go without eating bone?

[mustelidmusk]

The wing tips cut in half lengthwise do work well for training. You want long thinner strips. Chicken backs are very easy to chew. You can cut them into strips as well. Backs have the non-load-bearing bones - so do necks. I thnk the backs are great for training. the long bones such as legs/thighs hold a lot of weight, so these are much harder bones. the long shafts are very dense, and your ferret may eat only the knobby ends from thes bones. Cornish game hens also have smaller bones that are easier to chew.

In addition to egg shells, you an supplement with bone powder - but be sure the poder is HUMAN GRADE - pet grade usualy has a high lead content. I also supplement with velvet antler. my kids like these. They do not splinter, and they're softer thn bone. they're very porous, so you can add a couple drops of ferretone or a favorite oil (salmon?) You'll want to buy from Bonus Velvet Antler online - I get the treats for medium-sized dogs.

Here's the key to getting a reluctant ferret to eat bone. ....let you ferret get a little hungry between meals. Then feed small amounts of the bone with very little meat on it BEFORE you feed the "good stuff". Your little guy is filling up on his favorite goodies

If all else fails, you can boil bones (simmer them completely covered for HOURS. this will soften bones as long as they remain completely covered woth water while being cooked (dry heat hardens bones and makes them splinter. It 's possible to simmer a bone long enough so that you can crush is between your fingers. Of course, boiling removes lot of nutrition, and it's a pain to do. You can start out making bones very soft and then boiling them for less time to introduce harder bone.

jennifer

[justahannah]

What's working for me to get them used to bone is to grind it with some meat on it...I picked up an old hand-crank grinder for a few bucks at a thrift store, and using the coarsest grinding plate the meat and bone end up in about pea-sized chunks...it seems to be a good size for where they're at in the switching process, manageable but big enough they still have to crunch through it. It helps to take a meat mallet to the bones before-hand, to make grinding easier, and eventually I'll just crack the bones so they can get the hang of chewing them up on their own.

[Lynxie]

From what I've read, splitting the bone lengthwise to expose the marrow is helping in coaxing them as well. Gotta prove to them that it's worth the work of chewing up the bone!