Post by rarnold18 on Oct 11, 2009 0:33:21 GMT -5
I say new-ish because I've been lurking for about 2 months...sorry...
My name is Rose and I'm mom to 3 human kids (ages 10,4, and 1.5), and 11 furry kids, yup, we're out numbered! We have 4 dogs, 3 Pits and 1 senior Chihuahua, 3 rotund cats, 2 hamsters and our newest additions Slink and Slither the girls...
I adopted Slink and Slither the beginning of August, their mom's cancer had relapsed and she was developing allergies to all of her furbabies and the Dr's said all of her furbabies had to go. When I went to pick them up they were living outside on a screened in porch (I'm in Florida 30min drive north of Orlando), in a smallish wire cage, no bedding, no hammock, no toys. They didn't have names either, the woman called them both Titi. The first thing I did when I got home was pull out a scrap of fleece and make a hammock for them, they love it and now also keep one of our bath towels to burrow in, in the bottom of their cage too....brats!
I adopted them on a whim...the house was already baby and puppy proof...how much harder would it be to ferret proof? ya, ok... boy was I wrong! They get into everything and are everywhere! We've managed to block the holes in between the kitchen cabinets and closed the gap in the door to the AC closet but these two are a trip and are great at dusting under the couches!
The boys decided on the names Slink and Slither. It was a toss up between that and Spiderman and Lightening McQueen (the names my 4 year olds chose) I had already read up on ferrets and raw feeding and knew that after giving the girls a few weeks to settle into our home we'd be making the switch. All four of our dogs and two of our cats (when the mood strikes them) eat raw and we've been raw feeding for almost 2 years now. My mother in law started a raw pet food company with delivery a couple years back...so we made the switch after all the dog and cat food recalls. I have access to all kinds of great yummies for the furbabies... The switch wasn't nearly as hard as I expected it to be, after about a week of mixing their "kibble" with whole ground chicken (meat, organs, and bone) they were done, now we've upgraded to chicken necks, gizzard, livers, and hearts. I don't think I have the heart to feed them live prey but my mil does raise button quail so we'll see. One of the biggest differences I've seen in the girls since the switch to raw is the texture of their fur...when they came to live with us it was pretty course and rough but now it's sooo silky and soft...if they would only cuddle with me!
I was told that Slither is deaf, and I think it's true, because unless you touch her she doesn't wake up to any noises. Slither is mostly white with a few black guard hairs with a bunch of black hairs on her tail, she has black eyes. Slink is, I guess a cinnamon color, really light reddish tan, she has black eyes too. If Slither doesn't wake up at meal time when I open their cage, Slink will go over and nudge her to wake her up to eat. They are still on the skinny side so I try to keep food in their bowl. Between the two of them they are eating about 3-4 chicken necks a day with some goodies in between. When the dogs are out they have free roam of the house. I'm not worried about Chaos and Fagan, they seem to be a bit afraid of Slink and Slither and will walk away when they are free, it's Jezzebelle, my husbands puppy (she just turned 1 9/22) she has a very high prey drive and well, she's still a puppy so to keep everyone safe the girls are caged if Jezz is inside. Maybe when she gets a bit older she'll calm down...but until then better safe than sorry. The cats want nothing to do with Slink and Slither and will watch them run around like fools from the top of the kitchen cabinets or the top of their "cat tree". The girls average about 3 hours a day of free roam. I would love to make it longer and on the weekends it is, but I work full time and my husband works out of state so everything falls on my shoulders, house, kids, furbabies, yard, pool, bills, PTA, everything!
I do have a question about what I can give them meat wise, I have access to rabbit, quail, beef, pork, lamb, tripe, goat, mackerel, sardines, chicken, turkey, duck, venison, buffalo....and a few others I can't think of off the top of my head... is there any type of meat I shouldn't give them? As a special treat for the dogs I give them KSM which is a mix of tripe, whole raw chicken eggs, beef, chicken, and pork all ground up together, the dogs go crazy for it and I would love to share it with the girls. Is it ok to give them mixes or should I stay with just one thing at a time. MIL also has a great dehydrator, is it ok to give them beef or chicken jerky...or even dried chicken feet? (that's another thing the dogs go crazy over, chicken feet) As I said before they are doing great with the chicken necks and ground whole chicken but I'm sure they'd like a bit of variety. Since moving in with us the girls have gained 9 and 7 oz...I can still feel their bones but not nearly as much as when they moved in back in August. What is a good goal weight for them? I haven't weighed them yet this month, it's been a bit crazy around here....hopefully I'll get to it this comming week.
I'm saving up to buy them a bigger cage, the one they are in right now is about 2ft square, and to me that seems just too small for two critters...or even one at that. I'm keeping an eye on Craigslist for a bigger cage that's affordable. The ones I see at petsmart and petco are $200+!!!
I'm off to bed but figured it was about time to intoduce myself and stop lurking... If I wasn't so darn tired I probably would of kept rambling on and on...I'm good like that... Do ferrents have ferret play dates? If so I would love to meet some local ferrents so the girls can have a playdate. I'm in Central Florida where at 1:30am in the middle of October it's still 78 outside...ugh...this heat is killing me!
Ya'll have a great night,
Rose
My name is Rose and I'm mom to 3 human kids (ages 10,4, and 1.5), and 11 furry kids, yup, we're out numbered! We have 4 dogs, 3 Pits and 1 senior Chihuahua, 3 rotund cats, 2 hamsters and our newest additions Slink and Slither the girls...
I adopted Slink and Slither the beginning of August, their mom's cancer had relapsed and she was developing allergies to all of her furbabies and the Dr's said all of her furbabies had to go. When I went to pick them up they were living outside on a screened in porch (I'm in Florida 30min drive north of Orlando), in a smallish wire cage, no bedding, no hammock, no toys. They didn't have names either, the woman called them both Titi. The first thing I did when I got home was pull out a scrap of fleece and make a hammock for them, they love it and now also keep one of our bath towels to burrow in, in the bottom of their cage too....brats!
I adopted them on a whim...the house was already baby and puppy proof...how much harder would it be to ferret proof? ya, ok... boy was I wrong! They get into everything and are everywhere! We've managed to block the holes in between the kitchen cabinets and closed the gap in the door to the AC closet but these two are a trip and are great at dusting under the couches!
The boys decided on the names Slink and Slither. It was a toss up between that and Spiderman and Lightening McQueen (the names my 4 year olds chose) I had already read up on ferrets and raw feeding and knew that after giving the girls a few weeks to settle into our home we'd be making the switch. All four of our dogs and two of our cats (when the mood strikes them) eat raw and we've been raw feeding for almost 2 years now. My mother in law started a raw pet food company with delivery a couple years back...so we made the switch after all the dog and cat food recalls. I have access to all kinds of great yummies for the furbabies... The switch wasn't nearly as hard as I expected it to be, after about a week of mixing their "kibble" with whole ground chicken (meat, organs, and bone) they were done, now we've upgraded to chicken necks, gizzard, livers, and hearts. I don't think I have the heart to feed them live prey but my mil does raise button quail so we'll see. One of the biggest differences I've seen in the girls since the switch to raw is the texture of their fur...when they came to live with us it was pretty course and rough but now it's sooo silky and soft...if they would only cuddle with me!
I was told that Slither is deaf, and I think it's true, because unless you touch her she doesn't wake up to any noises. Slither is mostly white with a few black guard hairs with a bunch of black hairs on her tail, she has black eyes. Slink is, I guess a cinnamon color, really light reddish tan, she has black eyes too. If Slither doesn't wake up at meal time when I open their cage, Slink will go over and nudge her to wake her up to eat. They are still on the skinny side so I try to keep food in their bowl. Between the two of them they are eating about 3-4 chicken necks a day with some goodies in between. When the dogs are out they have free roam of the house. I'm not worried about Chaos and Fagan, they seem to be a bit afraid of Slink and Slither and will walk away when they are free, it's Jezzebelle, my husbands puppy (she just turned 1 9/22) she has a very high prey drive and well, she's still a puppy so to keep everyone safe the girls are caged if Jezz is inside. Maybe when she gets a bit older she'll calm down...but until then better safe than sorry. The cats want nothing to do with Slink and Slither and will watch them run around like fools from the top of the kitchen cabinets or the top of their "cat tree". The girls average about 3 hours a day of free roam. I would love to make it longer and on the weekends it is, but I work full time and my husband works out of state so everything falls on my shoulders, house, kids, furbabies, yard, pool, bills, PTA, everything!
I do have a question about what I can give them meat wise, I have access to rabbit, quail, beef, pork, lamb, tripe, goat, mackerel, sardines, chicken, turkey, duck, venison, buffalo....and a few others I can't think of off the top of my head... is there any type of meat I shouldn't give them? As a special treat for the dogs I give them KSM which is a mix of tripe, whole raw chicken eggs, beef, chicken, and pork all ground up together, the dogs go crazy for it and I would love to share it with the girls. Is it ok to give them mixes or should I stay with just one thing at a time. MIL also has a great dehydrator, is it ok to give them beef or chicken jerky...or even dried chicken feet? (that's another thing the dogs go crazy over, chicken feet) As I said before they are doing great with the chicken necks and ground whole chicken but I'm sure they'd like a bit of variety. Since moving in with us the girls have gained 9 and 7 oz...I can still feel their bones but not nearly as much as when they moved in back in August. What is a good goal weight for them? I haven't weighed them yet this month, it's been a bit crazy around here....hopefully I'll get to it this comming week.
I'm saving up to buy them a bigger cage, the one they are in right now is about 2ft square, and to me that seems just too small for two critters...or even one at that. I'm keeping an eye on Craigslist for a bigger cage that's affordable. The ones I see at petsmart and petco are $200+!!!
I'm off to bed but figured it was about time to intoduce myself and stop lurking... If I wasn't so darn tired I probably would of kept rambling on and on...I'm good like that... Do ferrents have ferret play dates? If so I would love to meet some local ferrents so the girls can have a playdate. I'm in Central Florida where at 1:30am in the middle of October it's still 78 outside...ugh...this heat is killing me!
Ya'll have a great night,
Rose
. Please feel free to prowl the list, check out various threads, post questions as they come to you. Everyone here is friendly and more than willing to help out.
Wow- that's some crew you have there! Like Heather said, feel free to browse, ask questions, etc. We're all here to help.
. A really good book for ferrets is Ferrets for Dummies, 2nd edition. Gives you some really good info on what to watch for with them, etc.
), so he'll try just about anything. There's a lot of good information on this forum for you regarding ferret health, nutrition, and switching them over. 