I must have weird fuzzies.....

[rarnold18]

I adopted the girls, Slink and Slither (1 and 1 1/2 years old), in August from a woman who could no longer take care of them due to cancer treatment. They were fed some sort of kibble, not sure what brand or even if it was a ferret kibble, Mae gave me what she had left in a cereal type tupperware container. Being that we already fed our 4 dogs and 2 cats (when the mood strikes them of course) I figured that after a 2 week settle in period I would make the switch to raw. When I had about a week left of kibble I started mixing it with ground whole chicken (meat, bones, and organs) the mix was about 1/2 kibble 1/2 chicken. After a few days I lessened the kibble and so on until there was no more kibble and the fuzzies were eating ground chicken. They ate the ground for about 2 weeks and then I started giving them a chicken neck in their bowl with the ground then tapered off the ground. The girls have been eating chicken necks for about a month and this week I started giving them chicken backs. So far no problem with the backs. They eat about 1 1/2 chicken backs a day. They also get chicken and beef heart, and chicken gizzards for treats. I plan to intoduce some pork and other meats in the next few weeks.
So here's my question... Did I do the girls any harm by switching them the way I did? The kibble was out of thier diet in about a week maybe a week and a half... The are having great poo's and everything seems ok they have great energy and their fur is soooo much softer/silkier. It's just that I keep reading that the switch tends to be difficult but here it was easy.

[Heather]

No, you didn't do them any harm You switched them, it just happened that they were ready willing and able. They were young. Maybe, they've eaten moist cat food before....who knows, you just had it easy. I had that happen once with a pair that was turned in to me, Houdini and Shazam. They were about 6 yrs old but switched within a couple of days. Give yourself a pat on the back, and your furbabies a great big hug.
Congratulations...you've got raw fed ferrets
ciao

[sherrylynne]

Congratulations on such an easy switch . Wow! What wonderful fuzzies!

[spiritualtramp]

Weird, yes - but in a bad way?? Not at all! You lucked out!

I had a similar experience with Diesel. One day my roommate at the time was making wings for dinner and Diesel was bugging her, so she dropped a raw wing down for him. He just started munching away, as if he'd been eating raw foods all his life!

So it's unusual but not unheard of. We don't know their full dietary backgrounds, as much as we try, and maybe they had some access to wet foods like Heather suggested, or raw treats. It's hard to say. But you've definitely had an easy time of it, and that's great! Congrats!

[Forum Administrator]

No harm done. You lucked out though for sure!

I just wanted to add, besure to rotate between all parts of the chicken: wings, back, neck, bone-in breast, legs, thighs, tail, organs. All the parts have varying nutritional profiles as well as varying amount of bone and fat. To have a healthy diet its imporant to have as much variety as possible. I find the easiest way to accomplish this is to buy whole chicken fryers and cut them up myself, or buy a whole chicken already cut up (whichever is on sale). I won't pass up a good sale though and if I can get chicken wings on sale for cheaper then the whole chicken, then chicken wings it is (I just make sure to get a different part of the chicken, or the whole chicken, next time). No harm done, its all about balance over time.