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Post by Forum Administrator on Oct 27, 2009 5:11:28 GMT -5
What you can do is mix the ground turkey with chunks of chicken or ground chicken. Its possible he might not like turkey. My ferrets were raised on raw and eat a variety of foods but they HATE turkey. My dog and cat do too. Its funny. I wonder why. Good luck with the mouse. Don't be discouraged if he doesn't touch it. If he turns his nose up we'll get him to take the mouse, though it may take time and patience.
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Post by Forum Administrator on Oct 31, 2009 3:24:07 GMT -5
How is Tesla doing?
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Post by Forum Administrator on Nov 4, 2009 11:13:31 GMT -5
Haven't heard from you in a while. Just wanted to make sure you were doing okay and see if you were still interested in participating in the mentor program?
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Post by konotashi on Nov 4, 2009 15:39:45 GMT -5
Sorry about lack of updates. It's been pretty busy here lately. We've come to the conclusion that Tesla isn't a turkey kind of guy. I've been working on getting him to eat the bigger bones, like the chicken leg bones. We'll go get him a mouse hopefully some time this week. Would it be okay to give him meat that's still totally frozen? It seems like that would last longer and keep him busy.
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Post by konotashi on Nov 5, 2009 1:16:11 GMT -5
My mom got 2 huge turkeys, and she said she'll give me the organs, so I'll try giving him those. I was trying to feed him the breast, legs, and wings. Hopefully he'll go for the organs!
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Post by Forum Administrator on Nov 5, 2009 14:43:53 GMT -5
No worries, if you are busy thats totally fine. Just let me know so I know you are still interested. My ferrets aren't really turkey fans either, and thats okay. There are plenty of meats out there you can sub for turkey. Hopefully he'll try the organs though. If he's interested in the legs and wings, don't expect him to eat any of the bones (they are just to big). If he's in the mood he'll strip the meat from the bone. Yes, you can feed meat frozen, though partially frozen would be better then totally. If its totally frozen its too hard for a fert to bite into and................their tounges can get stuck to the meat! No lie, it totally happened to my furkid, poor bugger! Partially frozen is okay, and takes longer to eat, but I wouldn't feed it all the time. I wouldn't want to eat only freezing cold, half frozen food, and your fert won't either. In the wild polecats do eat frozen meat regularly in the winter, so its perfectly fine to include, but not ONLY that. Hopefully the mouse goes well. You may have to slit the belly open to show the organs inside. Its pretty gross. A trick though that is alot less messy is to take a FROZEN mouse and either chop it in half with a meat cleaver or slit through the skin, or even cut into it with sharp scissors. It won't bleed at all (because its frozen) and its much easier to cut. Then thaw it out in a plate or bowl at the BOTTOM of your fridge. It will start to bleed as it thaws, but this is good, it will intice your ferret. Eventually you can stop doing this because they will learn to eat the mouse on their own. You can try Tesla on a mouse without slitting it. He may take to it right away, thus saving you this yucky job. Try him on a THAWED (not frozen) mouse. You can even rub pureed meat, babyfood, or fish oil/ferretone/olive oil on it. Let me know how it goes! Oh and as far as chicken leg bones go, just be aware that most ferrets will chew off the ends and almost always leave all or some of the middle part of the bone. This is normal, and totally acceptable.
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Post by konotashi on Nov 15, 2009 18:14:17 GMT -5
Sorry I haven't been on for a while. I haven't been able to get Tesla a mouse, so he's still been eating chicken. Waiting for my mom to make one of the turkeys so I can have the giblets and try those with him. He's been eating more of the bone, so that's good. He's starting to eat more, so instead of one little meal pack I usually give him, I've been giving him two. He only has a tad bit left now when I go to take it out.
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Post by konotashi on Nov 15, 2009 18:14:43 GMT -5
Oh! I offered him some mostly frozen meat, and he was hissing at it, trying to eat it.
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Post by Heather on Nov 18, 2009 0:24:16 GMT -5
Sounds like your little one is moving along nicely. Great work....don't you love it when they finally decide that meat is food and it's all theirs ciao
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Post by Forum Administrator on Nov 21, 2009 2:27:01 GMT -5
So did you try him on a mousie? How did that go? I'm glad to hear he liked the frozen meat. I love when they hiss when they eat. You know that if they are getting that riled up about protecting their food, they've GOT to like it! Never seen a kibble fed ferret do that!
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Post by konotashi on Nov 22, 2009 3:10:17 GMT -5
Haven't fed a mouse yet. I'm going to start selling charcoal drawings and photography so that I can keep some money and won't have to stress about getting him a mouse. I offered him some tuna today to try and keep in some variety, and he wasn't so sure about it at first, but after a bit, he started to hiss and scrunch up his face! My mom's friend is going to be giving me some livers. On December 19 - 29 (at least I think it's the 29), we're going to be going out of town. We're going to drive to Arkansas, and my mom wants me to take him with us! She said that she doesn't want to come home to a ferret whose cage hasn't been cleaned in 10 days! I'm slightly concerned about keeping his food cold on the 22 hour trip. We got him a decent sized cage to last him for the 10 days. Hopefully it will be snowing! I know this is probably a stupid question, but would it be a bad idea to let him play with my sister's skunk? I'm guessing it'd be a bad idea, but just curious. (The skunk is NOT descented, but he's never sprayed a human).
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Post by Forum Administrator on Nov 24, 2009 16:42:19 GMT -5
Just wanted to let you know that I have seen your post, though I only have a moment right now so I can respond in more detail later. I'm thrilled to hear about the tuna, and I'll address the skunk and the other topics when I can stay on here longer.
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Post by konotashi on Nov 25, 2009 19:07:12 GMT -5
Great! I'm wondering - how much bone should he be eating? He is eating it, but he doesn't eat a lot of it, so I'm wondering if I should start putting a powdered calcium supplement on his food, like Rep-cal or something?
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Post by Forum Administrator on Nov 27, 2009 15:06:38 GMT -5
Okay to answer the skunk question, its up to you. I've heard of people who have let their ferrets and skunk(s) play and it was fine, but if it was me I wouldnt do it.
As for the bone, what kind of bone are you offering? For chicken wings he should eat almost all of the bone, for chicken legs he should eat the ends of the bone leaving only about 1/2 inch of bone in the middle.
I wouldn't use rep-cal, its not made for mammals. If you are concearned about his calcium/phosphorous intake supplement (temporarily) with 1 tsp crushed eggshell powder to 8 oz of meat.
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Post by konotashi on Dec 3, 2009 17:48:44 GMT -5
For the past week I've been giving him 3 meals since he was ravenous at dinner time! So now he's back up at three meals (one in the morning, one when I get home, and one before I go to bed). Hopefully I'll be seeing his winter belly soon!
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