Feeling a little defeated.

[mandy]

Jan 8, 2010 15:22:31 GMT -5 Emilee said:

She liked the lamb patty from Casey's sampler pack more than the entire bag I bought her, go figure.

My Ollie does that too, it's almost like the bags contain completely different food. Ollie loves the lamb Stella and Chewy's... love love loves them... but when I open a new bag he refuses to eat them for a few days.. maybe he doesn't like them fresh but prefers them a little stale. XD

[Emilee]

That's like Tootsie, Mandy! I do notice that when you first open the bag, they smell realllly strong, though, so maybe they like it when the smell has gone down?

No, Tootsie won't eat any raw, period, other than freeze dried. Even the smooth processed chicken is not up to her standards. I should have bought that flipping duck, I wonder if she'd eat it because she likes duck S&Cs and duck jerky.

I think from now on, I'll leave them together with raw and S&C's... both won't eat each other's food, so it works out.

[josiesmom]

MAybe I've just been fairly lucky in the transition department - but Once I have a kibble cruncher switched to bertter kibble, and then I start adding the minced meat on top of the kibble so that in order to get to the kibbel the ferret HAS to move the meat, it isn't too very long after this that they'll start eating the minced meats and when that happens I'lll give them progressivley larger pieces of meat and begin reducing the amoutn of kibble. SO in a failrly short time they are soon eating just meaty pieces and hunks of raw.

I do not have a problem letting them get hungry - as long as the ferret isn't insulinomic - letting their bellies tell their brains its time to eat is often a great motivator.

I'm NOT a huge fan of forcing anything into them (except medicine) because to me that just puts bad ideas into their heads.

My mother forced me to eat vegetables when I was little and to this day I resent her and do NOT eat vegetables like I should!

To usurp a line from a mvie:" If you let them get hungry - they WILL eat meat!"

Don't give up - you've seen the results of just a small improvemtn in the diet! Go for the gold now! Its in sight!

[Emilee]

Thank you!! I was thinking of trying the meat on top as I heard that from someone on another forum, but I think with Tootsie I'll have to try everything to see which way is her way. I'll try the kibble powder breaded meat first, then that if the powder doesn't work.

I also hate scruffing and stuffing, as then Jasper will spit it back up and want to eat it LESS than when I was leaving it there. With Tootsie, though, she likes the taste of the soup, so I rub it on her gums and she'll come eat the raw soup, but then gross out and have enough. Maybe if I leave her with soup she'll get hungry enough? She kind of likes the taste, just the texture gets her.

[sherrylynne]

Don't forget Emilee. She'll only eat about an ounce at a time, if that. She's not a big girl! If it was beef heart, one ounce is about 1 sqare inch. Chicken is about 1 1/2 square inches.
When mine started taking the soup from my finger, I went to a spoon, and didn't let them back down til they'd eaten at least 1-2 full tablespoons worth. I just kept putting it up to their mouths, and they'd lap at it almost as if they couldn't help themselves. They certainly didn't take it willingly, but they did take it.
Once they'd had it often enough, they started eating enough of it on their own. Sometimes I had to do the same thing when the ground was added. Or with new meats. But they did eat it. I was just more stubborn than them
Main reason was we'd realized Boris had a problem with the chicken in the kibbles, and his poops were always yellow seedy ones. Didn't even realize you can get kibble with out chicken

[Emilee]

Yeah, she's definitely not eating a meal's worth, though. Just a few licks, gross faces, then she RUNS. I bought her a whole duck today, and I'm hoping she'll like that. She is an absolute duck fanatic. I've yet to see her turn down anything that includes duck.

[Emilee]

The duck didn't process as well as I'd hoped, so I don't think she'll take it. I saved some chunks, though, and she might take that?

So, now besides chicken and pork, we have literally duck soup, duck wing pieces, duck chunks, duck legs, and chicken liver soup. YUM!

[Emilee]

Well, this was easier than I thought. I thawed some chicken chunks for Jasper, and a cube of chicken, but it was REALLY fatty and I couldn't figure it out. I accidentally thawed pork, and Jasper has only had chicken for a meal. I was p*ssed, but gave him it anyway, and he ate over half of it immediately, chicken chunks and all. There was about 1/3 a cup of food, so he ate LOTS and the rest I'm leaving for him in the cage. I was thinking that it was going to be difficult, so when he sniffed the spoon I was kind of quickly moving it upward to smear some on his lips, but he was already eating when I moved the spoon up. Now I can't wait to try duck! I was kind of "chickening" out because I was afraid he would only like chicken!! If he likes the duck, then I'm off to get another meat, either RCGH, beef, or turkey.

EDIT: DUH, I forgot that I have partridge ready to make into a soup! That will be his next meat!

[Heather]

Congratulations, sometimes that's all it takes. Good work.
ciao

[Emilee]

Thanks! Tootsie's on her way, too. She's watching Jasper eat jealously, and a few days ago she stashed some chunks covered with salmon oil, so I think that she should skip the soup stage and move onto chunks. I really think she'll like having something to gnaw and rip and tear, other than my hands of course.