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Post by murphysmom on Aug 24, 2009 9:21:11 GMT -5
I made some soup for the kids and put some if the EVO in it. They liked it ok. The ones that are eating soups ok, ate some. Still having a hard time convincing the others that I am not poisoning them!!! I did forget to mention that I have been putting some of the Wysong and S&C in the kibble dish. I just put it in there dry and they are eating it. Of course, I don't know who exactly is eating it, but it is usually gone first out of the food dishes. So making some progress there!
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Post by cristina on Aug 24, 2009 15:03:33 GMT -5
Keep up with the soups, they will eventually learn to love them. With the stubborn eaters, we can even try to take a step further back and get them use to the texture of "wet" food, I would suggest leaving out the meat as of right now and just ading some warm water to the kibble mix so the plain kibble becomes wet. This may help with them because some ferrets at first just dont like the "feel" of wet foods, so see if this helps and let me know
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Post by murphysmom on Aug 25, 2009 16:12:53 GMT -5
I made a wet kibble mix and set it out for the kids. Of course, they are more interested in playing but I will continue to watch and see you shows interest and who eats. So far Noah ate some, but he is one of the better ones with the soups anyways, so it is no surprise.
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Post by cristina on Aug 25, 2009 20:19:01 GMT -5
Are you talking about just wet kibble? or soup with kibble? They should take to the plain wet kibble, although it may take a little to realize we arent tricking them and its just kibble (for now! )
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Post by murphysmom on Aug 26, 2009 20:15:31 GMT -5
It was just wet kibble. And was still there when I got home today.
So I brought out a batch of the raw soup (hearts, livers, gizzards, and kibble) and made a thick soup of beach nut turkey and sweet potato. Noah loved the baby food and Athena went to town on the raw soup. Murphy, Ollie, and Hammy did eat a little. I scruffed Princess and Koda and gave them some of the baby food soup off my finger, which they did eat and seem to want more, but only if it was on my finger (spoiled brats!). I am going to leave the soups out for the rest of the night until they go back into the cages and then I will put one in each cage and see how it goes. They do have kibble in their dishes, but I think supplementing with the Wysong and S&C has really helped, since that stuff usually goes first and the kibble is left.
Side note- I worked a 12 today and when I let the business out- they were CRAZY! They all were going bonkers and doing war dances into each other! It was very nice to see them so active.
Another note of interest. When I first started this, A few of my ferrets (Princess, Ollie, and Murphy) needed some extra humph in their lives. I have seen marked increase in Princess and Ollie and even Murphy seems to be increasing in activity level. That alone is worth the frustration of trying to figure all this out.
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Post by cristina on Aug 27, 2009 7:42:47 GMT -5
Im so glad you have noticed the change! I realized that mine too were more active, its also do to their little bodies not being bogged down with carbs they arent supposed to have....so its really nice to hear when people do see the difference! Yea my guys loved being out of the cage so much that they pushed me to let them just be free roaming ferrets in my room (Im such a pushover! ) Thats a good start with the soup, I actuallly had to feed my little girl by hand for a while to get her to eat my raw soups, and one day she just jumped out of my hands and started licking the saucer of soup with her siblings, so feeding my hand in the beginning can pay off! I also ordered syringes from drs foster and smith and I would feed her with these too, which also worked well. I think leaving the soup out for them to sample from time to time during when they are in the cage is a good idea....let me know if someone(s) eats it all If the wet kibble mix doesnt work you can lessen the amount of water put in until it is edible for them, or you can just nix it.....its up to you, it was just a suggestion that helped another newbie and myself out during the switch
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Post by murphysmom on Aug 27, 2009 14:51:10 GMT -5
I made a fresh batch of the raw "soup". It was a lot thicker then a normal soup, I used only a little of water. I added some commercial raw that I got from the Holistic Pet store I go to and I can not remember the name( it is kept in the freezer and comes in these bars) I think it was Nature's Variety. Anywho I added some of that to the chicken stuff. Athena of course had no problem. I got Princess to eat a little off the a spoon and Ollie seemed to like it also off the spoon. Koda.... what a priss. I had to scruff him and put some in his mouth and he still was not interested. Noah and Hammy came and checked it out, I am sure they will eat some later today. Murphy was MIA while I was spooning, I will try to catch him later.
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Post by cristina on Aug 27, 2009 15:36:56 GMT -5
Thats just fine if you have to spoon feed, it makes them eat at least some of it and get use to the flavor and hoefully soon they will start to try it on their own, sometimes it can be a very slow process but in the end its totally worth it!
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Post by murphysmom on Aug 27, 2009 18:05:43 GMT -5
Question- Am I do too many different types of soups and such. Do you think it is confusing them? Should I stick to one kind of soup?
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Post by cristina on Aug 28, 2009 12:58:14 GMT -5
I mean its up to you, its good to have variety but I can also see where having one may help the guys who are still unsure about it more use to the same thing... Maybe do the same soup for a couple days then switch to another for the next couple days, see if this helps change anyones appetite for soup and see if they get use to it faster (but just so you know its not necessary to keep on one soup only, variety is very good, although one soup may help out in the beginning, so like I said its up to you right now)
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Post by murphysmom on Aug 29, 2009 18:22:08 GMT -5
I think then, what I will do is to keep offering the baby food as a staple. I will also offer the raw mix and I can mix and change that one as I like. So offered some baby food and Noah ate is ALL. There was none left for anyone else! Well there was some and so I squirted some salmon oil in there and showed a couple of the ferrets what was in there and they finished it up. Ollie, Athena, Hammy all got some. The rest were off doing there thing or sleeping. I think for Noah, I will offer him is on baby food mix from now on.
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Post by cristina on Aug 30, 2009 20:10:11 GMT -5
Thats great!!!! You may eventually find something special in particular that each one likes, I have for each of my fur babies.
The baby food is good, it can be mixed with lots of things for soups (organs, plain raw, medicines, etc....things like that)
Just out of curiosity, what are you mixing in with Noahs babyfood mix?
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Post by murphysmom on Aug 30, 2009 20:42:59 GMT -5
Baby food mix- Beach nut chicken, beach nut sweet potatoe/ turkey and some Salmon oil. Once again tonight Noah went to town on the baby food mix. I added some AFS sprinkles to it to. I figured I would continue to add something fine like that (kibble, Wysong) to it.
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Post by cristina on Aug 31, 2009 18:23:21 GMT -5
Thats good, you can start adding some very small pieces of ground raw into it too and see how he likes it.....also I just wanted to suggest starting to also add less and less of the sweet potato, because as Im sure you know veggies arent the best for them, but babyfood veggies are so processed they dont hurt every so often (it just not a good long term solution, thats all) And if Noah starts to eat raw mixed in with the baby food, then you can even by pass the mixing in kibble part. (you can also add in some pumpkin every now and then, it helps with their stools and is a kinda "natural" laxative, so it gives a good flush (instead of tub lax) and it also sweetens the mix!) Hows the rest of the crew doing? any new developments or anything?
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Post by murphysmom on Aug 31, 2009 18:54:35 GMT -5
Nothing new on the rest of the crew. Still moving at a slow pace. I thought the sweet potato acted like the pumpkin??? I keep letting them try the raw and everything, but they are not completely into it as Noah is with the baby food( he doesn't even go after the raw as much as he does the baby food : . Oh well, still plugging along.
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