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Post by furmomma27 on Feb 6, 2010 14:27:20 GMT -5
Alright, they started eating the mixed soup with no hesitation yesterday! My boys! Also, my Magic Bullet missed a few pieces I guess, because there were a few chunks of chicken in there... But they ate them! They were gladly gnawing on these huge things of chicken. I was "scrubbing" their litterbox and looked up to see Bandit going to town on a piece of chicken the size of two quarters side by side but with some height to it. I couldn't believe it!! o_0 He chewed on it until it was gone and started looking for more! My babies are making this switch so easy!! <3 Is it wrong to be proud of them?
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Post by ccretarolo on Feb 6, 2010 16:47:47 GMT -5
You can be very proud of them.
Since they'll eat chunks now, try only blending up half of each of their meals. The other half can be small chunks. Also, try to incorporate some bone in pieces. For this part of the switch, cornish game hens are good because all of the bone is very soft compared to full grown chicken bones. At this point, just make any pieces as small as you can.
Don't be discouraged if they spit out the bone. It's normal at this point in the switch but they'll probably start eating bone once they realize that it's actually food.
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Post by ccretarolo on Feb 9, 2010 20:10:00 GMT -5
How are the boys doing?
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Post by furmomma27 on Feb 9, 2010 22:27:50 GMT -5
VERY well! I just came on to report that they are already eating the bone! I gave them some last night, and this morning it was NOWHERE to be seen, even after searching the entire cage (thinking they hid it somewhere). I found only the smallest fragment of bone at the bottom of the cage. I was quite surprised to say the least! I figured they'd eat the meat and leave the bone like you said they might. Silly me underestimating my darling duo.
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Post by ccretarolo on Feb 10, 2010 0:42:53 GMT -5
It seems like they might be ready to stop getting soup! Try giving them just chunks tomorrow and see what happens. If they eat them without any hesitation, you can set any soup you have aside as a treat for good behavior.
Now we need to work on variety. I highly suggest that you look into any ethnic stores that are in your area. That's where you're going to find most of your organ meat along with the best deals for regular shopping trips (always be sure to save space for any great sales though!).
Since you're feeding chicken, I would suggest that you start buying whole chickens and game hens for that protein source. Look around your local markets and figure out what other meats are within your budget on a regular basis. You'll need to give at least 3 different kinds of meat but I want you to try 4-5 if possible (even if one kind is fed very rarely).
My rotation is: Chicken/game hen Pork (mostly heart) Duck (heads, wings, and hearts) Rabbit (dressed, once a week due to cost) Beef (maybe twice a month) Whole mice (only for Ozzy and never more then once a month due to cost).
I would like it if you could get back to me in the next couple of days with the other kinds of meat that you can feed along with the frequency you want to feed them. If you can only find and/or afford 2 more protein sources, that's all right. Also, unless you find a sale that's too good to pass up, don't buy more of your other meats then what will last you a week or so. I just want to be sure that neither of your boys has any intolerances or allergies before putting anything new in frequent rotation.
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Post by furmomma27 on Feb 10, 2010 16:08:40 GMT -5
What allergies/intolerances can they have with a raw diet? I can get chicken(bits and whole), beef, and pork. I'd prefer to stay away from rabbit and mice/any whole prey though, and I can't seem to find cornish game hens ANYWHERE! I could probably get deer/moose too. Maine has a good hunting season. I'm not limited to quantity/price with their food, we have a healthy food budget in this family. Our local supermarket has gizzards, hearts, and livers thankfully (as we don't have any ethnic stores around here). Also, they're actually already eating chunks. I tried seeing how they'd react to them not yesterday, but the night before, and they were quite content to munch. A whole two weeks after starting the switch my boys seem happy with it, are off kibble and soup, and eating bone. I had worries that they might be difficult and take FOREVER. So glad they have proven me wrong.
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Post by ccretarolo on Feb 11, 2010 0:00:50 GMT -5
Well... It sucks about your lack of variety. But chicken, beef, and pork is a good enough variety. As for game hens, just keep an eye out whenever you go shopping. Some stores only order them on a very sporadic basis.
For now, I would like it if you could start giving them some pork chunks.
As for intolerances, some ferrets just can't eat particular meats for whatever reason. My boys cannot and will not eat turkey at all... The few times I gave them more then a little bit in soup, there was bad looking poop and possibly a little bit of vomit. Since I don't know which one of them got sick from it, I just don't feed it.
Adding a single meat to the diet at a time helps to eliminate the source of any problems that may come up.
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Post by furmomma27 on Feb 11, 2010 21:13:33 GMT -5
Gave them pork chunks this morning. They ate them. Normal looking poop so far, no vomit either.
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Post by ccretarolo on Feb 12, 2010 0:34:54 GMT -5
Great! Keep with the pork for a couple of days and then switch out the pork for beef. You'll also want to start working on getting your bone in chicken chunks larger if possible. Once you have them eating eating bone in meals 4 days a week, boneless 2 days a week, and one organ day... Along with 3 types of meat, write out a weekly meal schedule for me and we can work on getting your boys graduated from the program! p.s. Sorry if my grammar seems off. I have Spanish class on Tuesday and Thursday evenings .
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Post by furmomma27 on Feb 19, 2010 14:50:57 GMT -5
I have been a little preoccupied the last couple of days... Forgot to post. Their feeding schedule: Sun- 1 heart, 1 liver, 3 gizzards, and 1/2 a raw egg EACH Mon- 1 wing EACH Tue- 1/2 cornish game hen SHARE Wed- 1/2 cup boneless beef chunks EACH Thur- 1/2 cornish game hen SHARE Fri- 1/2 cup boneless pork chunks EACH Sat- 1 wing EACH They seem to like EVERYTHING. But I do have a question/concern. It seems sometime last night/early this morning, one of them threw up a little? And Scamp has a blemish on his shoulder blades. I say blemish because I'm not sure if he may have had an issue with something he ate recently (or what as I'm not sure how their allergies would work) OR if maybe they got a little too rough while eating the cornish game hen yesterday? Their poop also looks a LITTLE seedy, but I figured maybe because yesterday was only the second time they've had CGH so maybe they ate too fast? I was thinking that may hint to the blemish/boo boo being from a little too rough rough housing as well? Thanks!
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Post by ccretarolo on Feb 20, 2010 18:44:59 GMT -5
I'll be forwarding your schedule to my mentor and I'll get back to you with any recommended revisions.
As for the blemish, if it starts fading in the next couple of days, it's a bruise. If it's not showing signs of fading in 3-4 days, you need to get him into a vet ASAP. Skin discoloration is hardly ever good but your vet is the only one who can give you a proper diagnosis.
If you keep on running into issues with seedy poops, take some of the skin off of the CGH and try to get slightly leaner cuts of beef and pork for them (if you can't spend the extra money, just cut some of the marbling out before feeding).
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Post by furmomma27 on Feb 21, 2010 1:15:46 GMT -5
By blemish/boo boo, I meant it was almost a scab. But it looks better already just today, so I think they just rough housed over the CGH. K, I'll check back here to see if there are any revisions I should make. Also, it may just have been the skin then. You can't get much leaner pork or beef than what I'm buying already! They're spoiled little ferts.
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Post by ccretarolo on Feb 21, 2010 3:15:41 GMT -5
Well, roughousing is totally normal when it comes to raw food so don't worry too much about it. To discourage really bad fights in the future though, try having 2 feeding dens available. It'll encourage them to eat separately and diffuse most fighting.
Also, cristina got back to me and also said that the seedy poops could be from them eating too fast. You may want to try to give them larger chunks of food to see if that's the issue.
Also, do they finish their wings pretty quickly? You might want to consider giving them 2 wings a day rather then just one. A normal wing meal for my boys is one duck wing... Chicken wings are given as part of a larger bone in chicken meal.
One more thing, I would really like it if you could give them more chicken. You could cut up some chicken breast to go with a boneless meal or replace a chicken wing with a thigh or neck. One important part of a raw diet is variety within your protein sources.
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Post by cristina on Mar 2, 2010 11:50:05 GMT -5
I just wanted to make a comment in addition... At the least you want 3 different types of meat (at the end of your switch) in their diet. The easiest meats are usually chicken, beef and pork....but a variety is key and strongly recommended, like if you see cornish game hens, duck, pheasant, rabbit meats, and venison too you mentioned...these are great sources as well, even though I know they can be very scarce and hard to find sometimes ...just try to keep an eye out for these special meats (although they may take a little longer for your guys to develop a taste for them since they have more bold tastes, but it can be done ) Great job, and keep up the good work!
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Post by furmomma27 on Mar 29, 2010 17:23:13 GMT -5
Been away awhile, sorry! We moved and it's been hectic with the ferrets, dogs, baby, and unpacking. The boys are pros at the raw diet thing. XD They love EVERYTHING they've had and gobble down organs like they're going out of style! Their diet is currently: Sun- 2 hearts, 2 livers, 6 gizzards, and a raw egg Mon- 2 wings, 1 thigh Tue- 1/2 cornish game hen Wed- 1 cup boneless beef chunks, 1/2 cup chicken breast Thur- 1/2 cornish game hen Fri- 1 cup boneless pork chunks, 1/2 cup chicken breast Sat- 3 wings (they wouldn't eat two each)
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