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Post by kuuipo61606 on May 29, 2008 13:23:21 GMT -5
ok... i have some chicken that my dad got from the supermarket... is that ok to feed to my babies? it's frozen and it says no additives or preservatives. how do i thaw it out and do i have to clean it? how much should i give? thanks! Gina
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Post by Forum Administrator on May 29, 2008 17:19:52 GMT -5
Raw chicken breasts are good for transitioning your ferts to natural foods. Ones from the supermarket should be fine. When they are eating the chicken breasts, thats when you "upgrade" to chicken that still has skin and fat on it. In the beginning, when they are transitioning, give them as much chicken as they will eat. Once they get onto 100% natural foods, you go from there. I used to have four ferrets that shared a cage. They were all over 1 year old (two males and two females) I would feed them 1 chicken thigh in the morning and then about a fist sized portion of boneless meat at night. How much a ferret will need to eat will depend on its age, weight, gender, activity level, etc. Basically you just see how much food they will eat. Ferrets very rarely become obese. If I fed my old crew too much food, they would always leave leftovers. I knew I was feeding the right amount of food if there were no (or only a little) leftovers at the end of the day. See your thread that has pics of gidget in it. I gave you the basic "ferret food pyramid" of what food groups you should be feeding your ferts. Oh, and to thaw out the breasts, place them on a plate in your fridge. Let them thaw out in there. When its time to serve you can just cut it up and serve like that, or you can rinse in hot water and blot with a paper towel (to remove some bacteria and warm it up to "prey body temperature" to make it more appealing). I just serve my meats as is. I dont wash and blot...I used to, but not anymore. Hope this helps. Oh, and I'm gunna scoot this thread over to the "Natural Diet Newbies" area. More people will see it over there and hopefully chime in on making the switch to a better diet for your little ones!
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Post by kuuipo61606 on May 29, 2008 17:47:53 GMT -5
yea thanks i didn't know where i should put it, so i just put it in raw... but this is better. lol thanks for all the info, it really helps
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Post by Forum Administrator on May 29, 2008 18:01:08 GMT -5
No problem at all Im really excited for you!
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Post by kuuipo61606 on Jun 2, 2008 17:51:48 GMT -5
i have two more official CHICKEN eaters. Jack and Jill. but i'm still trying to get Zeak and Vanilla into it. we'll try again tomorrow! *crossing fingers*
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Post by Forum Administrator on Jun 3, 2008 14:24:35 GMT -5
Yay! Thats great news! Keep up the good work! I'm sure they will come around eventually.
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Post by kuuipo61606 on Jun 3, 2008 18:00:34 GMT -5
ok... today i went to the store and got some wingettes that still had the fat and skin attached. i thought that should be big enough to share at first. i dribbled some ferretone on it and some crumbled up kibble, put it down for them to eat it and grabbed some food for myself. when i came back to the pen, all the ferretone and kibble was gone and the bare naked wingette remained. haha! they licked the thing clean and left it to rot! i thought it was because it was cold so i warmed it in a plastic bag with water, and i put it back in. they licked it some more but nothing drastic. the most they do with it is pull it to a corner and leave it. o well. time is time. i'll keep trying. my dad even suggested starving them for about 12 hours then seeing how they react to meat. i said wow dad you know more about this than i do! hehe! but i think i'll leave that for another day. Gidget has an appointment for the vet tomorrow so maybe after that.
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Post by Forum Administrator on Jun 3, 2008 21:01:02 GMT -5
I recommend fasting for 12 hours if your ferrets are healthy and non-insulinomic. Eating the meat off the bone requires a little more work then crunching up kibble, or even eating the chunks of raw chicken breast. There is alot of complicated ripping and tearing involved.
You can try fasting and then adding the kibble and ferretone. Another thing you can do to make it easier for them is to take some scissors and cut into the meat. Make it so that little bits of the meat are hanging out from the bone, so that its easy to grab on and start chewing. Does this make sense?
Good luck!
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Post by kuuipo61606 on Jun 3, 2008 22:09:02 GMT -5
perfect sense! thanks!
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