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Post by bug on May 2, 2010 17:37:14 GMT -5
I found a few different recipes for soupie and wanted to give it a try with Sozi. Since she has never had any type of raw foods how should I go about getting her interested in eating it? I picked up a few items.. a whole chicken which included the neck and giblets, some beef liver and even a small jar of stage 2 chicken baby food. I left her have a sniff of the baby food and up went the nose like what are you trying to feed me lol
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Post by Heather on May 2, 2010 18:43:04 GMT -5
This is a recipe that I use for my guys or at least it's very similar 8 oz raw chicken thigh meat (including skin and fat) 1 tsp of crushed eggshell powder (take a raw eggshell. Rinse it out. Let it dry. Crush to powder) 1 raw chicken heart 1/2 raw chicken liver Water or chicken broth (use more to make it soupier, less to make it thicker) Blend ingredients together. Some prefer it at room temp. Try putting a dollop of "soup" onto your ferret's nose and they probably will lick it off. I use my finger. Sometimes this takes a little bit trying to convince them that you're not trying to poison them I find within a very short time they're licking this off my finger. When I see that they're willing to eat freely off my finger then I use a small spoon to try and get them to eat from that. Try to get them eating the soupy on their own. Most ferrets will willingly eat the food once they actually TASTE it, so the only struggle you *should* encounter is them not wanting to taste it. With your little one being not much more than a baby you shouldn't find it difficult to convince him to eat his food once he's started tasting it. Each time you make your soupy, use a little less water to make it thicker/chunkier. Replace soup with fresh soup every 4-6 hours. You can make a large batch if you like and freeze into ice cubes or cupcake trays. Then you just thaw a portion and serve. OR you can put a frozen "cube" into their bowl and let it slowly thaw. I use this method to switch all my furbabies and I've personally switched approximately 30 ferrets of my own in the last few years. Anyway, if you have any questions or qualms, please continue to ask questions. IF you like you can also prowl through the various mentoring threads where you can read over the various recipes and methods that have been used, think about what you would like to try. Please remember that there are many different ways of switching ferrets, probably as many ways as there are ferrets and ferret slaves and there is no right or wrong way to switch a ferret, just the way to switch "your" ferret ciao
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Post by bug on May 2, 2010 19:50:56 GMT -5
Thank you so much!!! I will give this recipe a try! I was reading something also about the dry kibble and raw diet making an upset tummy... should I be pulling up the dry kibble right away or wait til she will actually eat a fair amount of the soupie?
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Post by Heather on May 2, 2010 21:45:01 GMT -5
I just pick up the kibbles while I'm doing the whole soupy feed. I often remove the kibbles in the morning when I let them out. I make up their soupy and then at different times during the morning I will catch them and offer it either off my finger or a spoon depending on how cooperative they are. Some only need a couple of nose dabs and they're licking the fingers clean and looking for more. That ferret would get a spoon to eat off and then trying to lead the ferret to the food bowl to get them to eat on their own. If they're reacting like I'm trying to poison them, then I still keep at it but then at lunch, they get put in their cage for an hour so they can eat their kibbles. After their hour then they're once again outside their cage playing and once again I'm catching them every so often and hand feeding them. Just how I do it ciao
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Post by sherrylynne on May 3, 2010 23:14:38 GMT -5
If he's quite young, you wouldn't want to remove the kibble for much more than about 5 hours at the outside. They have quite the appetite, so just a couple hours beforehand is usually sufficient.
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Post by bug on May 9, 2010 12:27:41 GMT -5
finally got a blender so going to try again with this soupie recipe and see if we have any success, I also got some ice cube trays so I can freeze up what isnt used Heres hoping she will take a nibble of it
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