bone problem...

[molson901]

ok so my 9 month old ferret,molson is starting to eat raw foods,right. but im having a really hard time gettin ghim to eat the bone...and even just the meat on the bone. i tried doing the slashes in the meat so that molson can grab the meat easier but i dont think thats working out well...i also tried to break the bone so taht the marrow is showing..still nothing. anyone got an idea? thanks!

[Forum Administrator]

Hi Catherine. I'll be interested to hear what others say to this, because Sams is refusing to eat bone as well (and I tried the two things you did too)

[jojodancer]

Can you cut wingettes into tiny pieces that include bone, meat, and skin? The pieces may be kibble sized, or the size of a chicklet. Then gradually increase the size of the pieces.

I think a wingette would be easier since the bone isn't quite as daunting as a neck, leg, or back.

[tss]

Starting out I used kitchen shears to cut chicken into pea sized pieces, it's easier to do with ribs and wings. You can try cutting wings or skin-on bone-in chicken breasts into small pieces.

[buzzonesbirdie]

If you think size is a problem try getting a cornish game hen which has smaller bones. this worked on a few of mine that were holdingo ut on eating bone.

[tako]

also, I've heard that sometimes breaking up the bones a lot so that all the marrow inside is very exposed sometimes convinces the ferrets that they are tasty!

[molson901]

i just dont know where to get those meats? right now for bones i have lamb chicken wing and chicken back and necks....and i dont know how i would cut those bones?

[Forum Administrator]

Catherine, you might also want to pop in to NaturalFerrets. There are many many senior raw feeders on their (this forum is mostly newbies with a few members from NaturalFerrets giving advice).

NaturalFerrets is where I and the HF mentors go to get OUR questions answered. I know the yahoo! group list format sucks, but its certainly worth stopping by. Ask your question there, and see what answers you get.

pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/NaturalFerrets/

[mustelidmusk]

All the above suggestions are good.
You may want to start with ground diet.
If you don't have a grinder, you can do the following...

Chicken backs, necks, wing tips and ribs have easy-to-eat bones. Plus, as previously mentioned, the cornish game hen is easy to eat as well. I've found that I can cut these up with poultry shears or a decent knife. I make the bone as small as possible.

Also, Thigh meat is good to add since dark meat is better than white meat. (More fat, more taurine)

I also offer avelevt anter, which is soft bone. I get the small dog treats from Bonus Velvet ANtler, which you can look up on line. If your kds don't want to crunch on these just yet, you can easily clip the treat into tiny bits. the good part about velvet antler is that its really porous, so it readily absorbs lots of salmon oil, ferretone, baby food, etc. I thought my kids would be hopeless with bone until I started the antlers...they're soo much better with bone now.

It does take a while for some ferrets to learn how to eat the big stuff - not just bone, but also tearing meat off bones, etc.

Also, bits of cartilage are good since they're softer than bone but not as hard. You can cut that big piece of cartilage that hangs off the breast bone off the beats and leave some meat there... it's like a raw meaty bone with a softer bone.

I've never done this, but bones can be boiled to the point of pretty much getting mushy. (DON"T use DRY COOKED bones since they are likely to splinter.)

In the mean time, if you're worried about lack of calcium, you can feed egg shell (I smash mine up onto a oase grind. I've found that big piece just annoy my ferrets by sticking flat on their tongues, gums and cheeks - they hate that!)

Also, the antlers and small bones can be ground/cut into small pieces.

Your kids will get better at this. Over time, you can let the grounds bits/cut bits get bigger . once they start crunching bone, you can start giving them chunks of wing tips, etc.

-jennifer

[mustelidmusk]

I put a fun recipe under raw diet general questions that helped my kids get started with raw meaty bones.

I think the cartilage helped develop chewing strength, and it may have helped prep them for bones. It definitely helped them learn to chow into chickenwith skin and pulling meat off the bone!

I don't feed whole prey, but it might help with that too...

It's a fun enrichment (at least my kids like it!)
-jennifer

[Heather]

I've found investing in a good hammer works absolutely fantastic LOL. It also works very well to vent various frustrations of the day on the said piece of bony meat . Grinding might be a good way to get your furbabies to eat bone but lacking that a good mallet and smash the bones into a more manageable size. My guys eat everything from ground to whole prey..that way I know I've covered all my bases and my guys are getting the correct amount of bone to meat ratios. Just a thought
Ciao

[josiesmom]

Try offering chicken necks too. These are small edible bones, with lots of connective tissue that is also good for joints. One chicken neck can be cut into thirds.

The small hunks don't seem to intimidate new carnivores and they can't help but scrape bone when trying to get at the meat.

If your local grocer doesn't carry them, check at a butcher shop. Turkey necks are great too, but tend to be much thicker than chicken necks and the bones are harder.

Also try sardines in spring water or oil - some ferrets love the fish and they can easily eat the sardine bones without any problems.

Sardines are 50% protein 50% fat! high in calcium and iron! However they are extremely high in selenium, so don't feed them often - selenium can be toxic if overfed!
see here:

www.nutritiondata.com/facts/finfish-and-shellfish-products/4114/2


I'll also do the pulverized egg shells and eggs - on Sundays.

If your ferret is eating mice, they'll get a fair amount of calcium from the mice bones.

IF you seriously think the ferret's diet is lacking in calcium get a calcium powder supplement from a local reptile supply house.

Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Kim

Cheers,
Kim

[molson901]

i tried the chicken necks and backs...nothing so i tried to smash it up w. a hammer...nothing. i have no clue where to get antlers and i cant order anything tahts food from the staes since i live in canada (trust me we lack of a lot of things over here...) i tried smashing up the bones and cutting the meat into tiny pieces...nothing....why is he so stubborn!!!

[mustelidmusk]

Why he's being stuborn - he's a FERRET!!! And he' a boy ferret at that - boys can be so stubborn about foodfor some reason.

Actually, eating bone is not an uncommon stumbling block. My kids still aren't a good as they should be with this, which is why I trie velevat antler.

Are your kids currently eating the raw chicken ground up?? If so, are they eating ground organ meats, skin, fat, and cartilage with that? Ground bone MIXED IN??? Over time, you can ground things more coarsly.

You can also add a ew pieces of dry kibble - (whole pieces) so there will be something hard/crunchy in the ground soft food. Organ meats, cartilage, and skin are tougher than the muscle meat, so they offer some variation in texture.

Tug of war with your ferret usng thick trips of meat- this will help teach him to tear meat with the canine teeth.

See that silly recipe I posted under general feeding called fake prey - I started dooing this to train my brats to eat raw meat bones and differeent textures.

I also coat the uyside of the meat chunks with ground kibble, egg shell, ground bone, etc. this keep the food from becoming one single smooth texture

See Yuki and Nikko's thread - My last post (start looking from the last page!) starts to talk about feeding bone.

Let us know what your kids are eaing now, we'll find a waty to work the bone in.

How old are your ferret??? Are their teeth on god shape??? ometime a tooth problem can make ferrets reluctant to eat bone, but if your ferret are new to raw diet and your ferrets are young, that's probably not the issue - but its good to check their teeth anyway.

-jennifer

[molson901]

molson is 9 months old. i dont think he has any teeth problem. ok so heres what i did today; i took chicken neck or back (dont knw which for sure..) and smashed it up w. a hammer until it was a gross smush and then cut up the meat off the bone and into small chunks (this was realllly gros by the way lol) then gave it to him... he ate all the chicken and the gross tuff on it.. i think he had a bit of bone on accident but he didnt eat the biggest piece of bone (bout an inch long) but i think he had some of it....so im thinking i might be getting somewhere!

since im not sure if he really had some bones i tried to boil an egg for him w. the intention to give him the shell too...but turns out i messed that up so it turned into srambled egg w. tiny smashed up egg shells...so thats alright,right? for calcium and all?