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Post by lozza on Dec 13, 2010 6:45:34 GMT -5
Ok I'll try that with giving him other stuff for a while. Usually he loves chicken muscle meat. He's being such a little bugger at the moment. I just look at his little face and forgive him instantly. DARN HIM!! He is just too darn cute!!
I'm mostly using my phone so I know wot it is like! Its hard to type and also to remember everything that was said because it doesn't let me view the original posts when I'm replying. Grr!!! Lol
Ok I shall wait to hear back from ya :-)
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Post by katt on Dec 13, 2010 15:39:27 GMT -5
Oh they are little buggers about making you forgive them wih those little furry masked faces!  I know ALLLL about that! Koda is the King of ferret puppy faces when he wants something or gets into trouble. Haha  try no chicken for a few days and then see if he will take it after a little break from it. I don't know much about going into season since both of mine are mill babies  but it is possible the change in food preference is part of the Whole I'M A BIG SEXY HOB thing... Lol |
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Post by katt on Dec 14, 2010 7:11:05 GMT -5
Let me know how he does with the other meats, then after a few days if he is eating well, try the chicken again and see how he does. Keep me posted!  |
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Post by lozza on Dec 14, 2010 7:19:24 GMT -5
Haha yeah I can't stay mad at him for so long! I think every time I look at him I fall in love with him a little bit more. In my personal opinion he is the cutest ferret I've ever seen HAHA (I bet everyone says that!!) I am just DYING to get a better camera so I can take some better pics of him as 98% of the pics I've taken on my iPhone are blurry as it's not quick enough. I'm sick of only being able to take pictures of him sleeping ha ha :-)
I actually have given him chicken tonight...by mistake! I didn't turn turn kitchen light on when I was getting his food out of the freezer last night and I got chicken out instead of pork. Doh! Anyways when I put it in he did seem quite interested in it..so I shall see what happens overnight with it!
I shall keep you posted :-D
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Post by lozza on Dec 14, 2010 7:21:00 GMT -5
Just wanted to add - if chicken doesn't work tonight and it's all left over the next morning I will take it out and boycott chicken for a bit (I'll even move it to another part of the freezer so I can't confuse it for other meats!!)
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Post by katt on Dec 14, 2010 7:27:54 GMT -5
Just wanted to add - if chicken doesn't work tonight and it's all left over the next morning I will take it out and boycott chicken for a bit (I'll even move it to another part of the freezer so I can't confuse it for other meats!!) You may want to start labeling your meats if you don't. I found that when I discovered Koda had IBD, I regretted not labeling them. Before he flared up he could eat anything, so I didn't bother with labels I just made the bags as balanced as possible and could get a general idea of what was what through the bag. Now I have to track his food carefully. An Kenai can eat things he can't. So what I have been doing is using permanent marker and masking tape to label the baggies of food. I use abbreviations like Chicken WLG means chicken wing, liver, gizzards. |
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Post by lozza on Dec 15, 2010 8:21:57 GMT -5
It's funny you should say that as I was just lying in bed thinking how best to label the different meats and I came up with the idea of masking tape and permanent marker too hehe :-)
I'm FINALLY almost out of meat so will have to do a big shop over the weekend and make up a heap of bags of food for him!
Here's the meats I wanna shop for....
Chicken Neck
Chicken Heart
Chicken Thigh
Chicken Liver
Chicken Gizzards (if I can find them!)
Pork Muscle meat (depends what cuts I find!)
Beef muscle meat
Beef liver
Rabbit!! I've not seen rabbit in the shops so am going to visit some butchers abd see if I can find it abd see what cuts they have on offer
Turkey - again, need to see what I can find
I want to make up bags with a variety of things in it so he doesn't get bored.....out of the above, do u have any ideas of the combinations that would be best to use, or what meats go best with each other?
:-)
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Post by katt on Dec 15, 2010 13:36:30 GMT -5
In the long run you will want more variety than that.  See if you can find some other organ sources such as with the rabbit of course if its whole or pork/beef kidney. You want more than one source of organ in terms of both animal and organs. So mixing in the occasional bit of kidney will help with that. It is pretty strong tasting though so some people say to mix in only small chunks or mask it in soupies. Last te i tried it i had no issue getting Koda to eat it so it just depends on the ferret I guess. Some other meats you might want to look for (I understand if there's no room in the freezer this time lol) are kangaroo (foxfire is a member on here also from AUS and she feeds it), pork organs, beef heart (warning this one is smelly!), quail, Cornish game hen, turkey gizzards and liver and heart if you can find it, lamb, pheasant, small amounts of small, freshwater fish can even be fed on occasion. Just some ideas to consider as the more variety you get the better. Also for the chicken, Sherrylynne suggested for withholding it for 2+ weeks rather than just days. If you wait to totally stock your freezer this might be a good chance to try out a few of the different meats one at a time or something. |
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Post by katt on Dec 18, 2010 13:38:21 GMT -5
Hey! I just wanted to give you a heads up that I will be leaving to visit family tonight. I should be able to get on by tomorrow even, but I might not be able to get on for a day or two. I WILL have internet for the time I am there, if nothing else on my phone. I will probably be on every night going through ferret withdrawals! So pleeease post any pictures you want! I will be missing my fuzz faces so I'll crave pictures extra! |
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Post by emntl on Dec 18, 2010 16:34:04 GMT -5
About My Ferret: Koda – male, Real Canadian, not quite a year old (was about 8 weeks old when I bought him in December 2009), Sable. I gave him raw the second he came home and neither of us has ever looked back. Okay, I don't mean to butt into this (is this legal haha?) But I am more than likely bringing home two young (4-7 months) Canadian ferrets in Jan. Can I just start them on raw right off the bat? I'm sure they have been eating dry... I'm sorry if I wasn't supposed to ask this here but it perfectly kind of answers my question.. |
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Post by katt on Dec 18, 2010 18:43:10 GMT -5
About My Ferret: Koda – male, Real Canadian, not quite a year old (was about 8 weeks old when I bought him in December 2009), Sable. I gave him raw the second he came home and neither of us has ever looked back. Okay, I don't mean to butt into this (is this legal haha?) But I am more than likely bringing home two young (4-7 months) Canadian ferrets in Jan. Can I just start them on raw right off the bat? I'm sure they have been eating dry... I'm sorry if I wasn't supposed to ask this here but it perfectly kind of answers my question.. You should start a switching thread, or sign up for the mentor program. But no, not a problem asking here. You will get more detailed responses from more people if you start a separate thread through. If the ferrets are young kits, you can switch them cold turkey. 4-7 months is a bit of a gap in ferret years though. 7 months you could TRY cold turkey, but I would have a thing of kibble on hand in case they don't take to it right away. 4 months should be ok. Both of mine were about 2 months old when I brought them home. I gave them raw the second they walked in the door and they have not had anything since. Each ferret is a little different though. Koda took to whole raw right away, while Kenai needed soupies for a day or two before he would eat chunks/bones. But the short answer to your question is yes. |
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Post by katt on Dec 21, 2010 17:47:31 GMT -5
Just a bump for updates. |
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Post by katt on Dec 25, 2010 1:52:41 GMT -5
Merry Christmas! |
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Post by lozza on Dec 27, 2010 18:02:40 GMT -5
Hello! I'm still alive, things just got crazily busy what with going back to work and now christmas rufus is doing well as always.. he seems to have stopped the crazy scratching too which is good :-) I am still going to take him to the vet in the new year for a checkup however :-) a little while ago i went out and got some meat to tide him over the christmas season. I did what you had suggested and labelled them all... it was an epic operation but went rather well! EDIT: I have tried about 100 million times to display the image but it WONT WORK so here is the link to it on flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/7310054@N02/5273381940/in/photostreamalso! for christmas i got a meat cleaver AND an ulu knife... Rufus also got to have the turkey neck (mum saved it for him.. aww!) so using the cleaver, i chopped it up into bits and it is now part of his freezer collection. I tried him on beef heart, beef liver, and also pork, and he loves all of them. I find the key is to give him a *little* bit less the day/night before, because then he is slightly hungrier and more likely to wanna be eat (and less likely to be a fusspot). Next time i go shopping i am going to try and find rabbit and a bit of duck for him to try. I recently tried duck myself and LOVED it so i would like him to have a little too, coz it sure was yummy ha ha.I am also going to try and find Kidney but couldn't find that last time i went on a hunt.. i think the key is going to the butchers and reasoning with them.. explaining what i want the organs/off cuts/etc etc for and hoping they will be interested enough to save some stuff for me. Its all about making friends with these types of people haha! How did your Christmas go? :-) Hope you enjoyed your time with your family :-D |
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Post by katt on Dec 28, 2010 4:25:47 GMT -5
My computer is on again off again. :,( Right now it's off again so I'm on my phone again. lol sorry  You are doing a GREAT job, keep it up! Rufus is doing well too I don't know about you, but I feel like you are getting pretty doggone close to graduation. Rufus is totally off kibble now and eating solid chunks and bones of a variety of meat sources and organs. You are planning his meals with variety and a good balance of meat:bone:organ and are able to incorporate new meats very well. You are doing great! So it is up to you. I am more than happy to continue working with you onstuff and answering questions of course. But if you feel pretty confident in things, we can begin the steps of graduation. Otherwise I am very happy to continue being your mentor of course - this is fun! If you feel like you need more time we will keep working, if you feel like you might be ready for graduation then let me know. You'll need to submit a feeding schedule of a week or two's food including ingredients and amounts of each with all elements demonstrating you can set up a proper variety, and balance or bone meat and organs. I submit that to Heather for approval and we can work on tweaking it until you have the right balance. When you get a menu approved, then you graduate officially. |
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