Starting raw: Questions & Progress

[eschimpf]

Okay to I've been reading a lot, mostly lurking.

I talked to the hubby and while he is squeamish, we have agree that if I handle the feedings, any frozen whole prey, and clean up, raw is a go.

So I'll be picking up everything for Heather's duck soup recipes.

8 oz raw chicken thigh meat (including skin and fat)
1/2 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
You then add either water or broth (real stuff not the bovril stuff) to make it as liquid as you desire.

I had eggs today so the shells are cleaned and drying as I erm.. type.

Some questions, I understand that it might take some time before Mr. Bean no longer thinks I am feeding him poison. Once that gets to that point what should I do, or should I say how do I go about the next step. I like to be very prepared, its a blessing and a curse trust me. I have been making a file on my laptop with information, I did the same thing when I first started with guinea pigs. I like to write things out, tends to stick better.

I'm also wondering about fish, there is so much about that I just don't understand, well basically all of it. Some things I have read say it makes them more stinky, while other readings say its ok. So how much would one feed? What types? How much? Is there some I should avoid?

I live only a 5 min drive from an awesome Asian superstore that has almost everything you can imagine when it comes to meat and fish. Lot of fresh stuff, as well as sea food, can they have things like shrimp, crab, octopus or other things along those line? What about duck eggs? Like I said there is almost nothing I can't get from them. I also found a frozen mice and rat person but I wanted to know if their prices sound okay or should I keep looking:

FROZ Mice-Feeder (bulk disc available)
Jumbo $1.25 40g+
Adult $1.05 25g approx
Weanling $.90 15-23g
Hopper $.80 8-12g
Fuzzy $.65 5-7g
Pinky (sm or lg) $.55 1.5-3.5g

FROZ Feeder Rats
**Pinky - 3-8g - 1.00
**Fuzzy - 9-20g - $1.40
Pups - 21-29g - $1.60
Weaned - 30-50g - $2.00
Small - 50-100g - $2.50
Medium - 100-200g - $3.75
Large - 200-300g - $5.00
Jumbo - 300-400g - $6.00
Colossal - 400G + - $7.00

Do they sound ok to you? I believe that is per rodent (Keep in mind we are a rat free province so buying rats are always OMG pricey).

Okay I think thats it for now, sorry to bomb bard you with so much, I just want to cover all my bases.

[sherrylynne]

As for the whole prey- that's less than I pay for mine,
With fish, since it's not really a "natural" part of a weasel's diet, limit it to weekly. The smaller the fish, the better, simply because of toxins that build up inside the fish body(small fish eats smaller, med. sized eats small, large eats med, etd.), and the mercury, etc simply accumulates in their bodies instead of being excreted. While too much fish can make their poops more smelly, I've found weekly isn't a problem, when they get it. The problem is fish kibbles.
For the soups, I started with smooth puree, then made it thicker by adding less broth/water every two or three days. Once it was a solid meat mush, I started adding slivers of meat til they were eating all slivers, then just increased the size of the bits.

[eschimpf]

Awesome thank you

[eschimpf]

Okay, I've now got LOTS of hearts, liver, thighs, turkey necks, pork, 1 whole Cornish hen (Which I chopped into 5oz feedings for later), and half a frying chicken. My husband had him out an I gave him some chicken skin, he gobbled it down! So that looks promising.



ETA: I made one batch of soup, and bagged 6 more to be mushed up.

[Heather]

Sounds like progress to me. Nomnom... He knows he needs the fat. That's a good start. Many of these little ones have no idea what their little bodies need.
ciao

[eschimpf]

I posted this in the little chat area below...

I've just finished making duck soup. How much should I try giving Mr. Bean?

[Heather]

As much as he will eat. Ferrets are quite good at self regulating. Some will overeat and make themselves sick, but often this occurs when they're trying to eat all the food so the others can't have any of the "good" thing. Ferrets aren't into sharing
ciao

[eschimpf]

LOL no sharing, gotcha.

While I was reading through a few things, I was thinking. Do I remove his kibble now or keep it in until he starts mopping up the soup and is working towards everything else?

[sherrylynne]

I'd take it out during the day, and give it back to him at night for now. Just make sure he's eating the raw ok.

[eschimpf]

Well well well!! Lookie at this! Seems someone loves duck soup!





So I moved a bunch into his food bowl.


Mr. Bean: "Mmmm mommy that looks so yummy!"


Yum!

[Heather]

You can remove his kibble for a couple of hours before you feed him. If he eats well, keep it away and try the raw in a couple of more hours. If he choses not to eat, or only picks at it then put his kibble back in with him an hour after he's eaten.
The way I work it (I'm at home most of the day) is while I"m at home and can supervise, the kibbles goes away on a shelf. The food bowl is in the kitchen, where I can watch who comes and goes and who eats or not. If my newbie is not eating on his own, then every now and again, I will pick him up and set him on my lap and I will hand feed him his soupy. If he's eating well (from a spoon) or on his own on my lap, I will start to space his feedings out and see if he will attempt to eat out of the bowl with the rest of the furbrats. If he's still quite sketchy and is only licking soupy off my finger, I will put him in his cage and feed him some kibble at lunch time. At the end of half an hour I pull him out of the cage and the whole process is started over again. At night, the kibble is placed in his cage and he sleeps alone. It's just how I do it. Others feed differently.
ciao

[eschimpf]

Nov 6, 2010 21:45:50 GMT -5 sherrylynne said:

I'd take it out during the day, and give it back to him at night for now. Just make sure he's eating the raw ok.

Oh ok

He really likes the duck soup, I am wondering if someone in his life fed him raw at some point, this seems pretty easy with him so far *knocking on wood*

[eschimpf]

Nov 6, 2010 21:48:48 GMT -5 Heather said:

You can remove his kibble for a couple of hours before you feed him. If he eats well, keep it away and try the raw in a couple of more hours. If he choses not to eat, or only picks at it then put his kibble back in with him an hour after he's eaten.
The way I work it (I'm at home most of the day) is while I"m at home and can supervise, the kibbles goes away on a shelf. The food bowl is in the kitchen, where I can watch who comes and goes and who eats or not. If my newbie is not eating on his own, then every now and again, I will pick him up and set him on my lap and I will hand feed him his soupy. If he's eating well (from a spoon) or on his own on my lap, I will start to space his feedings out and see if he will attempt to eat out of the bowl with the rest of the furbrats. If he's still quite sketchy and is only licking soupy off my finger, I will put him in his cage and feed him some kibble at lunch time. At the end of half an hour I pull him out of the cage and the whole process is started over again. At night, the kibble is placed in his cage and he sleeps alone. It's just how I do it. Others feed differently.
ciao

Oh that sounds so down to an art

[Heather]

Having personally switched over 30 ferts, most over the age of 3 has made things simpler. I think that even after switching over 100, they will still be able to throw a curve or two in there. There's nothing like a ferret to humble one and make you realize you know absolutely nothing
ciao

[justahannah]

I live near an Asian market too, they're wonderful for all kinds of meat I can't find anywhere else. With fish, I've found they don't add to the smell or poop...occassionally I'll mix salmon bellies in the ground raw I make, but I prefer the little lake smelt...they're maybe 5" long, tiny little silver guys. High in fatty acids, but not mercury since they're little prey fish. I usually use about a pound of fish per 20lb batch of food I put together, so no more than 5% of their diet.

When it comes to whole fish, I don't go with anything larger than smelt, I had a scare with mackerel...I had ground one up into their mix (I do a very coarse grind so they still get to crunch on bony chunks) and later I found Mokkun kind of gagging and salivating a lot. It turns out mackerel vertebrae are just the right size to make it through the grinder and fit over the back tooth like a ring. Poor Mokkun didn't have a way to work it off, but was fine once I popped it out...I had to toss a 20 lb batch of food, but was really glad I was home to notice when it happened.