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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 4, 2011 23:35:16 GMT -5
I read your post about her And you don't have to convince her- she already knows it You can let her forge ahead if you like by offering her some small pieces of the chicken by itself, or keep her at the same pace at the others. As for Gizmo, if you can feed him in the morning before you go to school, and then later on after you get home, that will be fine. I had to do that with Boris for 6 weeks before and after work . Hopefully by then, he'll also be taking it a bit better on his own. Next batch, since they are taking to this as well as they are, try cutting it down to 1/2 cup and see how they do. You can always soften and add more kibbles if you need to. Just make sure to try them with it BEFORE you freeze it
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Post by acodlin on Jan 4, 2011 23:43:14 GMT -5
I actually havent been freezing it yet. I've been making 2 days worth but half of what I made this afternoon is gone already. So tomarrow I'll have to make more I think! So I'll try 1/2 cup of kibble. I've been trying to puree the chicken less so its more chunky.. they havent seemed to mind that much. Gizmo hates the chunks ofcourse but most of the rest eat it fine.
Do you think it would be okay to give the baby a little bit of pumpkin, she's having some loose stools from eating the new soupie.. I'd hate to have her little bottom get sore. maybe 1/4 of a teaspoon? I'm so use to giving it to my bigger ferrets I'm not sure how much would be okay for her.
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 5, 2011 19:25:04 GMT -5
Definitely! At her age, she could easily get a small prolapse. Best to simply avoid it entirely. Give her 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of the pumpkin. Also, try her with some wing tips. She'll be teething and need something to chew on, and the bone will certainly help with the loose stools as well. And one other benefit? Ferrets are frequently "monkey see, monkey do", so if they see her eating like a "real" ferret, others will likely follow suit
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Post by acodlin on Jan 6, 2011 11:04:42 GMT -5
I made the new mix today, 1/2 cup of kibble 1.5lbs of chicken and 1 egg. Wasn't too well recieved. I had to spoon feed everyone the mix, some were okay once they got a taste.. however a few were pretty ticked. Gizmo was the worst.. It took me close to 10 minutes of struggling with him just to get him to take a lick, normally it isnt that bad. He did eat a spoonful, took another 10 minutes to get it down him. Now he's mad at me and wont let me touch him! Little booger.. The baby was having terrible diahrrea yesterday night so I did give her a little bit of her crappy marshalls kibble (if you've ever used it, you know its good for one thing, making massive formed stools), I was having trouble getting her to eat pumpkin. I did get 1/4 of a teaspoon in her this morning, and she ate the new soupie mix pretty well. I'm pretty sure she's deaf, she screamed at me when I tried to get her to eat the pumpkin, and then she started chewing on the container lid so I took it away from her and she screamed and hissed, threw a huge fit over it! She's going to be a real brat! I'll try to get some wings today.. she's definitely teething, she chews on everything! I forgot just how much you have to watch them, mine are all so good about not eating things they shouldnt. This one is going to keep me on my toes!
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 6, 2011 19:59:28 GMT -5
What a brat Yes, she's definitely at the "temper tantruming" age And it's possible she's deaf, although I've got a hearing one who can compete with my loudest deafies With the pumpkin, just mix it in with the meat mush right now. Goes down easier that way for some. As for Gizmo, are you willing to struggle with him to get him eating this, or would you rather back up a step? Either/or is just fine. We want to take this at a level that is not only comfortable for you, but for them as well . If you want to step back, just soak another 1/2 c. of the kibble, and mix that in.
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Post by acodlin on Jan 7, 2011 20:21:56 GMT -5
I'm going to keep the soupie mix the way it is and keep trying to get them to eat it. I hate to go back, Gizmo is just being a brat about it. Whats the best way to get Baby Berry to eat these wing tips? She licked at it but that was about it. I dont think she knows how to eat it.. I kept trying to get her to nibble on it but she was more interested in the soupies. Then I made a HUGE mistake and left the wing on a plate next to me and Church stole the wing and before I could grab her, made a mad dash with it. I tried to chase her down but I can't figure out where she stashed it.. *sigh* I guess I will know when it starts to smell right? lol
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 7, 2011 20:49:06 GMT -5
Actually, it will likely dry, and you'll see one of them running across the room with it a week or so from now As for baby, you can try leaving her in the cage with the wing tip for a couple of hours. Smear some soup on it so she starts to associate the two. If she hasn't eaten any, give her some soupies so she can keep up her energy to terrorize everyone else
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Post by acodlin on Jan 8, 2011 17:46:25 GMT -5
Oh yuk, well I'm still not smelling it so your probably right.. ugh Smearing the soupie on it helped. I actually dont think I bought the right thing, I got wingettes, either way I made a few slashes in the meat with a knife and loosened the meat a little bit and smeared soupie all over it and inside of it. She's happily gnawing on it right now, making quite the mess! The rest are already doing better with soupies. I made another batch today and they ate two bowls already. The girls do absolutely wonderful, but some of the boys are still being hesitant. I'm thinking about moving ahead with some of them next week and dropping the kibble back to 1/4 a cup for them and just making a seperate batch for Gizmo and just keep slowly trying to wean him off. I was hoping to keep them all at the same pace, it makes it hard to give certain ones different food, I almost have to put him in a cage alone to make sure he's eating it. I know if I leave one with more kibble out that everyone else will still want to eat it. Just not sure what to do with him. I'll keep pushing him for a few days and see what he does. He's started doing baby licks off the spoon, where he looks like hes eating a bunch but he's just barely licking it. The chunks may be turning him off, I dont know. I was making it more the consistancy of ground when I put it in the food processor, so it's alot thicker and has more chunks. I may just have to purree his a little more.
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 8, 2011 19:01:45 GMT -5
Actually, pureeing his might be the best bet right now. Once he's eating it willingly(or a reasonable facsimile thereof!), start moving toward a ground consistency again. Him, you are likely going to be hand feeding for a while. By all means, move ahead with the others. The more who are eating the chunkier version, the better. That old "monkey see, monkey do" thing. With Berry, since she's now gnawing on it well, try hooking it through a joint, and clipping it to the side of the cage so it dangles, but she can easily reach it. For some reason, dangling things really attract them. That way, she also has something to tear against as well. It will also help build up her jaw strength that much faster.
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Post by acodlin on Jan 9, 2011 18:17:33 GMT -5
Well I did what you said, I had some shower hooks I had bought to hang hammies with and she managed to rip that wing piece right off the hook. She ate every bit of meat off of it and was gnawing the crap out of the bone up until a little while ago. I dont think she's going to be an issue to switch completely lol, the only kibble she's getting is the little bit in her soupies. Should I be worrying about making sure she's eating a balanced meal? I can get chicken hearts/livers/gizzards and I think I saw some calf liver at walmart.
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 9, 2011 19:25:38 GMT -5
It sounds like she's ready to go full speed ahead Yeah, I think I'd start getting her diet balanced for her. Babies especially need a lot of calcium. Since she's eating the chicken, and a good bit of the bone, get some heart and liver at least. I'm sure she'll love gizzard as well(it's a muscle meat, not organ. Same for heart). The gizzard will also help strengthen her jaws more. Try her with the heart and liver, either together or separate. Warning- they are both really blood rich, and the liver especially has a good bit of iron. So her stool is going to be blackish and very tarry from it. Try to give her a bone meal next. You can also start introducing new meats 2-3 days apart. That way, if she's got some sort of sensitivity, you'll know what's causing it. For hooking them up, you might have to push the hook through the joint itself to hold it better
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Post by acodlin on Jan 10, 2011 22:36:15 GMT -5
Well I was a bad mom today. I didnt get the chicken livers or hearts, just managed to get gizmo fed and soupie made. I have bronchitis and sinus infection and its just kicking my butt! I felt bad, I didnt even get any chunks cut up for church and kodiak, hopefully I feel better quick! Berry is just absolutely tearing up the wing chunks. She almost ignores her soupie until the wing is gone. I'm going to hopefully make it to walmart tomarrow and I want to get her started on a feeding den. She really likes to drag her wings around. They are staying on the hooks pretty well until shes eaten all the meat of of it, but then she likes to drag it into my blankies and gnaw on it while she lays there (soo cute)
How much liver and heart should I give her? maybe 1/4 of teaspoon of each to start? I know those chicken livers are actually pretty big.
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 10, 2011 22:50:58 GMT -5
I'm sorry you're feeling so bad! Fingers crossed you are better soon! Don't beat yourself up for not doing your usual when you are feeling anything but!!! They'll be fine A normal chicken liver is about 2 oz, which is fed weekly. As for Berry, I'd give her half of that, anyway, mixed in with some other meats. As for the heart, she can have however many she'll eat. It's just a muscle meat anyway. And the taurine is necessary, especially during initial growth periods. In fact- give her as much as she can eat of all of it She's a growing girl!
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Post by acodlin on Jan 11, 2011 23:45:33 GMT -5
Berry ate almost two whole wingettes today. She's eating some of the bone, maybe 1/4 of it. Still havent made it out of the house, we had bad weather today plus I'm still feeling yukky.
New issue is that the rest of my crew is starting to have diahrrea. I made a new batch of soupies tonight and I added in 3 heaping teaspoons of pumpkin to it. They are not to keen on the pumpkin for some reason reason, but I got everyone to eat some. I'm hoping its enough to help, not sure what else I can do. I know they are missing out since they are not eating bone yet. I'm going to try to reduce the kibble to 1/4 cup with the next batch I make. Hopefully by this time next week they will be eating soupie with no kibble (other than gizmo ofcourse, that brat). I'll try to sneak some small pieces of heart/liver into it once I make it to the store.
With the egg that I'm mixing into the soupies, am I suppose to put the shell in too? I havent been because I was afraid the little pieces might get stuck in someones throat but its kind of silly I suppose, they can eat bone, a shell shouldnt be a problem. It's a little hard to wrap my mind around sometimes, I'm so use to seeing so many things as being bad or dangerous for them. I've had 2 actually choke on kibble and had to help them get it out of their mouth, so I'm a little paranoid about anything I think they could choke on.
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 12, 2011 0:41:41 GMT -5
Understandable! I actually had one choke on ground raw. However- because it's raw, it's also slimy, so it generally will NOT stick. Which means they CAN get it either up or down on their own. And he did get it up on his own. Just scared the devil out of me . It was right at the beginning of the switch, and Vincent decided to be a piggy and eat too fast He did learn from that, though. As for the eggshell, do you have either a spare coffee grinder, or a mortar and pestle(I use a grinder because I'm lazy ). Grind up a rinsed out, totally dry eggshell to a powder, and add 1/2 tsp to 8 oz of meat. That will help meet their calcium requirements(deficiencies won't bother them for quite some time yet), as well as stabilizing their stools. They'll get used to the pumpkin taste. Mine get it every morning in their commercial raw. Although I don't know I'd add 3 large tbsp For 9, I usually put in 1 tbsp(approx 12 oz of meat) For Berry, if you want, use a hammer on the drumette bone while still in the meat. That's likely the part she's still having trouble with, although she will get stronger as time goes on. Just think- we are basically giving a little creature who can bite if angry the means to get even stronger jaws Believe me- I laughed over that idea with my fear biter, Willow Then I stopped and thought...Hmmmm......nah- she needs the bone
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