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Post by Heather on Jan 9, 2011 0:36:34 GMT -5
The only thing that I saw that might give you trouble is the tripe. Ferrets are rather finicky about that  . Some like it but like cats most won't even try it. Other than that it does offer some awesome mixes. I can't get haretoday, they don't ship up here but I've been on their site as well as rodentpro and really wished they did ciao |
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Post by angelfish on Jan 9, 2011 16:04:34 GMT -5
When I checked on Pita this morning, the thin bones in the chicken wings were gone and quite a bit of meat was gone from the middle of the big bone. I gave her another wing this morning. It seems like she's a lazy eater and would prefer not to have to tear food off the bone. I did watch her start chewing the end of the thicker bone early this afternoon. I guess she just has to be really hungry to try. I could hear her crunching the bone from across the room. So far so good. The plate is an unnecessary accessory in her cage 'cause she likes to drag her pieces to all different places in the bottom of the cage. I'm going to try introducing some small beef chunks with tonight's dinner and see how she feels about them. |
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Post by Heather on Jan 9, 2011 22:42:23 GMT -5
Fantastic....Great stuff little Pita. Very typical of a ferret, lazy eater Let me know what she thinks of the beef, she's a real little trouper ciao |
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Post by angelfish on Jan 10, 2011 14:14:03 GMT -5
No go on the beef yet. She's getting really good with the chicken wing though. The piece I gave her last night was almost completely striped this morning. I'm going to try some ground beef instead of beef chunks tonight and see how she does. I'm going to introduce it in tiny licks during tonight's playtime.
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Post by angelfish on Jan 10, 2011 17:48:53 GMT -5
I got home from school tonight and started searching for the chicken wing Pita got for breakfast this morning. The only remains I found was about an inch long piece of the larger bone. I've ordered the 10lb sample pack ground meat/bone/organ and 1 week old quail. I thought I'd try introducing things slowly over the course of the month and see how she takes to them. The quail is the least offensive whole prey item that my husband will let me feed, but he still can't stand the thought of watching her eat it. 'm pretty sure anything mammalian and fuzzy is out of the question. Personally, I find watching her eat completely fascinating. I'm thinking her feeding schedule would look like the following: Sunday: ground beef/chicken/turkey Monday: commercial ground rabbit Tuesday: commercial ground duck Wednesday: ground beef/chicken/turkey Thursday: whole course ground rabbit/quail Friday: whole course ground rabbit/quail Saturday: commercial ground pheasant/whole quail I also might substitute one or two meals of the ground commercial with a chicken wing or two. Now, this plan assumes she'll actually eat all these varieties of meats. I'm unsure about the organ meat, since the ground has bone and organ in it. I was thinking I'd see if she'd eat half a chicken heart every 2 weeks to supplement, but I would think that wouldn't be necessary. The quail I'm ordering is only 3 weeks old, so I'm now sure if that would be enough to act a 1 meal. (Assuming she'll eat it). |
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Post by Heather on Jan 11, 2011 0:04:11 GMT -5
Hearts are a muscle meat, not organs. You would need to feed liver, brain, kidneys to feed organ meat. You should feed some organ meat. I would still offer it weekly. Even if it be a small amount. Ferrets needs for calcium and blood are much higher than even cats. They do not process their food well. I feed higher organ amounts than suggested by many raw cat recipes, that would be higher than most preground mixes. See how it goes with your little ones. See if she will eat what you are going to offer, then you will be able to have a better idea as how we need to tweek the diet to do the right thing by your little one. If she eats this you will have all your proteins covered. Keep a food log, keep notes, what she eats, what she likes and the results, stools.
She's doing well your little one. Keep me posted
ciao
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Post by angelfish on Jan 12, 2011 23:30:13 GMT -5
I got my haretoday stuff. It's currently in the fridge defrosting. Tomorrow I'm going to portion and label it all into 3-4 oz servings and then refreeze. I'm thinking we'll try the ground duck first and see how that goes tomorrow.  |
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Post by angelfish on Jan 12, 2011 23:32:59 GMT -5
I forgot to mention, Sugar is having a hard time with protein. She's probably been on the Meow Mix the longest - her whole life I think - and she vomits on occasion. Nothing really comes up but she kind of looks like a cat hacking up a hairball. She's still has quite an appetite and poops are bird-seedy but otherwise normal, so I'm sure it's from the diet change. They're only getting about 5-10% Zupreem mixed in with their Meow Mix and it's still an issue. I think I'm going to stay at this percentage for at least another week, or until I don't see her hacking anymore. (I've only seen her do it twice.)
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Post by Heather on Jan 12, 2011 23:39:51 GMT -5
Have you tried some ferret lax. Sounds almost like she has a hairball
ciao
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Post by angelfish on Jan 15, 2011 23:28:37 GMT -5
Well, the Hare today stuff is fully defrosted. I have to sort and refreeze it tomorrow. I meant to do it yesterday but I've been swamped with work and lack of sleep so I haven't got the chance yet. Pita started with whole ground duck. She seemed ok with that. Took a little bit to get her to lick it but once she tasted it she was fine with it. Yesterday was whole ground quail. She seemed ok with it, but it turns out I don't really like the smell.  Today was whole ground chicken which she definitely liked. I give her about 2 ounces thinned out with about 1-2 tablespoons of water. (She doesn't seem to want to eat it unless it's fairly liquid.) I noted she still doesn't eat all in one sitting. She likes to eat a little, play, eat some, sleep, eat some, etc. She poops consistently, but I did notice they're much darker, with a slight tinge of green in some parts. I'm assuming the darkness is due to the organ meat in the grind that she's not completely used to. Otherwise she's as active and hyper as usual. I haven't tried giving her the whole quail yet. I have to wait until this week, when my husband isn't home in the morning. Sugar and Spice are eating about 50% cat food and Zupreem. Sugar has more or less normal poo but she did throw up today. Projectile vomit for a ferret, I suppose. They vet did see her this week. Her poop is completely normal, she's active and playful, and she eats like a pig. He didn't find anything that might point to an obstruction or hairball but she did get lax last night and this morning just in case. He thinks it's probably her digestive system having trouble with the protein.  |
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Post by Heather on Jan 16, 2011 0:15:51 GMT -5
Sounds like Pita is moving right along..yes, some meats have a stronger smell than others. I find rabbit with fur and organs has a really strong smell, actually worse than rat (which rather surprised me ) You will find her stools have lighter or darker colour depending on the meat that she's eating and the amount of blood in the meat. The darker stools is the blood coming through. A ferret's digestive tract is so short that you can even tell when they've had fresh blood  Organ meat will also darken the stools. You might want to note (or keep a log) of the meats that they're eating and reactions. Projectile vomiting often means a sensitivity to that protein. If this happens a couple of times to the same protein then you are indeed dealing with a sensitivity. One of the reasons for keeping track (especially when you first start out) with a log book. You can keep track as to what the stools were like, if they liked the protein, how well they were at starting eating it (did they have to be enticed), digestibility. Funnily enough these are things we think we will remember and discover we don't ciao ciao |
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Post by angelfish on Jan 17, 2011 14:56:36 GMT -5
Things a rolling along here. Sugar is voluntarily eating the Zupreem, even though it seems to upset her tummy  . Spice is as sweet as ever and slowly working up to the protein. He's still having that seedy poo on occasion but it's getting better. Pita seems to avoid the ground up bone if the pieces are bigger than about 1/4 inch. I find them, completely licked clean, in various places of the cage. I'm wondering if I should supplement the ground with some eggshell for calcium? She pees a TON, but not a whole lot of poo. The past few days it's been formed but soft and a touch green sometimes. Since everything else is perfectly normal, I assume the green is from introducing new proteins to her. She's been eating about 2-3 ounces, a little watered down, at each meal. The night before last's meal apparently wasn't big enough though, because I found the container in her den was licked clean and she had pooped in there apparently in protest. The meat is still waiting to be sorted. *sigh* I hate cooking and such and I was hoping my husband would do it for me, but he thinks it's disgusting. He says he doesn't want to be reminded of what the live critter used to look like. I'm going to suck it up and sort everything in about 10 minutes though. (It's amazing all the chores I'm willing to do in order to avoid doing homework.) Here are some pictures of their new cage. Now that Pita is pretty reliable with eating raw and avoiding the kitty food, I've let them have access to the whole cage when I'm home and can keep an eye on them. They still get separated at night and when I'm out, just in case. I've been making the cage accessories one at a time when I have time. I should be finished with this set next weekend I hope. Whole cage  Bottom  Top  Pita showing off  Sugar  |
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Post by angelfish on Jan 19, 2011 23:34:46 GMT -5
I whipped up some turkey soupie tonight; a little chicken liver and heart thrown in. It was an absolute no go. There was spitting out, and gagging and overall theatrics. I was late getting home tonight and I noticed she practically finished off the whole chicken wing she got this morning. I'm not sure if she wasn't interested in because she was full or because she just didn't like it. I did leave it in with her. Maybe she'll be interested in a couple of hours. |
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Post by Heather on Jan 19, 2011 23:50:46 GMT -5
I'm sorry about not getting back to you. That was bad I couldn't get the pics to load (satellite internet and snow don't always mix) so I was going to come back later....well later didn't happen Sorry. The cage looks so comfy. Really awesome. I was going to take some pics of the ferret room the other day and thought how shoddy the room looked because none of my ferret stuff matches. It's just little bits here and there. Everyone's comfy and clean but they're not well coordinated Your stuff looks gorgeous, I love the print too. Turkey didn't go over heh.....  Oh, well try, try again. She's really doing well though. You could also try mixing little bits of it in something that she already likes and then just increasing the amount of the hated turkey mixture until she will eat that too. I've had a number of people make their protein switches that way. I'm sorry that Sugar's still having problems with the kibbles. Is it possible that Sugar's sensitive to something in the kibble. Grains, beat pulp, whole wheat (just going through some of the fillers that I know that can cause problems) I had a dog, who I spent close to 2 maybe 3 yrs trying to figure out what the problem was. He ate poorly, nothing sat on his tummy for any great length of time. I would switch his kibbles and then before we'd finished the bag, he would back to the tummy upsets, the horrible smelling loose stools and him refusing to eat (if my stomach hurt as bad as his every time he ate I wouldn't have eaten either) He was a tall Gr Pyrenees, he should have weighed about 120 lbs, but instead he weighed about 85lbs. I eventually when he was about 4 made the leap of faith, switched him to raw diet....I felt neither of us had anything to loose. The loose stools went away, he started putting on weight and he liked to eat. I had a friend who used to make elk treats for dogs...Shakespeare loved those treats....but within a couple of days of feeding the occasional treat, those horrible smelling stools were back. He was allergic to all grains, wheat anything like that. I had to be forever vigilant to make sure none of his treats were anything but meat. That's why I'm wondering if your little Sugar is grain sensitive. It's just a thought. Your little girl is doing really well. Keep at it, I will check in with you later ciao |
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Post by angelfish on Jan 20, 2011 0:10:24 GMT -5
I just read your other post. I'm so sorry about your little one. She had the best care anyone could have given her. *hugs*
As far as Sugar, grain is all she's ever eaten. Bizarrely, I'm positive it's the protein that's upsetting her stomach. Her vomiting coincides with eating the protein kibble. I've checked labels and there's nothing (grain-wise) in the Zupreem that isn't in the Meow Mix already. Today I even noticed some lightish-green diarrhea from her but she was running , dooking and eating like normal. They're now at 50% Zupreem/Meow Mix so I expected some loose stools for a bit.
I don't know if it's the food or they're just more comfortable but since I started switching their food, both of the adults are much more active. When I first got them, they mainly waddled but now I see both of them actually running at times.
I'm going to leave the Turkey overnight for Pita and try mixing chicken wing pieces in with the turkey tomorrow. On a side not, Spice wasn't too keen on the turkey either. He also tried a few licks of a bit of heart but wasn't too interested.
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