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Post by angelfish on Jan 23, 2011 23:33:53 GMT -5
I'm ready for the training wheels to come off already? That was sooner than I thought :-D
Actually, I think I'd like to stick around a bit longer. That meal plan works for now, but I want to work out a meal plan that works with just the local meats I can get from the grocery store and farmer. Hare-today can get quite expensive I noticed, and having 3 furbrats on meats from them might get too costly per month.
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Post by Heather on Jan 23, 2011 23:41:52 GMT -5
No problem  Sounds like a plan. Keep me posted and I will continue to work with you to get a more regional diet set up and maybe those to "footdragging fuzzes" will be ready to start on their journey to a better diet too  ciao |
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Post by angelfish on Jan 24, 2011 21:05:57 GMT -5
Tonight we attempted a 1 week old whole quail. I want to say it was moderately successful, but I think I'd be lying. I let everybody sniff at it first:    Then I cut into it and put it back. It was at this point that Spice started licking the wounded area. I figured this was a good sign; at least, I thought so until he grabbed hold of it and ran to the entrance to the tunnel that leads to one of their hidey-holes (a carefresh filled box). Still a good sign I suppose, but I didn't want quail blood through their series of tubes. I tried to get Pita to bite it by having her chase it around the feeding box. She did eventually nip at it but I think she was surprised when she got a mouthful of feathers. She did try eating bits that fell from the bird:  But even after I practically cut the bird in half, she still wasn't really interested. I put it in her feeding den. When I put her back in her cage, she miraculously produced the chicken wing piece from this morning (I have no idea where she hid it). She carried it back and forth around her cage for several minutes and studiously avoid the bird inside her den. When she finally put it down, I took it away and she searched frantically for several more minutes before finally giving up. I'm going to leave the bird in there overnight and see what becomes of it. I didn't cut into the chicken wing this morning because I was in a rush and all she ate was a little of the meat and chewed on the bone at the large end. I think she either has difficulty pulling the meat off or she's lazy. My Hare-today order will be in tomorrow so I can sort and get her on the schedule I created. |
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Post by Heather on Jan 24, 2011 23:20:29 GMT -5
I'm sorry that the quail wasn't a huge success. Leave it with them and see if they will take to it. What if you pulled some of the feathers off?...perhaps like some who try to feed mice and rabbit the fur deters them so feeding pinkies or the next size up before they get fur seems to work to get them started. Isn't it amazing as to where they can pull out stashed food   Remember, ferrets are often a lazy chewer...they usually have to be really hungry before they will work at something they haven't had to work at before. If you normally score the meat and didn't this time they will nibble at it but they won't eat it. Strangely enough, the best fuzzes who ate everything they were ever offered, whole food, meat on the bone, mice...everything I ever threw at them. Shazam and Houdini had been slowly starving to death when I rescued them. The day I picked them up they hadn't had food in 5 whole days. I bought kibbles for them on the trip home...I was so horrified. They didn't smell like ferrets, they didn't feel like ferrets. Even their skulls were sunken and hollow looking. They wolfed the kibble down and it made them sick....horrible, explosive poops. By the end of the weekend they were attempting to run with the rest of the brats, they also were eating their food too. They did have stinky, liquid poops for about 2 or 3 weeks but never looked back as far as diet went. In 6 months you would never have recognised them. ciao |
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Post by angelfish on Jan 25, 2011 19:20:13 GMT -5
Late last night, I threw a chicken wing in Pita's cage because I was afraid she wouldn't eat anything all night. This morning, about half the meat was gone and most of the bone was still intact so I left it. This afternoon I got home to find the chicken bone gone. I checked everywhere (including inside her sleeping sacks) and sure enough the entire wing...gone. I then noticed a few feathers around the cage. I opened up her feeding den to find: 1 quail leg/claw with a little bit of meat attached and what I think was a bit of breast. Then entire rest of the bird, feathers and all, was gone. She's never pooped so much since she was eating kibble! Her poops were firm and very very dark (mostly except for one that was grayish in color). I'm so proud of her!  I will say, I'm still a little weirded out by the color of her poop. It varied depending on what she eat and goes from lightish brown to dark and sometimes a little gooey with a tad green. I realize that the darker the meat or the more blood involved the darker her poo, but I'm still not used to it. I picked up some farm eggs today and a few of them froze and cracked so I tried to feed everybody an egg. Spice was good with it once her tasted the yolk, so he got to have a small bit. The girls weren't interested at all so we'll have to try an egg another day. I did notice that over the past few days, Sugar's stool has become a weird light yellow color, sometimes firm sometimes gooey. I suppose it's her system getting used to the protein content in the food. She's still running, playing, and behaving normally so I'm just keeping an eye on her. |
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Post by Heather on Jan 25, 2011 22:06:06 GMT -5
Yay, special hugs for a special little fuzz. Congratulations, I'm so proud of your little fuzz. Hmmm ferret poop colours....amazing isn't it. You could do a total diet rundown by the colours You will learn to look for stools that concern, and those that you know you have to react to. Other freakish colours you will learn to just roll your eyes and go...so that's who ate that piece of cheese Porthos my one little boy, had a passion for cheese. Like all furbabies his tummy wouldn't tolerate it but he loved it just the same and would steal it if he could. The resulting stools were a vibrant orange What's in the kibble that Sugar gets....he's getting kibbles and the occasional snack of meat right? He may be reacting to the combination of the two. A lot of ferrets can handle the use of both but because he's having problems even handing protein, this may be an issue ciao |
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Post by angelfish on Jan 29, 2011 14:52:19 GMT -5
Pita is not at all fond of beef or venison. It seems she'll eat it when she's absolutely starving but otherwise, chooses to avoid it.
Sugar's body seems to be acclimating well to the higher protein food, but Spice is still having seedy poo issues.
I also noticed today that there is a piece of clear packing tape missing from the piece that was holding down a box lid. I'm not even sure who chewed/ate it. I could be a. our cat who has a tape fetish (she'll chew on any tape anywhere), b. Pita, because she refused to eat her beef and was starving, c. Sugar, because she chews everything, or d. Spice because he'll eat random things when he's hungry. Everyone seems to be eating and going to the bathroom normally so I'm keeping and eye on them.
Other than that, all is well.
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Post by Heather on Jan 29, 2011 20:22:01 GMT -5
Sounds like things are progressing well. Have you thought of mixing something that Pita likes with the beef or venison? Neither is particularly what your ferret would hunt naturally I find that hoofed meats are very ferret dependent. Some will some won't, some it's a matter of getting used to the stronger flavours. Chicken, pork, rabbit, quail are all more milder meats. There is nothing that says that you can't mix some meats to make them more palatable to your fuzz. I'm glad that Sugar is starting to get used to more protein. Spice on the other hand.... is the stools very loose or just seedy? It usually means that they're not digesting the fat. Now, cooked fat is of a different digestibility than raw. Perhaps, if he's not having loose and liquidy stools that he should move toward more raw foods. Now this is only a suggestion. You know your little one and your comfort level. You can always backtrack if things aren't going as planned. I would be tempted to if you decide to go this route to either up his powdered egg shell or see if you can entice him to eat boned meats. It's just a thought. If his tummy's going to be upset anyway.... Keep me posted as to what's going on and how things are going ciao |
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Post by angelfish on Jan 29, 2011 20:52:57 GMT -5
Spice's stool is a conundrum. He went through a phase where it was mucousy, greenish and loose but it's progressed to seedy without being mushy. I do want to start trying him on the raw. I'm wondering if I should start with small amounts and see how it goes.
He did get into Pita's pheasant this afternoon and noticed that he was coughing/vomitting a bit after eating it. I don't think he even ate that much of it. I did give him a teaspoon of pumpkin just in case it was a hairball. (Everyone gets a teaspoon of pumpkin about once a week to keep things flowing).
I think I'm going to try mixing 1/2-3/4 tsp of eggshell into the commercial ground and try feeding some to Spice.
I tend to be overly cautious, just part of my nature, but I do want to make sure I'm not slowing down their transition because of my cautiousness.
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Post by Heather on Jan 30, 2011 0:11:57 GMT -5
Their acceptance of the diet is as much linked to your acceptance as theirs. If you're really nervous and uptight about it they will think that there's something wrong with it too. Move within your comfort zone, I'm here to advice but you don't have to move on the suggestions right away. I've been doing this for years so I have a tendency to move foreward forgetting that people aren't necessarily comfortable with that level of progress.
I think your idea sounds good.
ciao
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