B3@N!
Gnawing on bones
Ben & Cassiel
Posts: 91
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Post by B3@N! on Dec 24, 2010 16:02:05 GMT -5
Well, she point blank refused to eat it. After waiting 12 hours I felt I was starving the poor girl. Thawing the chicken heart/gizzards as we speak. Heck, the only one who WOULD eat the kidney was the dog! She ate everything so far except for that. Oh well, it only lost me 2 bucks. I'm not too mad!
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Post by bluemoose on Dec 24, 2010 16:15:15 GMT -5
Did you try blending it or cutting it into small pieces? Some ferrets aren't big on liver when it's by itself. Mine don't like to eat straight liver but they'll usually eat it with their prey (mine eat exclusively whole prey). You could try sprinkling little pieces of liver over the other food.
Alternately, did you try scruff and stuff? Sometimes they just need to be force fed something a couple times before they decide it's not poison. I switched my newest to raw by force feeding her twice a day until she decided to eat on her own.
Liver is an important part of a balanced raw diet (it should be around 5% of the total diet) so she needs to either learn to eat it or be tricked into eating it. Just don't give too much liver at once. It's very rich and might upset her system as she's still getting used to raw.
Edit: Wow I'm apparently illiterate now. I thought we were talking about liver this whole time. Well luckily the same thing applies to "other organs" such as kidney that applies to liver. Still 5% of the overall diet and can still be blended or force fed. I feel like a moron lmao
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Post by shilohismygirl on Dec 24, 2010 16:26:43 GMT -5
Mine don't particularly love beef liver, or beef innards at all. They will eat steak and the like, but when it comes to beef liver, they mostly try and avoid eating it. However, when I mix it up in a soup, they seem to be ok with it.
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Post by sherrylynne on Dec 24, 2010 16:32:57 GMT -5
With beef liver/kidney, I had to puree and add in a wee bit of heavy cream before any of them would even touch it Maybe try her with it mixed in with chicken liver and some other meats. She doesn't need an awful lot of it per week right now. Can you get pork kidney? Less strong for flavour and smell.
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Post by Heather on Dec 24, 2010 16:51:49 GMT -5
What you encountered isn't unusual. I"ve got only a couple that will eat kidney/liver straight up. Rather than fight with them, I mix it in the ground mix and they eat it without even blinking. The ground mix I use for soupys and such. By starting them early on a soupy type mixture you will have something to fall back on when they get sick. I know of a few ferrets that won't eat ground and when they get sick it's a battle of wills to get them to eat. Teaching them to eat a ground soupy from the start (a good way to organ meats into them) means that when they get sick it's one less thing to worry about. Use it as special snuggle time. Sherrylynne posted a video of her and Boris spending special time. ciao
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Post by horse656 on Dec 24, 2010 17:01:17 GMT -5
my two actually really like the liver and other organs. of course though, they'll eat anything.
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Post by rarnold18 on Dec 24, 2010 20:10:00 GMT -5
My crew will eat it both ways, in a ground mix and whole or in chunks... I'd try mixing small or diced up peices in with some ground chicken or somthing.
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B3@N!
Gnawing on bones
Ben & Cassiel
Posts: 91
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Post by B3@N! on Dec 25, 2010 9:57:28 GMT -5
I'll have to do some mixing then. Yeah, she just absolutely would NOT eat it haha. She took to the chicken gizzards/heart very nicely though. It was gone in a few hours. I had to give her more!
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Post by sherrylynne on Dec 25, 2010 11:12:32 GMT -5
Sometimes, it simply comes down to tricking them into eating it
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B3@N!
Gnawing on bones
Ben & Cassiel
Posts: 91
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Post by B3@N! on Dec 27, 2010 6:36:28 GMT -5
Sigh, so I tried the scruff and stuff and it didn't work...she just kept it in her mouth until she could stash it elsewhere in the cage. This time it wasn't even beef kidney, it was pork...
I think it's because I topped it off with crushed eggshell, she was eating it fine when I first put it out. Should I maybe get some chicken stock or something? Or would pureeing the whole thing just be better?
Sigh, help?
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Post by sherrylynne on Dec 27, 2010 12:26:45 GMT -5
To be honest, if she's willing to eat the raw chunks as they are, I'd have her do that, and start introducing bone in meats. Wing tips to start, and the middle bones of the chicken wing. Just cut them down the middle to separate them for now. It's also a good idea, however, to get her eating a puree. That way, when she becomes ill(or gets injured/needs surgery, etc), she'll have something easy to eat that she is already familiar with, and you won't have to fight to get nutrition into her. Just puree some chicken meat, heart, liver and 1/2 tsp eggshell powder to pound of meat, add enough water to make it into a thick soup, and give her that once ever week or two. You can freeze it up in ice cube trays, then just pop the cubes into a baggie for single size servings
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B3@N!
Gnawing on bones
Ben & Cassiel
Posts: 91
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Post by B3@N! on Dec 27, 2010 13:26:08 GMT -5
I will do that! Now I need a food processor! HAHA!
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Post by sherrylynne on Dec 27, 2010 22:19:03 GMT -5
I just use a blender We've got the magic bullet for us, and the full size blender for the ferret meats
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