Halbingefrau's Switching Thread/Sherrylynne

[halblingefrau]

I'll try that after the holidays. I am heading off to visit family this evening and taking the trio with me. They'll get their old staple of chicken wings (and some turkey giblets!) while we're there. We'll do the oxtails when we get home.

[sherrylynne]

That sounds great! You know- they can have the turkey neck as well. You will likely have to chop it up for them(and it does need a cleaver!), but mine love it
Have fun!

[halblingefrau]

Oh yes, we've reserved the neck too. Can't wait to see how they like it. They'll likely be quite hungry tomorrow as I am not going to feed them till I get to mom's (2 hour drive, so no breakfast). It'll be a late lunch/early dinner. All the more reason they should take to the turkey neck just fine.

[sherrylynne]

I can't wait to hear about it

[halblingefrau]

Well, i haven't given the turkey yet. They had a chicken wing this morning for breakfast and then decided lunch was going to be cat food. Next time I'll have to remember to put the cat food up high when they're out running. Still, they're loving having all this run time (7 hours and counting).

[sherrylynne]

Yeah, been there , done that with the cat food

[halblingefrau]

Oh yeah, and instead of just eating the cat food, Asher (who else?) decided the cat food NEEDED to be on the floor and not in the bowl.

[sherrylynne]

I'm surprised you hadn't realized before this that ferret KNOW anything in a bowl is simply being unjustly kept in a prison, and has to be "freed"

[halblingefrau]

They didn't touch the turkey liver I gave them. Going to mix it in with chicken liver that they already like. I haven't tried the turkey neck yet. Got a big blizzard when I was driving home so just went with what we had thawed (chicken wing). Going to try the neck tonight.

[sherrylynne]

I'm not too surprised about the turkey liver, since it is stronger flavoured than the chicken. You might have to slowly introduce it, like you mentioned, mixed in with the chicken livers.
And good luck with the turkey neck!

[halblingefrau]

I haven't re-tried the liver yet. I had a piece of ox tail in my fridge I wanted to use before it went off. So far Juno and Asher have definitely been eating on it. I haven't seen Loki try it, but I've had such back pain tonight I haven't been watching them much. Loki DID eat the cube steak chunks, so I am guessing he'll eat oxtail.

Turkey neck for breakfast! Turkey & Chicken Liver Slurry with Heart sprinkles for dinner tomorrow.

[sherrylynne]

YUMMM

[halblingefrau]

Didn't get to the liver slurry yesterday. They had a ton of turkey neck leftover. However, they definitely liked it. They were going to town on the thing as evidenced by the overall gnawed look of it. hah. I will be attending a funeral and leaving tomorrow so the kids are going to stay with a friend of mine. She used to have ferts so she is somewhat knowledgeable about them. She's also very cool with feeding them raw. I was going to get send over some bagged chicken wings/cornish hen pieces. Do you think I should send a baggie of liver over? Or just some commercial frozen raw (it has organs in it)?

[halblingefrau]

One other concern. The kids seem to be getting quite tubby in the bellies. They aren't fat elsewhere (i.e. neck rolls or whatnot). Is this winter weight or just a normal consequence of being recently switched?

[sherrylynne]

Winter weight. All mine have those tubby tummies now It is more noticable between the summer and winter weights I've found with raw, though. They'll gain/lose up to 40% of their body weight depending on the season!
As for what to send with them, I'd do the chicken/cornish hen instead of the liver, especially as she has no problem with feeding it. They are going to be excited enough about someone new without trying to get them focused on eating something they have yet to get used to.