Making progress

[sherik]

So The past month or so been trying to get my crew to eat raw. The past 3 days I have made good progress. I take all the kibble out for the whole day and only leave raw soupies in the cage. Today they ate about 3oz each give or take. So now what? Do I start adding ground to their soup to make it thicker and how do I get them to eat it ground? Or should I just chop up little slivers of meat and put it in their soup. I tried feeding Huck slivers of meat by hand and he wanted no part in it. Is their a trick? Maybe coat it in ferretone or something. Any ideas would be great. I am hoping by the end of the week to have no more kibble in their cage as Huck is getting his teeth cleaned friday and I don't want the kibble causing more plaque on his teeth.

[Jackie]

Once I got to the stage where all the ferrets were eating soup willingly, I added less and less water until it was more like a paste. Then I started adding skinny long slivers of meat into their mush. Once a day, I would "scruff and stuff" the slivers to the ferrets. I would coat the slivers with the soup and/or olive oil. Forcing them to at least try and chew the meat helped them to build up some jaw strength.

[sherrylynne]

Jackie has some good ideas there Just keep thickening it til it's at a goopy ground consistency, then add the slivers. Some will take it like that, some need more...persuasion