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Post by tinytippytoes on Jan 28, 2011 20:02:19 GMT -5
I'm reading a lot here on the newbie ?'s. After Sherrylynne mentioned that its not the same to feed cute little meecers when they are already dead and frozen. I decided that I was going to see if I can handle this. There's a reptile store near where I work and I went to check it out. Its very clean with good looking and what appears healthy snakes geckos and lizard(and also tortys?). The prices are about the same as if I would have bought online and that would include the shipping. The difference would be that I could order a lot or just 1. The person who does this is a small buisness owner. I have questions if he or she does this ethically because how is he flash freezing them. I'll have to ask that too as I can't be too comfty if he's doing it any other way. So he shows me what the guy feeds the mice because I asked and its block food (lab blocks)not sure what brand but since they have high quality reptiles which are all hand raised I doubt they feed junk to those babies but again I'm going to ask. So he shows me the frozen mice and sherrylynne I didn't bat an eyelash LOL. So you were right about that! On the other hand he showed me the pinky rats and I couldn't handle that. One baby had its mouth open and I freaked!! So maybe no pinkies for now. If I use mice as a main whole prey because I can't find any other place that sells frozen feeders than the reptile places. Seems this is what they mainly feed them. Also what about crickets? I know they are mostly plant eaters? Or am I wrong? So is that a no no? I know this kind of long but I want to be prepared when I get them. Thanks
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vkp23
Going Natural
Posts: 192
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Post by vkp23 on Jan 28, 2011 20:49:18 GMT -5
Some one correct me if I'm wrong...I believe the veggies a ferret "needs" (not like they really NEED any) comes from the intestines of the prey they eat. As long as they will eat them, crickets should be fine along with meal worms as treats. The food he is feeding the mice SHOULD be fine. I raised rats as pets many moons ago and I fed them that type of stuff all the time. Rats and mice are omnivores so they have TONS more leeway in what they can/can not eat. There isn't much they CAN'T eat. As far as feeding them to the ferrets go, it depends on what you're willing to do. From what I hear, some ferrets will just go for it if you toss a thawed mouse at them. Some need to be started on pinkies, (even been told by sherrylynne that she had to chop up pinkies to get hers started on whole prey) Some people I have read cut a thawed mouse open to get them to try. Others give them a live one the first time to kick in those hunting instincts. I hope I'm getting some of this right. I'm still new to raw feeding and just got to the point all of mine will eat raw soup, so someone correct me if I'm getting any of this wrong.
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Post by tinytippytoes on Jan 28, 2011 21:08:04 GMT -5
I read that after I posted this( the part where she chops up the pinkies) I honestly don't think I couild that. I'm not one of those people who freak out if geckos and snakes eats rodent because that's what nature attended them to do. Its just that I also have rattys as pets and just lost one a few days ago which is probally making me a senstive to it. I also lost a mousey a few weeks ago. So I mostly see them as pets. Not food for ferts but that could change in time. I want to few mostly feed raw with "some" whole prey that was my goal. Maybe I should just feed raw. LOL gee god I'm so confused and I got no ferts yet!
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Post by goingpostal on Jan 28, 2011 21:17:33 GMT -5
To be honest, I raise feeder mice and don't think I could chop up a pinky! I have no problem chopping up meat, but think it's going to be weird chopping whole prey, but maybe not. I've had two take to mice right off the bat and the rest of my crew either picked it up or not, right now all of mine eat mice. They all love pinkies best, but the reluctant ones didn't take to those any easier than larger mice. I have one ferret kill them all and then give them to the crew. If you only feed mice as whole prey that's fine as long as you have enough other proteins but I would talk to the store, if they have reptiles they should have rats as well and maybe have a connection to get rabbit, asf, etc.
Crickets are fine for a snack/treat only. Same with like mealworms, earthworms, other bugs. I've never tried mine with that stuff but I'll probably enlist my nephew to catch some worms and bugs for me this summer, he loves doing that anyways.
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 28, 2011 22:32:02 GMT -5
I chopped them up frozen. Much easier But I didn't really "look" at the the first few times By the time I had to cut open fuzzy mice, it didn't bother me anymore And if you can't bring yourself to feed whole prey- that's fine! You don't need to The reason for feeding pumpkin, etc is to replace the things like fur, teeth, etc. In other words, the no digestibles. As far as the stomach contents go- those usually wind up on the walls anyway The fuzz won't eat them if the whole prey is large enough to be able to shake them out
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vkp23
Going Natural
Posts: 192
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Post by vkp23 on Jan 28, 2011 22:34:19 GMT -5
Yeah like I said I raised pets rats for years. I don't think I can breed my own rat feeders because they have SO much personality and what not. I too see them too much as pets. Mice are another story. I TRIED pet mice and they were all A-holes! No brains in them what so ever! I have a female I bought recently who was pregnant when I got her. I wanted to start my breeding colony now to get any kinks worked out and bad mice weeded out. Any way, she had he babies a week ago. She has been the SORRIEST rodent mother EVER. I NEVER had problems with rats like this moron with babies. She doesn't bother to get her babies to let go before leaving the nest and drags her babies all over and doesn't bother to carry them back. She's too stupid I think. Like she doesn't even see that they are out of the nest. She let one freeze to death. So I have to keep checking several times a day to put all the babies back in the nest to keep them from freezing or starving because she'll go back to feed the ones still in the nest with no bother to the ones that hung on to her teats and were drug out of the nest . Then she has eaten two of the babies. There apparently was nothing wrong with them and she had plenty of food. Just ate them for nothing. So I have very little respect for mice currently. However, I agree I couldn't chop up a pinky OR cut open a thawed one. Putting them in a CO2 chamber doesn't bother me. But I think I'll be going with giving them a live one the first time they get mice. My boy I believe will do very well. The girls, IDK we'll see.
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vkp23
Going Natural
Posts: 192
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Post by vkp23 on Jan 28, 2011 22:42:50 GMT -5
I chopped them up frozen. Much easier But I didn't really "look" at the the first few times By the time I had to cut open fuzzy mice, it didn't bother me anymore And if you can't bring yourself to feed whole prey- that's fine! You don't need to The reason for feeding pumpkin, etc is to replace the things like fur, teeth, etc. In other words, the no digestibles. As far as the stomach contents go- those usually wind up on the walls anyway The fuzz won't eat them if the whole prey is large enough to be able to shake them out You make me LOL Yeah see I have no problem butchering chickens. Hubby does the killing I do the cleaning. But for some reason I have a hard time with coming to terms with cutting up a baby! Even still trying to talk myself into believing culling new hatched chicks to feed the ferrets will be ok once my hens start to lay again. Even thinking of ways to do it with out having to make the poor chick go through the hatching and then suddenly kill it. Like get it right before hatching. LOL And I didn't know about ferrets shaking out stomach contents. I knew dogs did it, not ferrets. You learn something new every day. However, I'm not looking forward to cleaning mouse guts off the walls.
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Post by Heather on Jan 28, 2011 22:52:38 GMT -5
Cleaning them off the walls is the easy part...it's cleaning the innards and intestines off of the cage roof or walls is difficult ciao
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 28, 2011 22:56:03 GMT -5
You've got a valid point there
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Post by goingpostal on Jan 28, 2011 22:57:20 GMT -5
It ain't easy cleaning them off my walls! How the heck do they get them so high up I wanna know, really they are ridiculously messy eaters.
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Post by Heather on Jan 28, 2011 23:01:45 GMT -5
It's that nasty head snap that they do with their prey. It would break the neck or spine of the prey. My guys also use that same whip action to steal the prey out of the mouth of the other ferret, which is how it winds up in really weird places . ciao
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Darlene
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Posts: 287
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Post by Darlene on Jan 28, 2011 23:06:48 GMT -5
I know what ya mean,my guys don't eat the mouse stomach. But the worse for me was finding quail intestines hanging off the cage wire like it was garland,yuck. So now I always remove the intestine
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vkp23
Going Natural
Posts: 192
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Post by vkp23 on Jan 28, 2011 23:11:02 GMT -5
This is why I intend to feed the ferts in my HUGE garden tub! WAY easier to clean!
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 29, 2011 0:38:44 GMT -5
Until they toss the innards up and over the top Seriously. I find them up 3-4 feet from the level they are eating on!
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Post by bluemoose on Jan 29, 2011 1:13:04 GMT -5
It is always a bit disconcerting to find blood on the ceiling
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