Yuki and Nikko go raw

[Forum Administrator]

Your ferrets will settle down once they learn that they learn there's enough meat for both of them.

OMG I couldnt agree more! When Mizu (b/f's ferret) and Fugue were both under 6 months old I couldnt feed them together (they would fight like it was the end of the world. They both had to have the same exact piece of chicken lol But once they hit 7 months old, they were totally different ferrets! They went from fighting like all h*ll was breaking loose to being able to sit (side by side) and eat a wing together!

[quill]

Today Nikko ate some cornish game hen, bones and all!!! YAY!! Yuki at a little, too!!!! YAY!!!

I have set up seperate feeding boxes for them. But they just take their food out and play in them.

Guess I'll have to just keep moving them out and the food in.

Silly Ferts!!

[quill]

One more step!!!! whole prey!!!

[Forum Administrator]

So you've done;

1. Meat/bone/organ?
2. A vareity of raw foods?

If so, then its time for me to review your weekly feeding schedule

[quill]

Jul 11, 2008 15:06:16 GMT -5 Forum Administrator said:

So you've done;

1. Meat/bone/organ?
2. A vareity of raw foods?

If so, then its time for me to review your weekly feeding schedule

Boo! I forgot about #2.
Yes, they are eating meat, bone, and organ. But not a variety, just chicken and CGH. I'm gonna stick with the CGH and chicken/bones through next week. I'll be at camp. I'll get other meat when I get back.

[Forum Administrator]

Your ALMOST there

It *should* be easy to try them on a variety of new foods Idealy, you would feed a different food each day like:

Turkey necks, Chicken legs, Cornish Game Hen, and Pork Neck Segments (for the 4 days of raw meaty bones)

Raw chunks of boneless beef one day, raw chunks of boneless lamb the next (for the 2 days of boneless)

and then like a liver, gizzard, heart, kidney combo for the organ day (maybe feed an egg this day as well)

Bear in mind the importance of not only adding in new meats, BUT switching up the cut of meat from time to time. Dont always feed pork chops, feed pork steaks too. Dont always feed chicken legs, feed chicken wings too. Different body parts vary in nutrient composition.

In addition be sure to try and offer "older" and "younger" versions of meat (an animal's nutrient composition changes as it ages:

Beef/Veal
Pork/Piglet
Turkey/Poult
Chicken/Cornish game hen
Mutton/lamb

The more variety, the better. Its okay to buy a different meat (or cut) because you fond it on sale that week. Change things up as much as possible. This helps to ensure that your ferret is getting a wide array of nutrients. At the very least, I reccomend feeding 3 types of meat each week (if you only feed 3 types of meat each week, be EXTRA dilligent about mixing up the cut of meat, or the age).

You are so close to having your schedule reviewed! That's great! It wont be long till you "graduate" like meli and bigsis7. Im so proud Im beaming!

[quill]

Jul 11, 2008 15:21:28 GMT -5 Forum Administrator said:

Your ALMOST there

It *should* be easy to try them on a variety of new foods Idealy, you would feed a different food each day like:

Turkey necks, Chicken legs, Cornish Game Hen, and Pork Neck Segments (for the 4 days of raw meaty bones)

Raw chunks of boneless beef one day, raw chunks of boneless lamb the next (for the 2 days of boneless)

and then like a liver, gizzard, heart, kidney combo for the organ day (maybe feed an egg this day as well)

Bear in mind the importance of not only adding in new meats, BUT switching up the cut of meat from time to time. Dont always feed pork chops, feed pork steaks too. Dont always feed chicken legs, feed chicken wings too. Different body parts vary in nutrient composition.

In addition be sure to try and offer "older" and "younger" versions of meat (an animal's nutrient composition changes as it ages:

Beef/Veal
Pork/Piglet
Turkey/Poult
Chicken/Cornish game hen
Mutton/lamb

The more variety, the better. Its okay to buy a different meat (or cut) because you fond it on sale that week. Change things up as much as possible. This helps to ensure that your ferret is getting a wide array of nutrients. At the very least, I reccomend feeding 3 types of meat each week (if you only feed 3 types of meat each week, be EXTRA dilligent about mixing up the cut of meat, or the age).

You are so close to having your schedule reviewed! That's great! It wont be long till you "graduate" like meli and bigsis7. Im so proud Im beaming!

I am so excited, too!!!

Question: ideally when all is being fed, where in the above schedule would I feed whole prey? I would like to include that, too.

[Forum Administrator]

Well many people feed half raw/half prey.

So basically you would still feed RMBS 4 days per week, Boneless meat 2 days per week, and organ meat 1 day per week, you would just reduce the amount of raw food offered, and replace it with prey Very simple, actually IMO the ideal diet would be a prey ONLY diet, but some people find it to be too costly for younger ferrets or large groups of ferrets. Once your kids hit 6-7 months though (if you still have just two ferrets) you might be able to afford to do only whole prey If possible I would definitly recommend it, but if you can't no worries. Going half and half is fine as well

[quill]

Off to camp. See you all next week-end.

Think about me...i'll be in a cabin with 35 teenage girls!!!

And think about my ferts...dh taking care of them!!!!

[Forum Administrator]

Good luck! I hope all goes well and I look forward to helping your babies progress further onto their natural diet

[quill]

Survived camp and my ferts survived in dh's care!

Monday we start adding different raws depending on what on sale

btw: both Nikko and Yuki are eating chicken/cgh bones and all!! Yuki doesn't like gizzards or heart but we'll try liver soon.

[Forum Administrator]

Hi Trina! Its great to have ya back! I look forward to seeing how the babies do with their new raw foods. Congrats on the bone munching! Keep us posted!

[mustelidmusk]

Welcome back from camp!!!! We're gllad you survived

Regarding your feret that's not so keen the organ meats...there are two things that might help....
1. You may wnat to slice the organ meats into small pieces. Once your ferret starts eating the smaller pieces, you can take the organ meats and tterfly them or put a bunch of slits in them to make them easirt to chew. I think the organ meats may be a little tougher to chew
2. you can also tale a chunk of muscle meat, cut a small slit in it, an try to hollow out a small pocket inside the meat chunk. And you geuessed it, you can put smmall amounts of the organ meats inside the chunk of muscle meat. (This is how I started out getting one of my girls to eat organ meats... and then I came up with those ridiculous fake prey recipes, which my kids really enjoy!!! The things we ferret moms will do to spoil their brats will never cease to amaze me!!!)

Giuli and I were talking about you while you were at camp . No worries, it was all good stuff!!!! Since you're currently movng in the direction of introducing whole prey, you'll be better served by a RMB/whole prey mentor! (I feed commcrial raw and RMB. ) Giuli may assign somebody else to help with this. If not, she'll be doing the advising from now on.

I'll be peeking in on this thread to see if there's anything I can help with..I think you already know how to introduce variety, but please feel free to PM me if you have any questions you want my input on as I may not check on you daily. (I'll be checking this thread daily until Giuli's computer is back on line!)

I want to compliment you on comng throug a very rough time with Chaos and then stepping right backinto the raw diet switch for your two new ferrets. That was not an easy thing to do, and you've certaily gained a lot of admiration from the group with how you handled the sitution!!!!

So....Variety is the Spice of Life...go for it - and have fun too!!!
-jennifer

[quill]

Jul 19, 2008 19:32:09 GMT -5 mustelidmusk said:

Giuli and I were talking about you while you were at camp . No worries, it was all good stuff!!!! Since you're currently movng in the direction of introducing whole prey, you'll be better served by a RMB/whole prey mentor! (I feed commcrial raw and RMB. ) Giuli may assign somebody else to help with this. If not, she'll be doing the advising from now on.

I'll be peeking in on this thread to see if there's anything I can help with..I think you already know how to introduce variety, but please feel free to PM me if you have any questions you want my input on as I may not check on you daily. (I'll be checking this thread daily until Giuli's computer is back on line!)

Waaaaaa!!! Don't leave me!!!!

Thanks Jennifer for all of your help. You will never know how much you helped me get through all the "stuff" with starting Nikko and Yuki on raw so soon after my precious Chaos died. You have shown me that the switch (and feeding in general) can be fun and you helped take the pressure off. I learned that if my kids took a step back to just say 'that's ok, not a big deal' and allow that level until they are ready. I loved learning the 'games' and to make your raw food toys which, btw, my kids love. Thanks to these suggestions, Yuki will accept food from my hands and Nikko loves to 'hunt' for his food. I'm still emotionally unable to remove the kibble from their cage but, you were right, they don't even want it...but it's my secuity blanket right now not theirs. Anyway, you are a wonderful mentor and ferrent and friend to me. Thanks!

Oh, and isn't is just like you guys to gossip about me when I'm gone!

[mustelidmusk]

No worries, I'm still around - and you can always PM me if you need some more food games. And about those food games...well, it's probably because I was into playing with my food as a kid (all those fabulous food fights in the cafeteria at school )

About the kibble - I finally stopped bothering to have it in the cage (after 3 years of them basically not touching it!) It's really neat that they really don't eat it once they're switched . They may eat a bite here and there, but I kept a food hopper full, and the kibble was rarely disturbed. I do offer the Wysong freeze-dried Archetypal I during the day, which I'll always do. IT's a healthy balanced diet that provides the option to munch during the day (along with various freeze-dried treats in the foraging cups. So I have my security blanket too!

SInce you're interested in whole prey and need some variety, Hare Today offers ground whole rabbit. Hare today offer a lot of meats. Another option that's convenient is the Nature's Variety lamb and venison - they also have rabbit, but it's not the whole rabbit with fur and all. Sometimes the variety can be difficult to find in smaller amounts when introducing variety. So for introducing new items, you can get the smaller trial bags of the nature's variety medallions just to help with introducing new foods types. The medallions are 1-ounce - convenient sizeand since they're ground, they can readily be mixed into other meats or soups to introduce new flaovrs if you have a reluctant ferret! Lots of options are available

I just know you and your ferrets will continue to have fun with food - Feeding can be such a wonderful enrichment and growth experience that I prefer the slow switch method just because it's FUN!!!

Keep up the good work with your kids!
-jennfer