27/06/2023
12/19/23 update!12/19/23 Stitch and Dipsy Danger are doing great! They have become beautiful healthy happy ferrets. Stitch, who came in 12 oz, now weighs 1 lb 12 oz! Yes! She has more than doubled in weight! And it is healthy, muscled weight with just a touch of fat. Her coat is thick, fluffy and long. Her before and after photo can be seen in my comment. FB doesn't allow videos and photos in the same post. Imagine that.🙄
7/7/23 Stitch and Dipsy Danger are now in with the regular Gang! This has been a very smooth introduction. I think because everybody smells pretty much the same, since all are now raw meaty bones chompers. Not even Fat Tail Jenni, who is usually the antagonist of the bunch, barely gives them a passing glance! Stitch is in love with Sullivan and both of them are often found snuggled together. Dipsy Danger is loving the massive Axle Rose and his buddy Dusty Rose, but she also will pile onto Code D. Girls still outnumber the boys, 7:4. Tonight's weigh in for these two:
Stitch is now at 23 oz, an increase of 11 oz in just 11 days!
Dipsy Danger is now at 25 oz, an increase of 10 oz in 11 days!
Both ferrets have just about doubled their weight and continue to gain an ounce per day! I offered a midnight snack of "Chicken paws" (feet) along with bone marrow fat and some big beef soup bones last night and all but one toe of the chicken paws got devoured and the meat was scraped clean off the soup bones. I really do enjoy seeing them become their true selves. Happy healthy ferrets! I was worried that they had been so skinny for so long that their systems might have shut down. But from what I am seeing and the amount of weight they are putting on, they got rescued in the nick of time.
6/29-6/30 At their midday meal on 6/29 I added some regular sized raw meaty chunks. This is the same size chunks offered to all my ferrets. Roughly 3/4" to 1" chunks of raw meaty bones. Both Stitch and Dipsy Danger chowed down! No hesitation, no wrinkled noses, no reactions as if the new size of food was poisoned! When they are eating you can see their concentration as they carefully chew a chunk and move it side to side in their jaws. I am still giving them a raw egg yolk daily. Likely will continue until they are at a healthy weight. Speaking of weight; in just 4 days Stitch has gained 6 oz, and Dipsy has gained 5 oz! Yes! You read that right! These guys are gaining over an ounce per day! Considering Stitch came in at 12 ounces and now is 18 ounces, that means she has gained 50% of her bodyweight in 96 hours! And Dipsy Danger who came in at 14.5 ounces ; now is 20 ounces, so she has gained 1/3 of her bodyweight in 96 hours! I added a couple more panels to their quarantine corral, giving them more room to play. A tunnel and a sweet gum tree branch (non-toxic) along with a simple paper bag have been great fun for them! Many ups and outs through the day for lovins and brushins and they are beginning to open up and act like happy ferrets.
6/28/23 10:30 : Introduced minced raw. This is less than 48 hours since arriving at Hole in the Wall Gang! This is their 7th plate of raw meats! They *feel* a little heavier. A weigh-in will happen later today. I got smooches from Dipsy Danger yesterday! See photos below.
6/27/23 07:30 They polished off their raw puree overnight! I want to point out that these ferrets were starving. A starving animal will eat practically anything if it has no choice to eat what it naturally would choose.
6/26/23: Well, it happened again 2 little ferrets that needed to find the Hole in the Wall Gang, have done so! I will NOT say where they came from - such info does not matter. I will say they are 2 very lucky little Marshall's ferrets who managed to get through snake and reptile handlers safely! WE hear so many horror stories about ferrets becoming food for the ectotherms that it makes OUR blood run cold! Kudos to those previous handlers who sought proper refuge for the fuzzy ones!
Names will be changed so they can completely be free of their past. We have a white little girl whose tail looks darkened with grey ink. I already had a "Parker" so was thinking of "Quill" - what do you guys think? Is Quill too close to Kill? And I have already had a Sketch, Scribbles and Doodle. I COULD call her "Stitch" for double meanings - today is 626 Day and "Stitch" is Experiment 626, and the one dark marking on her tail could be a single sewing "Stitch". Then, what to name her friend, a dark sable, with a dark nose and white toe tips on her front paws? OH,oh, oh! I have it! "Dipsy Danger!" Get it - toe tips, Tipsy, Dipsy, Danger - she is out of danger now! Yup, meet Dipsy Danger and Stitch!
I trimmed their talons, did a quick check for fleas. They smelled and felt like they had had a recent bath. Did not see fleas. But will apply Revolution on them in the morning. And will also clean their ears. Their teeth look ok, typical of youngster's teeth. Breath smelled fresh. No irritations around the p**p chute. Except for being malnourished and very underweight, they are alert, active, hearing is intact, limbs functional and eager attitudes. Typical ferrets!
I already put down a water crock for them and they both drank. Good, because their help photo showed them with a water drip bottle - which is NEVER sufficient for hydration of a ferret - especially if kibble fed!
I prepared a raw mush for them immediately with pork, chicken, beef, chicken heart, beef liver, chicken skin, pork fat, pork skin a whole raw egg, and added FDR Chicken and liver with a half teaspoon of pulverized toasted eggshells.
Dipsy Danger started lapping at it right away. But Stitch kept looking for an exit door. She settled down and a couple hours later a solid 1/3 of the large helping I put on a plate had been devoured!
Two deposits neatly placed in the corner of the litter pan and obviously some urine too. Good color! SO, at least their plumbing is functional!
Their instinctive need to survive is literally how breeders, such as Marshall's farms, get the kits to eat their crap from a bag! The kits that WANT to live have no CHOICE but to eat the junk put in front of them!
To KEEP the kits eating that kibble mush crap, Marshall's sweetens the kibble. Yes, ferrets can taste sweet, and sweet attracts them to keep eating, sugars are highly addictive. So if you are trying to convert your ferret off kibble onto raw, always remember you are dealing with breaking an addiction!
I do NOT endorse starving a ferret to get them eating raw, but letting them get a bit hungry will help. In this case, these youngsters had already missed many meals, so being offered a raw puree, was happily welcomed! Both were eating raw puree, free choice, in less than an hour after arrival!
So follow along here to see their transformation!
