in the ongoing (non)saga ...

I'd like to say I've been dedicated in trying to get Anya on to a raw diet.  And I could say that, but I'd be lying.  The biggest obstacle is being able to get her to taste anything.  There's no way I can get her semi-restrained - she becomes terrified, and I am not willing to traumatize her in the name of switching.  Trying the fasting method doesn't work, because even with a small wait (less than four hours) of having her food up and the raw soup down, she'll go into starvation, so when her kibble is given back, she won't even eat that.  She just drinks water and sleeps and gets hellaciously skinny.  Rubbing food on her nose or paw just results in her sliding across the floor (that's never worked on any of my guys.  They're not stupid, and they don't think the only way to get it off is to lick it off.  They prefer rubbing it all over me then scampering off).  So, by the end of the experimentation on different ways to begin a switch, Anya was smug (if underweight) and I had just given up, made my peace with feeding Epigen 90 (for a kibble, it's the best one you're gonna get), and moved on.

I will say, though, that yesterday, I splurged.  I decided to pay a ridiculous amount of money (see? Ridiculous) for a small bag of Wysong Archetypal-1.  It's freeze dried raw, and may be a way to get her on kinda-raw (at least a little) when it's mixed with her kibble.  I've heard it's ferret-crack, and they typically love it, so thought I'd give it a shot :)  It shouldn't cause an issue re: digestion, because it's dehydrated, and so will take longer to pass through (just like kibble).  We'll see how that goes.

Well, yep.  That's the news :)

PICSPAM: mayhem? why no, it's just a regular friday night

My nieces have been staying with us for the summer.  Every time we start cleaning they always say, "oh, we want to help"  so we generally give them little chores.  Well, yesterday, I started babbling about having to clean ferret rooms that evening, so of course, they all chorused "we want to helllllllpppppppppppppp."  Since I usually do it after they go to bed, I had to get on the ball and do it earlier if they were going to be my "helpers" (the decision to let them help on the this one, was aided and abetted by three sad little faces that moped at me when I casually explained how late I actually clean rooms, hahaha.  Guilt, I has it).

This was, keep in mind, the first time that the ferrets had ever really interacted with the girls for long periods of time.  Yogi and Sian (along with Pixie, before she passed) were introduced off and on to the girls (glancing pets and "hi's!"  Anya only really saw them once, when I first got her, and Rula was the same, really, except for when I carried her upstairs and the girls got to say hello for a few seconds). 

I explained how they move, play, and interact.  That animals have paws, and claws, and teeth.  Nips can happen, scratches can happen, and if you step, squash or kick at Hiko it could make him die, and painfully (my words, because less than the graphic best will get about ZERO responses from them, and he has a really enlarged spleen.  I was taking no chances).  All that done, I brought out the big guys (feeding Hiko, so he wasn't nippy from hunger):

My precious ferrets were on their best behavior, which was awesome, seeing as how I love love love my nieces, but for children raised around a CRAP TON of animals since birth, they can be so very weird around them (though yesterday night was great, tonight they were showing a little of that oddness I've come to know so well).

They got to handle and watch the ferrets roam and play, and then we got down to the business that brought us there.  Cleaning cages:

 

 

And then me, breezing on through while I have my nieces do all the dirty work for me (in all my messy, messy glory.  I have just decided not to g.a.f., hahahaha):

We got the big guys' room done.  And on to Rula and Anya.  Followed the same vein, meet ferrets, play, clean, and then CHILL:

 God, I am just the most gorgeous creature alive.  How does the internet not implode with all this hotness floating around?  I don't even.  But to actually clarify, I'm holding the ramp up, so Reese can vacuum behind it.  She was apparently weirded out by actually moving the hose around.  My precious girl.  Yep.

 

 

And then Rula was taken care of, and she had to go up with her food (her and the big guys got duck necks and gizzards last night and boneless chicken thighs tonight, fyi), and Anya had to come out and get to meet my nieces, and get taken care of:

And then we got her refilled on food, and no, I didn't even do THAT, miss Hailey did:

After, it was time to sit a spell:

The verdict after two days of helping their Iya take care of her ferrets?  Hailey loves to clean, Emma is apparently our very own future ferret whisperer, and wants to have ferrets of her own some day (smush Hailey and Emma together and you get one darn good ferrent, I must say):

... and Reese likes to take pictures (almost all the pics here are hers :D ).

As for me, well.  The rooms got done, though tonight took about .... four hours longer than normal, but hey, it's all good, if they get to know and appreciate my guys, as well as the value of taking care of another living being that depends on you.  Life lessons, and all that, amirite?

Why?

Don't I look happy as a clam?

...

....

.....

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

(j/k, they were long, but they were good nights ;D )

snowday '13

So we've been having winter weather for awhile now.  Ice, wind, snow, rain, thaw repeat.  Our yard looks like a muddy field where trees go to die (at the worst, we were out of power for a little over a week).

That being said,  because Anya's fur is beautiful and thick thanks to her treatments, and she was going crazy in the room, that she needed to get out.  Ice cold and little flurries falling down, but it was worth it.  She spent most of her time trying out different cubby holes that might serve as a warm(er) place to nap, but between her scurrying she managed to play in mud, water and the little bit of snow that had accumulated in this latest round.

It wasn't long that we were out there.  By ten minutes her little nose was red, and I had to fight her to get her back inside to warm up.  She might go out again later, as well :)

Beyond that, it's almost time for another nail clipping for her, hahahahaha.  Oh, how the time flies.  Also, the  conversion from Marshall's to Wysong is still ongoing, though she's eating the mix (which is mostly Wysong at this point) like a champ.

Hiko's looking like he's due for another des. implant.  His coat is getting distressingly orange again, and he seems a bit more irritable and cranky than he's been (plus Yogi's looking like he wants to start bullying him again, and that's always a sign Hiko's smell is changing and strengthening).

Everyone else is doing great, though!  Yay!

the new definition of "cheap"

Hiko and Anya's vet trip!

Let's start with Anya; Hiko went first last time, I think :)

Managed to lose 80 grams, stubborn girl, so eek.  So tiny.  The vet didn't seem alarmed, would prefer the weight loss as we get her switched, rather than her gaining weight on crappy kibble, so.  And I told Dr. Paul all about her stubbornness.  He liked my idea, just mixing the bag of Marshall's in with the bag of Wysong in a tupperware container, so the smells mingle and maybe she'll eventually stop picking out just the Marshall's to eat.

She got her implant and her distemper shot.  Also got her nails clipped (for free!) while she was under.  The vet did hear her cough once, while under anesthetic.  Offered to run tests, but because the amount of cough is lessening and she's not suffering behavioral-wise with it, I said no (really couldn't afford it, either.  Dr. Paul did understand that, and said the cough wasn't a top worry of his, either).  Dr. Paul also retested her blood protein.  Up by 20 points, and since she wasn't dehydrated, the increase wasn't due to that :)

So, good news for her.  And now, unless symptoms break through, I just have to call monthly with updates.  The total for her stuff was $479.  $385 just for the implant, which - not to be a bother - but I'm going to call about (I didn't catch it on the invoice until I was home, and it was too late to call), since both Hiko and Pixie's had only been in the low 200s.  I want to know if it was in error, if the price just increased, or (and more importantly) if the make up of the implant's changed, and what that might mean, if that's the case.

Now for Mister Hiko.

First off, he gained some weight!  He's now 2.5 lbs :)  Still the smallest of the big guys, but he's getting up there, again!

He had to be fasted.  What the vet and techs don't get is that a whole prey diet is vastly different, of course, from kibble.  It's more difficult to "pull food" at a certain time with whole prey, than when it is just a bowl of processed food.

Instead of "pulling food," (which is more like "searching for body parts in any and all areas of the cage," - not as catchy, I know), I have to think of what food he'll want to eat, right away, and also what food he can finish quickly.  So, at around 1 am, I gave each of the big three 1 chick apiece.  I watched him settle down and start eating, and it was probably gone in ... oh, 30 minutes, if that.  After that, he didn't eat.

For the glucose curve testing, I fast him, bring him in and then about every hour they draw blood and run it in their glucometer, or whatever.  First one was 100; next one was mid-90s, the last one was 80.  So, Dr. Paul stamped Hiko's health card with a big, fat "not insulinomic."  YAY!

His stuff came to about $100 - so I was right, but not because they charged for a "medical problem."  But because the tech's estimate (she looked it up, online in the computer, so I'm a bit confused) for the glucose drawing was off.  Instead of $48, it was $72.  Which.  The latter looks nothing like the former, really.  Still, I had budgeted for $100, so that didn't hurt me :P

They fed Anya, because since they were keeping Hiko, they just kept Anya as well (which is good, since she's right under their eyes in case of any reactions to either the vaccine or the des.).  They apparently had on hand a little bit of Marshall's, and Dr. Paul made no bones about - he said she ate like a pig, hahahaha.

Poor Hiko didn't get fed, but I was smart, brought along a jar of Beechnut's turkey baby food, and let him eat some of that in the car before taking off for home.  Still, though, when we did eventually get home, I gave the big guys all a large rat apiece.  Hiko was the first to go for one, hissing and screaming at the other two to keep them away from the food.  Yogi and Sian stared at him, then me like, "you took him away and broke him!"

in which I'm fond of parentheses, pictures and rambling

So, a few things:

Instead of dealing with the flu, I'm now dealing with a cold.  Hurray.

This

so many little. frozen. critter corpses.

is my whole prey freezer, and yes - I have a whole freezer JUST for whole prey.  The side-by-side is a dedicated raw freezer, so >;D .  As you can see - stocking up.  Not quite there, but almost.  Left side is mice (all adults, some hairless, most furred); middle is rats (large and super jumbo) and right is chicks.  When I get the mice levels to where I'm happy, I'll go to RodentPro and start stocking up on guinea pigs.

For a raw/whole prey feeder, this is exciting stuff, guys.  Serious, so serious.

I also managed (while feeling icky on top of it.  that gets me extra brownie points, right?) to scrub the big three's room AND cage (I just failed to do laundry, oops).  The reason?

The big three had gotten excited hearing Anya first run the downstairs and then leash up for a walk later in the day.  So I decided to level the playing field somewhat and let them roam the downstairs for a bit:

I do this^ ...

... and this^ is the reaction I get. (but he absolutely loves having his scruff scratched. leans into it like a cat :*)

Opossum, my possum

more and more these days, I'm seeing these two together

Yogi Terror sniffing out dirty doggie mats.  Ferrets let you hide about zero shame.

It's a bomb!  It's a - !  It's actually carpet cleaner they knocked off my junk table. See? What'd I say about shame? Now the internet knows I have a junk.  table.  Stoopid.

Seeing as how they were out and not in their room, I had the brilliant thought of "zomg, I could cleannnnnnnnnnnnnnnn," so I did.  Scrubbed their nasty little flexi-tile floor with hot soapy water, then used my carpet broom (yes, that's right.  carpet broom.  even though the  big three don't have carpet) to brush up the debris (litter from when I tried litterbox training them in the room.  yeah, laugh it up).  Then after it dried (mostly) I put them back in and gave up all pretense that they would stick to the two piddle pad rule I have been trying to impose.  They have like six freaking piddle pads right in front of their plexiglass through-way, now, the devils.  Screw it.  Better than them dirtying up the floor even more, eh?

Then I scrubbed down the cage with more hot, soapy water, changed litter (they'll use it in the cage, some); found some unused shower curtains, the metal ones, and because the big three refuse to use the full 2nd floor of their FN as anything other than another potty-zone, but also refuse to the leave the damn piddle pad alone, I clipped the piddle pad to the sides of the cage.  I let them out this morning, and sure enough, the piddle pad (clipped) was able to survive the big three's renovation efforts!  Yay, less mess (and with Yogi, Sian, and Hiko that's all you can wish for).

Tonight, I'll sweep as needed, wash the floor with my Swiffer antibacterial and then vacuum when it dries.  Pray I can keep up this regimen, because 1) it's NECESSARY AND 2) I might be able to get a ~kind of~ respectable floor again if I keep it up.

Of course, when I let the big three out, Anya was still trying to wind down from her jaunt outside (she got to meet the UPS guy, delivering ferret food [whole prey].  That was a fun discussion once he realized the boxes he was lugging around was filled to the brim with dead critters.  He even asked, "Oh!  How did you get her on to kibble?" [as if ferrets these days come eating whole prey, *snerk*].  Oh, I just laughed and replied, "the better question to ask me is, 'how do you get her off of kibble?'"  Not very well, obviously, not very well).  So she saw these huge, healthy ferrets running around when she couldn't, and how did she respond?

This is how:

... NOT FAIR!!!! ...

what about meeeeeeeeee?

(also got a check in call from the vet for Hiko and Anya.  Apparently, Hiko's stuff is only going to cost $50?  But I have a feeling they're forgetting the "medical problem" fee they charge, which is in itself $50.  So probably $100 or there abouts.  Not bad.  Hopefully.)

Til tomorrow and said vet updates, then!