Hello Everyone,

I'm a few FMLS's behind but want to thank everyone for the thumbs up on
the crickets. My pet store has them at a decent price and w/the ferret
diet I have been making by hand, it's been costly. I may even grind
some up (I just got a grinder off ebay for $13 w/shipping) and add them
to their soupy!

My ferrets were on a strict dry diet until I found you guys. Someone
asked about converting their ferts to a non-commercial diet. I read
somewhere where you just go 'cold turkey' and give them raw until
they eat it. Didn't work for me, but what DID work was by starting
out w/cooked chicken/turkey in the food processor and then mixing it
w/their kibble. Just a little at first to the kibble, then I slowly
added less and less kibble. It worked like a charm as 3 of my boys are
over 4 and they didn't like the change. Now we are switching to raw.
I chop/grind some raw chicken and add it to the cooked soupy. Just a
little raw at first - and they are eating it! So little by little I'll
be adding more raw. WHAT a difference in their energy level and coat
quality once I got them off the straight kibble!

Also, someone mentioned trying some frozen mice from RodentPro. I
went there and was going to order 50 mice weanlings (for $19.50) then
discovered the shipping was going to be over $33 because they pack them
in dry ice and such My corner pet shop wanted $1.50 each for frozen
mice! Then someone suggested going to a reptile show and you can
purchase them cheaper there and save on shipping. I did a search on
Goggle for "Reptile Shows (and my state)" and found a website where
there is an All Cleveland Reptile Show every month which is right
around the corner for me. I will try that soon, but I just ordered a
case of 100% rabbit (Wysong) from a local distributor so I think I'd
better feed some of what I have first before filling up my freezer
w/frozen mice (as it already still contains about 25 bags of soup too!)
and I will be adding some crickets to their diet too. My fiance thinks
I'm quite daft now. At least he didn't say no to the crickets and I
told him if any escape, the cats will get them! I just hope we won't
be waking up in the middle of the night to cricket songs...

Also, I found this website for other reptile shows across the US:
http://www kingsnake.com/events.html
Just a suggestion as ferts can be SO expensive to own once you start
paying attention to their special needs!! I never would have known all
this if it hadn't been for you guys. They'd still be on kibble and no
where near as healthy as they are now!

Dawn, Hamlet, Socrates, Romeo, Simon and Alexander

[Posted in FML 5858]