Hi folks,
 
I noticed everyone has been posting about duck soup and Gerber baby food
lately, just wanted to throw my two cents in.
 
Late last year I had a ferret with DIM, although we didn't know it at
the time.  He couldn't eat kibble, he couldn't eat much of anything.  I
scoured the archives and the web for duck soup receipes and all mentioned
Gerbers.
 
When I had my kids (human kids that is) I always made their baby food
myself because it was so much cheaper.  Why wouldn't that work for ferts?
We eat chicken fairly regulary so I boned out a roaster and ground the
meat up in my blender.  Because it had been baked there wasn't much
liquid to it so I added Pedialyte and used the blender on the 'whip'
setting.  I got a nice soupy mixture.
 
The next time I needed more soup I bought 4 chicken thighs.  Instead of
baking, I boiled them.  Everyone knows that boiling takes nutrients out
of food so instead of dumping the stock down the drain, I boned out the
meat, put it in the blender and used the stock for moisture.  Again I
used the 'whip' setting.
 
In a seperate bowl I mixed 1 cup of kibble (MF at the time) and enough
Pedialyte to make it mushy and a full can of Hills A/D.  Then I dumped
the whole mess together in the blender and thoroughly mixed it.  I took
the amount of soup I had in the blender, determined how much Whitey would
eat per day, usually 30-40ccs per feeding times 5-6 feedings a day and to
this I added the appropriate amount of Slippery Elm Bark to cover all
those feedings.  And mixed it thoroughly again.
 
He needed Slippery Elm Bark because of ulcers and it gave the soup a nice
smell that enticed him to eat.  I also added several ccs of liquid
vitamin B or Pet Tinic.  I never froze this because between his special
feedings and the other ferts that thought it was great, I used it all
up within two to three days.  But I'm sure several days worth could be
frozen in seperate small ziplock baggies and thawed out on a per feeding
basis.  Whitey survived on this concoction for two months before his
heart succumbed to the DIM.
 
This was alot cheaper than buying baby food and not difficult to make
at all, and I hate to cook.  If there was ever any left over, which was
rare, the neurotic dogs ate it so none went to waste :-)
 
Leslie
[Posted in FML issue 4809]