Real duck soup, and amazing recovering fuzzies

So a few nights ago I made my first real duck soup!! Before that, I was just mixing A/D, baby food, nupro, ferretone and water. It was working well, and they were all eating it. But I'd run out of A/D (which is only available from a vet), and I'd been meaning to get them onto a chicken based duck soup, so I figured it was time to try it out. I mixed about 2 1/2 lbs of chicken, 1 1/2 cups of kibble, about 3 tsps of Ferretone, the water that I boiled the chicken in, and 2 jars of baby food. I got about 3 containers full, 2 of which I froze, and 1 of which I mixed with what was left of their old mixture to make the transition smoother.

Mojo ate it up - but he's a piggy, and he'll chow down on most anything. The rest of them seem fine with it, except for Bonk, but he's not a big fan of change. The first day he would only eat 6 cc's at a time. But tonight he ate 25 cc's! I guess that could be counted as a rave review. I figured out that the cost of making the chicken based duck soup is actually cheaper than making it with A/D, so I'm actually giving my ferrets a healthier diet at a lower price. Always a good thing!

I'm so happy with how well Mojo and Sophie are doing. When I first found out that Sophie had insulinoma, I was so upset. But then I talked to other ferret "owners" who had kids with insulinoma, and lots of those ferrets lived long lives after diagnosis. It was such a relief to find out that it wasn't necessarily a death sentence. These kids get so sick so fast that I guess I always assume that any serious health problem is going to be the end of them.

Mojo is doing really well too, which is a relief since surgery isn't an option for his adrenal. His coat is really starting to fill out, and he's fattened up to pre-sickness weight, about 3 1/2 lbs. (He was always my little chunkybutt!) He's due for his Lupron shot this weekend. I take him to Dr. Edling at the Horsham Vet Clinic. She diagnosed him with adrenal just by looking at him! She really is an amazing vet, and so good with the animals. It's a 3 hour round trip without traffic, but it's so worth it.

So for those who are interested, here are my duck soup recipes:

A/D Based Soup
2 cans of A/D
3 jars of Gerber's Chicken & Chicken Gravy Baby Food
2 scoops of Nupro (comes with the scoop)
2 baby food jars of water
1 big squirt of ferretone
TheFerretStore.com Single Ingredient Chicken Treat (optional, however much you want for added protein)
Nutrical (only for non-insulinomic ferrets)

Place all in blender, and puree the heck out of it! It makes about 3 days worth, 2 if you have little piggies. I feed mine with a feeding syringe (they're spoiled, they love the attention, and I'm slowly trying to switch them over to a dish), so it lasts longer.

The New Chicken Based Duck Soup
2 1/2 lbs of chicken, boiled
1 1/2 cups of kibble, soaked in the water used to boil the chicken
2 scoops of Nupro
1 small squirt of Ferretone

Boil the chicken for approximately 20 - 25 minutes, depending on the size and thickness of the pieces. Remove from pot, break into small pieces (if you have a smaller blender). Pour 1/4 of the water over the kibble to soak. Blend chicken with half of the water used to boil it. Set aside in a bowl. Puree the kibble with the rest of the chicken water and nupro. Combine pureed kibble and chicken in a bowl, stir together and add Ferretone. Pour into containers and put the needed amount in the fridge and the rest in the freezer. I'm not sure how much this makes yet, as I haven't actually made it through the whole batch. I'm estimating about 1 1/2 - 2 weeks.

Tags

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ferret, ferrets, Duck Soup, Insulinoma