feeding wild meat to ferrets

[Deleted]

I'm relatively new to raw feeding - my babies are about 9-10 days into their raw feeding transition, so I'm definitely  a ways away from being able to implement anything I'm thinking about here, but I wanted to bring up the topic and get some opinions on the matter here.

I live in a small town in northern British Columbia, where hunting is extremely common.  My husband and I both want to learn to hunt - he wants to learn to hunt because he likes the meat... I hate the taste of wild meat but I want the antlers, bones and hides for crafting, and I would actually like to transition all of my pets onto a raw diet, not just my ferrets.  We also have a large dog (an Akita) and 4 cats, in addition to the ferrets. 

Does anyone know if wild meat would be ok for feeding to ferrets?  I do know that it tends to be extremely lean, so I would probably have to add in a source of fat, for starters.  Obviously a bunch of ferrets wouldn't be able to take down a deer or moose, so it's not exactly their natural prey, but I'm just wondering if it would be ok nutrition-wise. 

Thanks!

[raynebc]

I assumed added fat would also be necessary, but katt explained to me that as long as lean meats don't make up their entire diet, they will get enough fat from the other proteins in their rotation, ie. from poultry.

For wild game, it should be fine as long as the game animals in question are herbivores. Wild game that eat meat may pick up parasites that don't die during freezing. Deep freezing (completely solid) for two weeks should be about as safe as you can make it, as long as animal and meat were handled properly.

[bitbyter]

raynebc is correct. You have to stay away from raw meat like bear meat, raccoon, etc. Herbivores like deer, moose, caribou, etc should be fine after two weeks of freezing. There are strains of Trichinella in the north that are resistant to freezing and can still be infectious once thawed.