Raw diet In UK

[Madferretslady]

hi there
i could do with some advice on raw feeding my two fuzzies. I should point out I'm in the UK. They are both this years kits and I have fed raw since I got them, one 2 months ago and the other one week ago! Now they seem to love the raw but here are the problems I'm encountering. Firstly they started off liking minced raw chicken with bone, but seem to have gone off of that as it's quite sloppy and prefer to have a good old chew! I gave them chicken wings but all they seem to do is hide these around the house! They both adore chicken hearts and they eat chicken necks but not with anywhere near so much gusto as the heart. I got some natures menu beef chunks but this looks as though it's beef tongue, they eat it, but I'm concerned about the Nutritional value of that. I give them raw eggs every couple of days and they also like lactose free milk occasionally. I also give them chicken livers about one a week. I feed my dog raw, I use wolf tucker and nutriment, which are both excellent for the dog. Nutriment do a cat version of their food, has anyone on here tried this at all? So what I am struggling with is finding a supplier that can supply the right raw food for ferrets. Do a search on Google and you come up with none!
also can anyone tell me just how much they should eat per day? It's easy for dogs, 2% of their body weight to maintain a good weight, but does the same apply to ferrets? When we had the newest addition castrated this week, the vet mentioned he was a bit on the podgy side. He does love his food but as he was kibble fed up until last week, I'm guessing that's the reason and that his weight will balance out.
has anyone got any advice or information on feeding raw/suppliers here in the uk? Im Not adversed to feeding whole prey day old chicks, does anyone have any advice on this?
many thanks

[Deleted]

Welcome to the HFF

You have two little Tummies with Teeth! Getting them started on raw will give them a good healthy start in their life.

There is alot of info on the Home Page under Natural Diet. There is a section on info for raw feeding newbies.

I'll make it a little simpler and then you can go back and do some reading.
We start off most ferrets who have been on kibble with a raw soupie. Yours are young and may quickly skip that step. But, it's good to begin with that:

8oz of raw chicken thigh
1-2 chicken hearts
1/2 chicken liver
1/2 tsp of dried eggshell powder. dry some eggshells for a day or two and then grind them into a fine powder.

Blend this up and sit down with them and offer them some. You may have to dab some one their lips. If they try to run away, bring them back and try again. You can use a spoon to feed them, they will enjoy that.

The next step is to start putting tiny slivers of chicken into the soup. You want to begin to decrease the soup and increase the slivers and their sizes over several days.

With young ones, like you have, they may need to eat alot and often. The average grown boy eats 3-4 oz a day, the average grown female eats 2oz a day. A Tummy with Teeth will eat much more, just keep feeding them. lol

I don't currently feed Whole Prey, bitbyter does and I have tagged him.

The Frankenprey menu is designed to mimic eating whole prey and is carefully balanced. They will eat
7-9 meals of Bone In meat.
Bone In meats are the NON WEIGHT BEARING bones of an animal the size of a chicken or smaller.
Chicken wings, Cornish game hens, Quail, rabbit and of course Guinea pigs and mice.

3-4 meals a week are Muscle Meats: One muscle meat meal must be Heart. Ten percent of their total intake for the week will be Heart. Other muscle meats will be Beef (high in iron and vitamin b), pork, turkey, lamb and chicken/duck gizzards. Gizzards help clean teeth and build jaw strength to help them eat bones.

1 meal a week is Liver plus another Organ.
Organs are secreting organs like kidney, spleen, thymus, pancreas and brains.

1 meal a week is Liver plus another Organ plus a half meal of Heart.
Liver plus another Organ makes up another ten percent of their weekly intake.

They must have a minimum of three proteins in their weekly meal.
One egg a week per ferret is great for them.

Look for the meats in your local grocer. Nothing enhanced or flavored, but you can buy them the same chicken, turkey, beef, etc... that you eat. Look for fatty cuts for them. Fat equals energy.

Asian markets are great for Organs. You can find hearts/livers/ etc... easily and inexpensively at a good Asian Market.

Ferrets gain weight in the Winter and lose weight in the Spring. Once on raw, they will be leaner, have softer and silkier coats. Their Poops are smaller and less smelly and energy levels are high. Ferrets can't process fruits/veggies or grains, so once on a raw diet, they can avoid some illnesses that are due to an incorrect diet, such as Insulinoma.

I hope that this overall explanation helps. You still want to read and understand how the diet works. Ferrets are complicated little guys and need a well balanced diet.

If you decide to join the Forum, we have a Mentor program to help you thru a switch. You can also look thru some of the Member/Mentee switching Threads (you can't post to those) and see how the process works. Our Mentors are volunteers who feed raw and have been tested and approved to Mentor.

I hope to see you around the Forum
(dance)

[bitbyter]

Day old chicks are not considered a meal as they are not nutritionally complete (no baby animal is). They should be considered a treat. For whole prey animals to be considered nutritionally complete they must be at least breeding age for that species (you can google the ages). Here are some European whole prey suppliers. Keep in mind the whole prey is the most expensive option when it comes to a raw diet.


Frozen Direct
Exotic-Pets
Kiezebrink
Frozen Reptile
Scales & Fangs
Snakestation
Futterlieferant
FrostFutter
BLIJKIE BV
Tourterelle Des Bois
NutriRept
Tropicanimals

[Deleted]

Hi I feed three 5-6mth old ferret hob kits 100% raw frankenprey menu in the UK

For UK suppliers of raw foods - Sainsbury's & Tesco both sell pork, lamb & chicken livers & hearts & kidneys, some are in the freezer & some in the fridges. You can get cheap chicken drummers, wings & thighs from them too. I portions them up and freeze in wee sandwich bags.

Mince in the supermarkets at the moment has gone up in price lately I was feeding pork, lamb, turkey, or beef.
I now buy 'Natures Menu' frozen raw minces from the local pet shop they are much cheaper. Pets at home and most pet food suppliers quite often do these frozen foods, they are good quality and prices are pretty good. I get the 400g pure raw meat mince blocks in the following flavours - Beef, Chicken & Lamb, Chicken, Turkey, Chicken & Tripe, Beef & Tripe. All the minces have bone ground in and are of a consistency similar to tuna flakes from a tin but a bit mushier. I get these for 80-90p per 400g pack which is much cheaper than similar amount of mince from super markets. I can also bulk buy poultry necks and hearts in bulk and they also do free flow mince which you can pour straight from the 2kg packet and weigh out what you need then defrost.
Just avoid their ranges of raw frozen dog & cat chunks as these have vegetables in them. The minces I get do have a dog on the cover but they are 100% meat & with some bone and no vegetables or carbs.

If you want to get food delivered to your house. Kiezebrink UK are an excellent supplier of frozen raw pet food. They do a mix of whole prey and chunks and minces - the prices are great and you can get seasonal meats like game and rabbit too. The delivery cost is only £10 for uk mainland delivery.

Here is a link to their webpage. www.kiezebrink.co.uk/

hope this helps.

All the best with your raw switch - there is a wealth of experience and help and info on this forum you will learn so much - I did

[Madferretslady]

Thanks all replies, that's great! I shan't be going down the whole prey route now, I could handle day old chicks but anything bigger would just gross me out!
Can anyone tell me though the daily quantities I should be feeding?
I've tried the mince with bone, natures menu, but they seem to find this too mushy, I could try the free flow though. I was thinking about maybe chicken or rabbit carcasses for the bone portion of their diet, has anyone tried this? Whether it's just where I am but I struggle to get organs other than livers from either my supermarket or the local butchers, mine looked at me like I was mad when I asked for chicken necks and hearts! (no butchers do their own butchering anymore, it all seems to come in ready done just like the supermarkets)

[RedSky]

Have a look at Durham animal feeds, I get my dogs raw from there. The meat is exactly what it says on it, where as natures menu's blocks is often a blend of 2 proteins. I also find it cheaper for slightly more and they also do duck and chicken wings, necks, pigs trotters, chunks of meat and chicken carcasses, ribs and other stuff. Pretty good value.
If you don't mind sharing where abouts in the UK you are I might be able to help you further. If you prefer you can PM me. I'm near the Lancashire border but still in West Yorkshire, but I know a few places that are further around the UK.

[crazylady]

Hi normally for a kit hob its 3oz-4oz twice per day ( if under 8 months )2-3oz if over 8 months once over a year my guys get 3-4oz once a day ( normally at night as they eat more then )jills eat around one ounce less per portion but they all differ eating more in the winter months and less in the summer if they are leaving meat you are feeding too much if there is non left add a little more you will soon learn lol and feed meals in a closed cage try farm foods ( freezer store ) you can pick up cubed Aberdeen angus beef or mince four one pound bags for £10 sounds a lot for ferrets but one bag will feed one ferret four times ! they also do great drumsticks 3 bags for £10 there are around 20 fat drumsticks in each bag ! my kits manage on one or two drumstick per meal lol ask around at local markets for any meat going cheap at the end of the day or check out supermarkets for reduced deals and simply bag it up into portion sized meals lamb neck and lap chop are also pretty cheap and one pound cuts down into 4 meals or even more depending on how much they are eating I would cut back on the raw egg as too much can cause hair loss once a week is enough scrambled or boiled eggs are fine and good fillers hardboiled eggs in the shell make great toys they can eat lol simply chip a little from each side so they can smell it and have to work for there treat ( the shell is pure calcium so great for them )hope this helps take care bye for now
Bev

[Deleted]

Wow thanks for the info. I love the boiled eggs idea and although I don't think there's a farm foods near me, there is a ldil and an Aldi so I reckon they must have similar stuff (I have to confess I have never set foot in either so it will be an adventure!) I did look at the DAF site when I was investigating raw for my dog, but my friend put me off by saying she used to use it but the quality fell, so I use wolf tucker and nutriment. Their minces are great but for some reason both ferrets started eating it but then found it too soft, I might try mixing it up with yummy hearts though to see if that helps! Thanks for the quantities though, that's what I was really needing most, I wanted a guideline to start from as its a fine balance between not enough and waste by too much!
I'm looking forward to getting lots of info from HFF

[Deleted]

I live near manchester, so you'd think it would be easy to get ferret meat, but no! I shall have to move back down south there seems to be so much more!

[Deleted]

Has anyone out there tried a company called BARF Pet food?

[RedSky]

I'm not far from Manchester myself, Yorkshire side though. Never heard of a company by that name, and don't think I've seen their website before.
The lidl near me stocks some 'unusual' meats as well as the regular stuff. I've not really shopped in Aldi before but have heard only positive things about it. Our local morrisons also sells a range of stuff, enough for me to feed ferrets a suitable diet. But generally this way is more expensive than what I feed my dog.
I personally like DAF, I've never had a problem with it other than some mixed bone I bought and my dog isn't impressed with their rabbit (neither am I really, I need to look into a different source). Their chunks of meat are so far all really good, but my dog is limited by his allergies so we can't get most of the cheaper options.

[Deleted]

I bought some day old chicks from kiezebrink, which they love! I was a bit unsure but figured I'd give them a go. I also got some rabbit mince, chicken necks, beef mix with bone, chicken mix with bone and chicken hearts from them as well. So far I am really impressed with the quality, they like the rabbit and I've yet to try the other minces. Although the dog turned his nose right up at the rabbit mince, despite eating whole jointed rabbits when I can get them, he has NEVER turned his nose up at ANYTHING before, so I was quite shocked! I shall get some other meats, chunks and minces from the supermarket but I'm keen to keep up the bone content of their diet. I gave them some mixed game chunks which they weren't really impressed with. I've given them some chicken livers and kidneys, which they like, but they make their poops really dark and sticky, so I'm limiting this to just 2oz a week. I'm going to try the barf pet foods site just to see what it's like and to keep up the variety of meats as I don't want to limit to just beef and chicken.
Has anyone any advice on how their poops should look? I'm used to the dogs being very small and firm from a raw diet, so was expecting the same from the ferrets but instead it seems to be the opposite, lots and quite stick and squishy. Could this be because they don't have enough bone?

[crazylady]

Hi pick up a tub of meat and bonemeal ( I use hollings meat and bonemeal ) from you local pet store or order on line ) and cover each meal in bone meal ( mix it into minces ) this ups the bone in the diet and firms up poop dark sticky poop is normal after liver/kidney meals as they are high in blood content keep trying different meats dont give in lol if there hungry enough they will eat it eventually you will find once they are on the bonemeal there poop is firm and formed good luck take care bye for now
Bev

[Deleted]

Awesome, will get some today! Thanks!

[Deleted]

Percy is on a raw diet, I get all my meat from the Butcher/supermarket or friends who shoot. I have noticed my tastes in meat/fish are forced upon him. I won't buy him cod as it's tasteless and as for Halal meat as I don't agree with the way it's killed I won't buy it for him!

Poor ferret has political views without realising!