Meal plans- give 'em a look over for me?

[Deleted]

This IS geared more towards my cat, but I'll have my [future] ferrets will be on the same menus! So I figured I'd post this here. The ferrets will be eating the stuff in the (())'s, for the higher bone content.

The very first week is because my cat is a VERY dainty chewer and I kind of doubt her ability to really manage any bone, so I need to really help build her jaw strength and I'm hoping starting with neck will help with that. I might get chicken neck, too? Just for a bit more variety so it's not DUCK DUCK DUCK DUCK DUCK DUCK DUCK all week long. This plan will be used until Cleo's learned how to eat and then completely discontinued.

I'll be working a four-week cycle- Frankenprey, Frankenprey, Frankenprey, Frankenprey AND Whole.



Franken plan for working up jaw strength____________________________________

SUNDAY:
   AM: Pork liver, beef lung
   PM: Duck neck
MONDAY:
   AM: Pork (( [Chicken wing for ferrets] ))
   PM: Duck neck
TUESDAY:
   AM: Chicken heart
   PM: Duck neck
WEDNESDAY:
   AM: Beef
   PM: Duck neck
THURSDAY:
   AM: Chicken heart, turkey liver, beef lung
   PM: Duck neck
FRIDAY:
   AM: Pork (( [Chicken wing] ))
   PM: Duck neck
SATURDAY:
   AM: Beef
   PM: Duck neck


Franken week 1____________________________________

SUNDAY:
   AM: Pork liver, beef lung
   PM: Duck neck
MONDAY:
   AM: Beef (( [Chicken thigh] ))
   PM: Chicken wing
TUESDAY:
   AM: Pork heart
   PM: Chicken drumstick
WEDNESDAY:
   AM: [Splurge meat; lamb, bison, etc]
   PM: Chicken thigh
THURSDAY:
   AM: Chicken heart, turkey liver and pork heart
   PM: Chicken neck
FRIDAY:
   AM: Pork (( [Chicken drumstick] ))
   PM: Chicken wing
SATURDAY:
   AM: Beef
   PM: Chicken drumstick


Franken week 2____________________________________

SUNDAY:
   AM: Chicken liver, beef lung
   PM: Chicken neck
MONDAY:
   AM: Pork (( [Chicken wing] ))
   PM: Chicken thigh
TUESDAY:
   AM: Beef heart
   PM: Chicken wing
WEDNESDAY:
   AM: Beef
   PM: Duck neck
THURSDAY:
   AM: Pork heart, beef liver, beef lung
   PM: Chicken drumstick
FRIDAY:
   AM: Pork (( [Duck neck] ))
   PM: Chicken thigh
SATURDAY:
   AM: Beef
   PM: Chicken wing


Franken week 3____________________________________

SUNDAY:
   AM: Turkey liver, beef lung
   PM: Chicken drumstick
MONDAY:
   AM: Beef (( [Chicken neck] ))
   PM: Chicken thigh
TUESDAY:
   AM: Chicken heart
   PM: Chicken neck
WEDNESDAY:
   AM: [Splurge meat; lamb, bison, venison etc]
   PM: Chicken wing
THURSDAY:
   AM: Beef heart, pork liver, beef lung
   PM: Chicken drumstick
FRIDAY:
   AM: Pork (( [Chicken thigh] ))
   PM: Chicken thigh
SATURDAY:
   AM: Beef
   PM: Chicken wing


Franken/Whole week 1____________________________________

SUNDAY:
   AM: Beef liver, beef lung
   PM: Duck neck
MONDAY:
   AM: Mice
   PM: Chicken thigh
TUESDAY:
   AM: Pork heart
   PM: Chicken drumstick
WEDNESDAY:
   AM: Pork
   PM: Chicken wing
THURSDAY:
   AM: Mice
   PM: Chicken thigh
FRIDAY:
   AM: Beef (( [Chicken drumstick] ))
   PM: Chicken neck
SATURDAY:
   AM: Pork
   PM: Chicken wing


The Franken/Whole week is what's got me most baffled- math is not my friend so I'm really confused about how to stick it in there.

I'd reeeally like to get more bone-in variety, I'll probably try to pick up turkey, duck, maybe quail, but I'm on disability income so I only get a certain amount every month(I think less than $300 a month? I'm not in charge of the account :T), so I have to budget carefully. I can often get chicken for less than $2 a pound, where I have to order other bone-in options online. The necks are gonna be coming from online, too, but are pretty affordable for me.

All the non-chicken liver, and the beef lung, is coming from online(at least until I can maybe find some around here, fingers crossed) and the only other organ I've been able to find that I can order is beef kidney, so it would be great if y'all could point me in the right direction.

[Deleted]

Math is not my friend either. However, Gfountain and Mjbez are always a big help with any math.

The basics of Frankenprey are at least three proteins
7-9 meals of Bone In meats:
Bone In is the NON WEIGHT BEARING bones of an animal that is the size of a chicken or smaller.
I use chicken wings, quail, cornish game, rabbit.

3-4 meals of Muscle meats:
Heart is a Muscle meat: One muscle meat meal must be Hearts. Chicken/duck/beef/pork/lamb, any protein.
It's a good idea to have one Muscle meat meal be Beef. Beef is high in Iron and Vitamin B
Other muscle meats can be gizzards, which are good for building jaw strength and cleaning teeth.
That leaves pork/lamb/rabbit/goat/turkey for other proteins.

One meal must be Liver plus another Organ.
Organs are secreting organs. Any protein, think spleen/kidney/thymus/brains/pancreas

One meal must be Liver plus another Organ and a Half meal of Hearts.

Hearts are ten percent of the weekly intake.
Organs are ten percent of the weekly intake.

The average grown male will eat around 3-4 ounces a day.
The average female eats around 2 ounces a day.

You have mice on your menu, those should be adult mice. So, that is a whole prey and you would subtract that from the fourteen meals and adjust your Organ Percentages.

One way to save some money is to build a basic menu and keep it simple. Use inexpensive cuts from your local grocer. Fat equals energy for ferrets, so look for fatty cuts. Those are also cheaper.
Organs can be found at Asian Markets and are rather inexpensive.

Build yourself a weekly menu and stick to it for a few weeks. That will allow your little ones to get familiar with the foods and they will eat better and save you some money.

It's like shopping for us, we would love to eat gourmet but most of the time, we eat rather simple and inexpensive meals. You can purchase the more expensive cuts like lamb and goat now and then, but it's not necessary to have them daily.

I don't feed any necks, but others do. I'm tagging gfountain, she mentioned necks on a post and I want her to talk about them also.

[gfountain]

It seems to me that you're REALLY overcomplicating things with 4 separate menus, but to each his own, lol.

I only see 2 whole prey meals in that last menu. Put them in place of bone-in meals and you're good. 2 WP meals aren't going to change the balance enough to bother with adjusting everything else.

Necks are extremely high in bone content and seem to be hard to eat, even for seasoned bone-crunchers. My two will eat chicken necks once in a while, but turkey necks get stashed in hopes that I'll give them something else. I wouldn't try necks until they're good with other, less-dense bones like wings, and then when you do start necks it helps to break them up with a hammer at first.

[Deleted]

SIGH The small book I had typed up got eaten. In summery:

I probably have so many menus because I, personally, tend to eat... pretty much just noodles and chicken, all week everyweek.(And junk food)

Honestly, I'd actually like FOUR Franken weeks(so 5 menus); one week has one neck, another week has one thigh, another week has one drumstick, but NO weeks have one wing :c it's really bothering me. (I'm kinda obsessive about numbers)((Honestly I'd kinda like more than one menu that has whole prey too)) Might EvENTUALY slim it down to less menus but, again, those NUMBERS.

I'm not very worried about bones doing DAMAGE, I'm more worried about them going down AT ALL; Cleo eats so dang dainty that sometimes I wonder if she uses her teeth at all and doesn't just lick kibble down her throat. I'll probably switch starting week to wings only bone-in, and toss some gizzard in there and see where that gets me.
I'm not as worried about ferrets going into bone-in but



There aren't any Asian markets within a reasonable distance[that I know of], so my only options are grocery stores and the 2 butchers 30 mins away. So, pork, chicken, and beef; no 'fancy' birds. Kroger DOES have bison- for over $7 a pound!- and the one butcher has beef and pork heart, and the other has ~1 lb tubs of chicken heart. Kroger also has chicken liver, and maybe beef liver? But I'm gonna have to get the other organs on line- so far I've only found beef lung and beef kidney, both at $3.99 for two pounds which I like.


Math REALLY messes me up and, unless it's a clear-cut 100, I can't break stuff down into percentages so, while I really want to get in at least SOME whole prey, I'm kinda paranoid about slipping it in!

((I think this is everything I wanted/needed to address but my head's kinda loose right now so I'm wrapping this up there, I might come off snooty?? and if I do I apologize; I don't mean too))


UGH THIS VERSION GOT EATEN TOO. LUCKILY I HAD THE FORESIGHT TO SAVE IT.

[gfountain]

I only have one menu, but it's a 'fill-in-the-blank' menu, so things get switched up ALL THE TIME.

Sun AM: organ meal ________________________
Sun PM: bone-in meat ______________________

Mon AM: bone-in meat ______________________ (or muscle depending on poops)
Mon PM: bone-in meat ______________________

Tues AM: heart ____________________________
Tues PM: bone-in meat ______________________

Wed AM: muscle meat ______________________
Wed PM: bone-in meat ______________________

Thur AM: heart and organ ____________________
Thur PM: bone-in meat ______________________

Fri AM: bone-in meat ________________________ (or muscle)
Fri PM: bone-in meat ________________________

Sat AM: muscle meat ________________________
Sat PM: bone-in meat ________________________

I fill in the blanks with whatever is in my freezer, rotating the proteins every meal.  At the moment, my freezer is stocked with  beef hearts/kidney/liver/tongue/stew meat, pork heart/liver/kidney/lung/tongue/neck bones, lamb, frog legs, turkey hearts/wings, CGH, quail, and duck.  

Unless you're doing more than half whole prey, you can just replace a bone-in meal with whole prey.