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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2016 0:01:19 GMT -5
Is feeding ground (including bone and all organs) a good idea? I'm worried my ferrets would either get too much or too little of bone or a certain organ.
Would I sort of ditch the frankenprey menu if I only fed ground? Here is a possible menu for an example:
Monday am: ground duck Monday pm: ground mutton
Tuesday am: ground rabbit (whole carcass) Tuesday pm: ground quail
Wednesday am: ground duck Wednesday pm: ground mutton
Thursday am: ground rabbit (whole carcass) Thursday pm: ground quail
Friday am: ground chicken Friday pm: ground turkey
Saturday am: ground duck Saturday pm: ground quail
Sunday am: ground rabbit (whole carcass) Sunday pm: ground chicken
**all include bone and organs
This definitely seems too easy! Please provide more advice.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2016 2:02:35 GMT -5
I know just feeding grinds doesn't benefit your fuzzies teeth. So you would either need to substitute some for actual bone in meals or brush your babies teeth.
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Post by raynebc on Apr 16, 2016 3:59:46 GMT -5
If nothing else, the quail could probably be fed whole (or cut into pieces) instead of grounded, and parts of the other birds can be as well (wings, neck, back). The turkey parts will be harder to work with, but I've fed turkey neck and back before after cleaving them into small pieces. When the meals aren't not ground up, the ferrets might get picky about the parts they eat, so that may be when you have to break those meals up into separate bone-in and organ meals. I'm not sure how many bone in meals per week are considered enough to sufficiently clean teeth.
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Post by Klarissa on Apr 16, 2016 8:53:56 GMT -5
I use on average 2-3 ground meals a week, as a "bone in meal".
I was discussing with a vet, and food is considered to be "stuck on" after 48 hours, but that's with kibble. So I do grounds on days where they have a whole bone in, or whole prey as the second meal to clean their teeth.
I use ground organs because they don't eat all of them equally.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2016 22:54:02 GMT -5
I have made many changes to my example menu:
Monday am: ground duck Monday pm: chicken neck
Tuesday am: ground mutton Tuesday pm: ground turkey
Wednesday am: duck neck Wednesday pm: ground rabbit organs
Thursday am: ground duck Thursday pm: chicken neck
Friday am: ground chicken Friday pm: ground turkey
Saturday am: ground duck Saturday pm: ground mutton
Sunday am: ground chicken Sunday pm: chicken neck
**all the ground products include bone and organs
Hopefully this solves the clean teeth issue. I dedicated a meal to ground rabbit organs (or other protein) to insure a good intake of organs. However, after adding necks to the menu, would there be an excess of bone in their diet? Heart is important, so should I replace a meal with heart instead?
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Post by raynebc on Apr 16, 2016 23:23:29 GMT -5
Starting on Friday, you have 5 ground meals in a row which runs the risk of allowing the plaque to stay long enough to form tartar. Consider re-arranging the neck meals so that there are no more than 2 or 3 ground meals in a row. This way the teeth get cleaned more routinely throughout the week.
As for whether it turns out to be too much bone, monitor the ferrets' droppings to see if they appear to be dry/hard.
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on Apr 17, 2016 1:01:23 GMT -5
I read in a cat nutrition article that ground meats lose taurine,so I would add hearts. Do not know if info has been proven by a scientific study.
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Post by raynebc on Apr 17, 2016 19:04:22 GMT -5
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Post by Blue on Apr 18, 2016 12:20:07 GMT -5
Oh crap, I'm feeding purely ground. I'll order some Taurine and add it to Maisie's food. Thanks for the link, very informative. Sherry, Heather , what do you think about this (relevant extract below)? Is this something we need to watch out for? Could it have something to do with the fact that the cats were on a single protein diet?
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Post by crazylady on Apr 18, 2016 12:35:13 GMT -5
its better to mix up the diet ( I never feed the same thing two days running ) as a lot of different vits and minerals are found in different meats taurine is found in meats milk and fish rabbit is a good food but its also a very lean food so lacks the fat required by a ferret ( unless its winter then the kidneys often have a good coating of fat )fat is a must in a healthy diet for ferrets all ferrets love ground meats lol there easy to eat ( why work for your food mom serves it up ready to suck down lol) meat on the bone not only helps clean teeth it stimulates the brain they have to work out how to get the meat off this thing lol ground meat does have one blessing though I have never known a sick ferret refuse it take care bye for now Bev
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Post by Klarissa on Apr 18, 2016 14:16:36 GMT -5
Ground can be great for transitioning, and adding variety. I use it 2-3 times a week because for that purpose. But as crazylady said, it's more than just cleaning their teeth. Chewing releases feel good endorphins & is great mental stimulation. Chewing also stimulates saliva & digestive secretions, which will aid digestion. Now! Please don't get me wrong. I totally see the appeal of grinds. My dogs often get mostly grinds (plus 5 - 8 edible bone meals, and an organ meal. I will be in the future, switching my ferrets to grinds & whole prey only. I think it will actually be better in some regards to frankenprey. Grinds are still infinitely better than kibble, and you're doing a great thing by your fuzzies
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2016 16:02:13 GMT -5
Ground can be great for transitioning, and adding variety. I use it 2-3 times a week because for that purpose. But as crazylady said, it's more than just cleaning their teeth. Chewing releases feel good endorphins & is great mental stimulation. Chewing also stimulates saliva & digestive secretions, which will aid digestion. Now! Please don't get me wrong. I totally see the appeal of grinds. My dogs often get mostly grinds (plus 5 - 8 edible bone meals, and an organ meal. I will be in the future, switching my ferrets to grinds & whole prey only. I think it will actually be better in some regards to frankenprey. Grinds are still infinitely better than kibble, and you're doing a great thing by your fuzzies thank you and everyone else on this thread for all of the advice. I want what's best for my fuzzies but also something as easy to manage as possible. I don't want it to seem like I'm trying to take the easy way out! I will continue to research grinds and other possibilities.
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Post by Blue on Apr 18, 2016 17:12:20 GMT -5
Klarissa I would love for Maisie to be on a full raw meat & bones diet, but my mentors & I agreed that in my case it would be best to switch to grinds rather than continuing to attempt a full switch. Feel free to read our 12-month 25-page long saga on my switching thread holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/17660/blues-switching-thread-ferretmomma-bitbyter(Looking back at that thread, she was down to 1 lb 9.5 oz during my last attempt to fully switch her and she's 2 lbs 13 oz now!!! A little overweight actually, we're working on that.)
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Post by Klarissa on Apr 18, 2016 20:40:13 GMT -5
Klarissa I would love for Maisie to be on a full raw meat & bones diet, but my mentors & I agreed that in my case it would be best to switch to grinds rather than continuing to attempt a full switch. Feel free to read our 12-month 25-page long saga on my switching thread holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/17660/blues-switching-thread-ferretmomma-bitbyter(Looking back at that thread, she was down to 1 lb 9.5 oz during my last attempt to fully switch her and she's 2 lbs 13 oz now!!! A little overweight actually, we're working on that.) My comment was not in regards to you
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Post by Heather on Apr 18, 2016 22:47:00 GMT -5
Please NOTE: ground is not soupy. Soupy is for sick and transitioning ferrets only. Ground meats usually are commercial grinds that include meat, bone, heart and organ meats. I use a grind mix that I create on my own. It has meat, bone, organ meats and heart and egg. The recipe I have makes up about 30 lbs of ground meat and includes their heart and organ meats for the week. They also get prey and whole meats. This ground mixture is completely balanced as a meal. If your ferret only eats ground meats (with bone) you will still have to brush your ferret's teeth. The bone, ground, though abrasive is not good at removing plague. ciao
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