Newbie raw diet question

[thesyd711]

I have been doing lots and lots of research on frankenprey diets for ferrets and a couple of questions i have i cant find the answer to and i was hoping one of you guys could help. How much (grams/ ounces) of meat should i feed per meal per ferret. I was planning on doing a morning meal and night meal. Also how do I know both of my ferrets are getting enough to eat per meal and one isnt eating more then the other? How long should i leave the first meal in their cage for? And lastly if there is any meat left over can i give it to them later on n the day? Thank you for the help!

[raynebc]

How much they eat depends on how old they are, their activity level, their gender, etc. Raw fed ferrets can be given as much food as they want to eat unless they have control issues and gorge themselves and become obese. Start with a particular weight amount of food (maybe 2 or 3 ounces per ferret per meal) and see if there are leftovers when it's time for the next meal. If so, you can decrease the amount of food a little bit, otherwise increase the amount of food a little bit. The goal is to have a little bit of leftovers for most meals instead of an empty bowl, so you know that they all ate as much as they wanted and you're not wasting much food (which is wasted money), because raw meat is only good to eat for so long after it's left out. Some expiration limits from another thread are:

Raw soupie is good for 6-8 hours
Muscle meats up to 12 hours
Bone In meats up to 24 hours
Whole prey is good for 48 hours

Any food that's been out this long should be gotten rid of (I usually flush leftovers down the toilet, because meat can stink if left in the trash with normal garbage).

[Sherry]

Raynebc has given good advice The only thing I'd add would be to give that amount and then weigh the left overs at the next meal time. Subtract and keep track of the amount eaten. Over a week that will give you an average of how much to feed. This WILL change seasonally, and depending on what they are doing. I always have some thawing in the fridge for if they have an appetite surge.
If the meat is bad- they won't as a rule touch it anyway. And bad for YOU doesn't necessarily mean bad for them. Even if meat is smelling just slightly off I will offer it anyway(unless someone is sick) since they are able to cope with a quite high bacterial load. If the bacterial count is too high they won't eat it anyway so I toss it and offer fresh