How to cut/prepare a beef heart?

[nannah]

sorry if this is in the wrong place/a silly question, I don't know! 

but does anyone have experience with beef hearts? around me, there aren't chicken hearts/livers, but there's plenty of beef! 

[raynebc]

I cut it up just enough to get it into portions of the weight I want, then I cut each portion up into slivers of the size I'll serve to the ferrets and store the portions in containers in the freezer.

[Deleted]

I have learned that it is often easier to slice raw meat when it is a bit frozen.
Since I leave food out during the day and then remove breakfast and replace it with dinner, it's been surprising how several of mine simply adore frozen meats and several like it after a few hours once it's been a bit "jerkified" to quote Bella.

There is never a silly question here so don't ever worry about that. All of us must start somewhere and admins can always move a question to a proper board if something is put somewhere that works better somewhere else.

:wave3:

[Aftershock]

You have beef heart too? I was lucky enough to start off with chicken hearts (walmart sells gizzards and hearts but it's supposed to be mostly gizzards and I got lucky and got a ton of hearts!) So I was going to cut my beef heart into chicken heart sizes. The chicken hearts are pretty small. I could measure and weigh one out for you if you like!

[gfountain]

I use beef and pig hearts all the time. They tend to be a little rubbery so I usually cut them while still slightly frozen so my knife doesn't 'bounce off' and cut my hand off. (Yes, I've had that happen...well, the bouncing off part. My hand wasn't quite cut off but it was cut pretty badly. ) I usually cut them in slices about an inch thick, then cut the slices into chunks. And then, since my spoiled brats don't like beef hearts, I have to throw it in the blender and make smoothies for them.

[nannah]

thanks for the tips! it's good to know to cut them when they're still a bit frozen! don't want to cut my hand off - yeah, I'll stay away from that. I'm sorry your hand was cut though! yikes.

and thanks for the smoothie tip, haha. I'm guessing my ferrets might be picky too. so I'll keep this in mind.

[Deleted]

Older ferrets have imprinted on their earliest food by about the age of 6-9 months.
You have a young one and an older one so expect the oldest to be picky but the youngest to take after the Alpha.
Remember they are just like two year old toddlers and need patience and want the attention that comes from their Mommy's love. You'll do fine and build a lovely bond which will be rewarded with so much love.
Lovely job Ferrenting.

[gfountain]

Jun 14, 2016 20:46:51 GMT -5 nannah said:

and thanks for the smoothie tip, haha. I'm guessing my ferrets might be picky too. so I'll keep this in mind.

True story... my older daughter was home a few weeks ago for a visit. We got the ferrets after she left for college so she has never lived with them for longer than a few days at a time. (This story would never happen with my younger daughter who was at home with them for 2 years.) So on Saturday morning, I was up fixing breakfast for everyone, including the ferrets. It was heart day for them so I pulled out the blender and whipped up a smoothie. I hollered at all the hoomans to be getting up for breakfast, then left the blender full of smoothie on the counter while I went to get the ferrets up. I heard movement from the other room and stuck my head out of the ferret's room just in time to see my daughter spot the blender and hear her say 'mmmm.... strawberry smoothie! Thanks, Mom!'. Before I could say anything, she leaned in to take a big sniff. The look on her face when she smelled that 'strawberry' smoothie was priceless!!  I'm just glad she sniffed before she drank! 

[FerretsnFalcons]

I always use kitchen shears (I don't trust myself with a knife lol). It's faster for me and there's very little risk of injury.

[Deleted]

When using pork heart do you need to worry about parasites?

[Gg]

If I blend a heart into a smoothie for fuzzies that are going into raw, how much is enough for them to eat?
So far, I mix their meat in bone (today is chicken legs) with heart (one for every 8 ounces) should that be enough? And should I also blend in egg shells if I'm already blending the bone in the chicken legs?
When the mix comes out, it's a ton of food but I can't get them to eat a lot so I bag up the mix (usually fits into two bags) leave the soup out for them for no more than 6 hours (sometimes it's touched, other times I have to feed it to them out of a syringe). Is that enough protein and nutrients for them? I tried cutting heart into a blend of chicken thigh and heart, added in the heart chunks, which were just played with.. that was a meal from earlier in the week.