Recipe upgrades

[Deleted]

Ok so I've been raw feeding for 7 days now. I have been scouring the forums but have a few questions that I haven't yet found the answers to. The three fuzzies still might or might not touch their EVO kibble at night, and sometimes eat from the bowl but sometimes just want to be hand-fed. I'm not really measuring what I put in, more just eyeballing it, but I'm giving them:

Duck breast
Chicken heart/gizzards
Freeze dried liver with no additives
Egg shell powder
1-2 times a week, a raw egg in the mix (ends up being a very small fraction of the whole meal since they haven't even yet finished 1 egg batch)

Right now I'm also looking into getting a meat grinder to include bone. So far I haven't used any pumpkin, I was just reading about it on another thread. Same with fish and/or olive oils. I have a few questions about that.

--How much of the pumpkin can you put in? Can you use canned pumpkin?
--Can they get the fish oil naturally from fish? What do the oils do for their diet?
--What kinds of fish are best? Can they eat canned tuna? Does it have to be raw like everything else? Fish is super expensive, so I wouldn't want to use much, but I'm curious to know the kinds.
--How about shellfish? Would shrimp with the shell on be good for them?

ONE last question:
Brushing ferrets' teeth... where do you get the brushes and toothpaste? My ferrets' teeth look great so far. When would I need to start doing this (assuming they let me) ?

I know that's alot of questions, but everyone here is so very helpful. Between all the mentoring and all the threads here, it must be like a full-time job! Thanks in advance.

[Deleted]

I know that fish can be expensive, that's why I go to the bait shop and pick up shiners or mullet...that way they get to "fish" for them out of a large pyrex baking dish (I use a baking dish for this because they can't tip it over and cause a tidal wave!) and then once they catch their meal they get to eat it!
I'm thinking that the canned tuna is a no go because it is cooked.
You can use canned pumpkin just make sure to read the label to check that the only ingredient is pumpkin, it's usually by the pie fillings so make sure you don't pick up a can of pumpkin pie filling because that will have other ingrediets. Not sure of them amount to give them.
For fish oil I use Salmon Oil and I get it at a small specialty petfood store the next town over.
Your going to want to feed them at least one more protien source, it can be something you have already on hand like beef, pork or lamb.

[Heather]

--How much of the pumpkin can you put in? Can you use canned pumpkin? 1 tsp is the rough gauge of the amount of pumpkin for maintenance. 1tbsp to move things along. Yes you can use canned pumpkin, just make sure it's not pumpkin pie filling
--Can they get the fish oil naturally from fish? What do the oils do for their diet? They can, but I find to cover my bases I use a mixture of olive oil and small marine fish oil...ratio about one third olive oil to two thirds marine fish oil
--What kinds of fish are best? Can they eat canned tuna? Does it have to be raw like everything else? Fish is super expensive, so I wouldn't want to use much, but I'm curious to know the kinds.I use whatever's available. Preferably smaller fish, less toxins always raw
--How about shellfish? Would shrimp with the shell on be good for them? you can feed shrimp (now that's expensive ) but it's really too salty even if raw

ONE last question:
Brushing ferrets' teeth... where do you get the brushes and toothpaste? My ferrets' teeth look great so far. When would I need to start doing this (assuming they let me) ? I don't brush my guys teeth...they eat raw bones and gibbys you don't need to brush for the most part, unless there is some genetic issue with regards to the teeth.
ciao

[Deleted]

Ok, great! So the pumpkin would be about 10% of the mixture, since it would count for "roughage"? And as for the oils, how much do I add of that? I have seen fish oil pills at the dollar store. I think they are gelcaps. Can I use those?

[taratee]

now is that one tsp per ferret of pumpkin?

[Deleted]

Just wanted to bump up this thread again Still not sure on how much fish oil to give them or if the capsulated form is ok to crush etc?

[Deleted]

The salmon oil I use has a pump on it and I give everyone one squirt per ferret which equals about 2ml not sure what it would be if it was taken out of a capsule.

[Deleted]

I use the capsules for fish oil mostly. I vary it up on the kinds that they get since they all have different fatty acids, and in different ratios (omega 3, omega 6, omega 7, etc). I give my guys (I have 4) 1/4-1/2 tsp in their raw soupie (if it's in a bottle) or 1 - 500mg capsule (I puncture it and squeeze it in). My guys don't like salmon oil, so I use sardine oil (and sometimes sardine/anchovy oil), emu oil (I'm going to start buying capsules, but for now I use Vivify which is made by Totally Ferret surprisingly), krill oil (capsule form, but it's expensive), and olive oil.

Hope this helps

[Deleted]

hehehe krill....like the krill in Finding NEMo that yell "swim away!" at Marlin and Dory when they think what Dory is talking to in whale is a whale???



*sorry totally off topic*

[Deleted]

Feb 4, 2011 22:34:13 GMT -5 @rarnold18 said:

hehehe krill....like the krill in Finding NEMo that yell "swim away!" at Marlin and Dory when they think what Dory is talking to in whale is a whale???



*sorry totally off topic*

ROFL. ;D

[Deleted]

I <3 that movie. Instant classic