Sounds great! Let me know how he takes the chunks of food and go ahead and start to feed him lone meals of heart and organs. 1 meal of organs, 1 meal of heart and 1 meals of 1/2 and 1/2. This way we can start to feed him his frankenprey diet as he would take it normally.
He ate a meal of just beef heart yesterday!!! 30 grams (gave him 60, but I'm not sure how long I can leave that stuff out.) He also ate 32 or so grams of muscle meat that night (pork, beef, and veal mix.)
Partner also got some salmon in the hopes we could feed it to him—do you know anything about that/safety of it/etc?
Ok great! Is moderation because of mercury levels or less research done on it maybe? Also just to clarify, the little bones can't hurt them or do I need to take any out if I find any?
The meat is ground up like hamburger meat sort of. Like grinds but more smushed together, just because that's how it comes at the store. The heart was in big chunks though!!!! He also ate a TON yesterday!
Yesterday's food was: 37 g muscle meat mix, and 70+ grams of beef heart in big chunks!
Mercury levels is the concern. If you can debone, debone, those little bones can, rarely, get caught in the throat but I doubt the one you miss will cause any issues.
Oh good. I'm glad he is eating chunks. I think when you can, go ahead and try to just give him chunks of meat and see how he does. I have a feeling he will take to them well.
He loved the fish in tiny strips, ate every bite! So I tried giving him some in a big piece overnight, and he ate some of it. How long is it safe to leave in the cage for?
Nice big piece for him. It sounds like you are doing a great job. How are you doing at balancing out the weekly meals? Is he eating bones steadily yet?
Nothing to report yesterday, he's been eating just bone-in chicken today and yesterday because that's what we had, and he's going to have some organs as dinner!
He is eating bones steadily! I think he's ok at this point for me to start actually charting out the meals to make sure he's getting the right proportions; it seems like he will eat anything at the sliced thinly stage if not the full, solid piece of meat stage.
Great! I'm going shopping tonight so I'll try to have a real meal plan going from that!
OK, Let's see...... 3-4 types of meats is ideal, right? Heart is a muscle meat! But a super important/individual one that must be fed. Ferret poops can be adjusted by more or less meaty bone! Oh gosh, I know liver is important, but I can't remember the exact reason why is it the vitamin A?
Yesterday he ate 63 g of beef liver in big chunky strips (just how it was already stored in the fridge, not that he needed strips at all) and the day before he ate 69g of liver. I think he might have eaten a bit less because of the mix of it being a newer food and because I am starting to use 10-20 pieces of kibble a day as treats for training and bonding, separate from mealtimes. I've figured that anything in the best class on the ferret kibble chart would be ok as just treats, but I'm looking into using freeze dried raw, too.