Opinion on how many times to feed

[chiara]

Hi guys, just a question more of opinion and to help clear things up in my head.

I've started feeding Lola 3 raw meals a day, and I am now thinking she has put on a little too much weight recently and going to cut back a bit. I work in a vets and hear regularly (if kibble fed) that or course food must be out all the time as they have such a fast gut transit time and their blood glucose can drop.

With regards to feeding raw though, why don't we have to worry about food being available all the time? I would like to feed Lola twice a day, as think she is becoming greedy with the 3 feeds. But if she finishes all her breakfast straight away, can I really wait 10 hours to give next meal?

Also she used to leave food which was easy for me to know when she has had enough. But she is really enjoying the raw food I have at the moment so she would probably eat more than she needs so it's harder for me to gage a cut off point to ensure she doesn't increase in weight but I'm giving her enough! Greedy lady

Thank guys!

[msav]

I have always been told that Ferrets will self regulate and rarely need intervention due to weight, For the most part for me this has been true. However There have been some times when you get a Kit where they start to pack on the weight. I personally have never needed to intervene. (how do you when you have 6 ferrets and only 2 are Fat).

They go through their seasons and put on the weight and then lose it just as fast.

There are always exceptions.

I personally feed twice a day but give enough to make it through the day. when I get home if there is 1 or 2 chunks of meat left I feel that is acceptable. when there is a whole plate of meat left then they will be getting soup the next day.

They other thing when feeding Raw. if they have to work for the food, Like chowing down on a whole quail they don't eat as much as if you are feeding them soup. It is too easy to eat and they tend to over indulge.

[lumboo]

When they were kits I fed 3 times a day.

Now I feed twice a day - after their morning frolic and when I lock them in for the night

Sometimes they still have food left over and sometimes bowls are empty.

During the summer I tended to feed less because they were eating less (my boys are outside and UK has proper seasons) and I can see they are starting to eat less again as the weather turns warmer

I'm sure I read somewhere that kibble has a lot of empty carbs so they fill up quickly but get hungry quickly too so need feeding more often. With raw they don't because they get more of what they need for energy.

Even though they're fed twice a day, they have loads of energy, shine and seem in their summer slender phase.

So, my opinion would be twice daily is enough as long as the amount of raw being put out is adequate

[chiara]

Lola is around 1 year now and I definitely think she mostly self regulated too and didn't worry about her putting on weight as she would sometimes finish a bowl and sometimes not and that was ok, but she aways finishes her bowl lately and it is grinds so she doesn't have to do much chewing! I weighed her yesterday and she is around 980g 😮 I wonder though if now it is getting warmer (I'm also in the UK but Lola lives inside) she will hopefully start shedding some pounds.

I think I will get her back on to two feeds a day, that makes sense about the empty carbs with kibble.

[msav]

not only empty carbs in Kibble but empty fillers. that makes for large stinky poops and smelly ferrets.


when my ferrets were kits (seems like it was just yesterday) they got all you can eat. it has not been to warm here and the 2 kits and one of my rescues Quester (who was super thin when we got him) are now just under 4lbs. They are chunky boys to say the least. I know when we start getting warmer days they are going to slow down on the food consumption.