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Post by tinytippytoes on Mar 27, 2011 11:32:04 GMT -5
Organ meats are liver, kidney, spleen, brain, thymus, lung, brain, pancreas. Hey Jackie do need to get ALL of them at one point or can they get a few?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2011 11:41:23 GMT -5
Liver and 1 other is fine, though more is always better. Liver is 5% of the entire diet. Another 5% should be other organs. That can be one other, or several others
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Post by tinytippytoes on Mar 27, 2011 13:17:23 GMT -5
Thanks Jackie just found out today my reg. supermarket has calf liver. Its amazing what we see when we actually are looking for it.
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Post by sakuraferret on Mar 27, 2011 20:38:59 GMT -5
Can you really feed a ferret only on whole chickens (incl. organ bonus)? I don't remember if they have whole chickens, but i'll take a look today because normally I don't look in the meat section often. Japanese-half has to work today, so we'll have to plan a trip when he can come along and translate the animal parts for me. There's a few I can probably work out by appearence though. It's a shame ferrets can't eat seafood because the seafood section here is crazy awesome with everything under the sun...I mean water. lol Going from my memory, I did see chicken wings and I think liver (definetly an organ of some kind). Would the wings account for the muscle and bone needs? And add those liver things, and all that's missing is pumpkin and heart? So maybe some meal ideas would be: boneless chicken chicken wings livers heart (if I can find it) pumpkin (is there a sub in case pumpkin is uncommon in Japan?) I might sign up for mentoring after we get our baby. I like to think starting a baby ferret on raw would help nip major health problems in the bud for the future.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2011 20:46:19 GMT -5
You need 3 protein sources, so chicken and two other animals minimum. I feed chicken, turkey. Pork and beef.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2011 20:46:59 GMT -5
They can have fish occasionally, maybe once a week. Only small fish though, because larger ones have more mercury.
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Post by sakuraferret on Mar 27, 2011 20:53:40 GMT -5
Got it. I'll see if they have turkey (might be "exotic" here) but I know they have pork and beef and chicken for sure. What specific seafoods are fine once a week? I see everything! Salmon, octopus tentacles, whole squid, fish eggs, shrimp of all sizes, tiny dried baby fish...they have just about everything under the sea here. The seafood section is bigger then the chicken/beef/etc section. Actually seafood is the cheapest too. I wish there could be mer-ferrets for us in Japan!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2011 21:01:57 GMT -5
Check what you have available. Any meat is good as long as it's not altered. small birds are good for boned meats, and I use larger animals for boneless days As for the fish, hopefully someone else will chip in. Ive never fed seafood. Beware, I've heard it makes them a bit stinky
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Post by Heather on Mar 27, 2011 21:19:03 GMT -5
You know, there is no reason why your little one can't eat more fish. We don't feed fish because of the mercury but also because of the extreme cost and the tendency that your little one will start to smell bad. You can cover a lot of their nutrients using the smaller fish that you have access to in the markets. We don't have a lot of what you have available. One of the problem that you may encounter is the smell of your little one. I would definitely feed at least one meal of fish per week, but you could try 2 meals of fish and see how it goes (if your little one starts to smell then cut back). Let's face it we all supplement with fish oil, that is something you wouldn't have to do and if you do feed more fish, I would definitely not be as liberal with the fish oil as a treat. The problem that you're going to encounter is the lack of calcium....so you would treat the fish as a muscle meat meal even though it has bone in it. You will probably find that your little one may have smelly stools on the days that you feed fish. You would feed the skin, bones, skulls of the little fish that you do feed. You will note that what we feed protein wise is often dependent on the ease of access to that protein. Now, one of the problems about how and what is also fed has to do with the fact that farm minks were fed a primarily fish diet that was absolute garbage (it was scrap meats) and this was then passed off as a good diet for ferrets (marshals ) and extruded into kibbles. Of course it wasn't, but it wasn't good for either species but did produce thick, rich coats on the mink who only had to live until they were 18 months to 2 yrs when they were harvested. For our ferrets they stank. Therefore, everyone has automatically classified fish as a poor protein for ferrets. Fish is not a natural diet for ferrets but that doesn't mean that they didn't eat fish. Minks live along water sources fishing freely. Ferrets do not move the same way, but they wouldn't be for walking past a dead fish along a waterway. I wouldn't feed fish more than twice a week, but that means you can use chicken (we rely way too much on this protein), pork and beef which would cover all your protein needs. You can add others if they happen to show up or if you buy some for yourself (trimming a small amount off before you cook your own dinner). I hope that helps a bit ciao
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Post by sakuraferret on Mar 27, 2011 21:49:48 GMT -5
Very interesting! Thank you heather!
Well, sense once a week is appropriate, how about once a week a salmon meal? Salmon is pretty affordable here. And it's rich in omega, right?
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Post by taratee on Mar 27, 2011 22:38:35 GMT -5
just gotta watch that its not seasoned or salted, if its not you should be cool they can probably deal with the bones in it too which should make it cheaper as well. less man work put into it the cheaper it tends to be
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Post by sakuraferret on Mar 28, 2011 18:27:44 GMT -5
Actually I was wondering.
For example, a ferret is eating some raw chicken. The ferret decides to be a spaz and roll around, getting raw chicken on it's fur. Later, I handle the ferret, so I am assuming raw chicken has crossed to my hands. Would handling the ferret, who has raw chicken on it's fur, be any way harmful to people?
I remember at my last job how paranoid they were about raw meat and the process of washing hands a million times. Makes me wonder how our own ancestors ate meat.
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Post by Sherry on Mar 28, 2011 21:54:53 GMT -5
The only way mine spaz out while eating is if someone else tries to steal their meat ;D Then it's a major hissy fight/tug of war ;D They generally, though, either sit and eat it, or grab it, run, and stash it to either eat there, or keep for later. I've been feeding raw for 3 years now, and never had a problem. Normal sanitary conditions will be fine
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Post by sakuraferret on Mar 29, 2011 0:38:34 GMT -5
I looked at the meat at one of our super markets here today. I didn't have Japanese-half with me though, so I couldn't get a translation nor could I work out the weight. But the curiosity was killing me so I checked it out while getting ingredients for some BLTs. mmmmm. This particular store didn't have whole chickens...I suspect that whole chickens are uncommon here because most Japanese houses/apartments do not have ovens. You can buy a mini oven, but you'll never get a whole chicken inside, I think they are for making little cakes or something. However, most of the meat was about the same price, and in the same size packaging. They could be the same weight too, but i'll have to double check. They had more expensive meat, but most of the beef (pork?) and chicken (turkey? maybe not) was $3-$4. What I believe to be livers and heart pieces ran about $2-$3 I think. No feet or beaks or necks or anything like that. And a big ol' whole fish...$1 I need a Mer-Ferret! Now, there COULD be a butcher somewhere in our city, but that will take more research. It might be helpful to find though if I take this full throttle. Might need to learn more Japanese to build a relationship with them if we find one. My Japanese is pretty bad so far. Once I get my Japanese-half to help me work out some details, i'll try to work out the cost of feeding a single ferret raw based on the prices here locally. And I will ask him to help me do a search for a local butcher, which -might- save us money. If the butcher is really nice, maybe he'll be happy to dice the meat into a "kibble" appearance for my fiance. lol
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Post by Heather on Mar 29, 2011 11:46:37 GMT -5
Good luck, I'm sure you will work it out. I know how difficult sourcing can be, I can't even imagine how difficult it would be in a foreign language ;D ciao
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