Here is some info that I always post towards the end of switches to help with menu making. Some of it will be repetitive, but there's some good info in the next 2 posts. Hopefully parts of it are helpful for beginning to construct your menu.
For balance, a raw diet for a ferret should consist of the following ratios:
Muscle Meat 75-80% (approximately 10% of which should be heart, gizzards should also be included in the muscle meat)
Organs: 10% (half of this should be liver, and half should consist of other organs such as kidney, spleen, brain, stomach, reproductive organs, etc. Organ meat is, in ferret diet terms, classified as any major hormone producing tissue in the body)
Edible Bone: 10-15% (please note the use of the word edible. Any bones left uneaten - such as large bones - cannot be included in the % bone in the diet)
For Variety: Your ferret should regularly receive a bare minimum of 3 proteins. However, the more variety you can offer the better. Even mixing in new meats on occasion is better than never, some meats are seasonal so we understand that you may nto be able to feed everything in the menu year-round. A minimum of 3 proteins should be fed year-round (for example, pork, chicken, and beef). Most meats sold as fit for human consumption are okay to feed ferrets as long as they are NOT processed, seasoned, or injected with saline (read labels carefully). Also, some meats not “fit” for human consumption can bed fed as well, these include meats such as commercial raw made just for pets, whole prey, butcher scraps etc. Ferrets should NEVER be fed processed meats, seasoned/flavored meats, meats with additives, meats injected with saline to preserve freshness. Below is a list of food suggestions:
Check Asian markets, Halal meat markets (African markets), other ethnic markets, and butchers. You can always ask if anyone can save scraps or special order for you. The organs I usually find are:
beef liver
pork liver
pork kidney
chicken liver
Then when I get whole ducks and rabbits from the Asian market they have the organs in them still.
Look around too for a pet store that carries commercially ground raw meats. These are a GREAT way to add variety as they often have proteins that you won't find in the store, and they usually have organ, heart, and bones ground into them (but not always so be sure to check). I can get commercial ground: pheasant, rabbit, chicken (Koda can't eat this), turkey, beef (also a no-no for Koda), bison, quail, tripe.
Also if you have trouble finding anything, there are other routes you can take. There are some places online where you can order commercially ground organ meat patties and such, and Worst case scenario, there are supplements that can help fill in the gaps but that is a last resort.
OK for variety here are some ideas. Pretty much any meat you can get your hands on is ok for them:
chicken
turkey
pork
beef (also veal)
bison (buffalo)
rabbit
duck
pheasant
quail
venison and game meats
rodent
cornish game hen
moose
goose
lamb
goat
fish (mackerel, salmon, halibut, goldfish, etc also, fish oil is very good for them)
Start trying to add in as many new meats as you can find. The more variety the better!
Also, seeing as how it is unrealistic to keep an entire farm in your freezer
start just trying to locate new meats so that you have an idea of what you have access to, and where you can find what. When you find them feel free to try them out!
Some parts that are good to have of all of the above animals:
heart (is a muscle meat but vital for the taurine)
liver
kidney
spleen
tongue (is a muscle meat)
brain (VERY nutritious organ meat - high in taurine)
gizzards (is a muscle meat - great for cleaning teeth)
chicken feet (good bone source - i.e. for a bone-in meat you could feet pork chops and chicken feet)
necks (also a good bone source)
ribs (pork ribs have edible bones - usually that is right on the line of thickest bones they can eat, some ferrets can handle pork ribs other can't, or at least don't, eat the bones, but they can often still get the marrow out depending on the cut)
For weight gain if you ever need it, look around for some pork side, pork belly (not stomach, but the meat), or uncured bacon. It is all essentially the same thing - very fatty pieces of pork. Duck is also high in fat. In some places Duck is seasonal, but I find that my Asian market carries it year round. Their diet should be pretty high in fat naturally so unless you are feeding fatty meats as their primary diet you shouldn't have to worry about them being too fattening. If anything they make up for the leanness of chicken.
Here are some menus from graduated mentees...
Feed them heart at least 1-2 times a week so that they are getting the taurine that they need. And organs should be 10% of the diet. Ideally the organ meat should be half liver, and the other half a variety of things such as: kidney, spleen, and brain.