Basic frankenprey menu

[slinkytiger]

Hi! The 3 young ones are about 8 weeks old & are happily eating a full raw diet. :DSo far the menu is: rabbit, possum, wallaby, green tripe, beef, lamb, chicken / chicken liver, sheep heart & kidney. They also have a bone supplement sprinkled & Ferritone drrizzled on top. Food is served throughout the day / night with the aim being 'on demand feeding' - lol. Raw egg yolk + Pet milk is served on Sunday. They are growing really well! ZiwiPeak: Venison air dried meat has been introduced as an interesting nibble.
My question: are they old enough to eat chicken necks? or will they choke or have a bowel obstruction on the bones? Should I start with chicken wings.

[Deleted]

I would start with smaller bones like wings until they build up some jaw strength. You could also try smashing the necks with a hammer to break up the bones.

The bone won't cause any bowel obstructions

[slinkytiger]

Thanks heaps! Chicken necks a la hammer for tonights dinner.

[slinkytiger]

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Ended up having 'Chicken Wings' for dinner. Peeka was into having a chew on the tip of the wing but Boo just watched & Bandit wasn't really interested. They probably wern't very hungry so it ended up being more of an enrichment activity = how to get the raw meat up & over the lip of the container. ;D

[Deleted]

Artie gets all excited and forgets to really chew the bones and has to cough and give it another try.

[slinkytiger]

Cute. I get a little bit worried when I hear coughing. Lol. I read on one of the threads about egg shells to boost the calcium intake. I saved the shells from dinner - dried them in the oven & ground them up with a mortal & pestal. I am now sprinkling them on the raw meat for each meal. The young ones don't even seem to notice. ;D

[Heather]

Just air dry the egg shells, you don't want to cook them
ciao

[slinkytiger]

Woops! Thanks for advice. Air dry next time. Does air drying help retain the minerals?

[Heather]

Easier to absorb and cooked is sharper, harder. Just like bones, you feed raw but never feed cooked
ciao

[slinkytiger]

Thanks heaps! I'll stop sprinkling the oven dried.

[Deleted]

Awesome post, just what i was looking for, for clarity. you don't go by weight with them do you? I know for my pup, and our ex cat we went by weight, so 2%-5% or more (depending on body condition) of their healthy current adult body weight, for ferrets you don't need to weigh them or their meals? just feed them x many times per day, and x many times of y per week? hopefully i'm understanding this correctly.

Also, Jackie mentioned in the first page in parenthesis (grocery store meat) I know they aren't the healthiest, but they are readily available, and often times cheaper... anyways, i was curious about rotation, i know feed lot meat isn't nearly as nutrient dense as free range organic, which is mostly what he will get. we have stockpiles of venison liver, heart and other muscle meats as well. with a nutrient dense meat like that is rotation absolutely necessary for a ferret? Chicken/pork/beef/quail are all very accessible, some just aren't organic unfortunately.
Another question is about green tripe, we don't really feed it to Tobi our dog, i don't really believe all the hype about "wolves eating the stomach contents they need the enzymes from the partially digested hoopla" so it just doesn't happen. Does anybody feed their ferrets that? like say beef tripe?
Another question is reproductive organs, are those suitable for feed as well? beef/pork?
I would imagine they were i just want to make sure before slicing and dicing all this stuff for him and then just feeding it to endless pit of a dog

[Sherry]

Ferrets have such a high metabolism, some of them will actually eat the same or more than your cat. It depends on weight, gender, activity level, age, etc. They will eat an average of 2-5 oz a day depending on the above. It IS a good idea to keep track of their weight to make sure they are actually eating the food rather than stashing it.
And the reason for the rotation is that different animals will have different nutrients, even nutrient dense meats. Also- edible bone for a ferret is going to be far different. Generally for a ferret what they can consume are bones from animals chicken sized or smaller. There are a few exceptions, like turkey neck. But not many.
I also feed a small amount of veg. matter(pumpkin). Not because of "stomach contents", but to replace things like fur.
And yes, I did try tripe. One time. ;D ;D ;D
I don't think I've ever seen such shocked faces at the smell in my life ;D If they'd eat it, I would feed it simply because of all the nutrients and enzymes. And although wolves might eat the stomach/contents in smaller prey, in larger they'll rip and empty the stomach before eating it.

[Deleted]

I feed all grocery store meat. My fuzzies are on a diet of: quail, rabbit, chicken, cornish game hen, and duck. I also make soup 1-2 times a week with ground turkey. I am able to feed 4 ferrets for about $50 a month on this diet, less in the summer. My girls are very healthy. I know it's not organic, but my kids are thriving on their diet.

My 4 eat about 12 oz a day, or 3 oz each. They each weigh about 2-2.5 lbs. So 3 oz of 2 lbs is over 9% of their body weight. Little piggies!

[Deleted]

Lol, I can imagine their disgust with the tripe... I puked once... And then my animal gobbled over a pound of it like it was the best thing ever lol... That's more the reason I don't feed it, I might see I Loki wants some someday...maybe.

I wasn't meaning any offense at ll Jackie we feed meats from stores as well, I guess I was meaning there would be different nutrient profiles from farm to feedlot, I always just wonder how well they would get on with single organic protiens is all 9%is huge they are little hogs!! That is a lot of variety it's a great sure fire way they are getting what they need... Do they tend not to like fish?

Another thing I was wondering about we're Grubbs, crickets, worms etc, are those treat material?

[Sherry]

Some like fish, some not. We had one go mad for wild cohoe salmon. Bot ONLY wild cohoe. No other type if salmon
One will literally eat smelts until she gets sick. One inhaled shrimp. Swallowed it in one piece and promptly threw the whole thing back up