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Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2014 11:33:20 GMT -5
I followed a link in another thread to Amazon for taurine supplements, and I soon found myself looking at a selection of freeze dried raw goodies from Fresh Is Best. Here are a few of the products I've found: After a lot of browsing on the forums, I've noticed that a lot of people seem to have trouble getting their hands on hearts. Have any of you tried using these to supplement your raw feeding programs? Even if you don't have trouble getting plenty of fresh raw goodies in your area, I thought these could be broken into smaller pieces and used as healthy training treats.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2014 12:03:45 GMT -5
I did use freeze dried hearts, until I found fresh hearts. I still use them, as foraging treats. I bought mine off Amazon, and they are Fresh is best. I usually buy the turkey hearts, but have also bought duck hearts.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2014 21:45:30 GMT -5
I'm definitely thinking about trying the freeze dried hearts as a way to introduce my two, previously given an all-kibble diet with the occasional whole raw egg or ground turkey as a treat, to the idea of consuming more natural foods. Did you ever try to rehydrate your hearts?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2014 9:37:48 GMT -5
I did rehydrate the hearts when I made soupies. For foraging treats, I didn't rehydrate. I had read here online that turkey hearts have more taurine, so that's why I was using the turkey hearts. A Mentor can correct me, if I'm wrong. Since you want to continue with kibble, have you looked at the kibble chart. I didn't see what kibble you were using, but it's a good idea to work with the better quality kibbles. Also, you might want to take a look at Wysong Archetypal 1, that is FDR and you can get the benefits of raw, with the ease of kibble. It's rather expensive though.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2014 11:34:59 GMT -5
I'd actually like to move away from kibble in favor of a "Frankenprey" diet, but not before I finish up what I've got on hand. "Waste not, want not," as my grandmother says! Both of my ferrets were fed a Marshall diet before they came home with me, but I did my research ahead of time and found that More Dooks gave the Drs. Foster & Smith kibble a "blue" rating. Not only was the DFS kibble more nutritionally compatible than the Marshall varieties available to me in local pet shops, it was also significantly more cost-effective. I also liked that DFS' only non-meat ingredient is brown rice (with the exception of added essential vitamins and minerals, of course). Both of my ferrets were switched immediately, despite the fact that doing so has voided their health guarantees. It seemed to me that they were likely to be more healthy on a better quality food, anyway, so I didn't mind.
I'm still in the process of learning more about raw foods as applied to ferrets. I'm feeling pretty comfortable with the suggested meat/bone/organ ratios and I can fully appreciate the health benefits of feeding raw. However, I'm still looking into suppliers and trying to find more information about how much I ought to expect to feed per day. With my dogs, I know that I should expect to feed 2-2.5% of their body weight each day to maintain their current weights. One bone-in, skin-on chicken thigh at an average weight of 10.6 oz. is sufficient to feed one dog twice a day for three days. (At 11 lbs, each dog gets two feedings per day of 1.75 oz. for a total of 3.5 oz. per day.) Despite my efforts, I haven't managed to find similar guidelines for feeding ferrets.
Ideally, I'd like to add a few goodies from the Fresh Is Best line to get my fuzzies interested in different types of food while they work on finishing the remaining 13 lbs of kibble I have on hand. Gambit eats like a typical growing "teenage" boy, so it's entirely possible that we could be finished with these bags in the next 2-3 weeks. Lucky for me, that coincides with a local delivery date from MyPetCarnivore.com almost exactly!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2014 20:57:32 GMT -5
What is the weight of the dogs you're feeding ? thank you.
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