Turkey Tails?

[LindaM]

Tonight, my husband and I popped into one of the bigger Asian stores at the Chinatown an hour away and made some wonderful discoveries. They had very well priced frogs legs and packages of whole quail, both of which we hope to try and introduce to our ferrets at some time in the future. But we also stumbled across a bag of Turkey Tails.

Now, my ferrets do see Turkey as one of their foods. Could I give them Turkey Tails as a bone-in meal? Turkey tails are said to have a high fat content especially compared to turkey meat in general. I know ferrets derive their energy from fat, but would these be too fatty of a cut to give them?

[Sherry]

I don't know that it would be worth while. They are pretty much all fat, with a tiny strip of bone part way in.

[LindaM]

Thanks Sherry. Guess we'll stick to trying the quail and frogs legs for them then.

[Heather]

We used to use chicken and turkey tails to put on weight on dogs. You only had to feed for a couple of weeks before you started seeing results. I don't feed them, even to ferrets who need to put on weight. There's just too much fat
ciao

[LindaM]

Thanks Heather. That's good to know. It's also why I asked first, they did seem pretty fatty to me, and while I know fattier cuts give ferrets most of their energy, I also know you shouldn't overdo it with the fat. Always good to check in and get more opinions before doing something that could end up being bad and all that.

[Heather]

We used to refer to it as "show" weight. You fed up just before attending a big show, it gave a sleek, glossy coat and put some extra weight so that ribs were not showing (baby pudge). the kibblers used to have something they called power balls, they were basically lard balls with some extra ingredients added (kibble and such) to do the same thing. Unfortunately, these power balls were risky as the fat (lard) was processed or cooked and could cause pancreatitis, fowl tails didn't have this problem
ciao