Won't eat meat?

[kc4life0712]

My Monkeys diet has consisted of dry store bought food all her life (prior to taking her under my care) and trying to be a good ferret parent, I bought raw chicken. Cooked some while I left some raw because articles I read informed me some like raw while others like cooked. 

Trying to introduce it to her, I got my hands wet and got some of the juices of the chicken on my hand and she seemed very taken by this so then I gave her a tiny piece of raw chicken and she licked it and gagged. Then I tried the same with cooked and she gagged.. While my Bash boy just avoided it all like the plague.

What are some good ways to get her to eat meat and is it absolutely necessary for her to eat some meat? And what are some meats ferrets absolutely are known to love.

I thought about getting feeder fish since I had seen videos of ferrets diving in a bowl for fish, but she does not like water one bit and unless the fish are squeaking, she won't hunt them..

[LindaM]

Ferrets should never get any cooked foods, it has no nutrition for them anymore, and if they take to it, can create a bad habit of them wanting it.

This was your first try, it went normal. In their eyes, you just tried to offer them poison. Silly floofs don't know it's yummy food yet.

Are you planning to switch to raw? If so, then yes, their whole diet will be meat. It's the species appropriate diet for them. They're obligate carnivores.

Switching can take a day, weeks, months even, it all depends on the ferret and your patience and persistence. It will require work from you and the ferrets.

If you're interested in switching, I suggest to apply for a mentor using the mentoring program on here. They will help work with you and our ferrets to do a successful switch.

As for favorite meats, again, they'll need to learn to eat it and each ferret can have different favorites. Plus you need a minimum of 3 different proteins in a raw diet.

Things to entice them to raw meat:
Salmon oil, limit 1tsp per ferret, per week.
Raw egg scrambled, or yolk only limit of 1 per ferret, per week. Double in shedding season.
FDR sprinkled over raw soup.
Treats dipped in raw soup.

[kc4life0712]

LindaM good to know! No more cooked meats

I was hoping to have a mix of raw and her kibble. Things I've read said that's the best mix, but you never know who writes these things.

[LindaM]

I used to do a partial raw, partial kibble diet. I followed my raw menu and allowed kibble during the day for whoever was still hungry. Won't do it again honestly. It's too much hassle and has real health risks if you aren't cautious all the time.

Raw and kibble cannot be fed together. You need a few hours before and after raw for kibble. If you give both in close proximation you risk a bacterial overgrowth in their gut. And you'll also still need to brush their teeth regularly. And of course, it's hard to keep the entire diet properly balanced.

It ended up just easier to do raw by itself.

[kc4life0712]

Oh wow... yeah that's a great eye opener..

Plus with me working a 8-5 job with 5 other animals it probably wouldn't be too ideal. Thanks so much!

[LindaM]

You're very welcome! I originally did the partial diet, since my cat doesn't eat raw, and he shared a kibble mix with the ferrets (Wysong, NV Instinct Duck & Turkey, and Orijen. Had Wellness Core Cat/Original in there too until I discovered it contained peas). So with kibble always around, they had some kibble during the day when still hungry or as a snack. But I have since decided it's too much hassle to deal with, and we've been struggling to get the cat onto only canned wet food, and then perhaps once that succeeds, onto raw as well, as he has always had some tummy troubles.

Raw could still work lovely for your ferrets on that time schedule. With adult ferrets we only feed an AM and a PM meal. We make sure the morning meal contains enough food for them to last until the evening meal, and that one to last again until the next morning meal.

If your other animals are on kibble, and it's easily accessible to the ferrets, be aware that it can make the switch a bit more challenging, but not a loss entirely either. Once I stopped letting the ferrets have kibble, and made sure they get their fill of meals of raw, they completely stopped eating, or even sniffing at the kibbles left for the cat.

[abbeytheferret6]

Above hit HFF Website and there will be a heading Natural Diet for researching  diet and switching. Also u can read people's switching threads to see how it is done(you can not make comments in official switching threads). People can make comments to unofficial switching threads like yours, should you start one to give assistance.


For ferrets that have been on kibble most of their life, u usually have to start with a soupie.This is the forum soupie. holisticferretforum.com/natural-diet/raw-diet-the-meat-of-the-site/raw-soup-recipe/
You will need:
1. a cheap scale like a digital kitchen to weigh out your food.
2. a coffee bean grinder(cheap one from walmarts is fine) This is to grind dried eggshells for calcium to go in the soupie. Instead, you can use plain, human grade bone powder ---no additives, such as minerals and vitamins.
3. ice cube trays to store and freeze soupies.

I held mine in my lap and offered soupie off my finger.They squirmed to get away after having to daub their mouth with it. I let them down,and repeated the process every couple minutes or so. (you may have to offer soupie in a spoon before they eat off saucer. Some are funny that way).

Continue to ask questions.