Raw diet?!

[geohiccup]

Hi all, been reading up A LOT the past few days, late into the night/morning
I am going to keep a supply of kibble for my Jill so she can pick at it when needed, however I am going to feed a raw diet.
I've got the gist of it, 80% meat i.e fat skin muscle and tendon, 10% bone and 10% organs. I'm gathering types of meat I plan to ask my butcher about, if they have it- likely, it is an abundent butcher's shop, I have not been in but pass it every day and boy are there more types of meat than I can even name in there!- however I am a little stumped as I'm not a huge meat fan so am finding it hard building a list for the 80% meat!
For the 10% bone I plan to feed chicken wings as so many of you on here and other forums/websites praise it
Kidney/liver of chicken, whichever my butcher has for the 10% organs.
However, for the 80% meat, I am stumped? I've chosen chicken, lamb and maybe turkey or goat, whatever my butcher has, however what do I ask him for?
Chicken heart, what else? I cannot think of much else,  and will it need to change as my ferret grows from kit to adult?

Long story short, can you guys help me name a few fatty chicken lamb and turkey/goat or a third meat for my 80% please! I'm going to talk with my butcher about it and maybe he will give me a few suggestions
I'm also going to ask if he can dice it all up into chunks so I can freeze it and then just serve it out into bite sized chunks

One more thing!
Is 5 ounces of meat, twice a day, so a total of 10 ounces per day, an alright amount for her?
I can't find too much on portion sizes, only feeding schedules, types of meat and how regularily per day people feed their ferret but only one persons blog that said they fed 5 ounces twice a day, and picked it up after 2 hours if any was spare.
I think ferret kits eat 5 times a day but smaller amounts? So maybe 1 ounce 5 times? 2 ounces 5 times a day?
So kits eat more regularily, 4 times a dayish, and adults eat twice, however do they eat more or less as kits ounce wise?

Very confused
Thanks all, still super excited,
Georgia

[LindaM]

You should try to have more than just one source of bone-in too, so not JUST chicken wings, and try to aim for more than just one bone-in protein if you can, it's best to have at least 3. Other good options include doing whole Cornish Game Hen, Duck Necks, Turkey Necks, Frog Legs, whole Quail, etc.

If your menu mostly consists of one major protein for most meals like chicken, it could lead to problems like food sensitivities and IBD, a good amounts of ferrets end up with sensitivities towards chicken and beef.

Remember, your weekly menu for Frankenprey needs to be 7-9 meals of Bone-in (meat with edible bone), 1.5 Organ, 1.5 Heart, and 2-4 of Muscle (meat with no bone), heart is a muscle meat but because of its important I put it by itself so it's easier to count your meals. If you're just going to do chicken wings for bone-in, that's 7-9 meals of just chicken wings in the week.
Refer to this: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/146/meat-bone-organ-weekly-menu

How old is your girly again? Kits will eat several times the amounts of an adult. But the average for an adult female is 1-3oz of food per day. And kits should just have food available to them at all times since they're still growing and need to food to fuel that process. Though even with my adults I make sure food is always available by feeding just a bite or two more than they eat on average on each of my two meal times in the day, that way I know everyone ate their fill.

[abbeytheferret6]

you can get frozen quail at ASian stores --even the small Asian stores that I have visited have quail---seems to be a staple with them.

[LindaM]

Abbey is correct, I am able to find quail in the frozen meat sections without fail in almost any Asian store I go to. Most will also have whole duck and whole rabbit, as well as consistently have packages of chicken hearts, I've also found pork hearts there, as well as great other organs that most butchers don't usually want to sell you for legal or other reasons.

[geohiccup]

Mar 31, 2017 15:57:37 GMT -5 LindaM said:

You should try to have more than just one source of bone-in too, so not JUST chicken wings, and try to aim for more than just one bone-in protein if you can, it's best to have at least 3. Other good options include doing whole Cornish Game Hen, Duck Necks, Turkey Necks, Frog Legs, whole Quail, etc.

If your menu mostly consists of one major protein for most meals like chicken, it could lead to problems like food sensitivities and IBD, a good amounts of ferrets end up with sensitivities towards chicken and beef.

Remember, your weekly menu for Frankenprey needs to be 7-9 meals of Bone-in (meat with edible bone), 1.5 Organ, 1.5 Heart, and 2-4 of Muscle (meat with no bone), heart is a muscle meat but because of its important I put it by itself so it's easier to count your meals. If you're just going to do chicken wings for bone-in, that's 7-9 meals of just chicken wings in the week.
Refer to this: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/146/meat-bone-organ-weekly-menu

How old is your girly again? Kits will eat several times the amounts of an adult. But the average for an adult female is 1-3oz of food per day. And kits should just have food available to them at all times since they're still growing and need to food to fuel that process. Though even with my adults I make sure food is always available by feeding just a bite or two more than they eat on average on each of my two meal times in the day, that way I know everyone ate their fill.

Thank you so much for your reply!!
With my bunny I am giving her unlimitted food until she is 7 months then weighing out her food depending on her weight, so from what you say ferrets are similar; unlimitted food for kits and then 2 meals a day plus extra if they're hungry
Thank you that was one of my main concerns!
I do not yet have my Jill, however I know the parents and the mating should be occuring soon, menaing I have roughly 3 months to prepare
If I uploaded a list could you possibly help me assemble a schedule/list?
I intend to use three types, lamb chicken and pork for her, also with te 80% 10% and 10% (meat, organs and bone) is that daily or weekly? So per day her food would contain 80% meat, and 10% organs and bones?
I know once I've got a list I can follow I'll fall into the rhythem of it just forming it and making sure she will have a balanced diet is daunting! I want to get it right
What other bone based meal do you think I could include other than chicken?
So it would be
Monday 10% bone meat e.g. chicken wings or another one, 80% chicken breast or something fatty/tendony/muscle based and then a bit of liver? Then Tuesday rinse and repeat, same portions 80% 10% and 10% but with different meat? Like a bone based meat, then something fatty and pork based then some liver or kidney?
Thanks so much for bearing with me as I get a grasp of this

[geohiccup]

Mar 31, 2017 16:17:10 GMT -5 abbeytheferret6 said:

you can get frozen quail at ASian stores --even the small Asian stores that I have visited have quail---seems to be a staple with them.

Pretty sure I don't have any of those around here unfortunately I live in a very small town, very boring run of the mill shops, even the big ones don't have anything exotic, just the general stuff. But I'm sure if I look in some of the large supermarkets I can find something similar >:3

[LindaM]

Okay so, the when looking at those percentages, that's of the entire diet. It's 65-70% Meat, 10-15% Bone, 10% Heart, and 10% Organs (Half of which must be liver), that is considered balanced. This works easier for when you do grinds or commercial frozen or FDR, but can end up confusing you when you are new to doing the normal frankenprey diet. While still correct, it's easier to look at it as 7-9 meals of bone-in, 1.5 meals of organs (half needs to be liver), 1.5 meals of heart and 2-4 meals of muscle in a WEEK. Two meals a day, so total of 14 meals per week. As for portion sizes, that you'll figure out when you get your little one.

Would you be willing to at least add Turkey to your list of proteins? It would be better since, lamb and pork do not really have a lot of "edible bone-in" meals, other than rib ends, so most of your bone-in meals will then just be chicken. Ferrets can eat Turkey necks and wing tips for bone-in. You can also always order some raw online from providers such as Hare Today, or My Pet Carnivore for things you may have trouble finding in your town.

Mixing meals isn't advised, since ferrets will pick out favorites. Try to forget about the percentages for now, it'll help avoid confusion right now. Think of it as the meals only instead. Eg. Monday AM - Hearts (Heart), Monday PM - Chicken Wing (Bone-in), Tuesday AM - Lamb Chunks (Muscle), Tuesday PM - Turkey Neck (Bone-in), Wednesday AM - Half Liver + Half Kidney (Organ), etc. and so on and so forth.

I highly suggest signing up for a mentor here:
holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/61/sign-mentoring-program

They'll be able to personally walk this switching journey with you, help you plan a balanced weekly menu and make sure you know all that you should about a healthy raw diet and any important facts to keep in mind.

[geohiccup]

Mar 31, 2017 23:49:10 GMT -5 LindaM said:

Okay so, the when looking at those percentages, that's of the entire diet. It's 65-70% Meat, 10-15% Bone, 10% Heart, and 10% Organs (Half of which must be liver), that is considered balanced. This works easier for when you do grinds or commercial frozen or FDR, but can end up confusing you when you are new to doing the normal frankenprey diet. While still correct, it's easier to look at it as 7-9 meals of bone-in, 1.5 meals of organs (half needs to be liver), 1.5 meals of heart and 2-4 meals of muscle in a WEEK. Two meals a day, so total of 14 meals per week. As for portion sizes, that you'll figure out when you get your little one.

Would you be willing to at least add Turkey to your list of proteins? It would be better since, lamb and pork do not really have a lot of "edible bone-in" meals, other than rib ends, so most of your bone-in meals will then just be chicken. Ferrets can eat Turkey necks and wing tips for bone-in. You can also always order some raw online from providers such as Hare Today, or My Pet Carnivore for things you may have trouble finding in your town.

Mixing meals isn't advised, since ferrets will pick out favorites. Try to forget about the percentages for now, it'll help avoid confusion right now. Think of it as the meals only instead. Eg. Monday AM - Hearts (Heart), Monday PM - Chicken Wing (Bone-in), Tuesday AM - Lamb Chunks (Muscle), Tuesday PM - Turkey Neck (Bone-in), Wednesday AM - Half Liver + Half Kidney (Organ), etc. and so on and so forth.

I highly suggest signing up for a mentor here:
holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/61/sign-mentoring-program

They'll be able to personally walk this switching journey with you, help you plan a balanced weekly menu and make sure you know all that you should about a healthy raw diet and any important facts to keep in mind.

Thank you very much, getting more of a grasp on it now, once I get the Monday AM and Monday PM etc etc down I'll be fine I will sign up for the mentoring programme now, thanks for all your help