Raw Food Beginner

[ameener]

Hey, I'm new to this blog and as this is my first post I would like to introduce my 3 month old ferret Luna. We had her on the Marshalls kibble diet since we got her in mid June. I've been doing research and since then decided to put her on the raw food diet. I went to shop rite the other day and bought chicken breast, chicken gizzards and hearts, beef kidney and liver. Is there any specific schedule I should start out with? I tried feeding her some small pieces of a chicken thigh but she turned it away only licking it trying to get tastes of some of the ferretone I sprinkled on it. Would she may be take better to the soup recipe? Or should I maybe cook the chicken to start her off? Any guidance would be much appreciated and I thank you in advance! 😊

[abbeytheferret6]

The soupie recipe would be great. you will need a plain human grade bone meal ---no additional vitamins added to it ---just plain. You could use ground up eggshells instead. 
Here is the site and the soupie recipe is here as well.

holisticferretforum.com/natural-diet/raw-diet-the-meat-of-the-site/

[LindaM]

Use the recipe Abbey linked to in her post. You may also wish to try the Dab'b'Grab method of introduction, by grabbing said ferret, dipping a finger into the soup and dabbing it on their mouth/nose/gums. This helps them get the taste in their mouth. Don't worry about them wanting to run off, that happens for a while sometimes. Just keep at it. You can do this throughout the day, or pick a session of 20-30 minutes, dabbing every 5 minutes.

Cooked food serves zero purpose to a ferret. It's the equivalent of munching on cardboard, since cooking destroys basically any and all nutritional value in the meat for them.

As for the Ferretone... please, straight into the garbage can. That stuff is dreadful, and contains a carcinogenic ingredient (leads to cancer with longterm use). Salmon oil is a much healthier choice! Also, most Marshall's products are just downright unhealthy for your wee fuzzy and should be avoided at all costs. Generally, if it is marketed and sold commercially for ferrets, it's not good for them. Sad as that is, it's the truth.

[ameener]

Thank you so much for the link! I've seen so many variations of recipes for ferret soups, I had no idea which one worked the best.
I actually looked into the nutritional value loss and there were so many sources that claimed different things so it was confusing. And my vet told me that I could cook the food instead of feeding her raw, thankfully I didn't go with his advice.
The second I saw to throw away the ferretone, that is what I did. Hopefully I can find some salmon oil at shop rite! Are there any healthy alternatives I could use as treats or rewards for her instead of ferretone/ Marshall treats?
And should I pay close attention to the portions of raw I give her when she does completely transfer over?

[LindaM]

Sadly, most vets do not get in-depth nutritional education, because it is usually the kibble companies who pay for their nutritional education. Therefore, it's not uncommon to find a vet who is entirely against raw-feeding. They are not educated enough in it, and a lot of their experiences from it are when people fed an unbalanced raw diet that led to medical issues which they then had to help, which wouldn't make raw favorable in their eyes.

Yes! There's plenty! A very delicious treat, which serves the purpose of hairball prevention in place of Ferrelax for example, is raw eggs! Raw egg can be given as white and yolk whipped together, or yolk by itself. Never give the white by itself, as it can lead to a biotin deficiency. This yummy treat has a limit of 1 egg per ferret, per week (in the shedding season we give double though).

Another delicious treat, and great incentive to try things, is Salmon Oil. It's easiest to order online or check out a holistic pet boutique, or even pet store for this, the ones sold in human health stores often get citrus flavoring added, so try to avoid those (Grizzly is commonly recommended, but I've also used Alaskan Naturals without any issues).

You can also use Freeze-Dried Raw treats, just remember, because FDR absorbs moisture, never give too many at once. Brands I love to use for this include, Vital Essentials, Sojo's Simply, Orijen and sometimes a little bit of PureBites (though they mostly do liver treats, which isn't a good idea as it's very easy to overdose on and best avoided for a treat).

By the time she fully switches over, you will have a laid out menu for the week, including 7-9 bone-in meals, 1.5 heart meals, 1.5 organ meals, and 2-4 muscle meals for the whole week, so a total of 14 meals, one in the morning and one in the evening. Right now she's still a kit, so she needs to eat several times a day as they eat about 4x that of an adult ferret. She will also need all of the recommended bone-in meals, as calcium is very important for her to grow strong. Pretty much, give her as much food as she'll eat right now, lol. Once she grows up, her appetite will decrease to the adult female average of 1-3oz of food per day. But until then, wee little fuzzer is going to eat you out of house and home so she can grow into a strong little ferret.

I'm gonna link to the Intro to Raw links, they make for an excellent educative read.
holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/17480/intro-raw-newbies-read

[ameener]

I just gave her a raw egg white and yolk whipped together as you suggested and she liked it, she didn't eat all of it yet but she ate a decent amount and managed to get it all over her face too! 😁 I'm going to find salmon oil as well hopefully at my local grocery store. Oh my, she started to dig into the egg again, I'm so happy she likes it.
I've seen freeze dried treats, especially the liver ones that you've mentioned but I'll try to look for the brands that you've recommended!
She really does eat a decent amount of food though, today I'm going to be trying out the soup recipe and I'm hoping she likes it as much as she liked the egg!
Just one last question ^^; do you know of any meat delivery services that come around the NJ area? I found more than I thought at my grocery store but I feel that she should have more variety.
-Thank you so much for the help, my husband and I have been doing our best to make sure our little fur baby is the healthiest she can be 😊

[Deleted]

I had a rough time finding all I needed at any of the grocery store. I even tried butcher shops but even there the selection wasn't enough and if I wanted organs they wanted bulk orders from me and in my small apartment I simply can't store it.

Here in las vegas where I was pleasantly surprised was when I found a bigger asian supermarket. They had many of the meats and all of the organs I needed in small and very affordable amounts. They have become my go to for all things ferret.

[LindaM]

Sadly, I don't know. I've only ever been in Utah since I'm a greencard holder (moved to the US early 2015), so I haven't yet really traveled the other States. But Harley is correct, most of us will look for Asian/Ethnic markets in the area, or even slightly further away and maybe just do a big monthly trip or something. The Asian stores have a very decent variety of of organs and proteins, a much better prices than you're likely to find online or at the grocery store. And if push comes to shove, there are online raw providers, but they will make you order a minimum sized box of at least 10lbs for example, so it may be a bit pricy. Good online providers include Hare Today, My Pet Carnivore, RodentPro, etc.

I'm so happy she liked the egg! Sometimes a whole egg is a bit much at once for some, so you can try to spread it out over maybe a day or two if that's the case. Just make sure to keep to your weekly limit, or it can lead to really funky poops and upset the balance of the menu. Also, don't be scared if your fuzzer poops out a nice yellow poopie, eggs sometimes go out almost just the way they came in, lol.

As for the treat brands I mentioned, uhm, I get mine either online or from one or two of the holistic pet supply stores I go to. Your regular pet stores like PetSmart and Petco will simply not sell these items. The easiest way to find who sells them near you is to go to each brand's website and check the "Where to Buy" function, it should let you know where the items can be found near you.