What to feed?

[lolososo]

Hi! I want to change my ferret on a whole prey diet. I want to know what animals can you feed that is a full meal for them. I can easily get mice, rats, quails, I could possibly find a way to get a whole adult chicken and rabbits too. Which one is best? Or do you have any suggestions of another animal I could feed?

[LindaM]

Even in the Whole Prey diet, you need to feed AT LEAST a minimum of 3 different proteins, but more variety is always better. Far as I know for WP you can offer mice, rats, ASFs (African Soft Fur rats), hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, quail, rabbit, etc. I'm sure there's plenty of others depending on what you can get your hands on, so hopefully the WP feeders will chime in with other proteins they might feed too.

[lolososo]

Are rats mice gerbils hamsters all the same type of protein or are they concidered different? Also, someone told me they arent really a "complete" meal or something its just concidered a treat. Is that true?

[LindaM]

Baby animals are never considered a meal and only a treat, eg. pinky mice or day-old chicks. This is usually because they have not fully developed nutritionally yet and won't provide your fuzzy with everything they'd get from a mature animal.

Those would all be different proteins from one another, for example, mice would be one protein, and rats would be another kind, etc.

[lolososo]

So i can feed (all adults) one day mice, one day rats, one day gerbils, one day hamster and other animals i find too? Can these animals last 6 months max in the freezer like normal meat? Thank you so much for your help by the way!

[LindaM]

Meat can last up to a year in a chest freezer, I'm not a 100% sure on items like Whole Prey, but I'm going to assume the same goes for it, as long as they are properly stored in a decent freezer and minimizing air contact with it and not thawing, freezing, thawing, freezing...

This is from RodentPro (online raw provider's website):
"Q: How long will the frozen feeder animals last in the freezer?
A: Depending on how they are stored, most frozen feeder animals can last up to a year. It is a good idea to minimize any exposure to air by ensuring they are in air tight freezer bags. While we recommend not storing feeder animals without fur for more than 4 or 6 months and feeder animals with fur for 9 to 12 months, if properly sealed containers are used and air exposure is kept to a minimum, they can be kept for much longer."

[abbeytheferret6]

So i can feed (all adults) one day mice, one day rats, one day gerbils, one day hamster and other animals i find too?

Read more: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/23374/feed#ixzz4prVO4eZT

Definitely. I was considering this myself , to make feeding more simple. You want at least 3 different proteins--- the more the better. Also, they can get finicky if you have too many meals during the week that r the same. Yeah, I would rotate the proteins.

I get rodents from Perfect Prey. Do not know if you r in USA. I have not seen any hamsters or gerbils here sold as prey food. Not saying there isn't though. I also use Hare Today for frozen guinea pigs, which I gut and skin(lots of intestines!)

South Florida Rodents sell rodents and I buy their quail also. I pluck, gut, and cut them up. I think I do a little bit more than necessary. You can get frozen quail from Asian stores---they are cleaned and are for human consumption.

A chart is here for part frankenprey and whole prey.
holisticferretforum.com/natural-diet/raw-diet-the-meat-of-the-site/balancing-frankenprey-with-alternative-meals/
 
Whole prey would be considered the alternative meal.

[4fuzzyferrets]

I buy all adult mice, med size chicks but might be going up in size, guinea pigs, and quail from Rodent Pro. They also have rabbit and rats. I want to get rabbit but they are very expensive just for 1. I am trying to find an alternative place that will ship to Alaska that has rabbits and duck. If anyone knows, please share.

My ferrets were on a well balanced raw diet for a year, then we moved back to Alaska, and the company does not ship here. So instead of buying a poop ton of chicken wings and organs from our grocery store, which is not balanced or cost effective, we tried whole prey. I contacted the reptile community, and we get together and order from Rodent Pro.

I started with pinkies to see what they would do. My 1 ferret started eating it right away. The others took a couple tries. Then I upgraded them to sm chicks. This went much better. I just put the whole thing in on their food tray. My thought was, a mink, black footed ferret, doesn't gut out their pray. They kill, drag back to den and everyone eats it for days. I was amazed to find they ate EVERYTHING, feathers, fur, beaks..even as I went up in size of animal. The only thing I find is a pile of intestines. They seem to know not the eat those! It is really amazing.