SUPER noob question

[hazelrah]

Hey! I was kind of hoping that someone else would have brought this up so I could just read those responses, but I guess I'll have to go for it

I've been researching diet options since well before getting either of my babies, and have come to the solid conclusion that raw is the way to go (surprise, right?). However, I myself have been a vegetarian for nearly my entire life, and am just not used to handling raw meat. I can do a chicken wing, but I don't really even know how to deal with putting meat in the blender. I'm set on doing the right thing by the fuzzies and giving them the healthiest diet possible, so I know I'm going to have to find some way to get through it My question is, did anyone else have problems with handling the meat, especially when it's more whole? And, if so, how did you get over it?

Thanks!

[Heather]

Take heart, you're not the only vegetarian on board. They will come in soon...and no you're not a noob ;D I can't help you (true carnivore, just like my fuzzies ) but there are others here who can help you
ciao

[Sherry]

Some use gloves, most get cutting boards/blender just for the meat. Other's just put their blender through the dishwasher(it sterilizes everything).Beyond that, our vegetarians will def. have to pop in ;D

[Deleted]

It's more expensive to feed the commercial raw diets. But they pare the owner from having to deal with organ meats. The raw frozen diets are like little hamburger patties. If you find the organ meats revolting, I recommend that you try the raw frozen diets at least as a starting point . You will ge used to dealing with raw meat over time

-jennifer

[whipple]

Think of it as playing with playdough

[hazelrah]

Haha, mmmmm, playdough Thanks for the commercial frozen meat suggestion! Hamburger type patties sound way more doable than raw meat soup at this point Is that good enough for a full diet though? Should I be supplementing with something else until I can move up to the organ meats? Thanks guys, I really appreciate the help. Starting up the raw diet seems pretty overwhelming from this angle, but I'm sure it'll be more than worth it

[Deleted]

I'm not a vegetarian myself (mostly because my diet is already so restricted from medical conditions and I like meat ;D) but I definitely have an issue feeding certain things (like bunny rabbits) but I'm okay with feeding the commercial ground rabbit (they look like hamburgers not animals ;D).

Yes the commercial ground raw is nutritionally complete. Most of them are ground up carcasses (so you get the muscle meat and bones) and a lot of them will say "contains organs" too.

That being said you would still need to feed straight organs one meal per week and some meals of hearts too to get enough taurine. But, a lot of ferrets take months to switch onto the raw and even accept the organs or hearts so don't worry about them getting "unbalanced" in the mean time, it takes months for this to happen.

So just think of the raw switch as both you and your ferrets getting used to the raw, you can embark on the journey together

In the mean time, why not pick up a freeze-dried raw food? Stella & Cheweys, Ziwipeak Cat food and Wysong Archetypal 1 Ferret food are some good ones. It really looks nothing like meat. So start there and work your way up slowly

[Deleted]

Jun 9, 2011 21:09:02 GMT -5 @hazelrah said:

Hey! I was kind of hoping that someone else would have brought this up so I could just read those responses, but I guess I'll have to go for it

I've been researching diet options since well before getting either of my babies, and have come to the solid conclusion that raw is the way to go (surprise, right?). However, I myself have been a vegetarian for nearly my entire life, and am just not used to handling raw meat. I can do a chicken wing, but I don't really even know how to deal with putting meat in the blender. I'm set on doing the right thing by the fuzzies and giving them the healthiest diet possible, so I know I'm going to have to find some way to get through it My question is, did anyone else have problems with handling the meat, especially when it's more whole? And, if so, how did you get over it?

Thanks!

Hey, Hazelrah! I'm a vegetarian. Like you, I've been one almost my whole life - from a small kid I balked at eating anything meat or would pick at it so finally at age 10 my parents gave up and let me be a veg. Today, my parents are now vegetarian, and so is my middle sister and her husband. I even married a vegetarian! ;D So yeah, we're all a big group of, "Ewwwwwwahhhhhh meat!!!" people now.

I have to admit raw made me feel sick at first, and I was a little scared, but to be honest, after cutting up and portioning meat the first 2-3 times, it became better. I wouldn't recommend the commercial stuff, as with Teddy, the meat soup worked the best. I use a food processor, I was going to buy a used one just for that purpose rather than use mine, when it hit me:

"Duhhh, when I eat out places they wash the stuff they cook meat on and cook my food on it. It's sterilized." *facepalm* So, I sterilize REALLY well. ;D

My best friends for raw are disposable bulk gloves you can get from Home Depot, CostCo, Sam's Club, etc. They are really cheap. Also poultry shears for cutting through bone. If you are really queasy, I recommend wearing a mask. I had to with really bloody meat like beef at first because the smell would make me feel sick. Start with stuff that's fairly basic by looking at lots of pics on raw feeding websites like this:

www.rawfeddogs.net/Recipe/Chicken (The "recipes" are all raw, just pics of how to cut it and stuff.)

I bought a lot of cheap $2 packs of BPA free re-usable plastic containers from Walmart for portioning, and ice cube trays for soup. I would portion the organs/neck in separate containers from the muscle/skin/bone meat. But chickens seem really good to start with as it's a whole animal (basically, no gut though) and you can look at it scientifically, like dissection. Plus, it's very mild and not so smelly.

Turkey is also really good next, and pork, but I'd save the really red/bloody meats for later. Oh, and putting peppermint under your nose if you are really sensitive to the smell at first may help.

I hope that helps, let me know if you have any questions, it's really weird at first but as long as you keep doing it, and especially when you see the enjoyment of your pets it is so worth it! (My cats are like little sharks around my legs when they know we're cutting meat up!)

P.S. My husband is invaluable when it comes to things like cutting up bone, which is hard for my hand. I also can't feed things with fur or heads, like rabbit - so I get skinned, headless rabbit from the asian market. My husband feeds it so I don't have to!!! ;D

[hazelrah]

Yeah, my mom was a vegetarian when I was a kid, but when she changed back, I couldn't stand the idea of eating meat! It's mostly a texture thing, but the smell gets to me also, especially with beef or meats that aren't cooked through before being served. Oddly enough I've never had a problem with dissections, so maybe the whole chicken won't be too bad

My roommate apparently has a meat processor (?) that she has volunteered for the project, and the boyfriend is an avid carnivore, so I can probably wrangle him into helping too Thanks for the link though, it's extremely helpful! I'm going to be cutting up my first chicken this weekend, so diagrams will probably be what gets me through it

How did you deal with making the 'soup' the first time? Plus the whole putting fingers in it if they don't feel like eating? I think that's my first big hurdle.

[Deleted]

The soups honestly made me gag at the thought and I'm a meat eater. (nothing makes my mouth water more then a big juicy steak!) But once I got started it wasn't hard at all. I started making it with the non meat stuff first. Like the eggs water and pumpkin went first, then I added the meats. Doing it that way makes it look like raw pumpkin pie. if you have a hard time touching it (I'm a germaphobe when it comes to touching raw meat and will wash my hands like 7 times after touching it) you can just do like I did. I used a spoon. If someone didn't want to try it I would touch the spoon to their lips and they would lick it off and I would keep spoon feeding them til they decided to eat it on their own. You could probly also try a syringe with no needle. You can get those in the pharmacy dept at wal-mart. I'll give you a little story. My husband and I raise chickens. Some are for pets and eggs and the others are broilers for us to eat. Now even though I know/new meat was an animal I still had a hard time touching anything dead. if we ever had a pet pass I would leave it in the cage til my husband got home and have him take care of it. I couldn't even go up to the casket when my great grandmother died. I stayed at the back of the building. So I was thinking, "How on earth am I going to be able to butcher a chicken?" I watched TONS of vids on YouTube on how to do it. Well the hubby took care of killing it and I took a deep breath, and just dived into it. After the first chicken it got easier. Now I can do it with no problem at all. We even some times play with the wings like they are fans. (yeah we are idiots like that LOL) But maybe since I'm sure you wouldn't be interested in raising chicken or quail to feed your ferts, you could like go to the pet store and handle the bags of frozen mice to start with. Like Petco and petsmart has mice in frozen bags that you cant see through. you can start with that and eventually buy you some bulk frozen mice to feed your ferrets and separate them out into individual meals so you get used to touching something dead. There are still some things that are even hard for me to do. Like I bought whole ground rabbit (fur and all) from Hare Today, and OMG it was AWEFUL. so gross looking and smelled....ewwww! Thankfully my ferts were not impressed with it even though they loves them some mice. Any way, I hope that helps a little too.

[Deleted]

keep in mind that while a commercially processed ground meat product may be labelled "nutritionally complete" the fact that it is already ground will NOT help maintain good oral health for your ferret. The act of them biting, tearing, shearing the meat from the bones and cracking through the bones is what offers them thebest oral health. Also any ground meat WILL spoil faster, whereas whole raw items tend to dry out before spoiling. Using gloves is advisable if you are worried about germs or queasy about contact with meaty items. But as you do it more and more you will get accustomed. Your ferrets will thank you too!

Cheers,
Kim

[hazelrah]

Well, I think my fuzzbutts are going to make this easy on me My roommate was cutting up chicken wings for dinner, and I grabbed a couple little pieces to see what the little ones would do. Oryx was convinced I was trying to kill her, but Falcor devoured his piece like a pro! I put two more little pieces in the bowl, and then Oryx decided that Falcor wasn't allowed to have all the fun and grabbed a bit of her own. I guess food's more trustworthy from the bowl than from my hand So, they pretty much ended up both eating a couple little pieces of chicken with no urging on my part whatsoever I love my clever babies

Thank you guys so much for the suggestions/encouragment! I watched the chicken being cut up (though I didn't cut it ) and it wasn't quite as bad as I imagined, lol. So this all seems to be getting off on the right foot

[Sherry]

That's excellent! Given time, you will be able to overcome how you feel about handling the meat, given what it's going to do for your little ones

[Deleted]

Woot! Nice work you'll be chopping meat in no time!!

[Deleted]

Jun 12, 2011 1:11:59 GMT -5 @hazelrah said:

Well, I think my fuzzbutts are going to make this easy on me My roommate was cutting up chicken wings for dinner, and I grabbed a couple little pieces to see what the little ones would do. Oryx was convinced I was trying to kill her, but Falcor devoured his piece like a pro! I put two more little pieces in the bowl, and then Oryx decided that Falcor wasn't allowed to have all the fun and grabbed a bit of her own. I guess food's more trustworthy from the bowl than from my hand So, they pretty much ended up both eating a couple little pieces of chicken with no urging on my part whatsoever I love my clever babies

Thank you guys so much for the suggestions/encouragment! I watched the chicken being cut up (though I didn't cut it ) and it wasn't quite as bad as I imagined, lol. So this all seems to be getting off on the right foot

Oh that's just fantastic! <- Only the dancing banana guy can relate my elation adequately. ;D My Teddy took 3 weeks of gagging, spitting (yes, spitting it out on my clothes and horking it up intentionally sometimes, the darling little brat! ), lemon-pucker face before he decided he liked soup.

Even though they're eating the solids the soup is still good to supplement with occasionally in the event they get sick. I was nastified by the food processor/meat thing but I just soaked everything in boiling water and soap, and then ran it all through the dishwasher afterward. And washed my hands really well after smearing soup all over him!! It actually felt kind of goopy and gritty (eggshell powder) to me, not too different from baby food, which I had fed to ferrets before so it wasn't too big of a transition. Plus I wore an old, rather tattery robe when I did it so it could be easily washed and I wouldn't get fat spit on nice or even decent clothes.

So glad your kids are having fun with it!