pegleg
Junior Member
Raw and Whole Prey Feeder
Posts: 180
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Post by pegleg on Oct 31, 2017 21:42:17 GMT -5
If I could get a hold of the frog legs, would chicken, game hen, turkey, and frog legs be enough variety? I can see if I can hammer pork ribs as well but Heather said those are often too big...
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Post by LindaM on Oct 31, 2017 22:33:39 GMT -5
Frog legs would work nicely yes, if you can get a hold of them. A fair warning ahead of time, some ferrets take to them like it's love at first sight, others downright dislike them. As I stated before, and as Kelsey said on the FB page, quail would also work nice if you can get a hold of it online or elsewhere. Turkey will be good, and if you can get that rabbit, rabbit will also work well.
I know Kelsey also pointed out to you on the FB that too much chicken isn't a good thing, it's a common allergen, and people often end up relying way too much on it alone, and overtime it could lead to chicken sensitivities. This is what I was trying to avoid by helping you move away from it a bit more and getting more variety in there. I also don't want you to rely very heavily on game hen, these aren't mature birds after all, they are just juveniles, in other words: young chickens. Ideally, the animals you offer in your menu should be mature animals. As for the ribs, again, some ferrets might eat the rib ends of pork or pork tails, but these often require added muscle meat to make sure it's not too much bone, and other ferrets won't even bother trying to eat them due to how dense they are compared to other bones.
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pegleg
Junior Member
Raw and Whole Prey Feeder
Posts: 180
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Post by pegleg on Oct 31, 2017 22:37:50 GMT -5
What if I did:
Sunday AM: Bone In Sunday PM: Bone In Monday AM: Heart Monday PM: Bone In Tuesday AM: Offal Tuesday PM: Bone In Wednesday AM: Whole Prey Wednesday PM: Muscle Thursday PM: Bone in Thursday PM: Whole Prey Friday AM: Bone in Friday PM: Bone In Saturday AM: Bone in Saturday PM: Whole Prey
So 3 Whole Prey meals, 8 Bone in, 1 Muscle, 1 Heart, and 1 Offal. Just in case I can't afford to get the rabbit every month. The mice in town are more realistic an option for me than ordering every month. I'm on a fixed income.
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pegleg
Junior Member
Raw and Whole Prey Feeder
Posts: 180
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Post by pegleg on Oct 31, 2017 22:38:56 GMT -5
I could do mainly turkey for the bone in meals. And the boys haven't had any chicken issues yet. My main concern is even MPC is expensive.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2017 2:25:08 GMT -5
What if I did: Sunday AM: Bone In Sunday PM: Bone In Monday AM: Heart Monday PM: Bone In Tuesday AM: Offal Tuesday PM: Bone In Wednesday AM: Whole Prey Wednesday PM: Muscle Thursday PM: Bone in Thursday PM: Whole Prey Friday AM: Bone in Friday PM: Bone In Saturday AM: Bone in Saturday PM: Whole Prey So 3 Whole Prey meals, 8 Bone in, 1 Muscle, 1 Heart, and 1 Offal. Just in case I can't afford to get the rabbit every month. The mice in town are more realistic an option for me than ordering every month. I'm on a fixed income. So how many ounces is each meal per ferret?
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pegleg
Junior Member
Raw and Whole Prey Feeder
Posts: 180
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Post by pegleg on Nov 1, 2017 2:26:43 GMT -5
It varies. To be honest I offer as much as they will eat LindaM Managed to get a hold of someone slaughtering their meat rabbits this weekend! So I'm doing that in place of MPC Getting a bunny
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Post by LindaM on Nov 1, 2017 16:04:55 GMT -5
Ooh, you did? That would be very helpful in adding in variety to your bone-in meals. Is there a way you can make an arrangement with this person to get a bunny every once in a while?
See, here's the thing about doing mainly a single protein for any set of meals, A) a food sensitivity can develop over time, that will be your worst-case scenario, it's not like it's bound to a specific protein such as chicken alone, B) your ferrets are gonna get fed up of the same thing over and over and refuse to eat it. Now, technically, here's the other very, very important reason why variety is so important to offer, not all proteins are the same in what and which levels of nutrients they offer, and by feeding a variety of different proteins you are able to cover your bases better.
There is currently still an error that needs to be fixed on the chart when it comes to balancing 3 Alt meals with Frankenprey, so for now it would be best to decide on doing either 2 Alt meals or 4 Alt meals instead.
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pegleg
Junior Member
Raw and Whole Prey Feeder
Posts: 180
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Post by pegleg on Nov 1, 2017 17:09:45 GMT -5
Got a hold of 2lb of frog legs and an 8lb bunny! Together they were $30, and I know someone whose meat rabbits are about to give birth and they said I have first dibs on any stillborns So that will mean I have: frog, rabbit, chicken, and turkey for bone in! And now that I know someone in town sells meat rabbits for 15 a bunny, I can get them regularly for way cheaper than MPC and i can get them relatively fresh And in that case I'll stick to 2 alt meals! I'll switch one of the alt days out for bone in... I managed to lose the chart. edit: Seriously considering getting a licence and shooting some game birds LOL
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Post by LindaM on Nov 1, 2017 17:22:13 GMT -5
That's really great about the rabbits and frog legs, I'm happy for you! Unfortunately, any stillborns won't count for anything other than a snack. Remember, baby animals do not count for meals, only for treats/snacks since they aren't fully developed nutritionally yet, this also counts for the easy mistakes people make, eg. day-old chicks and pinkies. Here's the chart again: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/17989/balancing-frankenprey-diets-prey-grindsSo actually, you won't be adding a bone-in meal if you go with 2 Alt meals, you'll still do 8 Bone-in, 1 Muscle, but now 1.5 meals of Heart and 1.5 meals of Organs. Easiest to do this in the week is a 1 full meal of Hearts, and 1 full meal of Organs, and then 1 meal of half Heart, and half organs (1/4 liver, 1/4 other). Getting a hunter's license isn't ever a bad idea, though there are sometimes risks involved and precautions that should be taken with just killing off anything out in the wild, especially in areas where someone may have used pesticides or other dangerous things which can end up inside the animals before they are killed. Certain animals are also prone to specific diseases/parasites which can't be killed through freezing, eg. wild boar is a great example of this.
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pegleg
Junior Member
Raw and Whole Prey Feeder
Posts: 180
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Post by pegleg on Nov 1, 2017 17:26:42 GMT -5
Yeah I know but, if I chop them up it might help transition Binx to whole prey. He likes rabbit, but isn't sure about mouse. Usually by the time he finishes one little bit, Thackery is done with his mouse and goes over to steal. I think he's unsure about the texture. But a small furry bunny with a familiar, good taste may help! Got it! I can do that easy enough I have a bit of pancreas and most of a kidney still in my fridge, and heart and liver are easy enough to get I still have a ton of it. And I know. That's why I would mainly go after game birds. Too many risks with mammals in this area, but CDC has nothing on birds that I've seen.
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pegleg
Junior Member
Raw and Whole Prey Feeder
Posts: 180
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Post by pegleg on Nov 1, 2017 17:29:05 GMT -5
Sunday AM: Bone In Sunday PM: Bone In Monday AM: Heart Monday PM: Bone In Tuesday AM: Offal Tuesday PM: Bone In Wednesday AM: Whole Prey Wednesday PM: Muscle Thursday PM: Half Heart, Half Offal Thursday PM: Bone in Friday AM: Bone in Friday PM: Bone In Saturday AM: Bone in Saturday PM: Whole Prey
SO. how is this? I was thinking about making each meal around 6oz, at least for ones like offal and heart. But meat would remain unlimited. I might add an egg over some of those bone in as well once a week
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pegleg
Junior Member
Raw and Whole Prey Feeder
Posts: 180
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Post by pegleg on Nov 1, 2017 21:54:57 GMT -5
Boys ate frog leg!
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Post by LindaM on Nov 3, 2017 0:39:32 GMT -5
That's so excellent on the frog legs hon! Well done, little boys! <3
As for the menu above, let's try to break those heavy bone-in clusters up some. See how between the heart meal you kinda go right into organs, whole prey, muscle and organ and heart mix with barely any bone-in in between those. Let's space them out a bit more. And can you please provide a full menu next.
Like the following example: Monday AM: Frog Legs (Bone-In) Monday PM: Chicken Hearts (Heart) Tuesday AM: Rabbit (Bone-In) Tuesday PM: Chicken Wing (Bone-In) Wednesday AM: Mice (Whole Prey) Etc... You can use abbreviations if it types easier, B, M, H, O, WP.
For the amount to offer of any of the meals, it would be how much your ferrets eat on average. If you offer more of certain meals and less of others, you risk unbalancing their menu.
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pegleg
Junior Member
Raw and Whole Prey Feeder
Posts: 180
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Post by pegleg on Nov 3, 2017 1:24:25 GMT -5
Alright! And I'd say that they get roughly 10oz a day average between them. The set of frog legs was 5oz, I weighed those, and that filled them up with each eating one leg. So each meal is about 5 oz. And I might make that the uniform amount from now on for simplistically's sake.
Based on what they've eaten so far and what I'm able to give them for sure this week: Monday Am: Chicken Winglets (B) Monday PM: Turkey Neck (B) Tuesday AM: Venison Heart (H) Tuesday PM: Frog Legs (B) Wednesday AM: Chicken Winglets (B) Wednesday PM: Mice (WP) Thursday AM: Liver and Kidney (O) Thursday PM: Frog Legs (B) Friday AM: Chicken Winglets (B) Friday PM: Turkey Neck (B) Saturday AM: Steak (M) Saturday PM: Rabbit (I hope) (B) Sunday AM: Liver, Kidney, and Heart (O + H) Sunday PM: Pork (M)
That puts me at: B = 8 M = 2 WP = 1 H = 1.5 O = 1.5
I don't have a hold of the rabbit yet. He's being slaughtered this weekend is the plan. If they end up doing it sooner and I can get him sooner that'll be accounted for.
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pegleg
Junior Member
Raw and Whole Prey Feeder
Posts: 180
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Post by pegleg on Nov 3, 2017 9:12:47 GMT -5
I just realized my days are slightly off because I thought it was Wednesday. Don't judge me it's midterms.
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