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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2017 11:52:58 GMT -5
Hi there. Just need a little clarification on the Frankenprey Menu. How many ounces is each meal for morning and night. Is it 3 ounces per ferret in each meal like the soupie recipe?
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Post by LindaM on Nov 1, 2017 16:15:20 GMT -5
Hey there, so this answer will honestly vary, because it varies from ferret to ferret. There are plenty of factors that come into play with how much your ferret will eat per meal. Because of this, we advise people to get a book or make a chart and jot down how much your ferrets eat over the course of a few weeks to get an average amount. You will need a kitchen scale for this as well. Tare the scale to the empty bowl, which is easiest or just weigh it before adding food so you know its weight. Add your food and write down how much food you have given, then at the change of the next meal time, you weigh the bowl again to see what amount remains.
Most of us will free-feed, we feed an AM and PM meal, so twice a day (some of the ferrents like the Whole Prey feeders can even feed just once a day depending on the amount/size of food given) and just leave the bowls of food out until the change of the next meal each time. Certain ferrets require food available to them at all times, such as kits and sick ferrets (eg. insulinoma).
A good indicator that your ferret has eaten enough is that by the change of meal, there is still a bite or two remaining in the bowl. If it is licked clean, then your ferret may not have eaten enough, eg. if there was more they may have continued eating.
Kits will often eat up to 4x the amount of an adult ferret, they go by their own rules when it comes to food as they need it to fuel their growth. The adult female will eat on average 1-3oz of food per day. The adult male will eat on average 2-5oz of food per day.
Thus, looking at that, age and gender play big roles in how much a ferret eats. Another thing that plays a role is the season. In the winter ferrets will eat more, often getting nice and chubby, but come the spring and summer they will eat less again and slim down, losing up to 40% their body weight.
When first switching ferrets, they may also eat more at first and then slow down in some time, we think of it as them trying to make up for lost nutrients from back when they only got kibbles to eat.
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