Feeding Freshly Shot Coot

[birdyyy]

Hi everyone!

I'm brand new to the raw diet and a brand new ferret mom <3 My little boy took to raw right away and ate a huge plate of food which included chicken feet, turkey neck, chicken liver, chicken wing, and some egg shells for a little extra calcium. Since it's duck hunting season, I will have access to plenty of Coot which are more fatty ducks. Does anyone have experience with feeding your fuzzies freshly caught game? I have heard of people freezing the meat to kill off any harmful parasites. How long should I freeze the meat? If it's a more oily game, do they need less since they need more fatty meat types? Does anyone have experience with gutting or cleaning the game? 

For reference, my little boy is around 2 months old and we just rescued two friends for him that are around two.

Let me know if you need more information than this and thank you so much for the help! 

Sincerely,

a nervous new mom.

[birdyyy]

Thankfully, I did find the answer to my question about the parasites in the note "Raw Meat, Freezing, and Parasites."

[abbeytheferret6]

Welcome to forum and congrats on new family of ferrets---I see ferret math has struck you too:)
Really nice to have a free food supply.

2 weeks of freezing suggested by forum. 3 or more different type proteins(more is better)for your little ones to get a variety of nutrition. Sometimes ferrets start having problems with chicken---maybe not at first. So rotating proteins is good. My baby did really well, but at 2 years old I feed her less chicken. I do feed hearts, which are rich in taurine as all hearts. I read the hearts that beat the fastest have more taurine.

I do freeze then skin and gut squirrel that my neighbor brings me at times. I order guinea pig from Hare Today, which i gut and skin as well as rats that I order from Perfect Prey and South Florida Rodents.

Because duck is so expensive---I buy it just once in awhile, so I will let others comment on that.

[birdyyy]

Dec 29, 2017 10:27:09 GMT -5 abbeytheferret6 said:

Welcome to forum and congrats on new family of ferrets---I see ferret math has struck you too:)
Really nice to have a free food supply.

2 weeks of freezing suggested by forum. 3 or more different type proteins(more is better)for your little ones to get a variety of nutrition. Sometimes ferrets start having problems with chicken---maybe not at first. So rotating proteins is good. My baby did really well, but at 2 years old I feed her less chicken. I do feed hearts, which are rich in taurine as all hearts. I read the hearts that beat the fastest have more taurine.

I do freeze then skin and gut squirrel that my neighbor brings me at times. I order guinea pig from Hare Today, which i gut and skin as well as rats that I order from Perfect Prey and South Florida Rodents.

Because duck is so expensive---I buy it just once in awhile, so I will let others comment on that.

That's so helpful. Yes, ferret math happened! We wanted to originally just get him a single friend, but we didn't want to get them from a pet store. It turns out someone wanted to rehome their two two-year-old's with all of their toys, cat boxes, hammocks, etc and a double decker ferret nation cage for $200. We wanted to buy a ferret nation cage anyway so it was a crazy great deal for us. As far as the proteins, I have a few that I will use (but tell me if I need to add more) 
- Beef
- Duck
- Chicken
-Turkey
-Deer

I'm going to be getting plenty of game tomorrow so I can have all of the hearts, liver, etc. Since you have gutted squirrel before, is it easy to tell the body organs apart? Did you follow a specific guide? I want to make sure I don't give them any "bad" organ meat.

The older ones didn't really know what to do with the meat I gave them, so they're going to take a bit more practice. However, they definitely were interested in its smell, so I'm hopeful that they're going to transition quickly.

[abbeytheferret6]

holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/17480/intro-raw-newbies-read
Here is some very good reading.


Your turkey and beef could be muscle meals in the frankenprey model of feeding as their bones would be too dense except for turkey wing tips. u might want to forego that as a bone source
Frankenprey model consists of 14 meals a week an A.M. & P.M. feeding
1.5 meals of hearts
1.5 of organs
Mix the two .5 meals together to make a full meal so it will be easier for u.
2 or 3 muscle meals
8-9 bone in meals

U can also sign up for a mentor and while waiting, post your meals and certainly ask as many questions as yu like.
While reading about the frankenprey model, u will see that between every organ,heart,and muscle meal--- u serve a bone in meal. U can have bone in meals back to back but doing that with the others will cause loose stools.

Oh yes you will be able to recognize organs pretty quickly

[Sherry]

Hi- there really are no "bad" organ meats you can give them. Just those they will refuse to eat So no worries there.
And it looks like you will be getting a good variety. One thing I would suggest if they will do it, is that with prey the size of squirrel- after freezing gut while still partially frozen then toss it in whole. Let them do the work and save you the effort lol.

[birdyyy]

Thank you Sherry and abbeytheferret6! I definitely want to get a mentor. I just wanted to post a few times to get to my "15" quota. I've kept a diary so far, so hopefully it's a good start. I'm going to head over and post my answers for the application now. I am trying to get him to eat bone and he's doing pretty well. I don't know if he has the jaw strength to chomp through the chicken wingettes yet, so I've broken them down with a hammer until he can do it on his own (for dental reasons). I can't wait to get a mentor so I can get my two older guys on a raw diet. I've been hand feeding them small chunks, but to no avail. I'm going to go with the soupies method since they aren't ready for chunks yet.