Feeding Kibble and Freeze Dried Together

[Deleted]

Hello,
I’ve had my two ferrets for almost five years and my oldest boy, Leeroy, who is at least seven (he was a rescue from a frat house so I wasn’t given much information before I got him) was just diagnosed with insulinoma.
For over three years, they have been eating Origen cat and kitten kibble and they have been great. After my youngest boy, Clark, developed bladder stones from his previous food three years ago, I’ve been very cautious with what I feed them. Though I would pay the cost of the surgery again if it comes to it ... $1,700 -__- ... I am aiming to veer away from doing that again.

But with the new diagnosis, the vet suggested adding some crushed freeze dried nuggets into their diet. I’ve been a bit weary with it, but we started a trial at the beginning of August.

For the past month and a half, their routine has been a 1/2 cup of Orijen kibble with about a teaspoon of each crushed Instinct Rawboost Mixers (chicken and gut health). When first buying a new bag, I mixed everything together so I’m unsure of the exact mixer measurements per scoop.
For the past week, I have given Leeroy 2/3 of a Primal turkey nugget in addition to the kibble. I crush it up to dust before adding in a bit of water to create a kind of mush (not very soupy). He devours it.

I suppose my question is - Is all of this good/safe for them? I’ve seen up and down comments on mixing freeze dried with kibble. I have already tried the raw diet after Clark’s surgery but they both were having none of that no matter what I did. They starved themselves out until they were given the kibble.
Thank you for your help and have a pawesome day =^.^=

These are the ingredients:

Cat Primal Nuggets (Turkey): Turkey turkey necks, turkey hearts, turket livers, (all following are listed as organic), collard greens, squash, celery, cranberries, blueberries, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, apple cider vinegar, dried kelp, cilantro, ginger, montmorillonite clay

Instinct Rawboost Mixers (Chicken): chicken, chicken liver, pumpkin seeds, carrots, butternut squash, turkey liver, turkey heart, flaxseed, montmorillonite clay, dried kelp, broccoli, apple cider vinegar, salmon oil, rosemary extract, blueberries, dried chicory root

Instinct Rawboost Mixers (Gut Health): chicken, pumpkin, sweet potato, apple cider vinegar, chicory root, rosemary extract

[caitmonster]

DRY freeze-dried food (meaning, with no water added) and kibble mixed, OR when both the raw/freeze-dried and kibble are both mixed with water to make "soupie," are fine. It's when the freeze-dried is rehydrated and fed along with dry kibble that the guidelines say to withhold the kibble for 3-4 hours beforehand. The concern is that since the two affect digestion differently that a bacterial overgrowth could occur. See this explanation of how to change over to feeding raw: Making the Switch. However!! Since you said Leeroy has insulinoma, withholding food can obviously trigger blood glucose crashes, so per the instructions you'll definitely want to do any sort of major diet adjustments under the guidance of a mentor.

As for those specific foods, any addition of raw is a plus, of course. Although, any fruits/veggies, no matter the form, are useless at best for ferrets, so if you have access to freeze-dried foods with a higher percentage of meat (95% is the recommended minimum--the Primal is 93% and I can't find anything on the Mixers) that would be ideal. Stella & Chewy's line for cats is my personal favorite for freeze-dried raw; it's 98% meat, and also has probiotics if that's a concern of yours.

The only caveat that I should add about dry freeze-dried raw (FDR) is that it does contribute to dehydration in ferrets, just as kibble does, so if you're able to it's best fed rehydrated. You could, for example, leave kibble in their cage at night or while you're gone--or even switch entirely to FDR and leave that out dry for nibbles--then pick it up when you get home and feed a rehydrated FDR meal for supper after a few hours. (If you were to switch to feeding exclusively FDR, you would need to have a mix of "flavors" so you'd be offering the minimum 3-4 different animal proteins, for nutritional variety.)

[dee]

I second the motion of Stella & Chewy's for cats.  I've been using it for years. All 3 varieties Turkey, Duck, and Chicken.