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Post by leenath on Oct 27, 2018 0:30:43 GMT -5
Hello everyone! I have two ferrets here that have been transitioning to raw for a long time coming. I've posted my current feeding schedule down below and I'm just looking for general feedback. Does it look like they are getting enough of everything? Anything you would recommend adding?
Monday am: Chicken Wing (bone)
Monday pm: Duck Gizzard (Muscle Meat)
Tuesday am: Duck Neck (bone)
Tuesday pm: ½ Beef Heart (Heart/MM), ¼ liver, ¼ Kidney
Wednesday am: Chicken Neck (bone)
Wednesday Afternoon: Eggy!
Wednesday pm: Pork Heart (Heart/MM)
Thursday am: Chicken Wing (bone)
Thursday pm: Beef/Pork Chunks
Friday am: Duck Neck (Bone)
Friday pm: ½ Beef/Pork/Turkey Liver (Organ), ½ Beef/Pork Kidney (Organ)
Saturday am: Chicken Gizzard (MM)
Saturday pm: Chicken Neck (Bone)
Sunday am: Chicken Wing (Bone)
Sunday pm: Ground boneless beef, or chicken trim (MM)
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Post by Sherry on Oct 27, 2018 9:45:17 GMT -5
They only need one meal of heart, one meal of half liver/half other organ, and one meal half heart/one quarter liver/one quarter other organ. So combine the two organ meals on thurs. and fri. into one. In place of the beef heart meal on tues. have the half heart/quarter liver/quarter other organ. Use either some beef or pork chunks on the thurs or fri. meal. holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/146/basic-frankenprey-menu |
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Post by leenath on Nov 1, 2018 18:08:22 GMT -5
They only need one meal of heart, one meal of half liver/half other organ, and one meal half heart/one quarter liver/one quarter other organ. So combine the two organ meals on thurs. and fri. into one. In place of the beef heart meal on tues. have the half heart/quarter liver/quarter other organ. Use either some beef or pork chunks on the thurs or fri. meal. holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/146/basic-frankenprey-menuI updated the above schedule to include those changes! Thank you for the advice. Are there any tricks you would suggest for picky eaters? My two used to LOVE chicken wings, we'd actually have to feed them separately because otherwise they always wanted what the other had  Now, they turn their noses up at anything with bone! They will hold out until their next meal, and pretend they're starving all day  * We've tried putting the plate down for 15-20 minutes before putting it back in the fridge, and then offering the same thing at the next meal, but it rarely gets them to eat. We thought maybe they're avoiding the meat because it's low quality or spoiled, so we switched providers but no change. We are receiving an order of 55lbs of meat from Raw Feeding Miami so that we can stop feeding them lower quality stuff from our local Asian produce store, maybe that would help... Any and all suggestions would be appreciated! |
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Post by Charlie on Nov 2, 2018 12:49:34 GMT -5
I seem to be having a problem with my fert not liking chicken either. So I'm going to switch to mice. He likes those. I just buy all my meats from the grocery store. He likes all his other meats except chicken. He even eats turkey but not chicken.
Do you chop up the bones into smaller pieces or give 1 big piece? I chop up the bones to smaller pieces so it's easier to eat. It also exposes the marrow from the bone.
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Post by leenath on Nov 2, 2018 13:04:56 GMT -5
I seem to be having a problem with my fert not liking chicken either. So I'm going to switch to mice. He likes those. I just buy all my meats from the grocery store. He likes all his other meats except chicken. He even eats turkey but not chicken. Do you chop up the bones into smaller pieces or give 1 big piece? I chop up the bones to smaller pieces so it's easier to eat. It also exposes the marrow from the bone. They won't eat chicken wings/neck, turkey tails, or duck feet/wings/neck  Anything I try for their bone meals they turn their nose up. They would rather starve all day and finally eat half a chicken wing before bed when they realize momma's not giving them anything g else! Or they'll nibble the toenails off of feet... I beat the crap out of their bone meals with a meat hammer, and expose all the marrow but still no luck with either of the kids... |
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Post by Charlie on Nov 2, 2018 21:04:42 GMT -5
I seem to be having a problem with my fert not liking chicken either. So I'm going to switch to mice. He likes those. I just buy all my meats from the grocery store. He likes all his other meats except chicken. He even eats turkey but not chicken. Do you chop up the bones into smaller pieces or give 1 big piece? I chop up the bones to smaller pieces so it's easier to eat. It also exposes the marrow from the bone. They won't eat chicken wings/neck, turkey tails, or duck feet/wings/neck Anything I try for their bone meals they turn their nose up. They would rather starve all day and finally eat half a chicken wing before bed when they realize momma's not giving them anything g else! Or they'll nibble the toenails off of feet... I beat the crap out of their bone meals with a meat hammer, and expose all the marrow but still no luck with either of the kids... Hmmm, not sure what else you could do since you are beating up the bones. Do they eat all their other meals that don't have bone in? You could always try mixing in egg shell in some of the ground meats. Maybe someone else will have other ideas. |
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Post by Heather on Nov 4, 2018 12:01:56 GMT -5
Keep at it. They've got to have bone in meats. As they ate it before, they've got no reason other than being lazy for not eating it now. I would suggest finding other bone in meats than chicken. Try things like quail, cornish game hen (both these they can eat the whole animal). This is one of the reasons why we suggest that you feed as wide a protein base as possible. To name some others that work, duck, pheasant, rabbit, all bone in meats that are eaten readily by ferrets
ciao
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Post by leenath on Feb 4, 2019 19:38:08 GMT -5
It's been a while since I've updated this forum but I'm happy to report that cutting their meals from offering food 3 times a day to twice a day has pretty much resolved all pickiness on their part! My male still occasionally turns his nose up at certain meals, but once he realizes he's not getting offered anything else he'll usually choose to eat it. Other times he holds out and acts pathetic until the 2nd meal of the day, should I be concerned that he's getting slightly less bone-in meals than he should be? He's still eating drastically more bone than he had been in the past.
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Post by peacexlovexpets on Feb 7, 2019 21:45:26 GMT -5
I make a homemade 'kibble' style diet for my boys and try to get them on different meats (beef, turkey, chicken, etc.). Whenever I'm changing to something completely new, I always coat their new food in a "flour" (dehydrated and ground up) of a food they are familiar with. Ferrets eat with their noses, so if the new food smells like the old, they will be more tolerant of it. It has worked great for transitioning my two older boys, which are rescues and wouldn't eat anything but a certain brand of kitten diet. I haven't gotten them on the texture of raw yet (nor have I really tried all that hard), but I have gotten them to the point where I can switch diet almost weekly to a different variation of my homemade kibble and they will eat it.
As far as the heart/liver goes. The heart is a very high calcium muscle (great to have on non-bone days, if any), but the liver contains a lot of very important vitamins that the ferret cannot synthesize themselves. I would strongly recommend adding a bit of liver every day, or at least every other day. Ferrets are pretty awful at synthesizing a lot of their nutrients that they would normally obtain from their diet (by eating the whole prey-and they typically will go for the organs first).
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