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Post by pazupazu1 on Apr 17, 2019 9:39:49 GMT -5
Hi! I have been following the Frankenprey menu for a few months now. There are things I dislike and like about it.
I like that I can control what they eat, I like following a meal plan for the week. I do not like making organ meals, lol. I pretty much destroyed our blender making the soups. The smell of liver makes me throw up! I make soups to make sure the boys are getting the exact amount they need. And then, I need to spoon feed it to them both to make sure they both eat the amount. Sometimes I worry they miss a bit that they need each week. I will also be moving to a rental this summer and not sure how much freezer space I have, commercial raw may help with that. I love cutting the 1lb chubs into patties and storing / freezing them that way. I also plan on adding more fuzzies to the troupe once I move out, so introducing them to grinds will be easier.
I have fed them commercial grinds from Hare Today in the past, they liked them a lot. I was wondering if I switched over to those how different it would be?
(I always like having a minimum of 3 proteins each week) I am looking at the: Ground Chicken/Bones/Organs, 1 lb, Fine Ground $4.29/lbs
Ground Beef/Organs/Tripe/Bone, 1 lb, Fine Ground $5.24/lbs
Ground Duck/Bones/Organs, 1 lb, Fine Ground $5.99/lbs
My questions:
1. If I alternated these throughout the week making sure they get at least the 3 proteins would that be okay? 2. Do these provide all the necessary nutrients and percentages ferrets need each week? The boys eat 4oz of food each per day. A bit less now due to the changing seasons.
3. Is the bone content decent enough? Should I supplement with chicken necks throughout the week? (They love them!) or anything else? Will the grinds get their jaws moving enough or should I add chunks?
I am going to be going through and seeing how much $ it will be a month, I know it will be more. But if I cut back on the amount of useless toys and cat beds I buy every month...lol. Currently, I do about one order from Hare Today each month which is usually in the $50-$65 range for necks, hearts, or kidney (usually I am forced to buy more items to fit the shipping pound mark) At the store, I usually spend $20-$30 every few weeks on various muscle meats or when i need more liver (which they don't need too much of, so I only need to get more once a month or every other month) My main question and concern is just if feeding these grinds will provide what they need each week.
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Post by Heather on Apr 17, 2019 14:13:36 GMT -5
If your commercial grinds are balanced you can do this. You will have to brush their teeth though...one trade off for another. If buying commercial grinds from places like haretoday, I would suggest buying as many different proteins as possible instead of just looking at the minimum requirement of 3 different proteins. It's just a thought ciao
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Post by pazupazu1 on Apr 17, 2019 15:14:53 GMT -5
If your commercial grinds are balanced you can do this. You will have to brush their teeth though...one trade off for another. If buying commercial grinds from places like haretoday, I would suggest buying as many different proteins as possible instead of just looking at the minimum requirement of 3 different proteins. It's just a thought ciao If I continue to feed them their usual chicken necks I won't have to brush teeth, correct? Right now they have a few necks almost every day.
I just weighed the costs and it's only a little more than what I'm spending right now (for 3 proteins), so I may go for it. For convenience and peace of mind. They haven't been as interested with the raw I am preparing myself. They would get so excited over the commercial grinds.
I'm mainly worried about them getting enough taurine. Some of the grinds don't mention "other organ" so I may have to add that.
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on Apr 18, 2019 7:50:20 GMT -5
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Post by crazylady on Apr 18, 2019 11:14:24 GMT -5
Hi all meat contains a % of taurine as does fish shrimps sardines etc but as for poultry darker portions contain more taurine ( turkey legs cut up etc ) hope this helps Bev
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Post by pazupazu1 on Apr 19, 2019 7:27:10 GMT -5
Hi all meat contains a % of taurine as does fish shrimps sardines etc but as for poultry darker portions contain more taurine ( turkey legs cut up etc ) hope this helps Bev I feel dumb I did not know this! I thought you can only get it from hearts and some tongues. I believe the levels of taurine are fine in the meals above, but because I have so much frozen heart I can give some as treats every week!
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Post by pazupazu1 on Apr 19, 2019 7:33:03 GMT -5
Does the guinea pig smell bad? I only ask as I bought so much whole ground mice from them and the smell was awful, it stunk up my kitchen, my freezer, anything it touched. It was such a bad smell too. The boy's didn't like the meat either, so it was all a waste. I will look into that, though! Those levels seem good.
Okay, so if I feed mainly grinds, I would still need to do 3 additional meals of bone in, some extra heart and some extra kidney (I would assume?) or does that .5 organ mean liver? I can do all that. My boys love chicken, duck and turkey necks so I can keep feeding those. I also have a lot of heart leftover.
I read somewhere on here that some forum members do not recommend feeding commercial raw long-term. Is that true?
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Post by caitmonster on Apr 19, 2019 8:42:34 GMT -5
I read somewhere on here that some forum members do not recommend feeding commercial raw long-term. Is that true? I believe the concern with feeding solely grinds long term is that it does nothing for jaw strength or teeth cleaning. It's also easier for ferrets to eat more than they should--lack of serious chewing means they might not self-regulate to the degree they do with whole pieces.
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on Apr 19, 2019 10:48:28 GMT -5
I do not find the smell of guinea pigs(cavies) offensive---mine are whole though. Read more: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/25177/thoughts-on-commercial-raw?page=1#ixzz5lYWCZXHYOrgan would be the liver plus any of one these----kidney, pancreas, spleen, thymus, testicles, or uterus. I do not get my mice from Hare Today neither ground(hahaha) I can imagine the smell though. I get from Perfect Prey and I serve them whole but I do snip tummy with scissors and pull out the guts(with scissors). People do not bother doing this but I do as it was a habit to get mine to like mice at the start. Since they are use to it now ---I do not want them turning down mice because of it. Just takes a few seconds.
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Post by pazupazu1 on Apr 19, 2019 11:45:18 GMT -5
I read somewhere on here that some forum members do not recommend feeding commercial raw long-term. Is that true? I believe the concern with feeding solely grinds long term is that it does nothing for jaw strength or teeth cleaning. It's also easier for ferrets to eat more than they should--lack of serious chewing means they might not self-regulate to the degree they do with whole pieces. Ahh..I'm still on the fence. I am more than happy to continue feeding necks along with the grinds. I suppose that would help with the teeth cleaning as well as jaw strength.
After calculating everything it is so similar in price as to what I am doing right now. Although feeding my DIY meals they often don't eat all of it, so I'm wasting a lot of food. I know they love the grinds so wondering if it will help with that.
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Post by crazylady on Apr 19, 2019 12:19:45 GMT -5
Hi they love grinds because it simply slides down with very little work lol try cutting down the portion sizes in your diy meals if they leave some then they are getting too much ( or you find it stashed in there beds ) its all down to trial and error you soon learn who is a piggy and who is a tiny eater lol coming into spring summer they will eat less as its breeding season ( even to fixed ferrets !) in winter its pile on the pounds and bring on the food season for fat stores lol hope this helps Bev
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Post by pazupazu1 on Apr 19, 2019 12:30:06 GMT -5
Hi they love grinds because it simply slides down with very little work lol try cutting down the portion sizes in your diy meals if they leave some then they are getting too much ( or you find it stashed in there beds ) its all down to trial and error you soon learn who is a piggy and who is a tiny eater lol coming into spring summer they will eat less as its breeding season ( even to fixed ferrets !) in winter its pile on the pounds and bring on the food season for fat stores lol hope this helps Bev Thank you! Yes, my little Pazu was such a huge chunky boy in winter but with spring he has gone down from 3lbs+ to probably barely pushing 2lbs. It was worrying me, as his coat health has also gone down significantly, he is very itchy. I assume it's from the shedding of his winter coat.
I think I will try the grinds for a week, to see if I notice anything different.
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