Raw Food Diet

[Ferrentshay]

I’m starting a raw food diet for my fur babies this week and was wondering how much organ, liver, heart, etc I should be feeding my fur babies in one sitting. For example I give a whole chicken thigh or wing to them in the morning and tonight they will need muscle meat. How much muscle meat am I supposed to give them? I hope someone can help!


Thank you:)

[caitmonster]

How many ferrets do you have, what is their sex, and how old are they? The amount they'll eat depends on age, sex, activity level, season... On AVERAGE adult females will eat 1-3oz per day, and adult males will eat 2-4oz per day. Kits (ferrets which are a few months old) eat significantly more--as in, 2 or 3 times more (!).

Give them as much as they'll eat in one sitting--especially important for kits--once they start stashing it you know to subtract that "leftover" amount from the next meal. Most cuts of meat can stay out for several hours anyway, though, so you're fine to leave it in their cage until the next feeding.

Heart should amount to 1.5 meals in a week, organ meals should also be 1.5 meals per week (1/2 of that being liver, the rest being kidney, spleen, etc). So 1 meal all heart; 1 meal half heart, half other organs; 1 meal all organ.

Are you switching from kibble? The Holistic Ferret website has an explanation of how to switch to a raw diet here:

• Natural Diet -- The Switch (how to switch from kibble to raw)
• Natural Diet -- Basic Frankenprey Menu (in case you needed this also)

You may have to take a hammer or mallet to the bone in the chicken thigh if they are not used to breaking apart larger bones on their own.