Organ/Heart supplements/replacements?

[Skiff]

So I have just moved and no longer have an outdoor space so my ferrets are now indoors ferrets. My ferrets are also stubborn as h*ll, they know what a litter box is and even occasionally use it, but for the most part, they go to the bathroom where they want. When they were in a hutch I had the floor covered with vinyl flooring so I could easily clean up any messes, indoors I can deal with this on a normal day, I can just pick it up and put it in the bin, give it a spray etc, my problem comes on a day when they have had an organ meal, because that stuff is vile. Now that they are indoors they still crap wherever they want and they just had Liver/Kidney for breakfast and I am terrified of the coming mess, I can't let them ruin the carpet or my landlord will go ballistic. Is there any way I can just cut the organs out of their diet and give them some sort of supplements to replace what they are missing? 

[Corvidophile]

You could, but you would then be totally off the frankenprey diet plan and into mixing supplemented ground meat instead. There’s no balanced way to do frankenprey without organs, and yeah, organ diarrhea.

Alternatives with more regular bowel movement:
Small whole prey, such as adult mice. They still eat organs, but small amounts every day mixed with bone and fur make for solid poop. This is a fantastic alternative health wise , but it’ll cost you much more money. Should be mixed with other prey items for balance- quail, guinea pigs... but the bigger the prey animal gets, the higher the chance of a spot of diarrhea as they eat a meal of just organs.

Ground muscle, fat, bone, and organs in one meal: you can make this yourself with a very strong grinder for mashing the bones, but most buy it as commercial grinds. Again, they still get organs, but they’re spread out with the other food evenly. Hare Today sells this item, for example, here’s chicken: hare-today.com/product/raw_pet_food/ground_chickenbonesorgans_1_lb_fine_ground

Or, you can go fully mushy and buy either something like Better In The Raw supplement powder like this: www.knowbetterpetfood.com/collections/ferret-food/products/better-in-the-raw-for-ferrets?variant=28191644241 (I do this because my ferret started refusing to eat anything but ground beef)

Or a premade frozen food, like this: www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/instinct-natures-variety-frozen-raw-bites-grain-free-cage-free-chicken-recipe-natural-dry-cat-food

[raven]

Perhaps you could save organ meals for when you cage them for the night so that way they will use the litter box over the night rather than when roaming the home?

[Skiff]

I usually get my guys food from a site called kiezerbrink, (I'm sure it's listed on these forums as a supplier somewhere) and they sell "mixes"which I have noticed contain around 8% heart and 8% liver and often another organ. Could these mixes be used to replace the their current diet of minced + organs? The mixes do also contain bone but I think I would stick with chicken/duck necks at least in part for that section of the diet.

[cockneyferret]

Hi,

Only issues I have found with mixes is either working out accurate proportions for a frakenprey diet or that our girls tended to dig through the food and eat the bits they wanted to eat. When I started feeding straight organ meals I could both get the percentages correct, and they had no chance of digging out the good bits after I blended the various bits together.

As, has been said, I would tend towards giving them their organ meals when they don't have access to the house and must use their litter pan.

Cheers

[Sherry]

The only other potential solution I can give would be to switch them to premade whole animal grinds. Cutting out actual raw organs and substituting supplements would at best be a short term solution.