Advice on 80/10/10 grinds

[crazyweasels]

Hey everyone, I’m new to this forum and came here looking for advice. I recently switched my ferrets to a raw diet. I am currently feeding them 80/10/10 grinds consisting of 80% muscle meat, 10% bone, 5% liver, and 5% spleen. There is no heart in the grinds so I have been adding some to the grinds for them. I calculated their weights and between both of my boys they would be eating about 8.6 oz daily. I will of course let them eat more if they want. If I add heart to their grinds daily then I figured I’d need to add about .86 oz of heart for it to equal 10% of their weekly diet. If I subtract the .86 from the 8.6 then I’d need to feed 7.74oz of grinds and .86oz of heart to add up to 8.6oz.

I read somewhere that adding heart like this can throw off the balance of the grinds and cause the food to become unbalanced. Is this true? If so, what can I do to make it balanced again? Can I add other organs and bonemeal powder to help balance it out. If so, how much should I add? I don’t mind the doing the math if that’s what I need to do. Is what I’m doing unsafe to feed my ferrets?

I’ve asked this in other groups as well, but haven’t really gotten a definitive answer. Some people say it’s fine and some say it’s not. I’ve gotten so many different answers. So I am unsure of what to do.

I currently have a weird situation and can’t order from most online raw providers unless they have free shipping. To ship raw to where I live it’s going to be double the price and it’s much too expensive for me to do in the long run.
I could potentially feed frankenprey, but the only bone-in source I can get in my town is chicken and I know they need more variety than that.

The variety I can get for the grinds is chicken, beef, pork, duck, quail, bison, turkey, venison, beaver, and rabbit.
I can currently get pork, lamb, goat, beef, and bison organs and meat (including heart). I can get chicken for a bone in option and turkey for muscle meat as well.

I just want to know if what I’m doing is okay or not and if it’s not how I can balance it out. People just keep telling me that I need to get a more balanced grind, but I cannot do that right now. I can’t order from an online provider unless they provide free shipping. I live in a very small town so my options are very limited. Luckily, there is a lot of local ranchers around me so I can get most meats from larger farm animals.
I’ve done a lot of research into raw feeding as well. I’d just like to know if adding heart like this will throw off the balance so much like some people have said...

Any help is greatly appreciated! Also I am so sorry for such a long post!

[Corvidophile]

It’ll throw it off over time, but is fine to feed temporarily. To fix, since heart is a muscle meat, just up the liver and bone by 10% each. Now what I can’t help you with is converting dry bone meal into wet bone weight... I simply don’t know! What I’ve done when supplementing bone meal is just pay attention to poop consistency.

[crazyweasels]

Mar 4, 2021 19:41:35 GMT -5 Corvidophile said:

It’ll throw it off over time, but is fine to feed temporarily. To fix, since heart is a muscle meat, just up the liver and bone by 10% each. Now what I can’t help you with is converting dry bone meal into wet bone weight... I simply don’t know! What I’ve done when supplementing bone meal is just pay attention to poop consistency.

Corvidophile
Okay, I can do that, should I up the liver by 5% and I can add kidney for the second secreting organ for the other 5%? Or should I just do liver? I know there’s a risk of vitamin A toxicity with just the liver.
And I’m not sure on the bone either, I was told by a few people that as long as their poops aren’t too runny and seem normal then they should be getting enough bone. What do you think?

[Corvidophile]

You can split the organs by 5/5, sure. They’ll still be getting enough liver that way. They need to eat a whole lot of liver to worry about vitamin A poisoning, it won’t be occurring at these levels even if you upped the liver by 10%. And while you might be seeing solid poops at this amount of edible bone, we know it’s a little under ideal, so I’d personally at least add a sprinkling of bone meal to each serving of grinds, you can mix it into the meat right before serving with a fork.

[crazyweasels]

Mar 5, 2021 8:48:34 GMT -5 Corvidophile said:

You can split the organs by 5/5, sure. They’ll still be getting enough liver that way. They need to eat a whole lot of liver to worry about vitamin A poisoning, it won’t be occurring at these levels even if you upped the liver by 10%. And while you might be seeing solid poops at this amount of edible bone, we know it’s a little under ideal, so I’d personally at least add a sprinkling of bone meal to each serving of grinds, you can mix it into the meat right before serving with a fork.

Corvidophile
Thank you! That’s good to know. So should I just add 10% liver & kidney and then some bonemeal to their grinds? As well as the 10% of heart of course. Should that balance it out?
I’m ordering some bonemeal now because I can’t get it in town so it should arrive in about one week. Am I okay to keep feeding them what I’ve been doing for another week until it arrives?

[Corvidophile]

Yes, all looks good. They’ll be fine for a week at that amount.

[crazyweasels]

Mar 5, 2021 20:21:05 GMT -5 Corvidophile said:

Yes, all looks good. They’ll be fine for a week at that amount.

Corvidophile
Thank you, that’s very helpful!