Food ratios?

[eclipso]

Hi, I'm fairly new here. I'm a bit confused on what a balanced diet looks like. There's a lot of different information out there, so I wanted to know what the best ratio or percents for RMB, muscle meat, and organ should look like. Also, if I give whole prey, is it already balanced? Thank you! 😊 

[Corvidophile]

We aim for 75-80% muscle meat, 10-15% bone, and 10% secreting organs. The bone to muscle meat ratio is flexible to tinker with poop solidity, more bone to solidify and less to soften. Of these percentages, 5% of the total weight should be liver, and 10% of the total weight should be heart, and heart is thrown in with muscle meats, not considered an organ.

Smaller whole prey species (mice, rats, guinea pigs, quail, bantam chickens, frogs, snakes, deer) are considered completely balanced meals, larger (broiler chickens, pigs, cows, sheep, etc) animals bred for muscle meat for human consumption are not- they’ve wandered too far from their natural body plan and have more muscle meat on them comparatively, so you have to throw in more bone, heart, and organ to balance them out to what a wild animal would be like. In either case, you want to feed adult animals because they have a lot more bone weight in them compared to baby animals.

[eclipso]

Ok, because I wasn't sure what food to get them 😅. I was stuck between feeding Stella & Chewy's with many different protein sources and adding organ and RMB or if I should order whole frozen prey from Perfect Prey (a whole prey website for reptiles) The whole prey costs less, but I don't know if that takes away vitamins or nutrients from the animal. Just in case, I have a taurine supplement and a multivitamin paste: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TUALROY/ref=ewc_pr_img_3?smid=A2YRHF5SZUF7MF&psc=1
I also found air dried and freeze dried meats with a good protein to fat ratio, are those healthy for them too? Thanks for the reply!