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Post by vfreqwf on Jun 30, 2022 21:18:52 GMT -5
I put ground deer meet (hamburger), 4 whole eggs, one ground egg shell, salmon oil and chicken hearts in a blender and give my ferrets that. It's pretty thick. I noticed a few weeks later that it looked like the little white pieces of fat that is in all hamburger was in one of my ferrets poop. What does it mean if one of my ferrets isn't digesting any of the fat in the ground meat? Is there something else I could do besides not giving him ground meat? Will he not digest any fat?
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on Jul 1, 2022 7:42:28 GMT -5
Have you read info on how to feed your ferret raw? look in upper right hand corner under HFF Website on this page. it will give you a wealth of info on how to feed your ferret. Your ferret will need a variety of foods basically 3--- but better if 4. And, of course we will help you transition your ferret.
Ferrets need organs. do you know if they ground up the organs in the hamburger? So the hamburger sounds like a good meal, but not one to feed every day without the variety.
As far as the fat, I am no ferret expert but just try to follow th ferret forum dietary guidelines. Maybe the meal needs tweaking for him or by just giving him this a couple to 3 times a week would be better.
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on Jul 1, 2022 7:47:01 GMT -5
From my mentor back in the days when trying to transition my ferrets to raw.
One thing you must remember is that with ferrets and their food, we have to speak in generalities - feeding raw is not an exact science. Our goal in feeding raw is to replicate as closely as possible what a ferret would eat in the wild with the correct balance of meat, organs, and bones, but how can we determine EXACTLY what that balance is? Because the difference in bone mass and the size of organs even between two animals of the same size and the same species can vary tremendously, we cannot set a DEFINITE ratio for our prey model and say “This is it; this is the exact amount of meat/organ/bone my ferret must have to be healthy.” Even if every single prey specimen were identical in proportions, who is to say that every single wild ferret would eat every part in exactly the right amount, especially with larger prey that cannot be consumed by a single ferret in one meal. So we get as close as we can to ‘natural’ by using a prey model that has been used for decades, a rough average of many species of prey animals - 80% meat, 10% organ, 10% bone. This prey model was originally geared toward dogs and cats who generally do not need as much bone in their diets as ferrets, which is why we say ferrets need 10-15% bone, depending on their poops. (This will be addressed later.)
Because of the different vocabulary used when discussing the different kinds of diets, there has been some confusion regarding the correct balance of a raw diet. Whole prey is easy. Each prey animal is a completely balanced meal, so there’s no need to think about numbers. Commercial grind companies use a ratio to determine the amount of meat, organ, and bare bone in their foods. (An ideal commercial grind would be approximately in the ratio of the prey model, or 80:10:10.) Frankenprey feeders don’t just toss a bare bone to their pets, but rather give them bone with meat attached, what we call edible bone-in meat. This terminology is where the confusion lies. Because the bone is served with meat, the percentage of bone-in meat is about 50-60% of the total diet (as opposed to the 10% of bare bone in the prey model). This SEEMS to be in conflict with the prey model ratio, but if you were to pick apart a frankenprey menu and weigh and measure every single thing separately, you would find that the ratio of meat to organ to bone would be very close to 80:10:10.
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Post by Corvidophile on Jul 1, 2022 16:25:52 GMT -5
I agree with what Abbey said, it’s a good start to raw and nothing wrong with it as a stand-alone meal, but it’s not a balanced diet on its own. The undigested fat may be a sign of a food intolerance, does it happen on other proteins? It may also just be a temporary gut imbalance, try giving probiotics for a week. Buy either paste for pets and give according to directions on the package, or powdered human capsules and untwist them and give 1/4-1/2 a capsule twice a day mixed with either salmon oil or food.
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