Cost?

[revolvingsheep]

I'm going to get setup with the mentoring program but it could be 1-2 months before I get my Ferret. I'm wanting to put cost into my finance for food and supplies so I have a question.

If I'm feeding my ferret raw meets and frozen whole prey... possibly with kibble on the side... what am I looking at for monthly cost in food? I know each Ferret is different and mine will be 10 weeks old... but what is a average cost?

Thanks.

[Deleted]

It depends on how you do it, i think. I try to make sure all my ferret food is as organic as possible so I get chicken meat from my uncle (he hand raises his chickens organically and is super careful about what they eat) and I get my beef/pork/other meats from farmers markets and butchers or local hunters as often as possible. From my uncle its free, from local hunters its usually a friend of a friend lol so its free butchers are usually latino market butchers so its usaully like 5 for a lb of most meats, less than $2 a lb for organ or "odd" meats. If I cant get from those sources I got the organic stuff from bottom dollar and I can get a 16 pack of chicken wings from them for 6 and change, or beef hears for $1-2, pork tails were 1-2 same with gibblets. I never get liver from anywhere but this place called Yoders up by the mts, its beef liver and usually under $2 and one packet lasts me about a month or so, its a big packet. Basically, check around for locally grown/organic fed stock, farmers markets, butchers etc. They usually give low prices and have higher quality meats.

[Heather]

Costs are hugely variable. They depend on how you feed...prey is more expensive than frankenprey, but probably on par with commercial grinds. I find that there's a bit of a learning curve in finding and negotiating the whole raw food thing. You will learn to shop bargains, buy bulk, I belong to a raw feeding coop which means we can buy a truck load and share, making it cheaper. Finding suppliers, I just found a supplier of whole rabbits, I've been looking for years. I found a supplier a few years ago for rats and we negotiated trades...some of my mice for her rats, she takes care of killing them, they come frozen prepackaged. I ship her a litter of baby mice....things like that. My costs won't be the same as yours and yours won't be the same as another members. I do know that raw feeding is cheaper than kibbles both in cost and when it comes to the vet bills (and can those add up quickly ) Learning to shop deals is one of the biggest tricks to raw feeding...having a freezer is another ;D

ciao

[Deleted]

When buying meat I try to average under $2 a lb. My three girls eat about 6-10 oz a day total, so my monthly costs are about $25-$40 a month.

I don't feed whole prey or commercial so that keeps my cost down.

[Deleted]

My costs tend to be higher, because I feed a commercial grind + rmbs(hare-today) and whole prey, and only supplement with store bought (most things here are laden with sodium) foods. Unfortunately as well, my Pix has IBD and I've found she does better on things like duck, goose, pheasant, quail, rabbit and goat (things I'd never find here, :C ), which are a bit more expensive, but I generally spend an astronomical amount for 1-3 months to stock up ($150-200/month online, so food + shipping), and then only pay around $20-30 a month (at most) at the store until my inventory runs out