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Post by Heather on Sept 13, 2011 10:37:05 GMT -5
;D ok, in the beginning....your two little ones will probably bust your budget but only for the first 9 months or so. Baby ferrets eat.....a lot  . I was amazed as to Minion's intake. He ate as much as 3 ferrets (maybe more  ). He's 8 months...and he ate 3 whole mice and half a quail for breaky. He's also a farm ferret...so he might actually eat less than your wee ones (but then you're getting a pair of jills...ok they will probably eat the same amount  ). As far as feeding what....my guys get ground meats, commercial grind, frankenprey and whole prey. Mix it up cover all their needs. The mice are a good start. Meat variety...yes...anything you can get (especially when they're kits....they're just furry tummies with teeth...they will eat anything you give them and a lot of it) Pork, chicken, beef, venison, bison, turkey, duck...whatever you can get your hands on. Prey (don't just limit yourself to mice)...rats, mice, quail, chicks, guinea pigs (I've heard they're a ferret delicacy) rabbits...again the sky is the limit...just remember size ciao |
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Post by revolvingsheep on Sept 13, 2011 10:49:22 GMT -5
Ground meats... like ground beef, turkey, and pork? We mostly eat ground pork in this house but I can get what ever.
What do you mean by commercial grind?
Frakenprey is like raw meat correct? And Whole Prey is frozen whole mice and such?
So if I'm feeding them 4 hours apart, what do I give them for a feeding? A little of a few different things or stick to one meat per day? Do I give one of them a mouse and some raw meat... and give them more if they are still hungry? How will I know they are still hungry? Do they know when to stop eating?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2011 11:03:03 GMT -5
Yep ground meats like from the store.
A commercial grind is usually a bunch of a animal parts ground together. So maybe heart, bones, liver, and muscle meat. They are usually sold by holistic pet food stores.
Frakenprey is just raw meats/parts from various animals. So basically what you'd buy at the grocery store.
Correct on whole prey - any whole animal that's small enough to consume.
How and what you feed will depend largely on your and your kits. Mine are picky, so I only feed 1 meat at a time to prevent them from picking out their favorites. Others have no issues feeding a little of this and that. So you'll find what works for you. I like to feed 2 proteins a day, but sometimes they get a single protein a day. Again, it's what works for me, might or might not work for you.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2011 11:07:31 GMT -5
What I did in the beginning is have a bunch of meat ready to feed in the fridge. If the bowl was empty, I just added some more. I eventually found out how much they ate and was able to eliminate most waste. Your babies will not over eat  you'll know they're hungry when they still eat. Generally always allow access to food so they can snack throughout the day. You can also add enough meat to last them 6-8 hours. So you're not technically feeding them every 4 hours, but they have access to food when they're hungry Does that make sense? So for me, I would put a bunch of meat in the cage, enough to last at least 6-8 hours. Then I would check and see if they needed a refill in the bowl. |
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Post by revolvingsheep on Sept 13, 2011 11:26:17 GMT -5
Thanks for all the great replies!
How often do I give them bone-in? Do I even need to do bone in if I'm feeding whole prey as well? What about commercial grind? I have two food bowls. I could put their main meat of the day in one bowl, the grind in the other and then offer them 1-2 whole prey a day? Or if I feed them bone in meats, do I even need to feed whole prey?
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Post by Heather on Sept 13, 2011 12:58:13 GMT -5
I feed all of it. Last night they got rabbit in it's jacket (fur on) some of it was meat chunks, some of it had bone in and there was a huge chunk of liver as well. Today they're getting ground chicken with bone, organ and heart, with raw egg and goats milk. Tonight, they might get what's left of the rabbit (there's still it's butt or maybe some quail...haven't decided ;D) I feed bone almost daily but that's because some of my guys (I have 10) eat ground bone but are very lazy about eating boned meats. Ferrets need a large amount of bone, because of their quick metabolism they don't absorb calcium as proficiently as they should. We usually tell people that they should try and feed bone in meats about 4 days out of the week adjusting by observing stools.
ciao
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Post by revolvingsheep on Sept 13, 2011 13:00:38 GMT -5
So when I'm looking into this, it's looking like I might end up spending $50-$100 a month just on Ferret food. If that's the case, how do you manage to feed 10 ferrets? Is there something I don't understand about all this yet?
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Post by Heather on Sept 13, 2011 13:27:30 GMT -5
Big freezers and bulk buying. Checking for specials, belonging to a raw feeding co-op. My guys don't get commercial ground, except when they steal from the cats (I make my own ground mix). I just made up 10lbs of ground yesterday. It should last me about 3 weeks. The ground chicken I bought in 50lb cases, that makes it a dollar a pound or slightly less. Prey is expensive. I make my own mice, have a friend that I get my rats from at $3 for a large adult rat and I pay $4 lbs for rabbit (in it's altogether, it would cost me more for the supplier to dress it). It takes a bit in the beginning but you work out your suppliers, stop using the ones that are unsatisfactory or cost too much. I pay less in meat than I would in high end kibble. At one time I was feeding 18 ferrets, 4 cats and 2 giant breed dogs (all on a natural diet). Right now, I think my vet bills are higher than my food bill (don't like it that way  ) but of my 10 fuzzes 7 of them are extended hospice care (the joys of running a shelter  ) ciao |
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Post by cubsfanhaynes on Sept 13, 2011 13:34:34 GMT -5
The wife and I are feeding with raw from walmart and kroger ATM. It's fairly cheap, we just bought a sack of chicken quarters (leg and thigh plus a lil bit of back) for about $8, it was six quarters and a random leg that got tucked in. They are HUGE we're feeding 1 a day and will probably get about a week out of it. Turkey legs are also gigantic and one a day feeders, we chop an organ mush twice a week that is giblets from the whole fryer chicken we buy (about $4 for two, also covers us for about a week) and a couple livers plus a 1/4 breast you can get 2lbs of liver for about $1.50 at walmart. We just bought almost three weeks worth for about $23, that's for three fuzzies, and we're still buying commercial.
However, we live in the south so we also anticipate a whole deer here soon (season approaches and my step father hints). That will be free and feed (intermittent with other meets) for almost half a year cause we're looking at about 100lbs of venison and organ meat.
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Post by revolvingsheep on Sept 13, 2011 18:09:00 GMT -5
I have a CostCo membership... I bet I can find some meats in bulk there. Thanks for all the suggestions.
What about freeze dried from somewhere like stella and chewys. I would like them to accept the freeze dried for times when I'm out of town as it would be easier for a caregiver to feed them that way.
Also, what about treats like the stella and chewys treats? How much is too much daily?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2011 19:39:13 GMT -5
You can actually the Stella and Chewys freeze dried as a treat. That way you can't really over do it
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Post by Sherry on Sept 13, 2011 20:52:14 GMT -5
The biggest thing to keep in mind about treats is that they are good unless they start replacing the meals with them.
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Post by Heather on Sept 13, 2011 22:21:05 GMT -5
The little minxes will try and replace their meals with treats too ....ferrets are really good at that type of thing . ciao |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2011 11:55:57 GMT -5
My ferret will go on an extensive hunger strike if he thinks that there is any chance he might get stella and chewy's duck duck goose. That stuff is like ferret gold. I went away for a few days and had a friend feeding him S&C 2 out of the three days. When I got home I was convinced he had a blockage or some other terrible ailment after he hadn't eaten more than a few bites of his regular food over 3 days. My anxiety was alleviated when i put in 2 frozen S&C patties and he ate both, STILL FROZEN, in 30 minutes. Now we only do S&C once or twice a month on our "freebie" days so the little brat doesn't hold out for it. I'm lucky that the friend who watches my ferret while I'm gone is okay with feeding the bagged raw. |
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Post by revolvingsheep on Sept 15, 2011 12:26:38 GMT -5
Hmm maybe I shouldn't go with the duck? Maybe I should buy three different types and teach them to eat all three types? That way they don't get hooked on one of them. I could also consider hoping to find someone who doesn't mind feeding them their regular raw diet that way I never have to worry about freeze dried. Still, I think it's a good backup.
If I feed my 2 ferrets a mixture of raw ground and bone-in/bone-out, commercial grind, thawed whole prey, and freeze dried.... I'm still trying to calculate cost for two 10 week old ferrets.
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