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Post by katt on Aug 22, 2011 0:32:25 GMT -5
Any boned meat you'd like. Turkey necks, drumsticks, chicken necks, cornish game hen, etc. Start to crush the bones less and less so they can work up to eating them whole. The bigger bones (like leg bones and usually neck bones) you will probably always need to at least crack, if not crush a tad bit as they are bigger and more difficult to eat. Cracking them gives them a starting point.
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Post by rahx3 on Aug 22, 2011 13:02:30 GMT -5
Right on! I have some turkey neck that I've given them this morning, and they seemed pretty good about it. I'll have to buy some more supplies tonight and see what they'll eat from there.
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Post by katt on Aug 22, 2011 23:31:45 GMT -5
Perfect! Keep introducing new things. In the meanwhile, I want you to work on a menu for me. It should be a week's meal plan that demonstrates a good variety of proteins as well as a proper balance of muscle:organ:bones. Muscle = 75-80% (this includes heart and gizzards, of which heart should be included in at least 1-2 meals per week for Taurine) Bone=10-15% (this is edible bone) Organs= 10% (should be at least half liver, and then include other organs like kidney, spleen, and brain)
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Post by katt on Aug 22, 2011 23:45:42 GMT -5
Ok first of all, here are some menus from graduated mentees... Feed them heart at least 1-2 times a week so that they are getting the taurine that they need. And organs should be 10% of the diet. Ideally the organ meat should be half liver, and the other half a variety of things such as: kidney, spleen, and brain. Here are some example menus. Your final menu should look something like these... SUNDAY: AM- Cornish Hen: Wings , rib cage and diced meat PM- elk tendons and commerical Duck patties (pretty sure the Duck patties have bone in them, not sure about organs - yet to pick them up) MONDAY: AM - Organs (chicken liver, hopefully other types of liver, beef organ patties eventually and pork brain - what other organs do they need? spleen? kidney?) And I realize they are going to have nasty poops ;D Do I give a whole bunch of organs at once or alternate them each week? Is it better to split this into two meals? PM - Cornish Hen: Legs, back and diced meat (basically the rest of the cornish hen from Sunday) TUESDAY: AM - Pork Muscle Meat (depending on what I have on hand this will be one or more of the following: pork tenderloin, pork chops, pork ribs - they don't really eat the bones so it counts as muscle meat, pork belly sliced - it looks like unseasoned bacon, the closest thing I could find to what you described) PM - Hearts and chicken necks(Chicken hearts for now, but hopefully I can get pork and beef hearts too) WEDNESDAY: AM - Goat meat (stewing goat chunks/some bone, commercial ground goat/includes organs) PM - Chicken wings and chicken backs THURSDAY: AM - Turkey Necks and split turkey wings PM - Hearts and chicken gizzards(hopefully a different kind of heart from what they had earlier in the week) FRIDAY: AM - Lamb meat and bones (commercial ground lamb/includes organs, and lamb bones to chew on - don't think they can eat these, just suck the marrow out) PM - Whole Quail (bone in) cut into smaller chunksSATURDAY: AM - Hearts (hopefully different from whatever kind of hearts they got earlier in the week - if I could go pork hearts one meal, chicken hearts one meal and beef hearts one meal I think I'd be set and wouldn't have to supplement with Taurine? Or should I get taurine supplements anyways?) PM - Commerical rabbit meat (ground carcass with bone- I too think this includes organs but let me know if you find out) I do want to get Beef in there somewhere too once I can get them eating it. I actually bought veal cutlets and am going to try them with veal first and then work my way up to the beef ;D Also possibly work frozen thawed mice in eventually, but I think for now that's a decent menu? Okay sounds good, I added more bone to the menu, I was so glad to hear that I could use them more than once For some reason some meats (even the obvious ones) are hard to find here Oh well, let me know what you think, again Fifth ferret menu.Monday: turkey breast, turkey necks, heart Tuesday: gizzards, pork loin chop meat, chicken wings Wednesday: chicken feet, salmon Thursday: heart, veal- only meat, chicken drumstick or thigh (bone broken up) Friday: liver, chicken ribs Saturday: heart, chicken or turkey neck Sunday: chicken wings, heart, and beef sirloin I will also switch out some of these meats for bison, lamb, and other fish (such as whitefish, halibut, and tilapia) I noticed the local market has duck feet and head, as well as pig face which appears to have meat, fat, skin, and cartilage. My fuzzes already love eating the bones in chicken feet so I bet duck feet would be a no-brainer. I could incorporate those, to get this: Third draft: Monday morning - Mousey (whole, jumbo mice) Monday night - Rabbit legs or ribcage (I forget which I have left) Tuesday morning - Chicken hearts Tuesday night - Chicken wings Wednesday morning - Turkey neck Wednesday night - Turkey back and ribs Thursday morning - Duck hearts with chicken feet Thursday night - Pig heart with chicken feet Friday morning - Chicken back & breast Friday night - Pig face Saturday morning - Beef heart with duck feet Saturday night - Beef heart with duck feet Sunday morning - Chicken liver & gizzard Sunday night - Turkey liver & gizzard What do you think? Today is beef chunks and some left over ground turkey. There is some pork on sale for $1.29 a lb, so I am going to pick some of that up this weekend. I'm not sure if you saw my "Diet of mostly rodents" thread. I definitely want to do mostly whole prey eventually. The cost right now isn't necessarily feasible, but that is my eventual goal. With my girls pickiness, I don't think large whole prey will be an option for a bit. If I just put a rabbit in front of them they will pick and choose what they want. But with smaller whole prey, that is much harder What do you think of this diet: Monday: Mice Tuesday: Rats Wednesday: Bone in meal Thursday: Hamsters Friday: Gerbils Saturday: Bone in meal + extra organs Sunday: Bone out meal Would this be a little better? MONDAY -Chicken wings -Turkey neck TUESDAY -Pork chops -Liver and hearts WEDNESDAY -Quail -Turkey breasts THURSDAY -Hearts, gizzards and kidney/liver -Lamb FRIDAY -Veal and liver -Chicken ribs SATURDAY -Rabbit meat -Chicken wings SUNDAY -Chicken legs -Pork chunks I'll try getting in some more variety, if I can find goat, buffalo, duck, etc...I'll add some in there! I could also try giving them a rat or a mouse here and there but I'm not too comfortable with seeing a ripped open mouse in my cage just yet. ;D When I get more comfortable with prey, I can get some frozen rabbits at my reptile store, I'm sure they would enjoy that. Just a few examples. The ratios should be roughly (as a reminder) 10-15% bone, 10% organ (at least half liver), and 75-80% muscle meat (including heart, and gizzards).
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Post by rahx3 on Aug 25, 2011 1:18:52 GMT -5
Okay so what my thought was here I'd like to stick to using as much commercial raw as I can. Its easier for me right now and I'm about to start school and I don't wanna bite off more than I can chew... So if I did a commercial raw every morning, switching the varieties up from day to day, depending on what I've defrosted it would end up as either: Turkey Chicken Beef Bison Lamb Ostrich Kangaroo Rabbit Venison Most of those are bone-in. The commercial raw I'm going to stick with are two companies: Red dog Blue Kat, and Club Canine. Then I thought at night I could do a mix up of things like... Monday: Cornish Hen Tuesday: Goat (chunks I get with the bone from an Asian market near by, the fuzzies went crazy for it before) Wednesday: Turkey Neck Thursday: Chicken or turkey backs Friday: Chicken wings Saturday: Pork of some type Sunday: Chicken hearts, livers and gizzards Do you think that would work out?
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Post by katt on Aug 25, 2011 3:44:05 GMT -5
Hmm that's not bad. But of the commercial meats do you know what has heart and liver? And if so approx how much?
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Post by rahx3 on Aug 25, 2011 13:03:14 GMT -5
Hm. Good question. This is what I know about Club Canine: Ingredients: 90% meat, with heart and liver, ground, 5% raw ground veggies, 5% supplements, free range eggs, yogurt, parsley, kelp, salmon oil, bee pollen.
And then the Red Dog Blue Kat: 98% Muscle meat, Organ(30%) and bone 2% Organic juiced veggies
If that answers the question? haha Its all I really know.
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Post by katt on Aug 26, 2011 3:28:06 GMT -5
Hm. Good question. This is what I know about Club Canine: Ingredients: 90% meat, with heart and liver, ground, 5% raw ground veggies, 5% supplements, free range eggs, yogurt, parsley, kelp, salmon oil, bee pollen. And then the Red Dog Blue Kat: 98% Muscle meat, Organ(30%) and bone 2% Organic juiced veggies If that answers the question? haha Its all I really know. Hmm okay so Club Canine no clue on the Bone content. As for RDBK, it is high in organs. I would think that between the two, you probably don't need to feed whole raw organs just because the RDBK is so high. IT would depend on what you feed for the week of course though. You are going to have to do a lot of guesstimating by poops (which is the case anyways). If their poops are too soft, then they need more bone. Too dark then they are getting too much organ and heart. Though you can't really have too much heart - they need the taurine. Just have to be careful that all of the blood content doesn't make their poops too soft for too long or you increase the risk of prolapse. How are they doing on bones?
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Post by rahx3 on Aug 26, 2011 11:14:49 GMT -5
They're getting a lot better with bones. They love their goat chunks. And Calvin especially loves turkey neck
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Post by katt on Aug 29, 2011 1:40:27 GMT -5
I totally missed that you posted. I'm sorry! Keep it up! Can you make me a weekly menu with more specifics? Like Monday: am commercial beef (heart and bones included) pm chicken necks and goat meat Tuesday: am commercial chicken (heart liver and bone), pm turkey wings Your first menu is pretty good, but I'd like to see a menu that will be an example of what one specific week might look like, that demonstrates good bone:meat:organ balance, and variety.
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Post by rahx3 on Aug 30, 2011 13:47:43 GMT -5
I sure can Monday AM: CC Rabbit w/Bone Monday PM: Cornish Hen Tuesday AM: RDBK Bison Tuesday PM: Goat Chunks w/Bone Wednesday AM: CC Turkey w/Bone Wednesday PM: Turkey Neck Thursday AM: CC Chicken w/Bone Thursday PM: Chicken Back Friday AM: RDBK Venison Friday PM: Chicken Wings Saturday AM: RDBK: Chicken Saturday PM: Pork Chunks Sunday AM: CC Emu/Ostrich Sunday PM: Chicken Hearts, Liver, Gizzards etc Does that work out alright??
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Post by katt on Aug 30, 2011 13:54:17 GMT -5
Awesome. It looks pretty good to me. I will submit this menu to Heather. She will either give some suggestions for tweaking it, or approve you for graduation. You are doing great.
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Post by rahx3 on Aug 30, 2011 13:56:19 GMT -5
Awesome! That was a mighty fast reply might I add! ;D
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Post by katt on Aug 30, 2011 14:12:18 GMT -5
You actually caught me when I was online this time!
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Post by rahx3 on Aug 30, 2011 14:32:18 GMT -5
Haha go me! I'm actually really glad I'm getting this schedule figured out so fast and everything. I start school next week so I'm trying to make sure everything is in order so I have less things to stress about So having such a schedule makes it really easy to manage. ;D
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