Suggestions and opinions on diet plan

[loveless]

I've been working on my ferrts diet latly and tying to pin down a more regular feeding schedual. So far I have this.

Monday) Morning Meal - Lamb meat / Night Meal -*Odd Ball soup
Tuesday) Morning Meal - Pork Meat / Night Meal - Cow heart
Wensday) Morning Meal - Chicken Thighs or drumsticks bone in / Night Meal - Salmon
Thursday) Morning Meal - Chicken wings (bone in) / Night Meal - Beef Kidneys may be with or with out chicken or veal liver
Friday) Morning Meal - Cornish Hen (random draw on parts all bone in) / Night meal - Random at the moment
Saturday) Mice Whole / Random meat (Usually depends on wht I'm having for dinner that night. lol )
Sunday) Frog leggs / Rat whole

Monthly random treat meals: A cake pan filled with water and three dozon minnows they have to catch themselves.

* Odd Ball soup is a mix of ground veal, Natures variety ground venison, pumpkin, chicken liver, cow heart, salmon, egg, egg shell, and dribbled with a tsp of olive oil. I call it soup even if its a paste. It's the closest thing to soupie they'll eat. (Yup I'm the one with weird fuzzies the skiped the soupie stage and decided bones were awsome and I had to teach them that the meat attcahed to the bones was eddible.)


OK, That's the plan I've followed for a little while now and thought I'd toss it out there to see if anyone had advise on or if I should switch thigs around. Or even add/subtract something.

[Sherry]

I think I'd add a couple more bone meals in there. I count 7 including the one with the thigh(which is not a bone heavy meal). Yes, there is some bone in the NV and with the eggshell, but it honestly doesn't look like enough calcium in their diet plan.
I don't know if you can get something like turkey/duck/chicken necks? Put the muscle meat on Fri. evening, and the extra bone on Tues. morning?

[Deleted]

I agree - I'd add more bone. How do their stools look like as of now?

[loveless]

prety good, I guees I shoul've added I add a little egg shell dust on top of the lamb and pork chunks to help add a little more calcium.

[Deleted]

It'd be more preferable to add another bone in meal, since calcium is only calcium and doesn't contain the other important vitamins and minerals of bone.

[loveless]

would turky wings be a good addition or would they have to much meat? the upper most part of the wing has a fairly large ammount of meat vs bone.

I have found a place that that sells turky necks but it costs $7 a neck.

[Sherry]

OMG! $7 a neck I only pay $13 for a 5lb bag! That's insane. Unfortunately, most ferrets can't eat turkey wing bones. They are too dense.
Can you get pork rib ends, or even pork neck? Some do really well with that. Other bone in meats would be quail, chicken necks, more wings, oxtail, turkey rib, duck neck/rib/wing tips(duck wing is also too dense), rabbit, and of course, whole prey(don't know if you want to, or can, do that).

[loveless]

Yup $7 each, my local pet food store opened a natural section and the prices are crazy steep. I've bought 2 from them already but I can't keep doing that regularly.

Wouldn't pork neck and ox tail be a lot thicker than turky wings?

I've been keeping an eye out but I haven't been able to find chicken necks either. I'm keeping an eye out for them as well as quail but so far I've come up with zilch.

I already give the ferrets mice and rats for whole prey. I couldn't bring myself to do rabbit. I own 2 and my boy bonded rather strongly with one of my rabbits when he lost his companion when they were abandoned.

[Sherry]

The oxtail and pork neck are thicker yes, but not as dense a bone. Since the wing is used all the time by turkey and duck, even though it's not weight bearing, the bone is harder. Whereas tail and neck aren't.
Maybe then add in some mice or rat on a weekly basis?

[loveless]

I already feed them mice and rats on a weekly basis.

[Sherry]

DUH ;D Sorry about that! Shows I shouldn't answer threads before I've had my regulation 2 cups of coffee ;D

[Deleted]

Cam you make the two random meals bone it? I only count 6 bone in meals (unless the salmon is bone in).

[Sherry]

The salmon would be, yes. At least, I'm assuming it's raw?

[loveless]

It's raw but I've never come across a bone in the salmon I buy.

I did manage to find pork necks at a decent price or at least I think so with all the crazy high priced stores around me. I may replace pork meat night with pork neck.

I bought 2 turky necks since the price lowered to $4

My bone in meals are. Chicken wings, Chicken legs or thighs, soup, cornish hen, Frog legs, Mice, rats for a total of seven presently.

Friday night was always what I had more of that week in comparason to the other meats to keep the freezer balanced out.

[Deleted]

I usually feed 8-9 bone in meals a week, but I've feed up to 10 if the meals are not very bony (lots of thighs and legs).