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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2011 15:57:23 GMT -5
So I'm thinking about whole prey. The only thing that deters me from it are:
Cost
Getting them to eat whole prey
So I have a couple questions about it. I would like to feed mice, rats, rabbits, quail, and guinea pigs. I'm trying to figure out how much of each they'll eat.
So what size mouse, rat, rabbit, quail, and guinea pig would be good for two female ferrets to eat? They eat about 2 oz a day each.
Now, about getting them to eat it. I don't want to place an order if they won't eat the stuff. I can get some frozen mice (and maybe rats) locally so I could try that for a while before I buy. But what about the other meats?
So for the larger meats, it's easier to pick and choose what they want to eat. How do you make sure they get what they need when eating? What if one eats all the liver, but nothing else?
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Post by Heather on Feb 12, 2011 16:47:31 GMT -5
Once you get them eating one type of protein you should be able to convince them to eat the rest. I would be tempted to start with a cheap, easily available source. Mice might be your best bet. Work with that. I found that once I got my guys to eat one type of "furred" meat, that they were much more receptive to eating other types.
ciao
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Post by goingpostal on Feb 12, 2011 17:34:17 GMT -5
I started with mice, I was already buying them for my snake and eventually moved to breeding them myself, only a couple took to them at first and the rest just caught on over time, I fed mice as a treat or occasional meal. Now I am switching to total raw and bought frozen rats, quail, guinea pig, chicks and, rabbit. They've only gotten rats and quail so far but they took right to them thankfully. You want a variety of ages/sizes, I bought 1 week old and 10 week old quail, weanling and large adult rats, two different size adult guinea pigs and can feed any age mice. You do want to feed adult sized food much more than young ones though, for the calcium.
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Post by Sherry on Feb 12, 2011 18:38:06 GMT -5
First, for amounts, I've found most of my females will eat one adult mouse each for a meal. Or anything equivalent to that. A rat fuzzie, etc. To get them eating it in the first place was another story  |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2011 18:44:28 GMT -5
Okay, so if today was a mouse day, they'd eat two mice a piece, one for each meal? Haha, yeah, that's what I'm worried about  |
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Post by bluemoose on Feb 12, 2011 18:50:50 GMT -5
Maybe mine are pigs or the mice I get are bigger than the ones you guys feed but my girls usually eat more than that. I don't keep track exactly because there are three ferrets and a cat all eating from the same feeding den but mine eat a fair bit.
Have you offered them any whole prey before? If they're never eaten anything whole it might take them a while to recognize it as food. You can always get a couple feeder mice for them and give it a shot. If you're having trouble, try cutting the mice in half to show them the goodness inside. If that doesn't work, go back to soupies but make your soup from the mice. Then just increase the chunkiness of the soup. That's what I did with the cat when I got him at 8 weeks.
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Post by trippyferret on Feb 12, 2011 18:53:51 GMT -5
Sounds pretty good, though sometimes my girls can finish a mouse and a half each. Bomber, glutton that he is, can eat 3 in one sitting.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2011 18:58:52 GMT -5
I haven't tried whole yet, but I am pondering it. I just wanted to try to figure how much they'd eat so I can try to estimate the cost. Thanks for all the advice!
Question about the larger prey (rabbit/ guniea pig/ quail) - what size would be good for two ferrets to eat in a day? I don't want to order a huge one that they couldn't finish.
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Post by Sherry on Feb 12, 2011 18:59:17 GMT -5
Oh, my boys eat more. But don't forget, other than Lucrezia(2 1/2 lbs), most of my girls are around 1lb!
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Post by bluemoose on Feb 12, 2011 19:57:28 GMT -5
Oh that could be why. My girls are each at least 2 lbs.
I order the largest rabbits, quail, and guinea pigs on Rodent Pro. I cut the rabbits into thirds (and clean out the tripe because it stinks and they don't eat it). Because whole prey is covered in fur/feathers you can leave it out longer than raw and much longer than ground/soup because it has less air exposure. I've left a large chunk of rabbit in the feeding den for three days without any problem. That was winter though and I keep the windows open when it's not hot outside. I wouldn't do that in warm weather.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2011 1:12:47 GMT -5
My girls are both about 2 lbs, so I'd anticipate them to eating more.
What don't they eat? Intestines? How do you ensure they are getting everything they need? What if one ferret eats a lot of bone, while the other eats a lot of organ.
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Post by Sherry on Feb 13, 2011 2:21:14 GMT -5
If it's whole prey, they each tend to take their chosen mouse, rat, what have you off to their chosen corner. If it's something large enough for all of them, they'll take whatever piece they can manage to tear away from someone else, no matter what it is ;D
And I wouldn't worry about balancing every meal. As long as they tear different bits of on a regular basis, they can't really avoid getting the good bits from time to time.
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Post by bluemoose on Feb 13, 2011 2:30:47 GMT -5
I've found with mine, it depends on the prey which parts they'll avoid. Usually on smaller prey (mice, rats, chicks) they'll eat everything but yes sometimes they'll pick around intestines. For some reason they eat the whole quail even though the ones I get are fairly large. They never eat the tripe in rabbits and guinea pigs.
It also depends on your ferrets. What kind of raw do you currently feed? Do you give chucks of liver and other organs or do you blend them up into soup to disguise them? If your fuzz won't eat chunks of organ now, don't necessarily expect them to eat organ when you give them whole prey.
As for balance, as Sherry said balance over time will occur. Assuming each of your fuzz willing eats every component of their prey and doesn't consistently pick around certain parts, they'll get what they need. Getting them to eat bone when feeding whole prey is much easier than persuading them to eat the larger bones often used in prey model so I wouldn't worry to much about bone.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2011 2:51:37 GMT -5
Thanks for all the info! Pixie will eat liver, but not when it's with tastier stuff. Trixie is a work in progress |
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Post by karasufyre on Feb 13, 2011 16:10:08 GMT -5
Before investing in ordering a large amount of frozen prey, definietly just get a couple locally first. From what I've found, it will of course cost much more than buying in bulk [and more than buying live!] but you'd only do this once or twice to ensure they realized it was food.
I don't think you'll be able to find other frozen prey locally aside from mice and rats.
I started with live mice, since it's cheaper, and I'd assume if they recognize the live version as food, they'd see the frozen version as food too. But I have yet to test this theory [the place I buy my live mice from doesn't sell frozen]
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