Whole Prey Diet.

[wgassetthannah]

HI, I just joined HFF today, but I've owned my ferrets since September. I have a male and female ferret, I got them in September from a pet store. I think the male is around 10-12 months, and the female about 8-9, but I'm just guessing, all the person said at the store was that they were babies when we got them. My male(Rye) will sometimes eat cooked chicken or turkey and has ate raw hamburger. My female(Sweeny) though is very picky. Anyways, I haven't completely decided if i want to switch them to whole prey, but the benefits put up a very compelling argument . The food they're on is pretty good , its Zupreem. So my questions are:
How would I switch them over to whole prey or raw?
Can they have a full whole prey diet, and what kind of animals?
Would it be better to order frozen food, or breed them.
Would it be better to give them live or dead food?
If i had to kill the food for them, how should I go about it.

I hope I posted this in the right place.
Thanks

[rebel135]

Welcome to the group all you have to do is apply for a mentor and in the mean time have a look around lots of Good info

[Heather]

Welcome on board

HI, I just joined HFF today, but I've owned my ferrets since September. I have a male and female ferret, I got them in September from a pet store. I think the male is around 10-12 months, and the female about 8-9, but I'm just guessing, all the person said at the store was that they were babies when we got them.

Congratulations on the little ones. Pictures would be nice {hint..hint )

My male(Rye) will sometimes eat cooked chicken or turkey and has ate raw hamburger. My female(Sweeny) though is very picky. Anyways, I haven't completely decided if i want to switch them to whole prey, but the benefits put up a very compelling argument . The food they're on is pretty good , its Zupreem. So my questions are:
How would I switch them over to whole prey or raw?

Read through some of the various switching threads, there is no tried and true method, it's very much trial and error...one of the reasons why we have a mentoring programme on board. You may want to read through some of the threads both in the archives and in the mentoring section. You can't post to them directly, they belong to the person being mentored but you can bring your questions here

Can they have a full whole prey diet, and what kind of animals?

Yes, you can feed entirely prey but it's costly. Many of us feed a combination of frankenprey (grocery store meats) and prey. I feed a varied combination of commercial, my own ground mix, frankenprey and prey (I use rabbit in their jackets, mice home raised, rats from a friend and quail). My brats supplement their diet with chipmunks when in season, earthworms and various bugs and creepy crawlies

Would it be better to order frozen food, or breed them.

Either is expensive. I only continue to breed mice because that way I know what goes into them..the mice

Would it be better to give them live or dead food?

I have done both. I have some that are very good hunters and some that are not. Right now, most of mine are mediocre, so all prey is frozen. If they can't kill within seconds they don't get to kill, no ferret plays with their food, and their food doesn't have to die of a heartattack before it's killed either

If i had to kill the food for them, how should I go about it.

There are gas chambers that you can create, or you can use cervical dislocation (much more humane)

I hope I posted this in the right place.

looks good to me...if not the boss will move it ;D
Thanks
ciao

[wgassetthannah]

I would apply for a mentor, but I don't have a scale or the tools to puree food.
Why would it be very expensive to give them just whole prey?
Could I feed them only one type of prey?
Sweeny is on top and Rye on bottom.



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[goingpostal]

You want as much variety as possible, but at least three sources, and preferably different ones, like quail, rabbit, mice, instead of mice, rat, gerbil, or chicken, quail, duck. Whole prey is expensive because most people don't have access to a cheap source, whole rabbits usually run $4 or more, guinea pigs $1-$6 each, mice $.50-4, rats $1-5, quail $1-$3, it's usually more expensive locally unless you know a breeder, online are cheap but you pay $50 to ship them and ferrets eat a lot.

I only have two ferrets now but in a day they could eat either a medium guinea pig or rat, an adult quail, or 7-8 small adult mice. They probably cost $3 a day on that diet with the cost of shipping. Compare to buying chicken meat at the store for .70 a pound, they will eat 5-7 ounces a day, those are .30 days. So most people feed a mix, beef, pork, chicken, whatever is available locally and some whole prey.

[wgassetthannah]

Is that a rat and a quail a day per ferret or for two of them? About how man mice would supplement for one rat? I couldn't feed them a guinea pig, I owned one for six years and had to watch her be put down. But I think i would be fine with other prey. We had a ball python for a little while and we fed him frozen rats and mice.

[goingpostal]

For the sizes I listed two ferrets will eat those in a day, but the other problem with a whole prey diet is you want to feed adults if possible, but also provide a variety, so sometimes throw in pinkies (treats), weanlings, young adults, older adults. Sometimes I order chicks for a treat, I have rabbit pinkies now, I vary the age of quail, rats, and guinea pigs, I breed my own mice so they get whatever I want to feed. My ferrets only like smaller rats, guinea pigs and rabbits are a hit but have to be gutted, quail they LOVE but you'll want to remove most of the feathers unless you like a mess.

[wgassetthannah]

So would I feed them mice/rats and quail in the same day or alternating throughout the week. And what's the nutritional difference between eating a rat and rabbit? They're both rodents. I know that rabbits are larger but do they have nutrients that the rat don't. Also, if I'm reading this right between my two ferret I'd go through a large rat or/8 mice a day and quail? So about 30 rats or 240 mice and 30 quail a month?
I had another idea. Would it be possible to feed them just mice and store bought meat(frankenprey) for the other part of their diets. I read that they need there've basic parts to their diets, bone, meat and organ. Would mice cover one or more of those, and other meats fill in the rest. If so, what would be a good weekly diet plan?

[Heather]

The math gets staggering ;D
Ok, you asked the difference between rat and rabbit and why. The reason for feeding multiple proteins is to cover differing nutritional values. For example; it's assumed that ferrets like cats require high taurine levels. Rabbit despite being a rodent is very low in taurine, mouse has the highest levels and I would guess that rat is probably similar.
To your second question...yes. You can feed just mice as your prey and make up the rest in frankenprey. By learning to balance their needs you can if you want just feed frankenprey. There are many here who cannot afford a full prey diet. For awhile my baby fuzz was cutting through about 5 adult mice a night, plus his frankenprey soupy, and whatever he stole from anybodies stash. Baby fuzz can probably double their intake over an adult ferret (they're just furry tummies with teeth ).
ciao

[goingpostal]

Yes most feed frankenprey with a little whole prey thrown in, like I do, an example around here is
day 1 whole quail
day 2 beef freezedried, turkey meat
day 3 chicken wing/leg
day 4 rabbit (just meat or whole rabbit)
day 5 duck neck with liver/organs/heart
day 6 mice or a rat or guinea pig
day 7 quarter of cornish game hen

It really depends on what you have access to and what your ferrets like, right now I am feeding:
mice, rabbits and quail for whole prey
chicken, turkey, duck, cgh, rabbit for frankenprey
beef, lamb, duck, bison for commercial raw

[wgassetthannah]

If I wanted to make a diet of just mice and store bought meat( turkey, chicken, hamburg, pork) what would be a good weekly schedule. I wouldn't know where to buy quail and rabbit, and I'm not very familiar with quail. All I know is that it's a small bird. I have two ferrets so if you could come up with a schedule could you specify how many ferrets it would feed approximately, Please and thank you. Would it be possible to keep them on some kibble too, just incase there is a time I can't afford meat and prey.

[Heather]

You can use a mix of store meats and just mice, as long as you've got 3 different types of proteins in your mix. So, if you fed chicken, pork you could feed mice as your third protein. I like to see more than that but you can create a decent diet out of those 3 proteins.
You can feed a mix of kibbles and protein but...be aware that kibbles and meat sometimes cause serious stomach upsets (not always, some people have been very successful with this) To prevent this we try not feed the two together. So for an example you would feed meat in the morning and feed kibbles in the evening thus giving the system the chance to fully digest the meat (which is digested faster) before feeding kibbles. Kibbles digest slower because the ferret's body has to work harder to get the most nutrition it can get and then dispose of the waste. As there is so much waste things have a tendency to back up a bit and if you feed meat with or right after it remains in the system (backed up behind the kibbles) to start creating bacteria
ciao

[wgassetthannah]

Whould chicken wings be the best part to give them? And what kind of pork? Like ground?
Could I give them meat in the morning, then kibble at night to keep them satisfied till morning, and have mice like 2-3 times a week in adjacent with the meat or replace it for that meal? What ratio of chicken, pork and mice would they get for a week? Like chicken, 3 days, pork 2 day, and mice 2 day. Or any combo there of.

[Deleted]

This is just how I feed, but I prefer to feed a variety of bone/types. So my kids get all the bones from a chicken. I think it helps everything balance out in the end. For chicken, mine really like spine, neck, and ribs.

Mine also ADORE Cornish game hen and would eat that everyday.

[Sherry]

Feb 18, 2012 13:15:52 GMT -5 @wgassetthannah said:

Could I give them meat in the morning, then kibble at night to keep them satisfied till morning,

If they are taking the raw fine, why include the kibble Meat can safely be left in the cage for 12-24 hours depending on the size of the chunks. Whole prey for up to 48.