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Post by wtferret on Mar 1, 2011 12:08:21 GMT -5
Totw is grain free.
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Post by trippyferret on Mar 1, 2011 12:20:27 GMT -5
TOTW is grain free. And they do add taurine to their dog formulas. However with the size of the kibble and the lower fat/protein, it just isn't as suitable for them.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2011 15:09:16 GMT -5
So in a sense, you could probably feed a good dog food if you added taurine and/or fat to it? (I believe EVO has a little bites, so the kibble is smaller).
I have Ferrets for Dummies at home, but on a bag of food, what are the percentage levels you should look for in a food when hunting for a fert food?
Here's a dog food that is made of mostly meat, Orijen. It's also grain free. (Some dogs have a hard time digesting it and have diarrhea because it is such a rich food). Here's the first 5 ingredients and GA of that.
Fresh boneless chicken, chicken meal, fresh boneless salmon, turkey meal, herring meal.
Moisture: 10% Protein: 38% Fat: 17% Fiber: 3%
It still doesn't appear to have enough fat, but the protein content is more than sufficient.
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Post by sherik on Mar 1, 2011 17:25:08 GMT -5
For a treat I give Lily a piece of Orijen Red meat formula. She loves it. But just that, it's a treat. I don't know what it is, but ferrets love dog food. My dogs don't free feed, so luckily there is never any out, but once in a while a kibble will fling under the pantry and the ferrets will fight for it.
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Post by miamiferret2 on Mar 1, 2011 21:32:14 GMT -5
i agree with Sherry.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2011 21:44:48 GMT -5
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Post by Sherry on Mar 1, 2011 23:31:27 GMT -5
If you have to feed a kibble there is no reason that couldn't be part of a blend. Maybe 1/3 at most? You can also feed Evo Cat/Kitten formula, as well as Wellness Core. Both would meet the dietary requirements.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2011 15:06:25 GMT -5
I made a spreadsheet in Excel to compare different foods. (If anyone could tell me where I could paste the spreadsheet, please let me know).
I compared 11 types of (grain free) dog food with 6 types of ferret food and 4 types of cat food.
The numbers next to each are the points, 10 being the best. I used the point system based off of MD Ferret Paws food chart. Here was the 'scoreboard,' so to say, that I used to score the foods.
Each is worth one point: -At least 4 of first 6 ingredients are meat sources. -At least 3 of first 6 ingredients are meat sources. -The first ingredient is a meat source. -No by-products. -Protein is 32% or greater. -Fat is 18% or greater. -Fiber is 3% or less. -No corn in first 6 ingredients. -No corn in first 3 ingredients. -No grain.
The dog foods I used were: 9 - Nature's Variety: Chicken 9 - Nature's Variety: Rabbit 9 - EVO Red Meat Small Bites 10 - EVO Small Bites 10 - Orijen Puppy 10 - Artemis Maximal Dog 9 - Taste of the Wild - High Prairie Formula 8 - Go! Natural Grain Free Endurance 7 - Solid Gold - Barking at the Moon 8 - Acana Prairie Harvest 8 - Before Grain: Chicken
The six ferret foods I used were: 9 - 8-in-1 Ultimate Ferret 10 - ZuPreem Ferret 7 - Path Valley Farm Ferret Formula 9 - James Wellbeloved: Ferret 10 - Wysong Ferret 10 - EVO Ferret
The four cat/kitten foods I used were: 9 - Chicken Soup for the Kitten Lover's Soul 9 - Feladae Cat & Kitten 8 - Innova Feline 8 - Wellness Super5 Mix Kitten
There were some ferret foods I would have used, however the first ingredients contained by-products. I didn't use them in this because I wouldn't feed any of my animals a food with by-products listed as the main protein source.
I know that the fact I have a smaller amount of ferret foods and cat foods may skew the numbers a bit, however, I'm going to be adding some foods to it. If you could suggest some more ferret foods for me to use, I would greatly appreciate it, as I seem to be having a hard time finding good quality ferret foods to compare the dog foods with.
Using the point system, it appears that the dog foods are just as good, if not better than, the ferret foods. I've read that ferrets should have at least 18-20% fat in their diet, so that doesn't seem to be a problem with most of the dog foods.
What I found was that the protein levels in the dog food were higher than that in the cat food, but lower than the ferret food.
Dog food had less fat on average than both the ferret and cat kibbles, but it wasn't far behind.
The moisture in all three, rounded to the nearest number, averaged out to be 10%.
So from these findings, is dog food really not as bad for ferrets as once thought? Do you just need to add taurine?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2011 15:15:56 GMT -5
moredooks.herobo.com/search.php?chart=ferretI prefer this scoring method. The MD chat is okay, but zupreem ferret food getting a 10 seems off. Also when you compared the percentages did you make sure that all had equal moisture content?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2011 15:22:46 GMT -5
I checked the moisture content of all of the foods. The ferret food averaged out to 10%, dog food averaged out to 10.09%, cat food averaged at 9.75%.
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Post by tinytippytoes on Mar 2, 2011 15:36:24 GMT -5
WOW really confused. LOL I don't know what the heck I'm reading(will have to go back and read again) but its funny about feeding raw or wild prey ....its not complicated cause you know everything they need is there and nothing they don't need isn't there. You don't need to count numbers or how much fat is in a mouse. Give ferret a mouse and gets a little bit of everything in one small package. If ferret doesn't want mouse give a quail instead and he stills gets all that he needs. Just my 2 cents worth.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2011 18:22:50 GMT -5
I feed my fert Nature's Variety Raw medallians. (Which is techinically a dog/cat food).
I just have a tendency to question what is accepted as 'fact.'
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2011 2:30:28 GMT -5
Tesla's been on Taste of the Wild for a little over a month now. He's doing excellent! Still has lots of energy and he's got a beautiful, lustrous white coat. For the taurine, I'm going to start giving him chicken hearts. Does anyone know how many hearts I should be giving him?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2011 3:00:40 GMT -5
I feed an entire meal of heart a week. That's usually about 2-3 oz per ferret. You can't really overdo taurine so adding a little extra won't hurt.
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Post by Sherry on Jun 2, 2011 9:10:04 GMT -5
I do two meals of turkey hearts a week for one group, try to do turkey/chicken for the other two groups
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