Confused on diet

[lnsybean44]

So I got my new girl Kenora yesterday and she is already eating raw and whole prey which I would like to continue but I am the one who has no idea. Im not really sure which section I should be going to since the mentor program seems more for switching. Her breeder said that she eats chicken wings (but I accidentally bought drumsticks), mice and kibble. So she ate the muscle meat just fine but the bone is too big. Where do I go for advice on how to feed her and what sorts of meats I should be looking for?

[sherrylynne]

Any kind of meat you can find will be good. If her jaws aren't strong enough(and many never eat all the drumstick), stick with wings, ribs, neck. Quail, duck and rabbit are also good for bone. As is turkey and duck necks(you may have to chop up the turkey neck segments for a while).
The general rule of thumb is bone in 4 days a week, muscle meat(heart is a muscle) 2 days a week, liver one meal a week, and for the other meal that day whatever you like. You can mix and match as you please. You can use any animal origin for the organ meat, but 1/2 of it needs to be liver. And no more than one chicken liver sized piece of liver a week.
And here is as good a place as any for your questions

[bigsis7]

You can try the mentor program just to help you along. Though you're still going to be feeding kibble right? How often are you wanting to feed her raw meat? Whole prey? Chicken leg bones shouldn't be too big for her unless she's not used to eating a bone that big. My ferrets can usually eat all the meat plus the bone. So when you can it'd probably be best to go get some chicken wings. Possibly after she's finished the legs. You may want to figure out how often a week you want to feed her raw meat and whole prey and if you'll be feeding kibble every day of the week. Once you know that we/I can help you out a bit more with what to feed and when :]!

[lnsybean44]

My goal is to feed raw once a day (at night) and have kibble available at other times. But it looks like I might be able to get cheap frozen mice and inexpensive ground whole chicken and rabbit in which case they will eat all raw.

We decided to make a BBQ out of the wings and get her soemthing different. I save two for her just in case she changes her mind tomorrow but I will hopefully have word about the ground and whole prey by tomorrow.

[Heather]

You most definitely can use the mentor programme to help you learn how to feed your little one raw (just fill out the questionaire like you would to learn how to feed raw). Just because your little one knows how to eat raw, doesn't mean that you know how to feed raw...we can help you with that You can also post here and get your answers the way you are now. It's entirely up to you . I can't help you with kibbles, there are those on board that have a good knowledge as to what to feed in that respect. If you can get your furbaby off kibble it would be even better for her but that's up to you. Drumsticks aren't bad...the bone's a little heavy but she should be able to eat the knuckles on either end. Score the meat, to give her something to get hold of and she should be able to handle the rest without any trouble.
Good luck and enjoy your little furbaby.
ciao

[bigsis7]

If you are going to feed her meat every night make sure to feed boney meat. Also she should most likely be fed at least two differnet kinds of meat if you're feeding the kibble. If you want to go all raw and whole prey you'll need to feed 3 different kinds of meat. The mice can count, but you'll have to vary the ages you feed. Like you can't just feed an adult mouse unless you're feeding 3 different other kinds of meat. If you do vary the ages then you only have to feed two other different kinds of meat. Does that make sense? Someone correct me if I'm wrong!

[lnsybean44]

Alright, I have posted in the mentor area.