help with menu

[b2dg3r]

I've been trying to find menus but I'm not really finding any that meet my needs.
I have two ferrets: 1 female, a little over a pound; 1 male, a little over 3 lbs.

I live next to Top Food and Drugs, so I can feed any meat they have. I was also thinking about feeding mice, maybe some Rad Cat, and Nature's Variety frozen.

Anyways, can anyone help me with making a menu?

[sherrylynne]

To be honest, your best bet would be to go the route of a personal mentor, but barring that, anything that gives you 4 days bone in meats(chincken sized bones or smaller), 2 days muscle meats, one meal organ meats(half of which have to be liver- again chicken sized piece of liver, and the same size of other organ), the other meal whichever you like.
So-
Sun. bone in meats
Mon. muscle meats
Tues bone in meats
Wed. bone in meats
Thurs. muscle meats
Fri. bone in meats
Sat. organ meal am, whichever pm.

Bone in meats- rabbit, chicken, quail, turkey neck, duck, duck neck, cornish hen, etc
Muscle meats- pork, beef, chicken, turkey, duck, elk, bison, lamb, etc.
Organ- any liver(beef, chicken, turkey, lamb, etc), other organ- lung, spleen, pancreas, thymus, etc
Heart is muscle meats. Good rule of thumb- if it secretes, it's not meat.
Hope this helps! If it's confusing, please continue to ask questions! Or fill in the questionaire in the mentor section!

[b2dg3r]

Thanks, that actually helps a lot--wasn't sure what, other than liver was organ. Now that I think of it, how could I not know, having taken anatomy and physiology?! smacks self... But I had no idea I could get thymus at the store! or do I have to go to a specialty place? guess I'll just have to ask the top foods guy.

Okay, more questions.
If I feed a mouse--I was thinking I'd do a mouse once a week or so cause it's kind of expensive at petco and my freezer isn't big enough for 30 lbs of mice--does that count as organ meat, muscle meat, bone in meat, all in one? Would I still offer organs once a week or would 1 mouse each take care of`that need?

Also, on bone in meat days/muscle meat days, do I do bone in meat am and pm? or bone in meat am and muscle meat pm, or something like that?

If I can only offer various chicken as bone in meat, possibly turkey neck, is that okay? If not we have a russian meat shop that might have other meats that you've listed.

And where do gizzards fall in the mix? Snack?
Portion sizes? the size of my thumb I think I heard somewhere, does that sound right?

Thanks for the help!

[ccretarolo]

Even if you live in an apartment, you may want to invest in a stand-alone freezer for ferret meat. Most grocery stores can order just about anything for you but you have to be prepared to take a 10 lb box of something. My dad finally put an extra freezer in his garage so I've been able to order some chicken necks and keep them at his place.

I also serve whole prey 2-3 times a week. Although I only have a small freezer, I can fit close to 200 prey animals in the bottom half (it's been reserved for the pets :. It also helps with the organ ratios. Since I can't really find anything except for liver for organs, I give prey as often as possible so I don't have to worry too much about the balance. Also, if you split open a whole chicken. you'll see dark red stuff sticking to the bird's back... That's kidney and it's perfectly usable. You'll also find it on the thigh portion of chicken quarters. I personally save as much kidney as possible for organ day or for an emergency.

As for smooth organs such as gizzards and hearts: You can feed them as regular muscle meats. They function as muscle in the body so can be fed as such. Gizzard is also great for cleaning teeth while you're on the way to transitioning to bone. Since both have high amounts of taurine, they're staples in my house. Heart meat, especially chicken and beef, are also favorites for my cats and ferrets. Chicken hearts are also a handy treat or snack in case you have ferrets like mine who'll forget about everything cage related while they're out and about. It's also a great way to keep a nippy kit from munching on your fingers and toes .

Sorry about the novel. I at least hope that something in here helps.

[bluedove]

I think that since the goal of raw feeding is to mimic the amounts of meat, bone, organ and fiber that your pet would get from eating whole prey, that you wouldn't count actual whole prey when figuring the ratio.

The actual numbers look something like this:
Prey animals are made up of bones, organs, muscle meat, skin, hide/hair/feathers, fat and other connective tissue. In the average prey animal, the ratio of these parts is approximately:

5-10% organs (1/2 of this amount is liver)
10-15% edible bones
80-85% muscle meat, fat, connective tissue, etc.

So since a mouse would already be in this ratio, you wouldn't count it as a bone in or organ day... it's already balanced, and counting it would skew the balance for the rest of your week of raw feeding.

[sherrylynne]

The only time it won't actually skew anything, is if it's substituted for one of the other meals. Whole prey IS the ideal. So, if they get 2-3 mousies for a meal, it can be substituted for any of the above. I use it after liver/organ meals, just to help out the poopies from that. They get liver/organ(doesn't have to be both all the time- you can switch it up), then when that's gone, they get their whole prey.

[b2dg3r]

Would something like this be appropiate?

sunday
am heart & liver
pm mice

monday
am chicken wing
pm hoppers

tuesday
am chicken drumlett
pm mice

wednesday
am chicken breast
pm pinkies

thursday
am chicken wing
pm mice

friday
am beef chunk
pm hoppers

satuday
am drumlett & gibblets
pm pinkies

Or if I forgo the mice, or decide to do less mice, does the pm meal become the same as am? or do I offer a different bone in meal/ muscle meat for the pm?

[suds]

Hi Badger
If you want to feed whole prey and raw combo its much easer and better to feed whole prey day and then raw days separate . for example

mon whole prey morn and even
tues morn muscle meat even boney meat
wens whole prey
thurs morn offal & muscle meat , evening boney meat
friday whole prey
sat morn boney meat even muscle meat
Sun can be left over day feed what ever you have left over or you can use it as a light fast day
this is just how I feed my kids you can also feed 3 days of raw then 3 days of whole. its much easer to keep track of there diet if fed this way then if fed raw morn and whole at night.

hoppers and adult mice are good for meals but pinkies are good for snacks or treats they are to small to be used for meals in most cases but make yummy treats.
if you gonna use whole prey as a staple its better to use at least 3 kinds of prey , chicks, mice, rats, rabbits ,game hens, gerbils and so on for a better balance nutricien and variety . would you like to eat the same meat every day ?