Hare Today

[lnsybean44]

Someone else brought up hare today in another thread and I was wondering if there was anyone here that uses them. If so, do you like what you are getting? Do you feel that the ground/meat/ bones/organs is complete, particularly the ground carcass ones with fur included?

My plan was to feed ground carcass foods (Everything but chicken) in the morning and then balance the evening meals with five days of cornish hen or broiler chicken parts, one night of necks/feet and organs and one night of whole prey. What do you all think?

[ferretdroogies]

That's the very reason I'm going to be switching them with the whole ground from Hare Today! It's complete since they grind the WHOLE animal (except for beef, lamb, and goat). It would be almost like whole prey, without the teeth cleaning benefit (only downside IMO). You don't have to worry about your ferrets not eating enough of something (i.e. bone, organs, etc). The other downside to ground is that any sort of processing degrades nutrients (at least not as much as cooking!). This is why just in case, I will be adding a supplement (most likely Wysong Call of the Wild) just in case! Hopefully once they are eating it consistently, we can start adding RMB's (for teeth cleaning), but still feed ground since it is basically complete.

Hope this helps!

Almost forgot to say......there are quite a few that use Hare Today on the forum I think......

[lnsybean44]

Any ideas on how to cut the log down to manageable pieces... besides using a hatchet?

[ferretdroogies]

Not sure what you mean......

[lnsybean44]

I could be wrong but it seems like they come in a frozen log of what ever size you order. Im just wondering how you would portion out meals.

[ferretdroogies]

Oh! lol

For a second, I thought you were talking about my big block of text Not sure why I thought that

I would think they have to be thawed just enough to portion out (best way to do this IMO would be into 2-4 oz which would be 4-8 pieces of a 1lb chub). Lets see if anyone else comments on that.....I'm as lost as you are right now until I get my order I'm just making guesses

One question......I thought I read somewhere that you were a vet tech? I'm a vet assistant who works for an allopathic/western medicine veterinarian. She doesn't agree with raw or whole prey (not even commercial), but I still tell all the ferret people that come in about it anyways She can't deny that my ferrets are healthier than the ones that come in all the time

[lnsybean44]

Not a tech, I do work in a clinic though, I will be applying to vet school this fall. Our vets will direct people towards places where they can look into raw feeding but they dont know much about it themselves. They dont recommend it as an entire diet unless you really know what you are doing. If I am in I will give them a brief run down on what I do for the ferrets and recommend they find a forum. One lady that came in was only feeding her 5 ish y old cat RMB, since he was a kitten, and couldnt understand why organs were so important if the cat didnt want to eat them. So the Dr. tried to explain about taurine and all of that and I attemped to explain to her proportions of what she should be doing versus what she is and STONGLY suggested she find a cat raw feeding forum before her cat gets seriously sick.

[ferretdroogies]

I totally agree.

When I recommend it, I give a brief explanation, but recommend this forum for ferrets, other sites for cats and dogs. I tell them if you want to take the guess work out, best bet is commercial raw. It's cool that your vet at least recommends it.

[lnsybean44]

Only if people ask. They really arent supposed to but they would rather direct people towards safer commercial raw than have someone go out and get it wrong by trying on their own and messing up somehow, like forgetting organs.

[sherrylynne]

If either of you need to recommend a raw site for cats, here's a really good one: www.rawfedcats.org/practicalguide.htm

[ferretdroogies]

Yep! That's one of the sites

I also recommend FNES and catnutrition.org that are both off of Hare Today's site.

Thanks Sherrylynne

[lnsybean44]

yes thankyou, I will write both of those down. I am not as familiar with cat and dog forums.

[Heather]

I'm a moddy on [e-mail] They cover natural feeding of any furchild or feathered for that matter. We have a number of knowledgeable people on board who have birds (parrots and such). It's mostly to teach their own balanced diet (recipe available to members, vet approved) but they will support any other diet too within reason, if they feel it will be healthy. They cover a lot of more holistic methods of caring for your furchild.
ciao

[lnsybean44]

I emailed hare today and the response I got was that it was okay to thaw the logs a bit to portion them out and refreeze them without and harm done. She also said she could pass along nutritional info if I had a particular diet in mind.

[mustelidmusk]

That's what I do when I get the logs of frozen stuff....But here's a really impotant thing to remember.....partially thaw them in the refrgerator. This way the chubs thaw more evenly - - - that is, the outside will still be somewhat frozen, but you can still cut through the middle with a knife

Also, use a crappy knife to slice the chubs - a good knife won't be good for very long if you keep using it to cut half-frozen meat.

-jennifer