Post by squishystoat on Oct 11, 2009 7:57:15 GMT -5
I'm hoping I didn't miss it in the forums, but I just recently adopted a shelter girl, and since she's been quite eager to try bits of unseasoned meat, I've got her now eating raw bunny. Mostly just feed her when catch her starting to nibble on the kibble, and after the first few days, she now practically demands her bunny and won't eat the kibble unless she has to.
I saw someone's response that for ferrets under a year or under 7 months old, they should be fed as much as they will eat. She just hit the 8 month mark ( a big reason I think she was so easy to switch over to raw) and I'm wondering exactly how much to really feed her. I've got 5lbs of bunny, and 1lb of mouse that managed to split up into about 20 meatballs per 6 bags, so not 100% sure how much ounce wise they are. (Also, does anyone have any suggestions on freezing the meat and how often can freeze or refreeze, especially so as to avoid freezer burn?)
My only other issue is she also does the weasel thing of trying to stash her last bites of food, mainly in her litter box if she is in the cage. With this, I can't really trust her at the moment to eat unattended, else she ruin the food she's trying to save, or it gets stuck beneath my bed where I can reach it, or hopefully not somewhere else I can't..
So simply, how much should I feed her each day, or each feeding? I figure on when I wake up and get home from work (about 5 hours apart) and so on during the day till have to go to sleep, which would be about 6 + hours till breakfast.
I've only got her on bunny right now, but do have some mouse(which contains the entire mouse rather than omitting intestines and fur) that will try and get her interested in so can by some whole mice for her to try. My biggest concern is just getting her a feeding schedule and how much at each feeding before I do start getting into the special diets of different meats and types of food each day.
I saw someone's response that for ferrets under a year or under 7 months old, they should be fed as much as they will eat. She just hit the 8 month mark ( a big reason I think she was so easy to switch over to raw) and I'm wondering exactly how much to really feed her. I've got 5lbs of bunny, and 1lb of mouse that managed to split up into about 20 meatballs per 6 bags, so not 100% sure how much ounce wise they are. (Also, does anyone have any suggestions on freezing the meat and how often can freeze or refreeze, especially so as to avoid freezer burn?)
My only other issue is she also does the weasel thing of trying to stash her last bites of food, mainly in her litter box if she is in the cage. With this, I can't really trust her at the moment to eat unattended, else she ruin the food she's trying to save, or it gets stuck beneath my bed where I can reach it, or hopefully not somewhere else I can't..
So simply, how much should I feed her each day, or each feeding? I figure on when I wake up and get home from work (about 5 hours apart) and so on during the day till have to go to sleep, which would be about 6 + hours till breakfast.
I've only got her on bunny right now, but do have some mouse(which contains the entire mouse rather than omitting intestines and fur) that will try and get her interested in so can by some whole mice for her to try. My biggest concern is just getting her a feeding schedule and how much at each feeding before I do start getting into the special diets of different meats and types of food each day.
. My girls eat anywhere between 1 oz a day, to 3-4 oz per day. It's doubtful she'll overeat, so I wouldn't worry about it. And mine sometimes stash in the litterbox, too. I try not to worry too much about it 
. It's instinctive to try to hide it where no one else will find it. Try offering her a feeding den. A cardboard soda box works well for this. Just toss it when it gets to mucky.
) take the 1lb of ground whatever, defrost in fridge, put it all on a plate, then cut it into 8 pieces, and place the separate pieces into individual ziplock baggies and refreeze! 1lb = 16 oz, so if I cut it into 8, you have 2 oz pieces! For 5lbs, I cut it into 5 columns (each column = 1lb), then cut that into 4-8 rows (4 if you want 4 oz pieces, 8 if you want 2 oz pieces).