Prepped Meals Questions

[fuzzymom]

I am wanting to organize my ferret's meals so that its easy to just prep, store, thaw, serve. I want to start prepping enough meals to last a month for five ferrets. I hope to get a meat grinder and naturally, I have a few questions.

1) How many ounces should each ferret be eating, per meal?

2) Should I feed them once or twice a day?

3) If once a day, how many meals per week should include a calcium source like bones? If twice, how many meals per week?

4) Would it be possible to use calcium powder?

5) How many meals should include organs?

6) Skin/fur/feathers?

7) Is wild game safe to feed them? I was thinking of getting into fishing and hunting to supply my ferrets, cats, and dog with raw meat.

[Lynxie]

I personally feed Zoe twice a day. Once in the morning and once at night. Any food that she may not eat gets left in her bowl until the next feeding time.

If I recall, I read on here somewhere that a good balance is three days bone, four days boneless, with one of the boneless days being an organ day.

Skin/fur/feathers are fine if you're feeding whole prey.

I'm pretty sure wild game is ok. You might just have to freeze it for a while to be sure, especially if you're dealing with wild boar.

[fuzzymom]

My kids get whole prey on occasion, when ever I have extra after snake feeding day. Tonight they got a dinner of mice. They love mice! I really wish I could breed for feeders because I'd love for them to be on a whole prey diet.

[Kerit]

I also feed morning/night.

Amount seems to vary quite a bit from ferret to ferret, season to season. I separate everything into "snack" sized ziplock baggies, fill a gallon freezer bag with little baggies, then freeze. That way I can just pull out a baggie at a time, float it in warm water to thaw, and serve to two ferrets. I'm honestly not sure how many ounces I give at once... I go by my baggie measurements.

Now, frozen mice... that's the easiest portion of all!

[sherrylynne]

Some people seem to prefer to feed whole ground, which is fine, but try to also give whole meaty bones for good dental health 2 or 3 times a week, as well

1) How many ounces should each ferret be eating, per meal?

Depends on age, activity level, health, gender, size. My females will eat from 2oz per day to 4oz per day. My males from 3oz to about 4-5 oz. per day

2) Should I feed them once or twice a day?

I feed twice.

3) If once a day, how many meals per week should include a calcium source like bones? If twice, how many meals per week?

Bone 3-4 days per week, depending on tolerance levels. I could feed one of mine bone daily with no problems. So, 6-8 meals if twice a day.

4) Would it be possible to use calcium powder?

If it's human grade, yes. But they will be missing the trace nutrients derived from bone.

5) How many meals should include organs?

One chicken liver per week per ferret, or same size of other liver. Same amount of other organ as well. ie: kidney, spleen, lung, etc. Heart is a muscle meat, not organ.

6) Skin/fur/feathers?

Definitely. Consider it a natural form of Roto-Router . It works well to clean them out.

7) Is wild game safe to feed them? I was thinking of getting into fishing and hunting to supply my ferrets, cats, and dog with raw meat.

Fish no more than weekly at the most. And the smaller, fresh water fish are better, due to build up of toxins in the larger varieties. Whatever you catch yourself, fish or meat, should be frozen in a deep freeze for a minimum of two weeks, preferably 3-4, to make sure any potential parasites are killed. This one goes for all the animals you have.

[fuzzymom]

Thanks for all the replies. Now I do have a question about amount per meal. I was feeding each ferret 2-3 ounces per day and Lily, our smallest ferret seemed so skinny. I will admit that I've added small amounts of kibble to their diet just to put some weight on her. I really want to get them off the kibble so I want to perfect how I prepare and measure out their diet. I hate them being on kibble, but Lily has gained a few ounces since the introduction of kibble, so it was definitely a "not getting enough" thing. Should I just increase the amount she gets? She usually got about 2oz per day.

I was hoping to get a tupperware set that I could use to store their meals. I go through too many ziploc bags and I hate being wasteful. Each container will hold a single meal enough to feed all 5 ferrets. If they are getting 3oz per day then each meal should be about 1/2lb.

[ccretarolo]

Try adding another half ounce each day for her. If that's not enough, add another quarter ounce and so on until she's gaining enough weight.

You could also try adding some beef suet (fat) to a couple of meals a week to see if that helps.

[sherrylynne]

Reason she lost on the raw, and gained when given the kibble is just all the carbs. You could also add fat. It will help do the same thing. One of mine is whip cord thin, but well muscled: