New to raw and have many questions

[jay00cole]

I have read about raw and really would like to do it, but I'm strapped on the the whole raw part. I would much rather have the food cooked than raw due to me being with mine pretty much all of the day even when she is sleeping. She does not have a cage and runs through the house. She has a sleeping carrier that her hammock is in but goes in and out as she wants.

I was told on another forum that cooking would cause some vitamins and other things to be taken out of the meat by cooking it. I was wandering if ferret tone and vitamin gravy could over ride the loss of these things that are lost through cooking.

I also have read up on how bones will split when cooked. I looked at this as just maybe blending the meals that are from birds. Also blending the meals could help in transitioning from kibble to natural with slowly adding the natural to the kibble.

My ferret I have now is a kit and now would be a good time to switch her.

So my basic question is I plan to not do whole prey but measure the organs/bones/meat out. Could I cook the meals and provide the food that way? Would a natural cooked diet be any better than kibble?

The only reason I ask is through me thinking that the kibble has to be cooked. That the only reason a natural diet is better than kibble is due to the content and not to it either being cooked or not?Thanks for the upcoming help from yall. Thanks.

[sherrylynne]

You can cook it, but you'd have to heavily supplement- taurine, calcium, trace minerals, etc. Here's a link for you to read about raw. It mainly talks about dogs, but ferrets are even more of a carnivore than a dog is: www.rawfed.com/myths/
Ferrets are what's called an "obligate" carnivore. Which means they only get complete nutrition from meat, and meat products. Since cooking does indeed alter the vitamin/mineral content of meat, AND causes bones to easily splinter(not just fowl- ALL bone), you, as I said, need to supplement.
Kibble is so full of grains/vegetables/fruits, and has all the good stuff so cooked out of it. Have you checked the ingredient list on a bag of kibble? All the long chemical names there? Those are the supplements they have to put back INTO the kibble. And those supplements have to go in AFTER the cooking, because none of them will survive the temperatures needed to make it.
Here's another link on the kibble front: www.bornfreeusa.org/downloads/pdf/PetFoodReport_05-07.pdf
Hope to see you around!

[jay00cole]

Does anyone on here feed raw to a ferret that has free roam of the house?

[luci]

Yes. My ferret has free roam of two levels of our house 24/7. I can't remember the last time I locked her in her cage.

I have a sterilite tub with a hole cut in it and a gutter drainage tube fitted that is her feeding den. It's under a desk and covered with black cloth. At first she wanted to bring her food to where she felt it was safer, but if she came out of the den with food in her mouth I just tossed her back in until she took the hint. I also have two cats and Fierra quickly learned that food stashed anywhere other than the cat proof den became an offering to the meow devils.

[jay00cole]

Thanks Luci. I'm leaning more and more towards raw now.

[Heather]

My guys free roam almost 100% of the time. I've got 2 businesses, my older guys who are in "B's Troop" and the Furry Fang Gang is the second group. Both get half the day to roam around and play in the house and outside.

The other half of the day is spent in their room.

Food is available to both groups 24/7. I feed my own ground mix, commercial ground and frankenprey and whole prey. rats (frozen) and mice (wiggling and frozen). For the ground my guys eat out of bowls along with the cats, as you can see with Fun-Go B. Squiggly sharing a bowl of food with Samurai my 21 yr old siamese.

Napoleon, in his younger days, getting right into his dinner (actually the dog's dinner)

and Lady"B" Itchy enjoying some quail quarters after chasing off all the boys.

I rarely feed cooked (it's way too difficult to balance with all the additives and supplements) even my sickest furbabies (I do rescue and hospice) usually enjoy their raw diet right up to the end. Sometimes they become too sick to absorb the nutrients then a homemade baby food and carnivore care is my method of feeding. Aremis, is the only furbaby that I've had that couldn't absorb the raw food near the end and even then he would still eat whole prey. Aremis was diagnosed with lymphomas, he survived a little over a year surprising my vet with the length of time that he continued to live and thrive after diagnosis. He only stopped playing about 3 days before he went to the bridge (without assistance). My vet and I are convinced that some of the little ones who she has treated have continued to have remarkable quality of life because of their natural diet.
ciao

[Darlene]

I like your outdoor pen,do you have any problems with the ferts
trying to dig out? I notice the concrete slabs don't cover entire pen.

[Heather]

There's chicken wire that is layed under the whole of the play pen. The earth and wood chips cover the area and then the sandbox was filled with earth to allow them to really dig. The area is too rocky to allow me to dig out the play area to bury the whole fence, I could only sink the posts. I'm hoping to expand their play area where they will be allowed a little more freedom. What will happen is that there will be a tunnel that will lead to the new play pen allowing them a second place to play and hang out. Hopefully, this will also allow them access to their play areas all year round.
ciao