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Post by carriee on Feb 25, 2010 4:19:00 GMT -5
I was wondering can i give my furbabies a raw chicken wing does it have to be frozen or can it be thawed and unfrozen....I am thinking on giving the the chicken wings as a treat once in awhile.....I might be able to get Bandit to try it if i put ferretone on the wing when i do that he will try almost anything Mika(Meka) he is the more picky eater it dont matter what I do he wont touch anything new unless i scruff him and put some on his gums....
I am not comfortable feeding a raw diet.....
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Post by Lynxie on Feb 25, 2010 12:16:00 GMT -5
Wait. You're not comfortable feeding a raw diet, but you want to give chicken wings as snacks/treats? If you can get that down, it's not much harder/different feeding a fully raw diet. Why aren't you comfortable with it, if you don't mind me asking?
To answer your question, you're gonna want to thaw them. Your ferrets might be a little intimidated by a full wing though, so you might want to split the bones if you can (cut the forearm part in two pieces, and split the drumette in half).
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Post by Heather on Feb 25, 2010 23:49:04 GMT -5
I agree, thaw it...it's rather yucky frozen. Try smashing it with a hammer. Play tug with him. He probably doesn't recognise it as food. That's one of the problems with ferrets, if they haven't seen it before they're 6 months old then it becomes a whole different ballgame at getting them to try it. You're now going to have to resort to switches and bribes. I too am curious as to why you're not comfortable feeding raw but are willing to feed wings. You're already there (you certainly don't have to feed prey) if you're feeding him whole meats  . ciao |
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Post by carriee on Feb 26, 2010 7:43:07 GMT -5
The reason why I am not comfortable feeding a total raw diet is because I am afraid that it will make them sick and plus i am not a real good at cooking  .....and I am not totally sure what all kinds of meat they can eat I don't want to get the wrong meat and I don't want them to get sick.....I couldn't do the prey dead or alive if I had to cut open a dead chick,mouse I think I would get sick and with the live prey I wouldn't be able to handle it.... Bandit I can get him to try almost everything if there is ferretone on something new he is not too much of a picky eater...Mika(Meka) he is a picky eater I have to scruff him to try anything new but after I do that a couple of times if he likes it he will eat it...Mika is a couple months older than Bandit Mika is 10 months and Bandit is 7 months.... |
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Post by sherrylynne on Feb 26, 2010 17:55:40 GMT -5
As for meat- anything you can name as meat, they can have  The only ones that aren't good for them are the salted/spiced/cured products like hams. As for bacteria- they are built to handle it, no problems. Mine have food sitting in their cage all day long, without any illness of any kind. Things like salmonella take about 8 hours to brew in the gut. From the time it goes into a ferret's mouth, til the time it comes out the other end is only 3-4 hours. So they quite literally poop it out before it can even get to the point of making them ill  |
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Post by Heather on Feb 26, 2010 23:40:30 GMT -5
I'm just going to second sherrylynne. You don't have to cook for them and any protein is good for them (except for those hotdogs and hams...) As far as bacteria, they can deal with it. Ferrets have one of the shortest digestive systems and because of how they were designed to deal with food, fresh kill, stashed, or someone elses leftovers they can usually handle the bacteria load. My guys will not eat food that is too bad for their systems to handle (and they've eaten some really gross meats....ferrets love to eat their own version of jerky) I've been feeding raw for over 10 yrs (closer to 12 now I think). Even my hospice fuzzies eat their food raw, in fact often are healthier and live longer because of it . ciao |
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Post by carriee on Feb 27, 2010 0:11:42 GMT -5
I might give it a try and see how it goes but not sure yet.....I think im gonna try some pork chops with them first and see how it goes....I am afraid to give them the raw chicken wing because of the bone I am scared it might get it stuck and might hurt their insides.... Thanks for all your help |
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Post by sherrylynne on Feb 27, 2010 16:05:54 GMT -5
Please don't think we're trying to bully you into feeding raw, but we are pretty passionate about it, and will do our best to dispel those old myths that are still going around. With bone, it's only the cooked bones that splinters. In a raw fed ferret, they need bone in their diets to be healthy. Without it, they are missing not only calcium, but all the trace minerals needed to survive. It's also what prevents very watery stools from occurring that they'd get with just meat alone. Actually, here's a site you may find interesting: www.rawfed.com/myths/ It mainly deals with dogs, but is equally applicable to any carnivore. |
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Post by carriee on Feb 28, 2010 0:21:11 GMT -5
I know you guys aren't trying to bully me into raw feeding.....I like to get other people's opinion so I can get some intake on the raw feeding....I am leaning more to the raw feeding.....
Right now if I did do raw feeding it would be freeze dried because my boyfriend isn't too keen on the raw feeding....I went to CHP website and found some good stuff so for right now I think I will supplement the freeze dried and see how it goes from there....For right now I am going to buy the 10 sample pack form CHP and mix it in there Uncle Jim's soup to get them used to the new taste.....
Thank You for the link I will check it out
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Post by sherrylynne on Feb 28, 2010 0:54:52 GMT -5
Not a problem! And I think you'll find the info there interesting.
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