can you do 1/2 and 1/2?

[pastelsummer]

As in half raw diet half kibble diet? I aqm planning to switch henry to a totally ferret/evo mix. but i feed him a soup mix too 2.5oz of baby meat with half cup current kibble ferrevite and enough water to make it soupy. he gets the soupy stuff 3 times a day about a tablespoon full at at time. plus however much kibble he wants to eat. would it be ok to keep this up? after switching him from the cat food to the tf/evo mix? (he came with the cat food i am going to be switching to tf first then adding the evo when i have him transitioned)

[Heather]

You can feed raw and kibble but it's usually advised to not do so at the same time. Raw and kibble digest at different rates and "can" cause stomach upsets and loose stools. Some people feed raw in the am (or vice versa) and then feed kibbles at night (or am).
ciao

[odin]

Watch out with that ferrevite stuff. I use it as a treat sometimes too, but it is LOADED with Carbs, which is exactly what we are trying to completely avoid with a raw diet. You should check out the articles that have been put up about ferret nutrition. Although no conclusive studies have been done, just about everyone on this forum will tell you that kibble diets and high carb treats are likely the main cause of the insulinoma epidemic in American raised ferrets.

When I first started the switch a few months ago I was really surprised with how much stuff is pushed by vets and pet food manufacturers as being healthy, and turn out to be horrible.

[pastelsummer]

ok i will watch how much ferrevite i use. I would really like to do a half and half diet raw feeding sounds good but i am not sure i could do it just that nothing else but i CAN do half and half i thinkwould make it easier on me And dh if i am out of town and he has to care for henry.

[Heather]

Feeding raw is very simple even for people who've never done it. I had a friend look after my furbabies for a weekend (at that time she had never fed anything raw ) I made up little pkgs with names and dates on each pkg. So, it would have been Nicodemus-- Saturday, Porthos--Sat....Nicodemus--Sunday, Porthos---Sunday. Each ferret had their own little pkg. As did the cats and the dogs. It was so simple my friend is now feeding her dog a totally raw diet Oh, she'd never cared for ferrets before either .
ciao

[pastelsummer]

hmmm i could do that i think
But could i do just chicken innards? or do i HAVE to do like the stuff with bones in it? and can they have fish??

[sherrylynne]

Bones are a very essential part of the diet. They get all their calcium from them, as well as a number of trace minerals necessary to long term health. That's why the ratio is so strict, at least at the beginning of a switch. Just muscle meats would most definitely lead to health problems, neurological problems, etc.
Think about what would happen to a human who got no calcium.
And yes, fish is certainly acceptable within reason. No more than once a week, and try to stick to smaller fresh water fish when possible. Mine love salmon, but only get it occasionally. The larger the fish, the higher the level of toxins in the body. Smelts are a good example.
As for raw and kibble, it can certainly be done, but try to alternate days. Otherwise, you can really wind up with tummy upsets. As Heather has said, some do fine with it. Others, though, will have diarrhea, and just generally feel lousy, which means they won't want to eat anything.

[pastelsummer]

would gold fish work? lol and the meat has to have bones. Ok how do i start them on it? if there is a thread on this please link me to it?

[Heather]

There was a discussion somewhere on here about using goldfish. It was decided that because of the way gold fish are bred and raised that there were too many chemicals involved. Goldfish are poor fish choice. My guys were eating salmon last night (stole it out of the dog's bowl ) probably not the best choice but they liked it
Go take a prowl through the mentoring threads and see how some of these people started their furbabies on to eating raw holisticferret.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=newbie. You can also apply for a mentor there as well. We are a little full at the moment but that doesn't mean you can't sign up for one. I know there are a few that are almost ready to graduate, so it's definitely a good program to get involved in if you're interested in getting one on one assistance in switching your furbabies
ciao