Feeding whole prey - amounts

[fuzzywozzie]

I'm planning on getting ferrets in the future and i'm really want to feed them a whole prey diet. I've being doing lots of research and found lots of people saying how good it is and what meats can be used. I have found a uk supplier of frozen mice, rats, rabbits, chicks, quail, guinea fowl and pheasent. And i have read you can give them chicken - wings, ribs, meat (muscle), beef - chunks and minced, and liver, heart and eggs (the last three only once a week)
I know they will eat what they want and food should never be restricted but what i what to know is how much ish in weight -either grams or oz's - of this type of food to give to the average male or female ferret per day - for example will an adult male ferret eat 2-3 oz (i've read somewhere, Is that about right, should it be more or less) is that per one meal or should that be split up and fed over a day?

[jacksmomma]

There isn't a real answer to this... It took me weeks of monitoring what my two guys were eating to determine that they were eating roughly between 7-8 oz of pure meat a day. but every day is different. and each meat is eaten differently. I give them 4 oz (of ground meat) twice a day and some days they eat it all and some they barely eat any of it. The easiest thing to do is give them too much for a few weeks (yes, its wasteful) and see how much they're eating when they have way too much available. Then you can cut it back to that number once you've figured out their pattern.

[sherrylynne]

Here's a link on amounts:
holisticferret.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gen&action=display&thread=4764
I've found with mice my females will eat 1- 2, my males 2- 3. Again, depending on age, activity level, health, season, etc. Chicks, given their way, they'd eat til they tossed it again

[Jackie]

I agree with the above. So many factors like age, size, weight, activity level, make feeding vary everyday.

This post below (It's here on Holistic, but I can't find it) shows a nice breakdown of how much two 3.5 pound, 8 month old, active male ferrets eat (for whole prey, raw + whole pray, and just raw). Like the above stated, continue monitoring until you can figure out how much they eat a day.

P.S. Your ferret(s) will be pigs when you start raw and being that is it also winter, they will probably eat you out of house and home

forum.ferret.com/tm.aspx?m=76141

[Kerit]

Nov 22, 2010 12:04:40 GMT -5 sherrylynne said:

I've found with mice my females will eat 1- 2, my males 2- 3.

To illustrate differences even further, my approx 2 lb males each get one adult mouse for breakfast. If I give more it'll end up stashed, or at the most they'll eat the heads and stash the rest.