Dont worry its okay! Raw diets may seem overwhelming, but in actuality they are not. Here's what you need to know.
How to get started:
You will have a YOUNG kit so just start him/her on raw foods right away
Take a piece of boneless, skinless chicken breast and give it to him/her. He/she might sniff it at first and ignore it, but keep offering it throughout the day. Its likely that he/she will eventually grab it and start munching away.
Next you will offer your baby a chicken wingette (a section of a chicken wing). He/she will learn how to chew the meat off the bone, and then chew up the bone itself. Once your baby is eating meat and bone, you can give him/her bigger items, like chicken wings, legs, thighs, necks, turkey necks, and pork necks.
Now its time to add organ meat. Liver is a good meat to add, you should feed it 1 time per week. Kidneys are good too (if you can find them) along with pancreas, spleen, lung (again if you can find them). At the very least, feed liver. You can also include heart and gizzards (while these two foods arent technically organs, you can feed them becacuase heart is a good source of taurine. a nutrient that ferrets need for eye, heart, and digestive health.
Once your baby is williningly eating meat/bone/organ (all raw
) then its time to add new foods! You can offer BONELESS (I say boneless because any bones larger then chicken bones are inedible to a ferret----too big
) beef, pork, chicken, turkey, and lamb (you can feed other unprocessed meats too, if you can find them.
To feed a balanced raw diet you will need to follow the following guidelines (thats it! Pretty simple huh?)The Whole Prey Model:
The whole prey model encompasses much more than just throwing raw meat to your ferret(s). It involves feeding them the following approximate percentages:75-80% - Flesh (including fat, skin, muscle, and tendon)
10-15% - Edible bone (raw chicken, rabbit, mouse, duck, quail)
10% - Organ meat (gizzards, livers, hearts, etc).
(cite source)
Another Way to Interpret the Above Percentages is:
60%- Raw Meaty Bones (Bone in meat, such as chicken wings)
30%-Muscle Meat (Boneless meat chunks, such as beef chunks)
10%-Organ Meat (gizzards, livers, hearts, etc)
These percentages represent what is known as the “whole prey model.” If your ferret were eating a whole animal, the prey’s body would be comprised of approximately those percentages (cite source).
Putting the Percentages into Practice:You have the option of feeding these percentages over one week or one day. Many people choose to feed their ferrets these percentages over the course of a week. Whether or not you choose to feed this way weekly or daily, is up to you. Both methods are acceptable. The key is balance over time.
Weekly feeding guidelines: A Raw Meaty Bones 4 days a week, Muscle Meat 2 days a week, Organ Meat 1 day a week
Daily feeding guidelines: First, you need to get an estimate of how many ounces of food your ferret consumes on a daily basis. It might take you a little bit of time to figure this out. Once you know how many ounces of food your ferret consumes daily. If your ferret eats 3 oz of food a day, the breakdown of daily food rations would be:
*1.8 oz Raw Meaty Bone (a chicken wingette will work), 0.9 oz of muscle meat, 0.3 oz of organ meat.
Providing your ferret with a balanced diet is essential, and by replicating these percentages (either over the course of a week or a day) you can ensure that your ferret does not suffer any deficiencies caused by an imbalance of nutrients. (cite source) But your ferret needs a diet that is not just balanced, but “complete” as well. In order to make your ferret’s diet complete you need to do more then just follow the prey model. To learn how to make your ferret’s diet complete, keep reading.
IMPORTANT NOTE
It is important to note that your ferret CANNOT under any circumstances survive and thrive on a diet that does not contain all of the following: flesh, bone, and organ meat. Feeding an all meat diet, a diet of mainly organ meat, or a diet too high in bone with relatively little meat can be disastrous and deadly (see the chart below). While you do not have to follow the above percentages exactly, be sure to feed as close to them as possible.
Variety is key
The most important thing to remember when feeding a raw diet based on the prey model is
variety. Variety is important because it helps your ferret to have a complete diet. Variety not only means types of meats and proteins, but also ages, parts, and providers of the food.
Meats/Proteins: Be sure to offer more than one protein source. Holistic Ferret recommends feeding at least three different protein sources each week. Ideally, you would offer a different meat each day of the week, but some people may not have the funds or desire to do this. Pork, chicken, beef, turkey, and lamb are all acceptable and can usually be found locally with very little effort. More exotic meats, such as elk, goat, and ostrich can be fed as well.
Different meats vary in nutrient composition, fat, protein, etc (cite source). By providing a variety of meats you can ensure that your ferret is not getting too much or too little of certain nutrients. For example, chicken isn’t very high in fat (which ferrets need a decent amount of) but it has a fair amount of taurine (a nutrient ferrets need for eye health) (cite source). Lamb is very fatty, but it isn’t that high in taurine (cite source). Beef is high in iron and depending on the cut you get can be higher or lower in fat (cite source). If you rotate lamb, beef, and chicken you can ensure that your ferret is getting a decent amount of fat and taurine.
*NOTE: Please note that many raw feeders rely on chicken as their primary source of edible bone. However, if your ferret is unable to eat chicken, you will need to find another source of edible bones for your ferret. Duck bones, rabbit bones, or parts of a turkey wing (ones that are smaller and less dense) can all be used in place of chicken bones to supply your ferret with the adequate amount of bone. Please avoid larger, denser bones such as beef bones, turkey LEG bones, pork bones, etc. These can damage ferret teeth and are very difficult/impossible for ferrets to consume.
Ages: Whenever possible try to feed different ages of meat. As an animal ages, its nutrient composition changes (cite source). Whole prey feeders vary the age of the prey they feed in
order to ensure maximum nutrient diversity. As a raw feeder, you should do the same. Here are the names of several common protein sources and the names of the younger version and older version of each:
Older: Younger:
Beef Veal
Mutton Lamb
Chicken Cornish Game Hen
Turkey Poult
Pork Piglet or suckling Pig
Body Parts: Different parts of an animal’s body vary in nutrient composition (cite source). For example, chicken wings are very boney, and have less taurine than a chicken thigh. Chicken
thighs are meatier and have more taurine, however they don’t have the same amount of cartilage
that is found in a chicken wing (and cartilage is important in the diet of a ferret). Mix it up. Feed different parts of the animal, or different cuts of meat. For example, on days when you feed chicken, offer thighs one day, wings another time, and legs another time. With boneless meats, such as pork, you can feed pork steak one time, and pork tenderloin another. See the chart below for detailed charts/lists of all the possible cuts of various meats.
Providers: Another way to provide variety in your ferret’s raw diet is to find out where the meats you are buying come from. If you buy from a grocery store,ask the manager of the meat department. Get the name of the provider for the various meats, and then look up information about these providers on the internet.
Different providers feed and raise their animals in different ways. This in turn will affect the nutritional composition of the meat you feed (cite source). Try alternating various suppliers to ensure maximum diversity in your ferret’s raw diet.
A Note on Pastured/Grass Fed/Cage Free Meats:
Try looking for providers that are “cage” free or pastured. Pastured animals are usually healthier and more nutritious than non-pastured animals. For example pastured beef (a.k.a. grass-fed beef) is higher in Omega-3 fatty acids than grain-fed beef. Pastured meats are also higher in antioxidants than grain-fed meats. (cite source)
In addtion, animals that are free to roam have a higher muscle to fat ratio than their caged counterparts (cite source). European polecats prey on wild animals, which are naturally more lithe and lean than commercially raised livestock. The goal of a natural ferret feeder is to replicate the diet of the European polecat as closely as possible (with a few modifications, see “Providing a Healthy Whole Prey Diet”), providing pastured meat can help you get closer to this goal.
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The "Holistic Ferret Website" will be out this August. This is all info that will be on the site (but several parts of this section have been ommitted, to keep from being plagerized)
If you have additional questions, you can make a list and we'll be happy to answer them for you.