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Post by goingpostal on Jan 9, 2011 22:39:52 GMT -5
My ferrets currently all eat mice great although they love the pinkies best of course. They are still kibble babies but I really want to start seriously switching to raw. Where I live food options suck so I'd like to order some rats, quail, rabbits, etc to feed along with chicken/beef/pork I can get locally.
My concern is that they won't take to them. The rats no problem, they've eaten gerbil in the past and didn't care, and two of mine will chew at game hens and chicken. I have one fuzz who will eat anything so far, and another who's pretty raw minded, but the other two are not. I was going to order some baby chicks, since I hear those are candy, but what else tends to be a hit? I'm going to order a variety, I'm feeding a cat as well and she thankfully doesn't seem to be picky about meat at all!
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 9, 2011 23:04:18 GMT -5
Mine seem to love rabbit. And yes, chicks are a MAJOR hit, but they don't have a lot of nutrition. But for a meal every once a week or two, it's fine.
With your two who aren't quite so raw minded, they may need a more traditional switching method.
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Post by goingpostal on Jan 10, 2011 14:19:06 GMT -5
Yeah I think I am going to have to crack down and start mixing meat into their soupies and hope my kibble addicts get the idea. I was planning on chicks maybe 2x a month, more of a treat meal like pinkies. How long is whole prey generally stay good frozen? I was going to go for Rodent Pro for quail, rabbit and chicks but want to stock up. I may have a closer reptile supplier for rats, they sell feeder pigs and piglets too but wasn't sure if that was ok for ferrets?
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Post by bluemoose on Jan 10, 2011 14:28:17 GMT -5
Most things in the freezer stay good for a long time. I think the general consensus is that nutrients slowly degrade the longer something is left in the freezer but this is a slow enough process that it would take years before the meat wasn't worth using anymore.
As for pork- I don't see why not. I know many people have an aversion to feeding raw pork because of trichinosis but personally I don't think this is an issue with raw fed carnivores. My cats, dogs, and ferrets have all had raw pork. You can always freeze it for a while first to be extra safe.
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 10, 2011 22:24:17 GMT -5
Yes, pork is fine for ferrets  If you get it directly from the farmer, especially small scale farmers, you might want to put it into the deep freeze for a couple of weeks, but tricc usually isn't a problem here in North America any more. |
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Post by maddiesmom on Jan 16, 2011 12:14:29 GMT -5
This is what I'm concerned with as well. I'm fine with feeding little feeders like worms, mice, rats (this was very hard for me at first), and chicks... but I'm so squeamish about feeding larger things like guinea pigs, rabbits... mostly becaue I really don't want to pick up "leftovers" but also because they're just... bigger... hairier... and they do make good pets... My only comfort is that they are killed humanely.  So, I have a small rabbit that I just got from Rodent Pro today. They've had rabbit pinkies before... I'm so nervous about feeding it though. My two are big raw eaters... the LOVE mice, rats, and chicks. Do you think they'll recognize it as food and eat it okay? I really don't want to have to mess with it or cut it or anything... Labor of love  If I didn't see a big (POSITIVE) difference with their health on this diet sometimes I'd second guess it because of my squeamishness lol  |
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Post by Jackie on Jan 16, 2011 12:23:29 GMT -5
It's ALL for the fuzzies  |
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Post by bluemoose on Jan 16, 2011 14:45:41 GMT -5
I usually cut rabbits in half for my guys. Partly because the rabbits I get are pretty big but also because they don't seem to like chewing through that much fur. Everything else they're fine with eating completely whole but rabbits have a lot of fur. They usually leave behind a fair amount of skin and fur when they get rabbit.
You can certainly try feeding it without chopping it up. If your rabbit is small it might not be an issue. The worst you can do is try and if they don't eat it, cut it in half.
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Post by Heather on Jan 16, 2011 20:29:30 GMT -5
The bunny that my guys got was large enough to cut into quarters. I, too chop through the rabbits dense fur to give my guys a bit of a break.
ciao
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