feeding meat

[darren m 1]

hi -- is it ok to feed raw mince meat every day to your ferret , or should it be a once a week only job.

 

thanks

ps. shes also getting dried ferret food adlib . is that too much ???.

[Guest JDF]

ferrets are designed to eat meat every day so no prob there,be better if it was whole carcass though.if it has to be mince a feed once a week of liver could be added.

the beauty of dry is that you can feed adlib,what i do is fill the bowl up and once it's empty leave it a day before refilling that way they'll eat up what they've hoarded,the rest you'll clear away when cleaning.

hope this helps.

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Personally, I'd say ditch the dry shit all together. Try baiting a cage trap with it and see if ye can catch a wild mustalid. Rat? Probably. But I very much doubt a free born, natural and wild weasle would cross a gateway for that shit.

 

" Mincedmeat " ? Minced what meat? That's a consideration. If it's beef then it'll really be about one step above that other crap. There'll likely be very little bone content and - if ye in england - a load of fat. Minced chicken carcasses would, again, be a step above either of those as they'd have bone in them.

 

This all still leaves " Roughage " out of the equation though. That's what JDF was alluding to when he spoke of Whole Carcasses. Roughage makes a mustalids gut function correctly. And it consists of those bones plus fur and / or feathers. With me so far?

 

Now, here's a little tip ye may not be expecting; Go down to the local pet shop or super market and buy yeself a supply of those plastic sealed sasauges they sell as Dog Food. It's generically known as 'Chubb Meat' and is really quite disgusting stuff. Get the Chicken ones.

 

Beauty of that muck is that it's actually made up of just what ye ferrets need. Heads, feet, feathers, the bloody lot goes in there. High water content too. I wouldn't eat it then. But believe it or not, it's actually one of the best 'conveniance' feeds ye can give them during the summer months. (I always relied on rabbits myself. But I killed those through the summer, see? Pest Control rather than sport. Always had rabbit available)

 

And another thing: Don't feed them till 22:00. It'll have cooled down by then and the flys will all be asleep. So no problems and no lame excuses to feed them shit because of it. In fact, come to that, we used to offer ours Chubb meat even in the heat of a Country Sports Day event. Keep it out of direct sunlight and it doesn't really do a lot. So a spot for breakfast shouldn't come to any harm either. Theirs. Not yours. F*ck having that on toast.

 

Find anything, squirrels, eg. in the mheanwhile, chuck one of those in at night instead. They'll love ye for it and it'll do them a power of good to enjoy a more natural 'Complete Diet' as often as possible. Clearing the remains from their nest boxes should, of course, be as natural and twice daily an occurrance as clearing their latrine corners.

[Guest JDF]

interesting DS.i've never given that chubb meat a second glance,even though i feed dry only once in a blue moon i still don't like doing it,can you freeze that chubb meat?

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

can you freeze that chubb meat?

 

 

CHRIST, NO!!!

 

 

Listen; Being as it's summer and we're really talking about summer feeding regimens here, that's the one thing I never thought to mention. Alough, if ye read the label, it does say NOT to freeze the stuff ..... Briefly, here's my story:

 

A life time ago I was living in rented accommodation and piss poor. I kept my ferrets indoors in a flat at the top of an old house. I was feeding Chubb quite a bit at the time and used to buy it in by the case load.

 

Well, one winter we had a particularly harsh one and everything froze solid. My flat included. Heating was a luxurious dream in those days. Result was that my stock of Chumm froze along with everything else in there. K?

 

Well, obviously, putting my creatures before anything else, I decided I wasn't happy and so phoned the producer, at what ammounted to outrageous personal expense, and asked his advise. " Oh, no. " He told me. " The reason we say not to freeze it is because of it's high water content. See, upon freezing, the water tends to form ice shards and these, upon melting again, have sliced and cut the 'meat'. Result is that it tends to turn out a bit mushy. But that's all ".

 

That's all my famous f*cking feet! Two dead ferrets later ~ one of my best jills and my wifes personal pet Hob ... Botulism for chrissake. A particularly horrible way to go ~ I slung the f*cking lot out and swore never to touch it again.

 

Nor did I. For decades. But I since looked back and recognised it as the freak occurrance it was. The rate and level of 'freezing' had obviously been to blame. We'd used it for an entire couple of years prior to that, for tons of ferrets. But - as described above - through the summer months.

 

No. Store it as the shops do; On a shelf at room temprature. Discard any pack that becomes burst, unnoticed. And, once ye pierce one to use it, just stick the rest in the fridge till ye want to use it.

 

Oh; And don't let house guests mistake it for something they too could eat, or they will. But that's another story! :whistle:

[Guest JDF]

thanks for that DS

[bullsmilk 2]

HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT STUFF HAS A VERY HIGH SALT CONTENT SO BEWARE

[smudgersmith 2]

I feed my ferrets dry food but supplement it with a large rabbit or a few grey squirrels once a week, this works for my jills and hobs.

[Guest ceredigion bull cross]

raw chickhen carcass a few times a week and dried food the rest

[danielt 1]

Chicken wings and what ever scraps i can get from the butchers.

 

one egg a week

and a couple of dog biscuits.

[darren m 1]

shot a few rabbits last night , popped a gutted one in her gage , bloody great buck twice size of her .

she latched on to it and dragged it away in to her hidy hole .

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

That'll do her a power of good, mate She'll eat a surprising lot of it too, most likely. Important thing is, she'll take first what ever her system most needs. Be sure to remove what ever's left before ye switch off for tonight though. She'd likely still eat from it tomorrow, but that's just not a good habit of husbandry to get into.

 

Now, as for the rest of those rabbits ye've shot; Save their heads in the freezer. Rabbits heads are a ferrets favourite food. Ye may also want to bag up the livers, kidneys, hearts and lungs too. All good grub for ye ferret. And, should ye spot the odd youngster on ye travels? Pop a couple of them off too. They'll provide a couple of days worth of - again - the best diet ye can offer her.

 

Good man. Now ye learning how to Keep a ferret!