Ferrets: Whole prey diet

[satomi325]

Thanks so much for he response! I only have the two ferreta at the moment. Both are male, My marshals ferret is about 8-9 monhs old if the petstore was correct about he age, and my rezcue is 3 and a half. He didnt have a potbelly when I got him, back then he didnt have even a little meat on him. The fat on his scruff was even too thin for me to scruff him properly. Hes still skinny as all get out, but its all going right to his belly. Let me see if ive got pictures on my phone.

ALSO! You should know that they dont have a cage. They sleep and eat in our bedroom and play in the rest of our house when we are home. They have food and water on the floor and and a litter box in the closet. We made them a kind of hammock bed, but they usually juat sleep with us in our bed. Hopefully that been technique will keep it mess fres for us haha.

-Riveran

Ah! I understand the pen now! Cage or pen, I would contain the dead prey in it so the ferrets cannot stash it elsewhere. But I still recommend using a container or tub for training them to eat live prey first. Maybe a container in the pen. Plus a container/tub allows the ferrets to focus in on the live prey. It gives them limited space for less distractions. (<-- at least until they learn how to eat the prey)

My ferrets were free roam too until they would get up and cause trouble in the middle of the night. Now, I only cage them at night and when I'm not home. My boys take naps in my bed with me, but my female is really independent and would rather sleep in the cage.

If i had a ferret id want it to play rough. Theyre fun to mess with, i think an aggressive one would be funny lol!
I dont think id ever be able to own one, let alone sleep with one haha.

It's no different than sleeping with a dog or cat. Ferrets love to cuddle. haha.

[Riv]

Sorry for the typos last post. Phome is still a little crazy and that whole cant edit post for 10 minutes rule is silly. XD

I really enjoy having them free roam for the most part. They do play in the middle of the night, but more often than not its just with a baseball, or dinner(their rubber frog). None of their toys are very loud. And we have no problem sleeping through most things haha. We did have one incident where Lo(the younger healthier male) came up to my fiances face in the dead of night while he was sleep amd and chomped down on his nose XD It bled for a while but it wasnt too bad. As soon as he woke up lo started dooking around, so I think he was just bored and wanted to play, but couldnt wake him up haha. He got punished and hasnt done it since, so knock on wood lol.

Im DEFINITELY training with the bin. Ive fed them pinkies before which they killed, and hid all over my room then ate on them over the course of a few days. We were getting dressed one day and my fiance said he found a melted hershey kiss in his pocket. I put my pants on and said "Wow I think I found one too." Pulled out the "hershey kiss" only to find out it was the upper half of a pinkie I fed them a week before XP
Needless to say I decided to get some answers on raw diet before proceding. But the bin solves that little problem entirely = D
-Riveran

[satomi325]

If your ferrets have already successfully eaten pinks, then thats an excellent sign. I would go ahead and try a weaned rat.
I was just assuming your boys have only fed on kibble based on your original post.

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[Riv]

Haha understandable. I didnt add it to the original post because it was just that once just to try it, and they difinitely killed and ate 1 and a half of them, but whwn I tried prekilled last time there was no dice. But like you said, live in a bin should get them started well enough. Especially if they are alrwady inclined enough to kill it

-Riveran

[Jay_Bunny]

Great thread! My ferrets used to be on a raw/whole prey diet. Then life got crazy and I just could not keep up with it. I will be switching them back soon and hope to make it mostly whole prey.

I really wish my ferrets could be free roam, but there are just too many things in this apartment they could get into right now. Once I have the place organized I might go through the apartment and ferret proof. One of my biggest concerns is the couch. It's a pull out bed and we do have a friend that stays with us about once a week. Not to mention the cats have clawed the corners of the couch to the point a ferret could EASILY slip into the hole and never be found again. That goes for the mattress on our bed too.

[GoingPostal]

Larger stuff just stick a shower hook through and attach to something, mine aren't caged either but there's a ferret nation in there to hold water/bedding and I hook food to it. Smaller stuff like mice or chicks they will drag around but mine don't leave anything behind on those. Take away the kibble for a couple hours before trying to feed the prey, will make them more likely to try and eat it.

[Riv]

Wouldnt you know my landlord came by and said get them a cage @_@ apparebtly my lease states caged animals only, so Im the hoping the pen kind of counts as a cage. If not I may just have to get a ferret nation after all. Oh well. I may just leave the cage open 100% of the time so I can just SAY theyre in it 80% of the time(what he demanded)

That hook idea is brilliant! I doubt theyll actially be able to pull the prey off completely, so that may be the route I go if bin training doesnt work work out. I just had a few more litters, so im going to wait a few more weeks till I start trying to get them over completely. After all im going to have to breed a decent number in order to make sure theyre getting as much as they need. Does anybody know generic portions? Like say how many grams of meat they should be getting a day? I read that it varies, but I dont know if I should be regularly feeding them 30Grams a day each or 150 gram a day eaxh or what. I dont even know what to ballpark.

-Riveran

[GoingPostal]

Often they will eat more at first on a raw diet, especially if it's winter season, my two eat 5-6 ozs together but they are old. Younger ones will eat more, males eat more than females. Depends on what they like to, in a day mine would eat 4 young mice, a medium guinea pig or half a large quail. If I give them chicken or something they think is boring they might only eat 1-2 oz. I just check on them 3-4 times a day, if they have food fine, if they need more I give more. You can feed stuff frozen too on hot days.