Question On Feeding Frozen Mice

[MoonKit]

So, since we're starting off new with these new baby ferrets, I was looking heavily into their nutrition. And we've got them on two different kinds of high quality kibble and they get the occasional Duk Soup (blended chicken, kibble, baby food, broth, vitamins etc.). But I was reading that ferrets should also eat live or frozen food such as mice or chicks. And I'm defiantly interested!

Now, I don't believe anyone on here is a ferret expect but I'm sure some of you have reptiles that you feed frozen mice to..so I have a question. How do you prepare the frozen mouse? I heard something about water or chicken broth. I'm thinking of starting off with pinkies because I'm pretty sure they won't even eat them the first time or two. And do you think there are any benefits with live as opposed to frozen? And finally, are there any good sites to buy them in bulk if they DO like them.

Thanks!

[John Wolf]

My cousin kerry, keeps a ferret.

[MoonKit]

I've owned a ferret I adopted from a ferret rescue shelter owned by a professional ferret breeder, and never in my life have i heard it was essential or necessary to feed raw meat to a ferret. I would REALLY like to know where you go this idea from. I'm sure there are way more cons than pros in feeding raw meat to domestic mammals.

Nobody actually said it was essential, however theres proof that ferrets that are fed live or frozen mice or chicks tend to grow bigger, live longer and not suffer from as many problems. Its what their bodies are designed to eat. Its basically the same thing as choosing to feed your dog raw food. Its just more natural. Their bodies can process more from it then kibble and theres less bad stuff in it. When I give it to them, I know whats in it.

Im not doing it because somebody told me I had too. Im doing it because I looked it up and I want to. I want them to be on a more natural diet. Ferrets have been domesticated for such a long time and kibble is a recent creation. They were doing perfectly fine (possibly even better) before it. And nobody seems to make kibble with every single part of the animal (hair, bone and all) in it unfortunately. Nor am I feeding them two different kinds of kibble because someone said I had to. I'm doing it because I havent found one food that is perfect. The two combined are as good as kibble can get.

There really are almost no cons. It is extraordinarily rare for an animal to get sick from eating a frozen mouse. Nowadays, they are more likely to get sick eating contaminated kibble. And if the animal is already dead, you dont worry about injuries while trying to kill it. Now dont get me wrong, Im not going out in the yard and trapping mice to feed them. They are more likely to have gotten into some type of pesticide or disease. But mice from a pet store are much healthier. The best bet is even raising/breeding them yourself.

Some sights with information on it in case you wanted to read up on it: The last link is from Bob Church, who is very well known in the ferret community.

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=479

http://www.exotichobbyist.com/NaturalFerret.html

http://www.ferretclub.org.au/showconten ... tnid=82136

http://www.storm.ca/~ferret/bchurch2.shtml