Wow, that person who asked about just feeding fajita beef sure got a
lot of GREAT and balanced responses!

Baby mice and baby chicks do not have the same nutrient composition as
adults so imbalances can happen if they are the main food source but
supplementation isn't done. For example, there is less calcium in them.

Here are some references that contain that sort of data to work from:

"Nutrient Composition of Whole Vertebrate Prey (Excluding Fish)
Fed in Zoos"
May, 2002
Authors:
Dierenfeld, Ellen S
Alcorn, Heather L
Jacobsen, Krista L

and believe it or not this is among the refs with related info:

"Longitudinal Changes in the Mineral Composition of Mouse Milk and the
Relationship to Zinc Metabolism of the Suckling Neonate"
Authors:
Reis, Brenda L
Keen, Carl L
Lonnerdal, Bo
Hurley, Lucille S

There are others, too.

Yes, organs also are very important such as livers for getting
sufficient copper.

One problem, not mentioned by the many respondents with many home made
diets is too low a level of Omega 3 Fatty acids. We expect our ferrets
to live well beyond a typical wild polecat life span so need to protect
the kidneys and one way to do that is to include that fatty acid in
sufficient amounts from fish oil or flax seed oil. (Always remember to
refrigerate flax seed oil since it spoils very easily; we also
refrigerate the fish oil we use.)

Do be aware that if you feed raw there is an increased risk rate of a
range of certain illnesses, some of them serious, and a few of them
zoonotics. Learn about those and jump *if* the signs develop. It's just
like the way that kibble feeders need to know the downsides of that.
The known downside from kibble is that there is unusual dental wear
and the amount of dental plaque is greater (though not as high as with
soft diets according to _Biology and Diseases of the Ferret_ but that
is an old study so not the same soft diets as now all of the time).
It has also been postulated that a diet with higher amounts of
carbohydrates might increase rates of insulinoma but actual careful
studies to see *if* that is so have not been completed and published
in juried journals. Nothing in life is perfect and nothing ever will
be so just know signs that need response. The archives of the FML and
FHL will help you with info:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
(If lost, that URL can be found in the header of each day's FML.)
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
(If lost, that URL can be linked to from the FHL and from my sig lines.)

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 5770]