>I am feeding my guys (4 months old) a raw diet. They are on raw only
>and receive a wide variety of ground and chopped meats including
>chicken, venison, duck, turkey, beef, beef tripe, and rabbit. Included
>are organ meats from turkey, rabbit, chicken and beef. Ground bones
>from rabbit, chicken, turkey and beef. I am trying to include whole
>pieces and meaty bones but haven't progressed to that yet. My question
>is do those of you who feed raw add vitamins, probiotics of fiber
>supplements? I am concerned about the lack of taurine,etc. If you do
>add vitamins or supplements, what kind and amount do you recommend?

Please don't raw liver to kits as it can cause growth problems, all
other organs are fine.

Taurine is present in red meat so they shouldn't need extra,

My ferrets get raw chicken wings complete with bone and they all cope
with them fine. Chomping on the bones is an excellent way of keeping
their teeth sparkling white. I always prefer to feed meat in chunks
after all ferrets have the teeth to cope with it. When I taken in jills
with litters of kits I've fed the kits day old chicks at 4 weeks and
they've made short work of them so if a 4 weeks old kit can tackle a
doc a 4 month old will make short work of one.

I used to work some of my ferrets and they used to get the benefit
of the hunt with whole carcase rabbits, I always removed stomach and
intestines of wild rabbit as some had internal parasites. There wasn't
much left after the ferrets had dined, maybe an ear and some bits of
fur but they normally ate the lot.

Sheila
Bolton Ferret Welfare

[Posted in FML 8135]