Hi,
A mince meat treat for ferrets would probably be Ok, but continuous feeding
of only mince is not a good idea.  We feed our ferrets on whole rabbit and
mice, they ingest some of the fur and the smaller bones.  It is surprising
how much of a rabbit they will eat.  This is how they would feed in the
wild.  The diet is suplemented with a dry food formulated for ferrets as
well as some vitamin supplement.
 
Looking at the ingredients of the dry food, it looks like it attempts to
mimic a whole animal diet.  If you feed raw meat as staple, you must feed
all that goes with it, it is very important as all the "rubbish" provides
fibre and trace elements.
 
Specialist dry food for ferrets has only just become available in the UK
and as most UK ferrets were kept for hunting, it was natural to feed some
of the rabbits they had caught back to them (and only fair really!).  Many
people then started feeding day old chicks (the cockerels are killed at one
day old as only hens are needed for laying) these are very cheap (by
product) and very widely available.  However, they are low in vitamin E and
do not amount to a balanced diet, probably causing many health problems, I
don't feed them.
 
Out of all the foods we use, rabbit is their favourite, with beef (as a
treat) pretty high as well.  The dry food is much lower down the list, after
fish, but for humans it is definitely the most convienient.
 
If you do try some other foods, it may take a few days for them to accept
it, especially if they haven't seen meat before.  Ours often hide a new
food, then try it out when no-one is looking!
 
Well IMHO variety is the spice of a ferts life!  A bit of raw meat is a
treat!
 
Graham
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[Posted in FML issue 1527]