Ferret Nutrition: Get Your Ferret Eating Bones.

How to get your ferret eating edible bone in meat.

"My ferret won't eat chicken wings no matter how hard I try, what can I do?"

This is the 4th time I've received an email in regards to getting ferrets on to bone in meats, so I decided I would write a blog post on the general topic. I will also be speaking a lot from experience, since I had two ferrets; one who would eat right away, and another who needed just a little more convincing that those delicious wings were edible.

Ferrets who were former kibble eaters are known to be quite harder to convince when it comes to transitioning in general, whereas a fairly young kit (baby ferret,  under the age of 6) should be more willing to try a new food. Some ferrets take longer to get used to bone in meats because they need to build up their jaw strength in order to efficiently break down bones. It would be a good idea to also give them some gizzards since gizzards are known to help build jaw strength.

Bone in meats are not necessarily the hardest part of transitioning, even though some will say it is. I did a poll quite recently and surprisingly it was Organs who had a higher vote, and then Bone in meats coming in second. For me personally, It was and wasn't the hardest part. My 6 month old (at the time), Yuki, tried the bone in meat on the first try and was eating more willingly by the second try. Lucky for me, I got him just before he imprinted on the kibble by the sounds of it.  My Female, however, was much harder to convince. She was 8 months at the time. She was incredibly stubborn and I had to continue to work with her even after I graduated from the HFF mentoring program.  She wouldn't touch bone in meats at all. I tried all the tricks and in the end the only thing that Helped me, was a tough love approach—which I will talk about further on in this article.

I hope by the time you finish reading this article that you will find some technique that will help you with getting your stubborn ferret eating bones. It's not impossible, and you can do it!

First, Let's cover what a bone in meat really is in raw diets.

My little girl, Haru, Finally eating BIM on her own in my lap. :)

Bone in meat is what we commonly call it in Raw feeding. It can also be known as meat on bones, or meaty bones, or RMB (raw meaty bones). Bone in meat is meat with bone included, Not bones with little to no meat or stripped meat. To keep things balanced, you need entire raw meaty bones with the flesh included. Examples of Bone in meats are wings, necks, poultry drumsticks, ribs, button bones ect. Many common proteins used for bone in meats are: Chicken, Quail, Rabbit, Turkey, Duck, Pork, Cornish Game Hen; Whole Prey such as, Mice, Rats, Guinea pig, whole small birds, etc. Bone in meats are essential for a ferrets diet. They clean and keep teeth healthy and virtually plaque free.
Raw meat in general is nutritionally superior to cooked meat and commercial pet food as non of its nutritional value has been altered in some way as it is done with cooked meat or pet food.

Cooked Bones?

The bone in meat must be strictly raw for health concerns. Never feed cooked bones to your ferrets as they can pose a serious risk. Once the bone in meat has gone through the cooking process, it can remove the nutritional value of the meat and the bones become more brittle, increasing the risk of splintering. Not only can the cooked bones cause splintering, but they could also result in broke teeth, mouth or tongue damage, or internal damage (Even Blockages!) due to the brittleness of the cooked bone.

How To Start.

There are multiple ways of starting with bone in meats. Here's a good list of what you could do and keep in mind that not all techniques may work so trying a variety is recommended when you're dealing with a stubborn ferret.

Since Wings are the most used bone in meat when getting a ferret onto bones, here's a photo showing the wing parts. This is a duck wing, and as you can see, its been segmented already. The whole wing has three segments, the drumette, the wingette and the tip. The drumette segment has

I will also show you a diagram I made up showing the different ways I've cut up wings below.

Some people prefer to cut their wings into sections, like I did in the above photo.  I personally prefer to feed them this way since its easier for me to divide them into baggies when I weigh them out for ferret meals. As long as there is still bone in tact, then it will be considered a bone in meat meal. 

It's not recommended that you continuously feed bone in meats mashed or ground (Unless you're okay with brushing on a regular basis).  Feeding ground or even the mashed meat makes eating too easy for ferrets since they don't need to use too much of their jaw strength to consume the meat. That means there are risks of your ferret becoming lazy with eating, meaning they will eat fast and that is a risk for choking. Monitor your ferret to avoid any choking hazards.  It may also cause hiccups, which happens with eating too fast. The main point of feeding raw bones is to ensure the dental health of your ferret. Ground meat is worthless when it comes to cleaning and keeping your ferrets teeth healthy. It's even is worthless for mental stimulation compared to whole bone in meats.

Techniques.

• Whole: You can cut the wings into segments and attempt to start feeding them with the segments as a whole. If your lucky they may go right for it. If not, try some other techniques.
• Segments: Cut the whole wing into segments, Drumette, Wingette, & Tip then try feeding them as they are.
• Sections: Cut the segments (Drumette, Wingette & Tip) Into sections like shown in the photo little further up in this article. They should be bite size for ferrets, even small sections are alright to help get them on bone in meats. Then try feeding them as they are, or drizzle oil on them.
• Mash: This is the 'start from the start' technique. Simply chop up one of the segments of a wing into a mash. The bones should be completely chopped up so the entire meal looks like a mash. Over time, Increase the sizes but chopping them less and less until the ferret is eating the whole segment without the use of mashing. Mashing can also be used as a grind. So if you have a grinder, simply grind up the bone in meats and simply introduce small bits of bone in meats and increase over time. Keep in mind that you will have to check and brush teeth until your ferret is completely on solid bone in meats.

• Hand Feeding: If all else fails, you can resort to hand feeding. With hand feeding a wing, you can either use the tip, wingette or drumette. Wings are preferred since drumettes are more dense and larger compared to the wingette or tip. They can be segmented, or sectioned or in chunks, what ever you feel like using (just increase over time).
• Oil or Warm Water: Using a tasty animal based oil such as salmon oil, Drizzle little over the meat and then offer it to them. This can also be used with hand feeding. Using warm water, run the meat under a running tap of warm water then straight away offer it to them. These techniques are used to entice the ferret. They may and may not work for all.

Hand Feeding / Tough Love Technique.

I found my stubborn girl, Haru disliked the tip. Possibly because it wasn't as fleshy compared to the drumette or wingette. So I started with the wingette.  A good idea would to be to divide the wingette into a half.  I think the whole wingette may be little overwhelming, so thats how I got the idea into dividing it. It also opens up the flesh more to entice the ferret. Then using one half of the wingette, you need to grab hold of your ferret and gently rub the end of the fleshy bone along their gum-lines. They will wriggle and paw you away, but do your best to see this through. This is a tough love technique so obviously they're going to hate it and probably hate you for doing it, but in the end it works. The next thing you want to do is to watch your ferret and feel for an opening. When your ferret slightly opens their mouth, stick the bone in on the side  (not all the way in) then rub it against their carnassial teeth or hold it there firmly until they start a chewing motion. Remember to give them a lot of verbal encouragement. 

"Good boy/girl" "Taste the yummy meat. You'll love it." "That's it, great job! You're such a smart ferret!" "Come on lovely, open your mouth and chew on this yummy piece of meat~" "You did it! Good ferret! Keep going! Little more!" 

Verbal encouragement really does help a lot. Ferrets are intelligent little creatures, so little verbal encouragement can go a long way with them. When they do something good, like finally chewing a piece of meat, make a HUGE deal out of it. They need to know that what they're doing is good and they are very good little ferrets for doing it.

A video posted by Machan☆HFF (@hakibeferret) on Aug 6, 2015 at 4:05am PDT

Back to the talk on the hand feeding. Once they begin to chew, hold it there for them for about five minutes. They don't have to finish the entire half, so only do this for no more than five minutes per session. You can stop and put down the meat (unless they really are going at it) and give your ferret a good rub and tell them how pleased you are with how much progress they've made regardless of how much or how little they tried. Let them rest afterwards, and proceed again in a couple of hours time. I repeated this for a couple of days and sometimes tried the small five minute sessions in between meals. It helps to build bonds and I loved this technique. (I even had to use this for whole prey- shudder!)    Eventually you may notice that you are needing less and less encouragement in order for them to try and chew the bone in meat. When this happens, try and let go of your hold to the wingette half. If they go to run off, grab hold of them and revert back to firmly holding it for them while they chew. Continue to try and let go until they are sitting by themselves in your lap and eating their bone in meat by themselves.

Starting bone in meat from the start.

When it comes to a stubborn ferret who doesn't recognise this delicious raw meat as edible food, then the best way to get them on the good stuff is by starting small and building your way up.

Chicken wings are the best starter meat to bone in meats (I probably mentioned this before). They are small and fairly easy to chop up by using a cleaver. You can start by chopping it up until it resembles a meaty mash like the photo in the left hand side.

You could try and place it down for your ferret and see how they deal with it, however if they do turn their noses up on this delicious meal then you will have to grab some and rub it along their gums. The point of that is to get them used to the new strange tastes. Remember they don't recognise this as food. Another good advise would be to feed only a small amount. Not the amount shown in the photo on the left. Less makes it less intimidating for them. :) If they take a liking, then simply increase the amount. If this also fails then you will have to resort to hand feeding them. This is where you will have to start the tough love with your ferret. They will struggle and try to push you away, but don't give in to their childish antics.

Grab your ferret (gently of course!) and hold them in your lap. They will attempt to wriggle and run off, but don't let them. If you feel uncomfortable when it comes to feeding this way, you will have to try your best to pull through this. It is for their health and it is all worth it in the end. If you find you have a really wriggly ferret, a good way to get them in your control would be to tuck their back legs underneath your armpit. They should have support on your arm as well and with your free hand try hand feeding them.

Most people will say to scruff, however I do not find that technique necessary. Scruffing should never be used for anything that is not medical, or emergency. I'm not going to go into detail on that here though.

Once your ferret is eating the mashed bone in meat you can then increase the size to sections like in the photo I have posted little further up in this article. Example of sections of the entire wing are in the right hand side photo.  You can either take away the mash completely and introduce sections, or you can introduce a couple of sections into the mash and gradually reduce the amount of mash. Another technique would be to simply reduce the mashing little by little until the ferret is eating the bone in meats without it being mashed.  Either way, your ferret should have the same result by being on bone in meats completely or at least eating segments, or sections.

Conclusion

Some ferrets take longer to get onto bone in meats, and some take less. In the end, as long as you're persistent and patient as the ferrent, you should eventually have a ferret who is eating their bone in meats like a pro. I hope that all that I have written has helped you in one way or another. If your ferret is eating bone in meats, I'm very interested in hearing how you went about it. Please leave me some comments and tell me how you went. If you have a question, don't hesitate to comment below.

If you need assistance with transitioning your ferret to a natural raw diet, feel free to come and visit The Holistic Ferret Forum where you can apply for a Mentor to help guide you through the process.