First Try: Freeze Dried Raw.

Good morning everyone!

It's actually 2AM and I should be sleeping, but I wanted to talk about something.
On the 12th of December I randomly decided to cut up some steak and try myself with some freeze dried raw. This is my first time and it really turned out quite well. 

It took little over 6 weeks before my beef rump steak had completely dried out.
Silly me however, Cut them too large in size, so It may have taken me a lot longer than I was expecting it to. Even for cooked meat, I usually takes me about 3-4 weeks.


I checked for moisture before I thawed a piece, and none was found. I tried again after I thawed a piece and again, no moisture so it turned out perfect. As you can see in my photo above this blog entry, I have some fat in there. The rump steak had a long strip of fat and there's no use wasting it since ferrets can use the fat for energy. The fat itself felt smooth and somewhat oily in texture, I'm probably not explaining it correctly rofl.

I did try them out with Haru (my little sable female) and she approves of these treats.
I added nothing to them, they were simply meat from the rump of a cow and organic.

Haru says that they were very tasty and she would give me a 5 star rating! She says, All ferrets should have this healthy, delicious, meaty treat and that everyone should throw all their commercial treats away and make their own! 

My little girl is quite right! I agree, and if you're interested in trying to make your own freeze dried treat, feel free to check out my recipe.


See you around!

Q/A: “How did you train your ferrets not to bite?”

How I Stopped Ferret Biting

I received a question quite recently but couldn’t reply until now, so apologies in advance for my late answer. “Hi, I want to know how you got your male to stop biting?”

When I first got Haru & Yuki, they both landed a couple of nasty bites on me and for a beginner to ferrent-hood It ended up being a HUGE shock to me despite the fact I had it in mind that nips and such were to be expected especially since I brought home some kits.

I’ve lost some of my photos of the outcome of the bites, so I cannot exactly show you how nasty the bruising was on them. 

The first bite was a probably around the first day I brought them home. Yuuki, who we had thought was a cuddly lazy boy at the time we picked him up, turned out to be a very energetic young boy who was filled with excitement. Unfortunately at the time we were still waiting on the cage to be delivered so Haru & Yuu had to put up with a small temporary cage for the time being. I let them relax for most of the day and it was great fun watching them sleep and letting their musky scent drift into my nose. 

Come play time that night, Yuu got little too excited being only 6 months old and landed a nice big CHOMP to my left index finger. He latched on and it was very painful. I think the main problem was the fact that it was the shock. I felt my heart begin to race at the time and my heart was crazily pounding against my chest. Yuuki obviously felt my fear and latched on even harder and began to rapidly move his head in a side to side ripping motion. If he bit down any harder he probably would have gone through my finger bones. 

I tried doing multiple things that I picked up on my ferret research many nights in advance but nothing really seemed to work for me. Finally he released and he was put to bed immediately. Which was a big no no, but I was in shock and didn’t know what else to do at the time since my head went blank and was too focused on the fact I was bitten. After that happened, I fixed up my finger and stopped the bleeding. 

For a week, I was unable to face Yuuki and rehoming even came into conversation due to stress of the moment. I cooled off and even sulked for a bit before settling down. I did more research during that week and came to the decision that my thoughts were uncalled for. I started beginning to resent myself for even thinking I could rehome him when it was me who promised to love him and look after him for the rest of his life. It was at that moment where I became 100% committed to my ferrets. I was committed 100% before, or so I thought, but the bite was a big eye opener to me and drove me to do more and more research so I could learn to understand the reason WHY he did it in the first place. 

The reason which I now understand was due to multiple reasons. One reason was that he was in a new environment and was quite excited to the point where he would test me and everyone else in the house hold to see what his boundaries were. Two would be the fact that he wasn’t very pleased with the small temporary home, which I can completely understand and Three would be boredom. 

Boredom… That started me on a new way of thinking. If you want to make a ferret a happy ferret, you need to get down to their view and understand  a ferret’s needs. From then on, I began to train Yuuki and it was frustrating. Very. Very frustrating. He wouldn’t listen and wouldn’t do anything he was told. Typical child he was. I then decided that I would need to become just as stubborn as him. 

I forgot to mention that I did try ‘certain ways’ to stop his nipping and biting. Leather gloves, bitter apple, you name it and it never worked. I scrubbed a few times to begin with since I needed to practice to scruff correctly.After a while I became more stronger and more confident with handling him. As soon as he began to pick up on my confidence, he then began to dull down with the nipping. 

The problem with being unconfident with animals, especially ferrets is the fact that they will take any opportunity to take advantage of that. If you aren’t confident, then DON’T handle them until you know you can be or can become confident. 

To start out with, Haru & Yuu had 1 hour play sessions and every time I received a nip, I would tell him to be gentle. Second warning would result in an ignore and no play and third warning was a 5 minute time out. After a couple of days I started changing the time to 2 minutes. I also started putting him in time out more often and he HATED it. 
Oh boy, He was very upset with me. I received a few retaliation bites from him, but those too ended with time out. There were days when he would be int he carrier every 2 minutes. After a few weeks, the time became less and I started hand playing with him. Typical, rub his belly and when he play bites little too hard I would say “Be gentle” and he would listen to me otherwise I would take my hand away and simply ignore his existence during play time.

I noticed that the more I played with him using my hands and the more he nipped, the more he began to figure out what was acceptable during play. I encouraged nipping, only gummy nipping. Any nip that became too hard would get a warning. Any nip that was so hard it left marks on my skin would get 2 warnings and a time out for 2 minutes. Any bite that broke the skin would result in an instant time out. 

After time outs finish, I always resumed play time like normal. We would continue to play for a bit and if he would bite again, another time out. The key to training is persistence. Its not just training to the ferret, but its training even to the owner. We need to be accepting of this behaviour and let them know what is okay. You cannot stop nipping. Thats clear since they do it during play. But you can work out an agreement, where both you and your ferret can learn form each other what is an acceptable nip. Soft nips are no issue, infant I like those a lot and consider them to be like little kisses hehe. 

It took me around 3 weeks give or take before Yuu stopped biting. He no longer breaks my skin or causes blood to be spilt. He hardly gets time out. Actually now that I think about it, he hasn’t had time out for quite a while… He did have a habit of getting just little too rough sometimes, but every time I tell him to be soft or to be gentle he listens and softens his grip like a good boy he is. He’s now the most cuddly little ferret and looking at him now, I cannot believe he even bit to begin with. The main issue was myself and that I figured out in the end of training.

That is basically it. No use of gloves or bitter apple. They were hopeless. Just lots of handling and lots of hand play. He also picks up on my energy I noticed. So if I tell him calmly to be soft, he will be soft for me. :)

If you have any other questions, you’re more than welcome to ask me them.
For information on bite training check out the Holistic Ferret Forum Files HERE.
For any other questions feel free to also come ask at HFF.

See you around,

Cooked Meat Ferret Diet

Cooked Meat For A Base Diet Is Not Appropriate

Base Diet is an animal's main source of nutrition. This blog post was written after I was asked about if someone could simply feed cooked meats, rather than go completely raw (according to the Holistic Ferret Forum, Frankenprey plan).  The main issue with feeding cooked meat is that it is not appropriate for long term base diet and I will explain about why it is inappropriate throughout this article. Take your time, and if anything doesn't make sense, feel free to comment.

So What Is Meat?

Meat is flesh of an animal and is mainly composed of water, protein, and fat.

Some meats contain carbohydrates however that is mainly processed meats; pre-packaged and deli meats are often processed with a sugar and salt solution or seasoning blends, conferring carbohydrates to the meats.  Eggs also have a trace amount of carbs (about .6g per egg).  All naturally-occurring meats should contain no carbohydrates.

Bone In Meat and Cooking?

Ferrets need bone in meat in their diet. 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.

Chemical Changes Happen?

Cooking brings about chemical changes in the meat. The textures and tastes change when food is cooked. Meat and eggs are good sources of protein and the protein molecules change shape as a result of the heat energy they absorb. This is called denaturing and it is unfortunately permanent. Denaturing causes changes in the appearance (colour) and texture (feel) of the meat and even eggs when they are cooked. 

For example:

• Meat becomes firmer and turns from red to brown, 
• Egg white solidifies and becomes white instead of transparent.

 Nutrients Loss

Cooking is known to degrade the nutrients in meat and causes the losses of vitamins, minerals and even amino acids. Meat that is used in highly processed pet food is cooked at very high temperatures, so they have to use added supplements into their foods in order to make up for lost nutrients. Since supplementation isn't always exact, you cannot expect it to be completely balanced.

Cooking reduces amount of vitamins B and C, which are known to help to build new cells and the genetic material DNA, aid with conversion of carbohydrates to energy, amino-acid metabolism, immune and nervous system functions:

- Thiamin (Vitamin B1) – up to 96% (if cooked for prolonged time) 

- Biotin – 72%
- Folic Acid – up to 97%
- Vitamin C – 70-80% loss.

Taurine, an organic acid which is found in all animal tissues, is not degraded by the freeze-thaw process when it comes to raw meats, however it is degraded when it is cooked or exposed to heat of some kind. Feeding cooked meat, especially if you have made it homemade is a huge risk to your obligate carnivore since this nutrient is essential for your ferrets overall health and may cause a taurine deficiency that can lead to blindness 
Obligate carnivores are not able to synthesise all the taurine they need from other amino acids (such as methionine and cysteine) unlike some other carnivores and unlike herbivores or omnivores. Taurine is a major constituent of bile and can be found in the large intestine. Taurine has many fundamental biological roles, such as conjugation of bile acids, anti-oxidation, osmoregulation, membrane stabilisation, and modulation of calcium singling. It is essential for cardiovascular function, and development and function of skeletal muscle, the retina, and the central nervous system. Taurine is unusual among biological molecules in being a sulfonic acid, while the vast majority of biologically occurring acids contain the more weakly acidic carboxyl group. While taurine is sometimes called an amino acid, and indeed is an acid containing an amino group, it is not an amino acid in the usual biochemical meaning of the term, which refers to compounds containing both an amino and a carboxyl group.  A diet that does not have enough taurine can cause the heart to stretch and enlarge (dilated cardiomyopathy). This can lead to congestive heart failure and death. In the eye, a low taurine diet can cause blindness from central retinal degeneration. 

Oils  are also known to become damaged due to heat, light, and oxygen. When exposed to these elements for too long, fatty acids in the oil become rancid (oxidized). Cooking not only destroys their health benefits, they may become carcinogenic. 

Enzymes are destroyed by cooking.

Any sustained heat of approximately 118 - 129 degrees Fahrenheit or 48-54 degrees Celsius destroys virtually all Enzymes in food. This basically means that cooked food entering the stomach would be devoid of enzymes.  Enzymes are important. They don’t just help to digest the food – they are living proteins that help repair DNA, make hormones, prevent clotting and so on. Eating a diet of cooked and processed foods would put incredible stress on our ferret's bodies. The pancreas in particular, since it has to produce massive quantities of digestive enzymes after consuming a food that is devoid of enzymes.

Digestive enzymes are produced primarily in the pancreas and released into the duodenum to help digest food coming from the stomach. The intestines themselves also secrete amylase and other digestive enzymes.  Most mammals produce amylase in the saliva, but dogs, cats and ferrets do not. 

Their function in digestion. Three main types of enzyme help break down macronutrients in food: 1 - Protease, to break down protein. 2 - Lipase, to digest fat. 3 - Amylase, to process carbohydrates.

Although, to some degree, enzymes can be replenished by manufacturing metabolic enzymes in the liver and digestive enzymes in the pancreas(primarily for protein digestion), the number of enzymes each cell can produce is limited. Most of the enzymes needed for digestion should come from food. Eating a raw food diet takes stress off the pancreas (and the entire body) by providing the enzymes required for digestion. It is one of the primary advantages of a raw food diet. 

Then what about treats?

Feeding cooked meats as treats is alright providing it is done in moderations. Too many treats in general can throw off the balance for the ferrets overall diet. As long as the ferret has a balanced diet, preferably of raw or whole prey, then adding along some cooked meats as treats in should be acceptable. They would get all their nutrients from their base diet, so the lack of nutrients in the treats are fine in this case and the ferrets can have the yummy taste instead. The treats should be cooked without anything added. No salts, no added flavours or enhancers. Completely natural is always the healthiest option. I prefer to do steamed, because steaming foods does enhance some nutrients and brings out more natural flavours.

Prepping raw is time consuming enough, so why would you want to cook it all the time when it comes to the base diet? In my opinion, It's not only healthy to simply keep it raw, but its also easier and less time consuming. We already spend so much time on chopping up raw as it is. Freezing already changes the textures slightly as well, so why would you want to change it even more by cooking? If you were to also cook the meat for a base diet, where would the bones go? Since I mentioned earlier, you would have to scrap bones from the diet  since it would be unsafe to keep them if you want to cook the meat. That means more teeth cleaning on a daily basis and you may even have to add in supplements to the diet. Its just not worth it.

In Conclusion

Yes, To some degree you could feed your ferret some cooked meat. It is not recommended for a long term diet since it would be lacking in essential nutrients to keep your ferret healthy.  Supplmentation should only ever be done under supervision of a Veterinarian, or an Animal Health Care Professional. Cooked meat can easily be fed as a treat along side a balanced diet, but cooked Bone in meat should be avoided as it poses a serious health threat.

I hope this was of some use to you.

Thanks for reading,

The Liver & It's Detoxification Process

The Liver.

The liver is one of the four major organs that eliminate toxins from the body. The other three organs involved are the kidneys, intestinal tract and skin. The liver detoxifies harmful substances whether they come from internal sources such as burning sugars, fats, protein, or from external sources like medications, drugs, hormone enhancers, food additives, preservatives, food colourings, sweeteners, flavour enhancers, chemicals used in agriculture, alcohols, volatile organic compounds, fumes, air pollution and many other factors. Many of the toxins that enter the body are fat soluble which means they dissolve only in fatty or oily solutions and not it water. They all must travel through the body and the first step in the detoxification process they will encounter is the liver. The liver has to convert fat soluble toxins into water soluble substances that can be excreted from the body.

Detoxification process:

The liver plays several roles in detoxification: it filters the blood to remove large toxins, synthesises and gets rid of bile full of cholesterol and other fat-soluble toxins, and the live enzymatically eliminates unwanted chemicals. The enzymatic process to dispose of toxins occurs in two phases: phase 1 (Oxidations) and phase 2 (Conjugation).

Phase 1 neutralizes the toxin or changes the toxic chemical to form activated intermediates which will then be neutralized by phase 2 of the enzyme system. This pathway converts a toxic chemical into a less harmful chemical and is achieved by oxidation, reduction and hydrolysis reactions. During this process, free radicals are produced and if there are too many it can damage the liver cells. With the help of antioxidant, it reduces the damage caused by free radicals. One important antioxidant for neutralizing the free radicals produced in phase 1 is glutathione (GHS) is oxidized to glutathione disulfide (GSSG). This antioxidant is required for one of the key phase 2 processes. When so many free radicals are produced from phase 1, the glutathione stops producing oxidative stress or liver damage. The toxins are then transformed into activated intermediates; therefore the rate at which phase 1 produces activated intermediates must be balanced by the rate at which phase 2 finishes their processing. Phase 2 is called the conjugation pathway because the liver cells add another substance such as cysteine, glycine, or a sulphur molecule to a toxic chemical to make it less harmful. As a result it makes the toxin water-soluble so that it may then be excreted from the body via watery fluids such as bile or urine. There are six phase 2 detoxification pathways:

1. Glutathione conjugation
2. Amino acid conjugation
3. Sulfation
4. Acetylation
5. Glucuronidation

These conjugation molecules join with specific enzymes to catalyze the reaction process. The liver is then able to turn drugs, hormones, and other various toxins into substances that are secreted from the body.