In This Chapter
- Whipping up gourmet dishes with chicken and tuna
- Getting creative with snacks and stews
- Giving your fuzzy the BARF treatment
Recipes in This Chapter
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I believe that the key to good health for any animal is a
well-balanced and varied diet. Whether you want to add some variety into your ferret’s
diet or need that perfect homemade “soup” for the sick or recovering ferret, I
have the right recipe for you! This chapter provides some great recipes,
compliments of my friend Bob Church, ferret guru and fellow fuzzy lover, for
you to try with your ferret.
With a few exceptions (Bob’s Chicken Gravy, for instance,
has sent dozens of blenders to the great garbage dump in the sky), most of
these recipes are easy to make. You may even get inspired to come up with one
or two recipe ideas of your own.
Tip
Bob recommends his recipes with some simple caveats:
- He assumes that your vet has checked your ferret and has reviewed the recipe to determine if your fuzzy’s health allows you to give him the food.
- Ferrets are olfactory imprinted, meaning they set their food preferences by the time they’re 6 months old, so an older ferret may not want to try the foods right away (see Chapter Filling Your Ferret’s Belly for more information on olfactory imprinting and converting your fuzzy to a new diet). If you put in some time and effort, though, you’ll find that your fuzzy will accept most of these recipes. Younger ferrets and kits will accept them right away.
- Most of these recipes represent snacks or meals, not long-term diets. The recipes are designed to increase enrichment (see Chapter Enrichment: Yours and Your Ferret’s), offer variety, and increase dietary choice. Make sure you consult with your vet in order to ensure your ferret is getting a complete and balanced diet.
- Ferrets that eat a soft diet often will develop dental tartar. This also happens with hard, crunchy kibble, but the rate of deposit seems faster with the soft diet. Make sure you don’t hurt your ferret while you’re trying to help him! Tooth brushing and annual dental checkups are a must, regardless of the food your ferret eats.
Remember
All these recipes have been taste-tested and fuzzy-approved by ferrets all over the world! However, you’ll notice that the exact ingredient measurements are missing from most of the recipes. Bob wants to leave this part mostly up to you so that you can modify the food for the specific needs of your ferret, as advised by your vet. The measurements may require some trial and error on your part. It’s likely that you’ll never make two recipes the same, unless you write down exactly how much you choose to use of this, that, and the other thing.
Bob’s Chicken Gravy
Bob’s Chicken Gravy is easy to digest and gentle on the
stomach, making it great for ferrets that aren’t feeling too well or are coming
off a liquid diet and moving back onto solid foods. This recipe is about 70
percent chicken and 30 percent animal fat, so you need a heavy-duty blender (or
a hand-cranked meat grinder) and probably some goggles. If you need to, you can
cut the recipe in half.
1 whole roasting chicken, cut into small pieces (don’t
remove the skin, fat, bones, or giblets)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon fatty-acid supplement (Ferretone or Linatone)
1 cup ferret, mink, or high-quality feline kibble
2 tablespoons fine bran, whole oats, or Metamucil
1 tube Nutri-Cal (use 1/2 half or 1/4 tube for insulinoma
ferrets)
3 or 4 eggshells
4 tablespoons honey
1 cup fat trimmings from any meat source safe for human
consumption (uncooked)
1 Put on your goggles (if you have them). Puree the chicken
with the fat, kibble, and eggshells. Add water until you make a thin gravy.
Remove your goggles.
2 Pour the mix into a pot and cook on the stove for 30
minutes or until it has the consistency of cream or thick gravy.
3 Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot and mix well.
4 Let the mixture cool before serving.
Bob’s Tip: The best way
to get your ferret used to Bob’s Chicken Gravy is to dip your finger into the
mixture and touch it to the nose of your ferret. He’ll lick it off as he cleans
his nose, and eventually he’ll learn to love the food. Here’s another tip: Take
what’s left over after a meal and pour the stuff into zipper bags or ice-cube
trays. Store in the freezer. When serving the gravy, add water or Pedialyte to
get the desired consistency, and microwave it until it’s warm. Be sure to mix
it well to get rid of any “hot spots” resulting from the microwave! (Note: You can blend to desired
consistencies for a ferret’s special needs.)
The
Metamucil/bran/oats helps to control loose stools that sometimes happen when a ferret
is first placed on chicken gravy. It’s supposed to represent the 2 percent to 4
percent indigestible fiber (fur, connective tissue, and so on) consumed when a
ferret eats whole prey (see Chapter Filling
Your Ferret’s Belly).
Technical Stuff
Why Nutri-Cal? Ferrets
that eat a kibble diet have made physiological adaptations for a carbohydrate
diet that include a decrease in ability for gluconeogenesis. (Gluconeogenesis
is the formation of glucose from noncarbohydrate sources.) It takes about two
weeks for the ferret’s physiology to make the shift from a sugar-based energy
system to a protein-based system and full efficiency of liver and kidney
gluconeogensis to occur. Because Bob’s Chicken Gravy was designed to get
ferrets off a liquid diet and back onto kibble (as stated in the intro), the
sugars in the Nutri-Cal and the honey are designed to prevent low blood sugar
and the physiological shift. If Bob’s Chicken Gravy is used as a longterm diet,
after two weeks the honey and Nutri-Cal should be removed from the recipe and a
vitamin replacement should step in.
The sugars in honey
are roughly half fructose and half glucose. The metabolism of these two sugars
is different. The glucose immediately enters the bloodstream and raises the blood
sugar. This gives the ferret the energy needed to fuel the initial metabolism
of protein to glucose (gluconeogenesis requires glucose to initiate the
process). Fructose isn’t digested as effectively as other sugars. Fructose is
absorbed in the jejunum and is metabolized in the liver, usually into
triglycerides. This helps the ferret put on fat weight without causing a high
increase in the blood sugar. There is some evidence that fructose reduces the
effectiveness of insulin, which can be a help in insulinomic ferrets.
Bob’s Chicken Ferretisee
This recipe reminds me of a springtime salad, almost good
enough for humans to eat over a crisp bed of lettuce. It’s easy to make and
store, is highly nutritious, and its small pieces make it great to offer as a
treat and training aid. Chicken Ferretisee isn’t designed to be a complete meal,
however.
1/2 chicken
1-2 tablespoons lard or olive oil
Fatty acid supplement (such as Ferretone or Linatone)
1/2 cup kibble, ground up (a coffee grinder works well)
1 Cut pieces of whole chicken (including the bone) into 1/2-
to 1-inch cubes. Use a cleaver when the chicken is partially frozen.
2 Melt some lard (or heat olive oil) in a wok until it’s
about 1/8-inch deep.
3 Quick-fry the chicken cubes in the lard until they reach a
golden-brown color. (The goal is to kill any possible bacteria but leave the
inside as raw as possible.)
4 Set the chicken cubes aside to drain and cool.
5 Place the chicken cubes in a bowl and lightly spray them
with Ferretone or Linatone (use an atomizer).
6 Add the ground-up kibble to the bowl and toss the mixture
like a salad.
Bob’s Tip: Freeze the
unused portions and thaw as needed.
Foster’s Tuna Shake
You may not like the idea of drinking fish, but your ferret
will lap it up and shake for more. Foster’s Tuna Shake is a great occasional
snack and it can be frozen, so a single batch can last a long time. Bob advises
that most ferrets will be so olfactory imprinted that they’ll ignore this food,
so start off with the young ferrets (see Chapter Filling
Your Ferret’s Belly for diet conversion tips).
1 can tuna (packed in spring water)
1/8 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon smooth peanut butter
4 chicken bones — a back, 2 legs, and a wing Pedialyte
(optional)
1 Dump the tuna (including the spring water) into a blender.
2 Add the heavy cream, the peanut butter, and the four
chicken bones.
3 Blend to a milkshake-like consistency. (You can add a
little Pedialyte if you want for taste.)
Bob’s Tip: For any recipe
that includes heavy cream or another dairy product, you can blend in a Lactaid
tablet if you know that your ferret is a little lactose intolerant or shows signs
(gets diarrhea, for instance) after eating it. Most ferrets tolerate the
lactose in heavy cream, though. Because this recipe is so fat-rich, some
ferrets with liver or gall bladder problems may have a hard time eating it. Be
sure to discuss this treat with your vet if your ferret has a problem with it.
Bear’s Jerky
The jerky made for humans has a lot of salt and seasonings
ferrets don’t really need. Making Bear’s Jerky solves that problem and makes
the occasional treat much cheaper to dole out.
1–2 pounds brisket (cheap cut)
Fatty-acid supplement (such as Ferretone or Linatone)
High-quality bone meal fit for human consumption
1 Cut the fat off the brisket.
2 Slice the remaining meat into 1/4-inch-thick strips.
3 Place the strips onto a dehydrator screen, and spray the
surface of the meat with the Ferretone or Linatone.
4 Sprinkle the bone meal on the top of the meat.
5 Let the meat dehydrate before serving.
Remember
There’s a possibility of meat spoilage if you don’t dehydrate the meat properly. Always follow the instructions to ensure that the meat is safely and completely dried.
Stella’s Super Soup
This is a yummy meal that you can dish out on a daily basis
to your appreciative ferret, but don’t replace his diet with it. If you divide
your basic stock into three parts and then add kibble to one, heavy cream to
another, and both to the third, you’ll have three “flavors” that are sure to
enrich your ferret’s palate.
1/2 gallon of water
Leftovers from your last turkey or chicken dinner
1 teaspoon chicken soup stock
Ground kibble or heavy cream
1 Bring the water to a boil.
2 Add the leftover bones from your last turkey or chicken
dinner.
3 Cut up the skin, giblets, fat, and meat into small pieces.
Add the pieces to the boiling water.
4 Boil the mixture until the bones begin to get soft (about
20 minutes). Add the chicken soup stock.
5 Add ground kibble or heavy cream to thicken the stock to
your desire.
6 Remove from the stove.
7 Let the mixture cool before serving.
Tip
The bulk of the nutrients in Stella’s Super Soup come from the chicken leftovers and chicken soup stock. The kibble and/or heavy cream are just meant to be thickening and flavoring agents. I’ve left it up to the owners which one to choose, because you know the food preferences of your individual ferret. The kibble and cream can be left out without problem; they are just there to help address the ferret’s olfactory imprinting.
Tui’s Chewies
Ferrets love to gnaw, and this treat will give your floor
monkey something healthy and fun to gnaw on. Tui’s Chewies aren’t designed to
be a replacement for commercially made chews, but rather an occasional
alternative.
Water
Non-flavored gelatin
Chicken or beef, finely chopped
Beef or chicken bouillon
1 Dissolve the non-flavored gelatin in boiling water, per
the instructions on the gelatin box.
You can make a super-saturated solution by adding enough
water to where no more gelatin will dissolve; you’ll still see some bits
floating around.
2 Toss in the finely chopped chicken or beef.
3 Add some flavor with the chicken or beef bouillon.
4 Pour the mixture onto a cookie sheet (or cookie molds).
Cut the mixture into rectangular shapes when it dries.
5 Place the shapes in a cool dehydrator until they’re
rubbery and hardened.
Bob’s Tip: You can also
store the small, rectangular yummies uncovered in the freezer. Sometimes, the
chewies will end up more like gummies; when that happens, you can just freeze
them and serve them cold. Ferrets like them either way!
Carnivore Stew
If used as an occasional meal, Carnivore Stew will enrich
your ferret’s stomach as much as it will enrich his life. It’s a great
occasional alternative to a monotonous diet of kibble.
Leftover trimmings from a meat-based meal (skin, bones,
giblets, fat, and meat waste)
Whole bits of kibble
Lard or fish oil (optional)
1 Boil the leftover trimmings until they’re cooked
completely.
2 Add the kibble so that it makes up 1/3 of the stew.
3 If the mixture is low on fat (should be about 1/3 of the
total trimmings), add a little lard or fish oil.
Tip
You can add the kibble during boiling or after; it makes little difference. The kibble should absorb most of the moisture, creating a gravy-like thickness. Carnivore Stew should be slightly warmed up before serving to make it more palatable.
Mickey’s Meatloaf
Okay, not everyone likes mother’s meatloaf, but your ferret
will love this one. You can cut Mickey’s Meatloaf into small pieces that are
wonderful for use in training or as special treats.
Ground chicken or turkey — uncooked
Chicken broth
One egg
Ground kibble
Whole kibble
Olive or fish oil
Spray oil
Ice cube tray
1 Mix all the ingredients (except the whole kibble and spray
oil) like you’re making a meatloaf (a mound of ground meat mixed with other
ingredients).
2 Add just enough whole kibble to spread a crushed piece per
square inch.
3 Give the ice cube tray a light coating of spray oil and
then fill the tray with the meatloaf.
4 Microwave the tray for a minute or two to harden the food,
and then remove the miniature loaves from the tray areas.
You can store the pieces in plastic food containers in your
freezer until needed.
Bob’s Tip: To serve, place a small meatloaf on a dish
and microwave until you cook it throughout. Allow it to cool so you don’t burn
the mouth of your little floor monkey. Also, you can substitute ground beef or
pork for the chicken or turkey if your ferret will accept it.
Clyde’s Seaside Chunks
The acceptance of this occasional meal is dependent on how
olfactory imprinted your ferret has become, but if he’s open to seafood, he’ll
gobble up the Seaside Chunks. You can cut up the food into tiny chunks to use
as treats.
Crawdads, fish, small shrimp, and/or crab
Artificially sweetened gelatin
1 Make the gelatin according to the instructions, except
that while you’re mixing the gelatin, add small bits of seafood, just as you
would fruit. (Do not add fruit!)
2 Put the mix into small ice cube trays and store in the
refrigerator until used.
Bob’s Tip: You can use any flavor of gelatin your
ferret likes; Bob’s ferrets seem to like the lemon, banana, and grape flavors
best.
Bluto’s BARF
BARF stands for Bones and Raw Food or Biologically
Appropriate Raw Food (see Chapter Filling
Your Ferret’s Belly for all the details). Although this treat
may make you want to barf, your ferrets should love it as an occasional meal or
offered as a special treat. Plus, you can be happy that Bluto’s BARF is an
excellent source of protein for your ferret.
1/2-inch frozen chicken chunks
Beef or chicken liver, partially frozen
Chicken hearts or gizzards, partially frozen
Chicken bones
Chicken broth
Frozen fat trimmings (about 1/5 th by volume)
1 Mix the frozen meat ingredients (chicken chunks, liver,
hearts or gizzards, and fat trimmings) in a bowl and cover the mixture with the
broth.
2 Boil the chicken bones until the ends start to scratch
under the pressure of your fingernail.
3 Cut the bones with poultry scissors into small chunks.
4 Add maybe a half-dozen pieces of bone to the bowl
containing the meat and broth mixture.
5 Place that bowl in the microwave and heat until the broth
is near the boiling point. Allow it to cool.
Bob’s Tip: This
recipe seems to work better if you freeze the meat ingredients first and cut them
with a cleaver into 1/2-inch chunks while still partially hard. You can serve
this recipe as a soup, freeze it into small blocks for a treat, cook it into a
paste, or add it as gravy to soften kibble.
Remember
None of these recipes should take the place of your ferret’s base diet (see Chapter Filling Your Ferret’s Belly). Ferrets are small animals with small stomachs and giving too much of a supplement, treat, or snack can unbalance the rest of the diet. Here’s a handy guide:
- Meals: 100 percent of average meal weight
- Snacks: 10 percent of average meal weight
- Treats: 1 percent of average meal weight
- Samples: A bite or a few licks
I think all the dishes in this chapter are safe to use as
samples, treats, and snacks. Snacks and treats should be limited to once per
day. Samples should be limited to twice a day. A few of the recipes, as
indicated, can even be used as occasional meals (a couple times per week, for
instance) for most ferrets that don’t have health problems. Always check with
your vet before making any significant changes to your ferret’s diet.
by Kim Schilling
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