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Mink Pinks as feeders?

RosieReal

RosieReal

New member
So the boyfriend work for a fur farm in our area. Right now is breeding season, and they have thousands of mink born every day.
Because these animals are to be raised as breeders and ultimately fur animals, they are not given drugs or hormones, as this will result in less healthy animals. Only healthy animals have valueable pelts. Also, for this reason, the mink are all vet checked regularly and disease free. I do not know if this is normal for most fur opperations, but I do know for a fact it is true about the animals I'm speaking about...the farm my boyfriend works for.
Given that these animals are
A) not sick
and
B) not full of poisons, hormones, or chemicals

Do you think they could be used as feeders? They're a funny shape, almost snake designed really. They're about two inces long when newborn, and quite thin. I dont suppose there would be much nutritional info on newborn mink out there? If theres no big objections I think I might give it a shot...they're the right size for my cornsnake, and I'm between rodent orders. I'd rather wait a bit as I'll need mice for the new snakes too, and I want to get them all at once. I was going to feed Yoshi tomorrow, maybe mink on the menu? They're VERY fresh, the boyfriend could litterally bring me babies that were born the hour before he got home. Has anyone ever used something like this?
 
I wanna see a picture of what they look like, Rosie. LOL. Do they have hair?

Under what circumstances are 'excess' newborns available for 'export' from his job, as possible corn food. I am assuming they cannot leave the facility alive, or as future pets. I'm just curious.
 
I don't see any reason why you can't feed corns or any animal mink pinks. There's always the chance of the corn refusing anything besides minks, but I don't think that'll happen, and if it does, I'm sure you'd be able to switch it back to mice/rats with some mink scenting.
 
Sounds interesting, they are a rodent. It could be an alternative for you
 
lol...Eric, my b/f has a ton of pics, I'll post some tonight when he gets home. Kind of like ET, or kind of like the ones that come out of the guys stomach in the first alien movie. The neck is as long as the rest of their body, so they are strange looking.
As far as hair? its a VERY fine fuzz...pretty much hairless.
I tried a pink on Yoshi before I went to bed last night, and he took it...not really aggressively like he does the mice or rats, but he did take it.

As for circumstance and export, they have litters of about 15-25, so a few out of each litter are still born, or get sat on by mum, or crushed by siblings, or dont get that first meal or whatever kills many baby animals every year. The workers go through the cages constantly picking out dead ones, so theres usually no more than 20min when the pink has died and been removed from the breeder box. If instead of taking them and putting them in the compost, they put them in the freezer, they may be suitable feeders. There are over 2000 females giving birth in the next month, and roughly five die from each litter, thats many many mink pinks. lol

I got a live one, they're available at this time, because there are so many being born that I can pretty much take what I want: live or dead. Since I only want one every week or so, it makes no difference to them. If it were an order of like, 200, he'd probably want to give me dead ones. Because they are literally minutes old when I pick them up, they usually die on the way home so its not really an issue that its alive when it leaves the farm. Its VERY hard to raise an animal from that young, but if you can keep a secret I'll tell you folks: the owner of the farm would let me take an older young one for a pet if I wanted. I dont, they smell more than ferrets because their diet is fish based, and they never stop biting. You can train them to bite less hard, but not less in amount...they're more hyper than ferrets, more agressive, and get bigger (in some cases). It can be done, there are people with mink for pets (one of the guys that works there has one) but I dont think they're for me. Since I've decided against ferrets long ago because they're a pet that needs alot of attention (my cat is my attention hog) a mink is out of the question.
But this is secret, the guy wouldnt let just anyone have one, and doesn't let just anyone on the farm either. You either have to work there or know someone really really well who does, and go meet the owner. There have been attempts to release the mink by animal rights fanatics, never successful. One guy lost his finger trying to open a cage. The mink took it and ate it. If they really did get all 2000 cages open, it would be carnage. The mink would kill each other, and attack the person who opened the cages...they wouldnt go for the open door until everything was dead. lol...they've sure got spunk!
 
Neonatal Mink:


Crude Protein 72.8% (rat pink 57.9) (3-10g mouse 44.2)
CrudeFat 11.7% (rat pink 23.7) (mouse 30.1)
Ash 10.0% (rat pink 12.2) (mouse 8.5)
Gross energykcal/g 5.39 (rat pink 5.3) (mouse 6.65)
 
They are high in protein, which might be good for snakes under some circumstances. Someone who has done commercial breeding would know. What a great idea for using a resource that would otherwise go to waste!
 
I wouldnt

I wouldnt do it,LOL
The owner of the farm would be very upset for one thing LOL
I used to live close to one before, my friend and I used to trap the ones that escaped into the field behind his farm. I was always amazed to see what they did when they escaped. Read your second post,yes I bet the reason the owner dont let anyone have them as pets as they can be very dangerous,When they escaped his farm, they set up there homes and went hunting,we would find them under old plywood and such,there was no mistaking knowing that one was there.Finding Pheasants,Rabbits and other animals shredded,they never ate the whole animal they killed,I dont know why but killed alot and left alot of animals parts at there camp!
 
omni said:
Sounds interesting, they are a rodent. It could be an alternative for you
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Nanci said:
Definitely not a rodent!!!
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RosieReal said:
no, this is true. They're from the same family as weasels. They're higher in protein and lesser in fat...is that good or bad?
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Definitely not a rodent. Mustelids are carnivores. And a number of other things. ;)
If you've ever examined a weasel or skunk or mink's skull, it looks, even to a lay person, much more like a tiny bear or dog. I suppose I am talking about the teeth, and sharp canines. See badgers and wolverines.
 
What a great find!

And such delightful creatures - not!

It only stands to reason that each species is going to have its own nutritional portfolio, and will be superior to rats and mice in some aspects, and lacking in others.

I think we get so used to feeding just one or two species (rats and mice, usually) that we tend to forget how unnatural that is for most predators. I would imagine that corns eat MANY species in the wild. Young corns eat frogs and probably lizards at times, as well as baby rodents of any species they can find. And adults probably eat many species of birds, whatever rodents they can find, and probably eggs now and then. So whatever is lacking in one species is made up for on the next meal or two. That is one reason I give chicks now and then - variety. If I have to use only one species, mice seem to do the trick. But if I had the choice to alternate with a free source of some other mammal of the appropriate size, I certainly would go for it.

There is no way to know if corns would do better or worse on an EXCLUSIVE diet of mink (you could always do some feeding trials to find out!). But I would definitely consider alternating them with mice, maybe half and half, unless somebody has some real info as to why not, or unless you start to see some detrimental changes in your babies.

I would take all of the frozen pinks you can get, if I were you. I love to see a use found for something that would go to waste otherwise. Maybe you can trade the excess off for some mice, lol! Or maybe even for some baby snakes from a breeder who would like to try some mink pinks.
 
Well the biggest question for me was if my corn would even eat it...and he seemed pleased enough. I will get a few now, and a few more when they're a little bigger too.. Its nice to have other options, and honestly the owner of the farm has been asking about the reptile feeder business. I've pointed him to some feeder supply business, they can answer his questions much better than I can.
Eric, you wanted pics. I couldnt get a hold of the ones on my BF's camera but this one is a straight from google special. Yes they really look like that.
 

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Hummm...that pic went kinda funny...but you see. :)

Like Kathy, I love the idea of the dead pinks going to a good use. My boyfriend keeps saying we should sell them; but for some reason I'm dead set against selling something that I not only get for free but did nothing to produce. It doesnt seem right. I would like to see more of them used if they're safe and good to do so... I've thought about putting an ad up on my local reptile site, but theres a couple issues as I see it. I wouldn't be able to tell the name of the farm, or my boyfriends name. I couldn't even give the name of the place that the feed for the parent mink comes from... All people would have to go on was the fact I'm using them...I'm not very well known in the herp community here. Maybe instead of an ad, I'll contact a couple breeders I -do- know and just see what they think. Also, I think I might contact the local herp society, see if they need feeders of that size donated. It would be nice to "pass it on"
 
kathylove said:
What do they normally do with the rest of the mink after they remove the fur?
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I dont know, that happens at the 'next stage'. They are killed and then shipped whole to another place, that deals with the pelt, and whatever is left. I couldnt tell you for sure, but I bet its not used.

The fur busniess has a few steps:The farm breeds, births, cares for and eventually kills the Mink, from there the whole corpse is sent to a tannery. After that, the whole lot is preserved and sold by an auction house. The Auction house takes a cut, the tannery takes a cut, and the farmer gets the rest...which in these parts is a conciderable 'rest'.
This particular opperation has been going for less than 7 years and the man runs two barns of 2000 mink per barn. He paid off the whole farm and his personal debt (including mortgage) this year with enough money left over to build yet another barn.
 
It's kind of cute. Looks just like a mink! I bet they use the carcasses for something. Shoot, if you can sell a rotten dead horse, you can sell anything...
 
"Definitely not a rodent. Mustelids are carnivores" I stand corrected. Mustelidae are members of Carnivora. I assumed minks, like weasels and similiar critters were all Rodentia. I had to look this up then and learned something. To me, I label them very unscientifically as varmints, and deserving of being snake food!
 
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