Diet & Housing

[JoeandDomi]

Hello all!  I have been reading this forum for a while whilst researching whether we could accommodate our very own little carpet-shark. To cut a long story short, Sherlock the 12 week old kit arrived in our lives 3 days ago :D:D!

The questions I have are mainly to do with diet.  Obviously the majority of users here are extolling the virtues of a full raw diet and having done some additional research i can certainly see the benefits of this.  We took Sherlock to have an initial check-up at the vets (who gave him a clean bill of health i am happy to add!) but looked almost horrified at our suggestion of moving him away from kibble and onto a more natural diet.  Am i alone in experiencing this?  I am certainly looking for a vet with more experience in ferret care and have posted on the Polish ferret forums for advice in this.  Sherlock has already taken to raw chicken heart and liver straight from the bowl, but was very reluctant to try raw beef mince.  Hopefully when my full username arrives i could sign up to the mentoring scheme.  I guess in this i just wanted a reassuring hug that we are doing the right thing!

My housing question relates to the ladders that came with the cage (it is very similar to the double level ferret nation, however that manufacturer isn't available here in Poland).  They are wire ladders and i am worried about his paws / claws getting trapped in the rungs as he moves around.  I had the thought of getting a couple of cheap, short-pile carpet tiles and then cutting them to size and securing to the ladders so as to remove the gaps.  Is this ok to do?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me 
Joe

[Sherry]

Hi, and congratulations on getting Sherlock! And yes- what you have experienced is normal with most vets. In a way I can't blame them. They see really bad instances of well meaning owners feeding an unbalanced raw diet, which leads to dietary deficiencies.
The thing is, a raw diet is so very easy to do correctly. To get you started on that road, here is a basic menu with descriptions of foods he can eat: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/146/meat-bone-organ-weekly-menu
With the ramps, you are right. He can get a leg caught. However, you can make simple covers for them. Just use a sock to cover them You WILL have to dedicate those socks, as you'll have to poke a couple of holes in them to put the hooks through but they work quite well

[Deleted]

When I am talking to people on adoption days I used the phrase a "balanced raw diet" because so many people automatically think muscle meat and forget about all the other parts. This gets the conversation off to a better start. Our vet knows I feed many of the rescues raw.

[Deleted]

Hi and Welcome to the HFF, and Ferrenthood. And a big Congratulations on Sherlock. Like Sherry said, the socks are the easiest way to make the ramps better for Sherlock. You can buy ramp covers, but check the size carefully to make sure they fit (I didn't do this, and ended up with some that were too small). And here is a reassuring hug  Agree

[Deleted]

I had plastic crappy ramps that came with my cage, and I made fleece covers myself for them -- but now I just ended up taking the ramps out because he doesn't like them and would rather climb up and hop down. I would go with the sock otherwise, he might chew off the carpet you'd attach. At least with socks it shouldn't be a danger.

And welcome! Congratulations on little Sherlock! I haven't taken Gwin to the vet yet (going next week for the first time) and I found mine off of the forum thread of vets that are more familiar with raw diet -- but yes. I can imagine most vets would be concerned because they don't know or don't understand, or just are used to people feeding kibble. I put Gwin on raw a week or so ago, and if the vet has any issue with it I'll just make sure he knows it's a balanced diet like everyone says, and really point out how healthy and well he looks now (when I brought him home he was a skinny runty thing but now he's a more natural size and weight and his teeth are getting cleaner).

[Deleted]

Hi again, just received my username and thank you all so much for your replies. It is so nice to be part of a forum where people do actually reply to your questions!
Thank you Sherry for the link, me and my partner will certainly take a look. One of the problems here seems to be getting hold of certain key parts of the diet, however we do have some speciality butchers around so we can go and ask them for either the meat of for their advice
Until we can be certain of getting a regular supply of balanced diet raw food, i feel that the safest way would be to supplement a high-quality kibble diet with as much 'human-consumption' quality raw food as we are able to do (being as balanced as possible in terms of type of meat and source etc).
With regards to the ramps, they are now all fitted with the short-pile carpet...i will give this a go as personally i would like the security of the extra thickness to prevent any injuries (yes...paranoid new farent syndrome i'm afraid!) but the tips about socks is a gem, especially as i have just left the Navy and have a surplus of nice long thick socks!!!
Thanks again for your kind welcome and advice and we look forward to becoming active members of your community

Joe and Domi

[Deleted]

Just a side note Joe, my daughter just left the navy also. She was stationed at Newport News on the Teddy Roosevelt.

[Deleted]

Welcome to the forum and to ferrenthood!

You will find that this forum is filled to the brim with friendly and helpful people.

[Sherry]

Definitely a good idea to make sure of your supply. Some supplements can be used in place of the actual meat, but not a lot.
Your biggest concerns will be finding heart, liver, and another organ like kidney. Although in a pinch you can use just the liver.

[Deleted]

Luckily over here in Poland, heart, liver and kidney are eaten fairly widely so these aren't hard to come by (even the local corner store sells them!), however i recently watched Stef from ferret-world (who through her videos directed me to you guys!) saying that fowl necks are a great edible bone source and really good for their dental hygiene. These are what I am having a bit of trouble locating, but we are going to try and drop by the butchers today hopefully, so we will see. For today's progress report, Sherlock just devoured some chicken breast pieces for his breakfast In fact he was so excited by the prospect that he tooka rather hard nip at mummy, so the first blood has been drawn She was very good about it though and we have slightly changed his feeding routine to try and keep him a bit calmer to lessen the chances of it happening again.

[Deleted]

I watch Stef too!

Oh no, he got so excited. Gwin drew blood the first time when I had to whip out a measuring tape - he didn't like the sound it made and went into protection mode and tried to bite it--missed--and bit me. He actually felt bad when he realized he bit me (I made a pain sound) and started trying to lick my fingers, what a silly thing he is.

At least you know he loves his food! Your butcher should be able to find you some necks. If not, if they have Asian markets in Poland they ought to have chicken and duck necks too.

[Sherry]

Although chicken necks are great bone in, you can use a wide variety. Here is a link to a basic menu plan which also gives descriptions of many things they can eat, including various bone sources holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/146/meat-bone-organ-weekly-menu