heavy weight

[mallison6]

We took our three kits in for their first annual wellness check today. All three are on raw diet and share food. Our youngest one is eight months old and a wardy. We knew he was bigger not only in length but heavier than our other male but today we got the news that he is tipping the scale at 1.8kg and the vet had a minor concern with his weight.

He gets the same rationing as the other two and though he eats more he doesn't always have the need to eat all the food available to him.

We have to collect a urine sample to turn in so the vet can check for a few things so we are a bit nervous about that but when we adopted him we planned for some extra health issues.

He is only moderately active as he struggles to keep up with play time with our older two because of an issue with the way he walks. He isn't interested in the same toys because he is deaf and cannot hear the sounds to react to them.

The doctor wants us to focus on helping him get more active to see if that helps his weight. I was hoping for any help with ideas. He enjoys playing to an extent but hasn't taken ownership of any toys since we brought him home so he doesn't run after them if I move something to put it back where it belongs.

Any ideas for play time or activities for a deaf wardy with an odd walking gate would be appreciated.

[Deleted]

This sounds very much like my Mischief. We adopted him from a lady keeping him in less than conditions and when we got him he was super skinny. Now, a yer later and he is HUGE and really heavy with mostly fat. Mischief is also a deaf Waardy and has an unusual gait now with all his extra weight. Our vet is also concerned with his weight and has made us put him on a big diet. We feed Natures Variety commercial grind raw and Mischief has been cut down to only 2 to 2.5 oz. day when he would gladly eat way more. Honestly, I've wondered if Mischief has an eating disorder - I swear he would eat til hi stomach popped if I let him! Other than food intake reduction it has been rather hard to get Mischief active as he has a hard time getting around on his stumpy legs. He is getting a bit better and can finally climb e cage again. We started with having him climb up small hills that gradually got taller in order for him to get to his meals and to his beloved EVOO. We would put pillows down and gradually increase the amount until he could climb up enough to get back up on the couch again. He had a hard time with this at first and would sometimes give up but you have to persist. We did still feed him in the beginning even if he gave up, but u have to work at his every day. Anything you can do to get your babies upper body strength p will help increase his energy and muscle tone and should lead to him becoming more active. It did just this for mischief. He still has a long way to go but working with him every day and plying with him through the day has helped him tremendously . Hope this helps.

[mallison6]

Part of the issue with trying to control his food intake is that the older two will often snack a bit in the mid afternoon and then try to ferret the rest of the stuff. Watson doesn't ferret. He doesn't always eat all the food in the bowl in the first sitting, but if he leaves any behind the other two ferret. Later on he goes hunting for the ferreted food because he learned where to look for it. The only way we could limit this would be to remove snack time in the mid afternoon and just keep it to two feedings during the day time. At night we would have no way to govern who gets what food unless we put his food on bottom and theirs up top (as he cannot climb the ramps with this issues with his back legs. Not sure if we would run in to issues of them ferreting the food from the lower cage and him not having enough, but it is something we could try.

When it comes to toys do you have any that get your boy excited enough to want to play with them? I've heard of laser pointers working, but I've also seen a slight discouragement for using them as the ferret cannot actually catch the light and it may frustrate them that there is no final reward for their effort.

[Sherry]

To be honest as this is his first winter I'd not worry He will be heavier this year than at any point in the future. And come spring you are going to wonder if he is sick, since he is going to drop so much weight so quickly.

[mallison6]

Hey Sherry,

Just wanted to give you an update on our business since you helped my wife and I through the raw transition earlier this year.

Moriarty (our female) is doing really well and living up to her name. She is beyond intelligent when it comes to figuring things out and getting in to trouble. She weighed in yesterday at around .8kg.

Sherlock (our older male) is doing well also. I think he was about 1.1 or 1.2kg, which is down from his almost 1.4kg when he was a kit and he finally had started to enjoy eating raw. He was the one who used to let his mouth hang open like we were trying to poison him during the initial phases of the switch to raw.

Both of them are healthy as they can be, and right on target for what we would expect for size and weight of a Marhsall's ferret.

Watson was put on raw after his first night home with us, and took to it without issue. I could try to get some specific measurements on him for length but he is a beast compared to the other two. If I lay him on my forearm, with his nose on the top of my middle finger, his butt is passed the crook of my elbow and I'm 6'2" with long arms. Will see if I can get a pic of the three of them laying side by side this evening. Not sure they will sit still for it, but it is pretty crazy how much larger he is in general.

His little stubby legs in the back don't do much for helping him get around in a hurry though when it is play time, and he often seems to get frustrated with it. He can get wound up and playful with them when its a furball but if Mo and Sherlock take off sprinting he is left way behind and that is often when he gives up.

We were hoping this was just part of the natural growth cycle for males like we saw in Sherlock. Watson is just a much bigger boy to begin with so we didn't have a direct comparison for the two.