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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 1:34:38 GMT -5
Thank you so much for your help. I've not had him for long but he's already my baby, and I would be absolutely heartbroken if something happened to him. He's one of the most amazing things in my life, as well as my fiancé, and an absolute sweetie and such a good buddy. (I've just lost my gran, which would make the loss even harder to bear.)
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 1:41:06 GMT -5
Not at all! I think I'm the only one online at the moment and was planning on going offline shortly but found your thread just in time. ;u; Is he your first ferret? ;u; He's in your Profile photo right? What a cutie. ^^ When my boy yuuki was younger, he used to scoff down his food really fast which caused him to gag and spit it out. I freaked out quite alot because it does seem like he was throwing up. Seeing anything like that in general is very scary especially if its a first ferret or a first time seeing it happen. I really do think that it just may be due to a fast eater, but to be safe it may be a good idea to watch him next time he eats and poops. If its something serious, you may have had other symptoms as well but he seems to be doing alright. If he continues to have runny poop, it may be something in the food causing an reaction. A vet check up may also be another good idea just to ensure that he's in good health if you haven't done so already.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 1:44:55 GMT -5
I'm a first-time owner, yes. He's a rescue from our local SPCA but he had a vet check-up before and after we adopted him, and they said he was okay. They're not sure of his exact age but estimated between 1 and 2 years.
Anything weird he does is definitely very scary, especially when my fiancé is away as we live in the country and I can't drive.
I'll keep an eye for other symptoms but so far this seems to be the only one. As of this message, still no throwing up, and he is currently nibbling a little bit of food and has had some more to drink.
I cleaned out his litterbox so will check his poop in the morning! I should be looking to see if it's got blood in it, black or runny, right?
Thank you again. I'm going to go and try and convince my fur baby to cuddle me...
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 1:46:28 GMT -5
PS: He just upended his water dish and tried to eat the wet food he also spilled. I think there's a pretty good chance you were right!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 1:51:33 GMT -5
Update: He /has/ been sort of just flattening himself to the ground once or twice and looking miserable, after previously running around as normal. I have cleaned his cage of any soggy food as he keeps trying to get at where I've put it! I have put him in his cage for now, just to be careful, and he looks thoroughly miserable about it...
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 2:16:08 GMT -5
He's continuing to knock his food into his water and try to eat it. Is this a sign of something wrong?
Edit: I actually think what he's doing is putting his food on the floor to eat it.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 2:19:30 GMT -5
Becoming a ferret owner for the first time is very scary at first. Just wait until you experience the dead sleep, absolutely terrifying, but apparently normal. Eating and drinking is a fantastic sign! When looking for the poop, you're basically looking for poop. Very little, to, no poop, when he's eaten 3-4 hours before may be concerning and could suggest a blockage or constipation. Runny stools may happen for various reasons. Sometimes it happens with a new food, but usually goes away once the ferret gets used to the food. If it continues, it could suggest an intolerance to something in the food. Here is the ingredients in the kibble you feed. The first 5 ingredients are: Chicken meal, ground corn, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), turkey meal, dried egg product. This is not very healthy, and this means that a majority of the kibble is grains / fillers and by-products. Corn is known to cause allergies and grains in general are not good for ferrets. Here is the list of ingredients if you would like to have a look at it. I have a thread on ingredients which I still continue to build, so if you see a concerning ingredient, feel free to have a look at my thread. holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/19461/ingredients-good-bad-toxicYou want to see a nice firm poop. For an example you can see the poop chart here. The top photo on the chart is what a kibble poop should look like. Should be appear moist, even coloured, even consistency and in a good shape. If there was blood in the stool, it would appear black or tarry. holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/2469I'm now going offline, I hope everything is alright now with the little furry one. ;u;
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 2:21:38 GMT -5
Knocking his food into his water means that he's trying to make it moist or soft. I don't necessarily think it is anything to be worried about, it may cause a belly ache because once kibble is wet it does attract bacteria more easily. It seems this kind of thing is common with kibble fed ferrets, I heard it mentioned recently actually.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 2:23:16 GMT -5
Becoming a ferret owner for the first time is very scary at first. Just wait until you experience the dead sleep, absolutely terrifying, but apparently normal. Eating and drinking is a fantastic sign! When looking for the poop, you're basically looking for poop. Very little, to, no poop, when he's eaten 3-4 hours before may be concerning and could suggest a blockage or constipation. Runny stools may happen for various reasons. Sometimes it happens with a new food, but usually goes away once the ferret gets used to the food. If it continues, it could suggest an intolerance to something in the food. Here is the ingredients in the kibble you feed. The first 5 ingredients are: Chicken meal, ground corn, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), turkey meal, dried egg product. This is not very healthy, and this means that a majority of the kibble is grains / fillers and by-products. Corn is known to cause allergies and grains in general are not good for ferrets. Here is the list of ingredients if you would like to have a look at it. I have a thread on ingredients which I still continue to build, so if you see a concerning ingredient, feel free to have a look at my thread. holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/19461/ingredients-good-bad-toxicYou want to see a nice firm poop. For an example you can see the poop chart here. The top photo on the chart is what a kibble poop should look like. Should be appear moist, even coloured, even consistency and in a good shape. If there was blood in the stool, it would appear black or tarry. holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/2469I'm now going offline, I hope everything is alright now with the little furry one. ;u; Should we try and put him on new kibble? There is only one other brand that the local pet stores stock, and raw feed is not an option, but I shall call and find out the name in the morning. 'Normal' poops definitely look like the image in that chart, yes.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 2:24:09 GMT -5
Knocking his food into his water means that he's trying to make it moist or soft. I don't necessarily think it is anything to be worried about, it may cause a belly ache because once kibble is wet it does attract bacteria more easily. It seems this kind of thing is common with kibble fed ferrets, I heard it mentioned recently actually. He is eating a lot from his bowl now; I gave him fresh kibble, but less than usual. I was stopping him from making it wet, as best as I could.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 2:35:56 GMT -5
I highly recommend a species appropriate diet above all kibble. ;u; Are you interested in transitioning him to a frankenprey diet by any chance? Other good diet recommendations would be freeze dried raw. Raw food has so much that it can provide nutritionally compared to kibble. I personally don't trust kibble because they all contain "meals" which a majority of the time are by-products and can be from any source. But yes, for the topic, a kibble with less to no grains / fillers may be a better choice than the current kibble. I think Wysong was mentioned once before as a ferret kibble which had reasonable ingredients. Nature's Variety has grain free kibble I think, along with FDR. I still highly suggest a natural diet for your ferret. ;u;
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 2:41:33 GMT -5
I highly recommend a species appropriate diet above all kibble. ;u; Are you interested in transitioning him to a frankenprey diet by any chance? Other good diet recommendations would be freeze dried raw. Raw food has so much that it can provide nutritionally compared to kibble. I personally don't trust kibble because they all contain "meals" which a majority of the time are by-products and can be from any source. But yes, for the topic, a kibble with less to no grains / fillers may be a better choice than the current kibble. I think Wysong was mentioned once before as a ferret kibble which had reasonable ingredients. Nature's Variety has grain free kibble I think, along with FDR. I still highly suggest a natural diet for your ferret. ;u; The kibble we have does say that it's for ferrets, but I'll look around and see what else I can find next time my fiancé and I can get into the city; I'll try and hit up all the local petstores. Frankenprey? I have heard that a raw diet is better but my fiancé and I are unfortunately not in a position to provide one for him at the moment (I'm in the process of immigrating to Canada, so finances are tight on one salary). Edit: If we stay on kibble, we're not, for lack of a better phrasing (it's nearly 4am) killing him, are we? I really worry sometimes that I will make a mistake that leads to harming him.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 2:51:19 GMT -5
A majority of the ferret specific kibbles aren't nutritionally complete, though they say so on the label. Frankenprey is basically what we call the diet. It mimics a whole animal, bone in meat, muscle meat, organs, etc. Nothing is as balanced and complete as a good frankenprey diet, or whole prey diet. I also found a major plus was that it is fairly cheap. When I started out with two ferrets, I was only paying $25-$30 a month. That is basically the same price as a high quality kibble, so it's really great. The best part of the frankenprey menu is that you can easily pick out and remove any proteins if they cause an intolerance. That is the downside to kibble, especially ferrets with IBD. ;n; It's totally understandable if you cannot transition him to raw with your current circumstances. It may be a good option for in the future, so until then getting a better kibble or even trying a FDR would be a better option. I'm pretty sure you can order Nature's Valley or even Wysong kibbles online. www.wysong.net/healthy-natural-raw-ferret-food-supplements.phpwww.naturesvariety.com
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 10:08:36 GMT -5
@flokis's Mum I hope that your little one is doing better today. I wanted to chime in here because after seeing the ingredients of the kibble it raises concern. I checked more dooks to see where your current kibble is listed and unfortunately it isn't listed (Or I'm over looking it , my first coffee is brewing lol) however the ones resembling those ingredients are down in the red. Raw truly is the best diet that you can offer your baby and if you only have the one it can cost as little as 9$ per week once you start getting into a routine ( Heather or @sherry or someone can correct me on this) and depending on where you shop. I'm not sure of what you pay for your current kibble but in the long run your ferret will live longer and require less vet visits due to health issues that can come from kibble fed. With that said, there are those of us that are unable to do a raw diet. While no kibble will be able to match a raw diet there are certainly those that rate far above the others. Buying a high quality kibble mean less carbs and sugars in their diet and more actual nutrients. While I strongly encourage you to consider raw if you need to think about it please in the meantime take a look at the kibble chart linked below. It will help you understand kibbles and be able to pick the best you are able for your wee one. Not only does a higher quality diet help in the long run with medical costs but in the short term your ferret will smell better, his poops will be more compact and he will be more energetic and soft. These benefits are even better with raw feed. moredooks.herobo.com/search.php?chart=ferretSo, please do consider raw but if you are unsure about that in the meantime look over that chart. Getting him on a higher quality food truly is the very best love you can give to him. Also wanted to add that mine sometimes get kibble in the water but its because they like to dig their food out of the bowl. One thing you can do is to put the bowls away from each other.
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Post by Heather on Mar 11, 2016 11:33:17 GMT -5
Raw is indeed much cheaper, frankenprey is the most economical but with that comes the fact that you have to educate yourself on how to balance (very simple once you've got the basics). Commercial is the easiest but once again you're handing off the source of your meats to a third party and hoping that their source and their knowledge of a true carnivores diet is adequate. It has also become very expensive, in some cases more so than prey. Prey is the easiest to feed, sometimes more difficult to source and very expensive. Prey comes in little packages, pre-measured to be completely balanced ciao
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