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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2016 15:40:46 GMT -5
Hi everyone! My name is Smiff and I joined up on the forum to ask some important questions. I've been lurking around for a while but I couldn't find any threads about my current issue, so I thought I'd just come and post myself.
Yesterday, my boyfriend and I took in two extra ferrets (we already have 3) because we heard from a friend that they had some that were being mistreated. There was no question about rescuing them at that, so we went straight over and picked them up. They have a multitude of small issues but nothing major... except that they've been fed Friskies. They're both around 2-3 years old, and I'm not sure how long they've been eating cat food mcdonalds, but they are both very large and overweight.
One's male and one's female. We tried to mix their food with something healthier that we feed the rest of our fuzzies, but so far they haven't been the least bit interested in it. I want to avoid ferretvite as a mixer because I know it's awful for them.
So... I need suggestions. They are in fairly good health besides their weight and a few fleas which I've already combed out and treated. We will take them into the vet at our earliest convenience, of course, though I've been working in the veterinary field for a while and don't see any immediate need to unless for some reason the fleas come back.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2016 16:14:21 GMT -5
I'd take them to the vet to have them checked for ear mites (all the ferets I've rescued had earmites) and to also have blood work done. I always get my rescues blood work done to rule out any medical issues. Since you just got them I'd try switching them to a raw diet. They already had a bad start in life eating crap kibble, so that's an increased risk of them developing insulinoma. I would also quarantine them from the others for a minimum of two weeks and when they get a clean bill of health introduce them to your other ferrets. Ferravite is horrible for them. Fish oil works better and is healthier. I'd also check to see if they need dentals done. That low quality food can make their teeth go bad quick.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2016 16:54:48 GMT -5
Sorry if I didn't make it clear, but I am in the veterinary field (tech). No ear mites to speak of, thankfully. Teeth also look alright. Blood work will happen within the next few days to a week, but at the moment, I'm concerned that they just don't want to eat anything except for friskies. They won't even taste a raw egg or raw freeze dried treats let alone raw meat right now. They are in a separate cage from our current ferrets at the moment in this transition period.
I'm willing to go get some fish oil and give it a try. I was also thinking about maybe even switching them to a high quality wet food might spark an appetite for something that's not friskies, at least until they want to try something else. But yeah, any suggestions are welcome.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2016 17:10:36 GMT -5
This just in. I contacted the old owners for an estimate of how long they were being fed friskies and it's only been for a few weeks. Before that it was marshalls ferret food, which is... Marginally better. But yeah, still a problem, seeing as they wont eat anything else.
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Post by caitmonster on Sept 17, 2016 17:38:45 GMT -5
If you haven't already, maybe try mixing some of the Friskies with a tiny bit of crumbled up freeze dried raw (or commercial pre-ground raw) and adding water to the whole mix so it turns into mush, to make it a little more difficult for them to eat around what they don't want? Hopefully they'd spring for it, and of course once they do you'd be able to slowly increase the FDR/frozen raw until they eat that exclusively. All the best with your new fuzzies!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2016 18:47:10 GMT -5
I had to force feed the ferrets a small amount of food, but after that they both took a few bites of the raw/dry/treat mix. They don't seem thrilled, but it's a start
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2016 19:20:27 GMT -5
Sorry if I didn't make it clear, but I am in the veterinary field (tech). No ear mites to speak of, thankfully. Teeth also look alright. Blood work will happen within the next few days to a week, but at the moment, I'm concerned that they just don't want to eat anything except for friskies. They won't even taste a raw egg or raw freeze dried treats let alone raw meat right now. They are in a separate cage from our current ferrets at the moment in this transition period. I'm willing to go get some fish oil and give it a try. I was also thinking about maybe even switching them to a high quality wet food might spark an appetite for something that's not friskies, at least until they want to try something else. But yeah, any suggestions are welcome. I'd make a raw soup and syringe feed them, since you're force feeding anyway. Start them on soup and work their way up to slivers of meat. A raw soup Wil be a good start and much better for them.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2016 19:52:40 GMT -5
What I force fed them earlier was already very soft/soupy. I'll go for a soupier mixture later. I know part of the reason they may not be eating could be depression, as they did get taken from their previous owners only yesterday. I don't want to make them extra stressed either. It's finding a happy balance I suppose.
Thank you everyone for your input so far. I'll definitely put in updates as we go the next few days.
Good news, the female ferret seems to now enjoy the raw freeze dried chicken treats. So that's at least a start. I'll try sprinkling some of it on top of the soup next time I feed them.
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Post by katt on Sept 17, 2016 20:18:01 GMT -5
I'm not at all surprised that they won't eat anything else. If I set a bowl of crickets in front of you an said "eat up!" would you? No, because (I assume) you didn't grow up eating crickets and don't identify them as a source of food. Yet they are a common food item in many countries and a good source of protein... Ferrets (and cats even more so) imprint on their food and switching them to any other food can be very challenging. Especially given they are in a new environment, and aren't yet bonded to you they may be balking at any other change that much more. [That said I do not typically recommend letting new ferrets "settle in" first. Change (even good change) is stressful. IMO it is much better to get all of the changes over with at once instead of dragging out repeated changes.] You will have to work with them to convince them to accept a new diet - even a new kibble. If you are interested in switching to raw, I would highly recommend just skipping straight to that and start working with them on the switch (and of course give them Friskies or Marshalls so they EAT SOMETHING until you can get them eating something better). Going through the trouble of switching first to a better kibble, and then switching again to raw will just be more trouble, more time, and more stress for all involved - I wouldn't bother, just cut out the middle man and get them on an optimal diet now. The process of switching them will go a long ways towards helping them bond with you as well, as there is often some hand feeding involed in the early stages of the switch. If you do want to go for raw, I suggest signing up for a mentor here: holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/61/sign-mentoring-program and while you wait for a mentor, start a switching thread here: holisticferret60.proboards.com/board/66/diet-transitionsIn the meanwhile, I would suggest reading through the stickies in the raw feeding and mentoring boards, and the raw feeding tabs on the website. holisticferretforum.com/natural-diet/holisticferretforum.com/natural-diet/the-switch/holisticferretforum.com/natural-diet/raw-diet-faq/
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2016 21:02:44 GMT -5
Hi Katt! Thanks for your response.
We are doing our best to make the transition as stress free as possible. This is why I only have tried to feed them a small amount and then leave them to their own devices. Comfort is obviously our first priority, though. For the most part, all of the changes are happening at once. They are in a cage nearly identical to our other ferrets' and can smell them. Eventually we will introduce them in neutral territory and see what happens but I'm refraining until I'm sure they're flea-free at the very least. They don't appear ill otherwise but a blood test will tell us lots too.
So far they are very sweet and even affectionate. We're spoiling them as much as we can.
What we feed our other ferrets is a combination of raw/freeze dried raw and high quality kibble (we keep the kibble out for the day and feed them small raw meals twice a day). At the moment, I'm just trying to switch the new guys onto kibble and freeze dried raw treats with the ocassional raw treat like an egg to start. It's a lot of new kinds of food, but they've all at least tried a little bit of a mixture and seemed to enjoy a few bites. It's going to be slow going.
Would it be worth it to keep a food diary on here you think? considering we're not 100% raw (at the moment. Down the line we may change this.)
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Post by katt on Sept 17, 2016 23:03:46 GMT -5
I'm glad they are in much better hands. A quarantine period with any newbies is always wise! A food diary definitely never hurts. What's holding you back from going full raw currently?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2016 1:53:07 GMT -5
Time, mostly. It wouldn't be a problem if we had consistent work schedules but we don't. I personally work at an emergency animal hospital so my hours are wonky and it makes planning meals very difficult. That's why we have kibble out in case something prevents us from feeding them their meals at the right times.
That being said about half their diet consists of raw food as it is, since I often get raw food samples at my work, so I do my best to integrate any ferret safe foods in.
down the line I plan to switch jobs which will make consistency a non-issue so at that point I want to go full raw. Right now it's just too inconvenient though.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2016 2:26:37 GMT -5
Just in! I walked in to see both the new ferrets eating the food I put out for them!
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on Sept 18, 2016 4:41:04 GMT -5
I know you said you had bloodwork done---what about a test for insulinoma? A lot of ferrets develop that after being on kibble for a while.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2016 17:53:19 GMT -5
I havent had bloodwork done yet, though we have an appointment set up for the next week where they'll also test for insulinoma. Since they didn't come to us in such a condition that I felt they needed to go to the ER, I set up an appointment. I'm going to bring them with me to work and have my boss do the bloodwork on my lunch break.
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