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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2017 14:13:13 GMT -5
Okay so my husband decided it would be awesome to surprise me with a ferret. And it is. But I'm used to owning sugar gliders who have very strict diets! Using that as a jumping point I knew there had to be something better than kibble to feed the new little one (coming Tuesday.) I'm trying to wade through massive amounts of data on everything! I've read enough to understand it is a strictly carnivore diet and that since she is about 8 months old she could go one of two ways, she could already be imprinted on her old diet and it may take a very long multi step process to transition her over to a raw diet OR she could still be in that tummy with teeth stage and not have an issue. (Hope for the second prepare for the first) I know that I need to slowly switch her over, do I need to use the soup? Or could I slowly add in pinky mice to warm her up to the idea of whole prey? Also as far as meat goes I was looking at hare today, gone tomorrow. They have a section for whole (meat, bone, organs) finely ground meat. Per their website "meat for feeding purposes
80% meat 10% bone 10% organ [liver, pancreas, kidney, brains, spleen]" Would this be okay to feed her? I'm also a bit fuzzy about the amounts. If she needs two, three ounce feedings then I would need to get 11.25 lbs for a 30 day period? (Rounding up to 12 since you order in whole pound increments) does that sound right?
I know she would do better with a friend so I will be adding one in the near future, I'm a stay at home mom so she will get plenty of time out of her cage and loving in buuut I also don't speak ferret so I would feel badly not getting her a friend. I know that will double the costs so I'm trying to get a good handle on it as quickly as possible. Thanks for taking the time to read this and for any advice you have to give!
*edited to add I know pinky mice aren't a good permanent staple of her diet since they aren't mature enough to have everything she needs*
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Post by Heather on Aug 20, 2017 0:45:10 GMT -5
At 8 months you're up against the time line for the furry tummy with teeth. A sprite has reached sexual maturity between 6 and 8 months (no with a ferret it doesn't matter about the spay thing on this time line) You may or may not win on the ease of teaching a ferret to eat raw. You may or may not have to start with soupy. She won't recognise raw food as food, it will depend on how open she is to starting on a different food...personality. Amounts....a jill/sprite eats between 1 and 3 oz of food per day. Chances are if you're going to feed twice per day she will probably eat about 2 oz per meal....probably not much more. My adult jills eat between 2 and 3 oz....rarely if ever more than that except when pregers or nurshing. I"m gathering by your numbers that you're planning on feeding commercial grinds? A hob/gibb will eat 3 to 5 oz per day (just thinking about your addition, figured I'd add in male information to help you with your math). You can use pinky mice to introduce her to whole prey and to eating mice as a single protein (you require at least 3 different types of proteins)but you're right they have little to no nutritional value. Everyone has to start somewhere and some people find that this works to allow them to get a taste for mice. ciao
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Post by Deleted on Aug 20, 2017 6:07:00 GMT -5
At 8 months you're up against the time line for the furry tummy with teeth. A sprite has reached sexual maturity between 6 and 8 months (no with a ferret it doesn't matter about the spay thing on this time line) You may or may not win on the ease of teaching a ferret to eat raw. You may or may not have to start with soupy. She won't recognise raw food as food, it will depend on how open she is to starting on a different food...personality. Amounts....a jill/sprite eats between 1 and 3 oz of food per day. Chances are if you're going to feed twice per day she will probably eat about 2 oz per meal....probably not much more. My adult jills eat between 2 and 3 oz....rarely if ever more than that except when pregers or nurshing. I"m gathering by your numbers that you're planning on feeding commercial grinds? A hob/gibb will eat 3 to 5 oz per day (just thinking about your addition, figured I'd add in male information to help you with your math). You can use pinky mice to introduce her to whole prey and to eating mice as a single protein (you require at least 3 different types of proteins)but you're right they have little to no nutritional value. Everyone has to start somewhere and some people find that this works to allow them to get a taste for mice. ciao Thank you so much! Yes I had been planning to although last night it hit me like a ton of bricks "HELLO why are you looking at buying this stuff online when you would A. Rather so whole prey and B. Live in the heart of a hunting/farming community??" So I guess that is more I need to look into lol. I really appreciate both of those number sets! So it IS safe to spay a Jill? My exotic animal experience is limited to sugar gliders and those you would only spay under very dire circumstances so I wasn't sure if female ferrets were the same. Gosh I'm glad I found this place.
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Post by Sherry on Aug 20, 2017 8:27:31 GMT -5
If you are in NA, then odds are high she is already spayed. Pet stores can't sell them unless they are.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 20, 2017 9:43:37 GMT -5
If you are in NA, then odds are high she is already spayed. Pet stores can't sell them unless they are. That was my understanding (I am in NA) but I know "supposed to" and "actually done" can sometimes be a different matter so I wanted to be prepared just in case. I'm also not 100% sure she came from a pet store, a girl my husband knows from work let it be known she needed to rehome her ferret because she doesn't have time to play with her and literally all I know is that it is an 8 month old Jill and the girl says she is very sweet. Other than that and a picture I'm walking into this pretty much blind. It's a bit alarming but the husband thought he was doing something really awesome and I just don't have it in me to crush that.
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Post by Heather on Aug 20, 2017 22:27:58 GMT -5
Does she have ear tatts? ciao
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2017 1:22:59 GMT -5
Does she have ear tatts? ciao I'm not sure, I won't get her until Tuesday afternoon.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2017 10:27:30 GMT -5
Does she have ear tatts? ciao I've been snuggling her all morning, what would those tattoos look like? I see what looks like two dots on the back side of one ear closer to the bottom of her ear.
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Post by LindaM on Aug 22, 2017 15:29:42 GMT -5
@hamby360 Marshall Farms puts two dots on the right-side ear. These dots signify that the ferret has been spayed/neutered (the one dot) and descented (the other dot). Note the two dots on my albino's ear in this photo.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2017 16:12:15 GMT -5
@hamby360 Marshall Farms puts two dots on the right-side ear. These dots signify that the ferret has been spayed/neutered (the one dot) and descented (the other dot). Note the two dots on my albino's ear in this photo. [br Thank you so much! That is exactly what daisy has., I wasn't sure because it looks so similar to a mark she has on her paw.
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Post by Heather on Aug 22, 2017 16:13:00 GMT -5
If you've found a double dot in your ferret's ears then you have a Marshals farms ferret. It signifies that you ferret was spayed/neutered and descented at about 5 weeks of age. ciao
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2017 21:00:38 GMT -5
If you've found a double dot in your ferret's ears then you have a Marshals farms ferret. It signifies that you ferret was spayed/neutered and descented at about 5 weeks of age. ciao Oh that is so young 😔 Bless her heart.
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Post by Heather on Aug 22, 2017 21:38:02 GMT -5
Much too young ciao
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Post by LindaM on Aug 23, 2017 0:16:20 GMT -5
Definitely too young, which is one of the major reasons we abhor the farms so much, not to mention the cruel methods they use or utter carelessness towards these darling wee creatures overall.
Sadly, these poor things never chose their fate and would face worse if just left at the pet store, so I am not sorry to say that all my four are Marshall's, I love them just the same, and care for them the best I can, especially knowing what nasties may lurk in our futures together. And I also couldn't find a breeder out here in Utah to buy from. But my wee furbabies fill my heart all the same and I would never trade them for anything.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2017 4:40:38 GMT -5
Definitely too young, which is one of the major reasons we abhor the farms so much, not to mention the cruel methods they use or utter carelessness towards these darling wee creatures overall. Sadly, these poor things never chose their fate and would face worse if just left at the pet store, so I am not sorry to say that all my four are Marshall's, I love them just the same, and care for them the best I can, especially knowing what nasties may lurk in our futures together. And I also couldn't find a breeder out here in Utah to buy from. But my wee furbabies fill my heart all the same and I would never trade them for anything. This is my first time ever being around a ferret and it is blowing my mind! Turns out that she is 7 months not 8 and that I'm her THIRD human. She still immediately allowed me to pick her up and love on her, then trim her nails and bathe/flea comb her (her previous human neglected to inform me she has FLEAS of epic proportions) and allowed my children to love on her without ever once even opening her mouth to threaten to bite. She also never scratched me on purpose. The most this sweet girl did was whimper while I was flea combing her in the water and the fleas started jumping to her head/face. It was so so sad! I've heard all the negative things that people say about ferrets, that they're mean and they bite and stink to high heavens, but never anything about how sweet and loving they can be!
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