Needing tips getting my foster ferret switched

[ferretfreke]

I have had my foster ferret, Iris, for around two years now. She had a cage mate that was hospice and he has since passed and She has been bounced around enough that I would like to permanently foster her (or adopt I guess you could say). To integrate her into my group she needs to be switched to their diet. Plus I want to for the MANY health benefits. I have tried many things with her already when I knew Hunter's time was coming and even after I felt enough time had passed once he died. She has absolutely no hunting instinct and ONLY likes kibble. With my other's they already liked a lot of things like duck soup that really aided in switching them. They have a strong hunting instinct also and that's what finally got them to eat whole prey. I get frustrated very easily with her as it never seems like I make any progress. She would occasionally eat some of Hunter's soup when he was alive, but now that he's not here she will not. I should point out that Hunter died last Nov. and she is thriving well so I feel she is past the grieving of him and that it will be safe to switch her now.

So the things that I have tried are... fasting her and only offering her soup, syringe feeding her the soup (she cried and I ended up wearing more than ever got in her) I've tried different kinds of soup, one even being her kibble blended up, I offer her anything I feed my others to see if there is ever any interest of any of the varieties I feed them, offered her a live mouse, which she just sniffed and walked the other way. The soup I fed my ferrets before switching them was my biggest aid in sneaking things in to get them used to it and I am just at a loss of what to do with her. In my experience I have always been able to get a ferret to like something if I forced them to try it through a syringe. With that not even working with Iris I just don't know what to do with her. I have to admit that with my frustration I have given up quite easily. Switching my other four was such an ordeal and I think I actually had it pretty easy with them probably in comparison to some. But after the upcoming ferret show this Sat that I am in charge of, I really want to hit it hard with switching her. I want what's best for her most of all. You can see such an obvious difference between her and my gang of raw eaters and it really bothers me. With the probable changes to EVO too, makes me want to get her switched even more.

Any help/tips is greatly appreciated.

[darkmoonslayer]

What I did today with my ferret was we had kind of a chicken meat paste and when my Sloane ignored it I picked her up, scooped a bit of the paste on my finger and stuck my finger under her lip near where there is a small gap in her teeth where her tongue sorta pokes out, she initially was like "no fingers in mah mouf!" then she tasted the food and started licking my finger and finally when I set her down she took a few licks of the paste out of the bowl.

Now she is by no means switched, this was my first undertaking for attempting to feed raw but I thought it was a minor success to have her taste it calmly and not consider it utterly inedible.

I doubt putting the food in a ferret's mouth via syringe would be a successful method due to how it would probably stress the ferret.

[Deleted]

If she loves kibble, try freeze dried raw. It's similar and you can sprinkle it over her food. Mine took to it instantly

[ferretfreke]

Jackie, I actually have some freeze dried on its way to try with her. I don't want to keep her on that tho. I can't afford it and my group mostly eats whole prey. That's more affordable since I raise the mice. Not sure if it will help with switching her, but I wanted to see if she will try it.

@ darkmoonslayer at my work we actually have ferrets that refuse to eat on their own after we have their owners syringe feed them after surgeries because the ferrets like being syringe fed and that has been my experience until Iris. I tried feeding her from my finger too. She is just not having any of it.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[Deleted]

I know, freeze dried is expensiivvve! But maybe a stepping stone for the taste of raw?

My priority would be getting her to eat soup of some variety (kibble, freeze dried, meat baby food, anything really). Maybe slowly add liquid to her food? Once happily eating some kind of soup, start incorporating raw into it until it's 100% raw. Then blend up whole prey and continue. Soup, from my experience (though limited) is the easiest way to get to raw.

[ferretfreke]

I had some success in the past with chicken baby food with her, that was the base of Hunter's soup and she just wont eat it without him. It sucks that first to get her to get along with my group I have to switch her diet, cus I wonder if they already got along if they would help her along. But getting her integrated into my group is a whole other ordeal. They are JERKS to new ferrets. So when I introduce a new ferret I have to go at it full boar. By that I mean the new ferret has to be in their cage and out with them during playtime and not separating them at all or I lose all progress. I learned that if I tried to go at it slowly by having them out together for a bit and then still keeping them seperate, each time I would let them out with the new intruder they were even meaner (blood shed mean). It's not until the new ferret is in their cage and out with them each day that they begin to accept him /her.

[ferretfreke]

They torment and say naughty things to Iris through the cages bars any chance they get as is. Good thing I love them cus they can be so rotten.

[Sherry]

Sent you a pm.