Food Bully?

[katt]

So I need some ideas here. I am really worried about Koda. I think Kenai might be bullying him out of eating. Kenai is...well FAT doesn't quite begin to describe it. He is OBESE. He doesn;t STOP eating. I put more food in, and even though he just finished eating, he acts Starved.
I try to always put in enough that there are leftovers. But I wonder if Kenai is somehow keeping Koda from eating? I know that in food battles Kenai seems to win, and that worries me. (Does this mean Kenai is Alpha ferret? It is hard to tell...).
I see Koda eating, but when I am home they are mostly out playing. I feed right before I leave for the day, and right before bed. So I don;t get to sit and watch and see if they eat or not. I DO see Koda eating, but I see Kenai eating more and Koda just seems so skinny. BUT I don't know if that is jut in comparison to Kenai or not. His tail seems to be thin, but the fur is not necessarily thin.... I think they are shedding, and last Spring Koda was still a kit technically, so this is his first major coat change/weight change from winter -> Spring as an almost-adult. He is normally thin and sleek anyways... I really worry about him. And It is hard to tell for sure if Kenai is just eating the food, keeping him from the food, etc. I mean I KNOW Koda is eating, but I don't know if he is eating enough.

Other than separate feeding times, does anyone have suggestions?
His tail seems really thin too. Not like he is losing fur, there are no thin areas and the whole tails is covered, no blackheads or anything...but it just seems thin... I am hoping I am not just comparing him to Kenai too because Kenai is like 5 times Koda's size. lol I don;t think I am but still....

[Deleted]

Ah i`ve wondered this with zeke (1yr8months) and Neka (8months) almost the same ages as yours. Neka eats all the time! lol He seems to eat everything, he is not over weight though. Zeke though he toned a bit since I first got him (he needed it). Now he is holding his own weight wise. Hows Koda`s weight? Is he loosing weight?
For my own peace of mind i tend to let zeke eat first, like put him in the cage with the new food first, and keep neka busy with something else if Zeke starts eating. If it's a soupy mush mea, which they get every other day, l sit with him like i did when we first started this, so he gets a bit of special one on one time to eat, and he will eat then. He seems to like that time.

[Heather]

I have found that ferrets for the first year to year and a half (depending where the spring season falls) do a drastic weight loss. It's rather scary. Kit's just eat....they're furry tummies and they have to eat. Ferrets reach sexual maturity in approximately 9 months depending when their season actually hits which means they have to have all those body reserves (even if they can't and don't use them) to reproduce. I will bet that those of you that have this years kits, Kenai and others, next spring will dump that weight. Ferrets that are on a natural diet appear to have greater seasonal weight fluctuations than those ferrets that are on kibble.
Is Koda hungry? If Koda's not hungry, then he may not want to eat more. Is there food left over when you get home. If not, add more. If there is, then Koda doesn't care to eat more food and Kenai is only eating what he wants too. I've had a couple of IBD ferrets, they've carried less weight than my healthier fuzzes and their seasonal weight loss was higher. Ghenghis was my worst IBD fuzz. He looked absolutely gaunt during the spring and summer and there really wasn't anything that could be done about it. He didn't want for more food. Most of my PV's and RC's look thin during the summer months and then come fall put on substantial weight and look great. They never really get fat (except Napoleon, but he had a heart condition and carried all his fluid weight in his butt) Baby ferrets look fat, but that first weight loss, that first major shed (looking at past records) appears to be about one third of the babies weight.
ciao