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Post by togii on Oct 13, 2011 21:52:52 GMT -5
At my most recent vet visit, the vet told me I needed to put my 3.25lb fatty Kodo on a diet until he lost some weight.
I feed my two boys grain-free ZuPreem kibble, and was leaving it out 24/7 so they could graze all day as they pleased. Gible stays healthy like that, but Kodo eats constantly and is always overweight, so it's time to up his exercising and impose an eating limit.
The vet suggested I give them three kibble meals a day, instead of leaving the food out all the time, to help Kodo out (I've been sneaking Gible extra kibble snacks on the side).
They're both healthy boys, but Kodo's poops seem kind of seedy on kibble. He really loves Stella and Chewy's freeze-dried raw steaks, and his poops at least look better when he's eating those instead of kibble.
I was thinking about keeping Gible on his beloved ZuPreem, and switching Kodo to Stella and Chewy's, but I wasn't sure how much to feed him, and how often, to help him eventually lose a little weight?
Do you think I can give him a steak and let him eat his fill, and then take it away, doing three meals a day like that? He likes the chicken, lamb, and duck flavors, so if I switch between those three proteins, will it satisfy his nutrition requirements?
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Post by miamiferret2 on Oct 14, 2011 8:50:08 GMT -5
Kibble makes ferrets fat. Boys will eat approx 1 to 1.5 Stella & Chewys patties per day. Rip them up and leave them dry in his bowl for snacking throughout the day (won't go bad if dry). For regular feedings, crumble patties & rehydrate with warm water. I like to incorporate fresh chicken & turkey from grocery store & I also use Wysong Ferret Archetypal 1 in the raw mush. Vital essentials freeze dried chicken or beef niblets are also good.
i feed two big meals a day. morning and night. during the day and for overnight snacking i leave a few patties ripped up (dry) in his bowl
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Post by Sherry on Oct 14, 2011 9:50:04 GMT -5
miamiferret is right about the kibble. Even grain free has starches, etc in it that will put the weight on. If you do decide to feed S & C, it will help. But...if you think you may like to try it, a raw diet eliminates all the starches and grains entirely. And it's very easy to do  It builds muscle instead of fat. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2011 21:56:53 GMT -5
Freeze-dried raw and fresh raw diets are more nutritious than kibble, so feets eat less (and poop less) on a more natural diet.
One of the problems with starchy kibble is that ferrets can't get as much nurition from kibble as they can from natural foods - so they need to at more. They poop more, and they gain weight from the extra stuff and starches they consume to get what they need.
If you must feed kibble, you may want to try the Wysong ferret epigen-90. it's starch free. (Yes, starch-free...this is different than grain-free, which still contains starches. Wysong Epigen products are the only starch-free kibble product available- patent pending.)
Please remember that starch-free diets(especially raw - even the freeze-dried) keep the blood sugar levels stable. When you feed starchy diets to ferrets, there's more of a need for frequent eating since the starches cause sugar spikes and subsequent crashes.
If your ferrets have been kibble-fed and are old, they may be at greater risk for insulinoma,which requires more frequent feedings. But for a healthy ferret, two starch-free-maeals a day should be sufficient.
-jennifer
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2011 2:37:15 GMT -5
Yes the epigen 90 (available at caseys hidden pantry) is really good I buy a bag for them every now and then. Their poops are great on it.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2011 2:38:54 GMT -5
But it is NOT meant as a sole diet its good for rotation.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2011 7:27:36 GMT -5
Wysong does not advocate any product as a sole food ource. it's not as though Epigen is "unbalanced". Wysong advocates rotation feeding over feeding the same thing thing all the time.
-jennifer
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Post by miamiferret2 on Oct 20, 2011 9:36:58 GMT -5
wysong pamphlet even reads "variety is the spice of life" LOL. they encourage you to incorporate fresh meat, etc.
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Post by togii on Oct 31, 2011 13:46:47 GMT -5
For regular feedings, crumble patties & rehydrate with warm water. Is the re-hydrating part necessary? They're happy to eat it dry, but they refuse it when moist. I thought I could ease them into it by putting just a small drop of water on each of the shredded pieces, but they are really resisting. I'm sure I could eventually work them up to fully rehydrated meals, but if it's not important, maybe I should quit while I'm ahead. They're used to Stella and Chewy's because I bought a sampler pack from Casey's back in the day and that was their favorite by quite a bit, so I would buy bags of the patties and mix them with their kibble sometimes, but I hadn't bought any in a while. Going to Treats Unleashed last week to re-stock, I noticed they made Stella and Chewy's for cats now, too. Have they been doing that long? Maybe I never noticed it before. It seemed like it might be better than the dog version for them, so I bought a bag of the Chicken cat one and the Duck/Goose/Turkey of the dog one. Yum. |
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Post by Sherry on Oct 31, 2011 19:57:03 GMT -5
Rehydrated is definitely better, simply because of the borderline dehydration that is a fact of life for a dry fed ferret. Example is if they vomit or get diarrhea, they are much more likely to reach a crisis point much sooner than a raw fed ferret. Or even one that gets some sort of soup on a daily/twice daily basis. Although freeze dried raw is infinitely better than any kibble, that's for sure As for the S & C feline, it's a new product. If you want them to eat it rehydrated, puree it after it has been, and just start dabbing noses with the mix as they are out and about. That way, they have to taste it  Sooner or later, they'll start licking it from your finger, and your "off to the races" as it were ;D |
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