First Timer Here

[Deleted]

Soo...I'm still new to feeding animals natural things, including supplements.

1) I was wondering about the benefits of Fish Oil, what brands to get. Would Sundown Naturals be alright? And how much to give.

2) What about for a treat?

3) I'm picking up Pumkpin tonight for hairballs as we had a scare last night with Booth (more on that at the bottom). Should I mix anything with the Pumpkin? And again, how much should I give.

4) As for food, I am still feeding kibble because we are still unsure about feeding a raw diet. We want the best for our ferrets, so I'm weary on what to give them. As for meat, can I give them cooked chicken breast I buy from the store? I was told that would be fine as long as it had no seasonings or anything else on it.

What happened with Booth: We aren't sure if it was a hairball or if he snorted dust from his kibble, but he started heaving a lot, and wouldn't stop. It went off and on for ten minutes so I decided to give him Ferret Lax since that's all we have right now. It helped...then he continued. So I gave him some more and kept watching him drink water. Finally after about a tablespoon full of Ferret Lax, he stopped and has been fine.

Thanks in advance!

[Sherry]

I give both human grade Triple fish oil by Nature's Harmony, as well as Grizzly Salmon Oil. They get one capsule of the fish oil once every third day, alternated with 1/2 tsp of the salmon oil. I find it really helps the itchies from drying skin, as well as shedding. It also has a ton of omega 3's which helps with heart health, and brain function.
For treats, I give jerkies and/or freeze dried raw meats. That's it.
Pumpkin you can give by itself, or mix it in with soup. I mix it in with a raw commercial ground to replace the non digestibles they'd get from whole prey, like fur.
It almost sounds like Booth may have had some fur caught in the back of his throat. But always better safe than sorry

[bluemoose]

I give Sea Pet fish oil and Grizzly Salmon oil to my dog, cat, and ferrets. I buy both on Amazon because it's cheapest there but here's the Sea Pet site.
www.seapet.com/
www.amazon.com/Grizzly-All-Natural-Supplement-Pump-Bottle-Dispenser/dp/B0002ABR6E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298175210&sr=8-1
I also add extra virgin olive oil to their fish oils. It acts as a natural hairball preventative.

I don't give treats but freeze dried is a good one.

As Sherry said, pumpkin is a replacement for indigestibles found on prey such as fur/feathers, claws, ect. Roughage like that shouldn't be more than 5% of the diet.

Yes, you can feed plain cooked chicken but it's much less nutritious than raw.

What are you unsure of as far as raw diets go? Are you aiming to feed prey model or whole prey?

[Sherry]

Good point. If you can tell us what you are having a problem with, maybe we can help you work through it.

[Deleted]

I was unsure about the raw thing at first. I started with freeze dried. It was easy, and my girls loved it. Once I started seeing the changes, I was sure raw was the way to go. My girls got beautiful coats, lots of energy, better formed (and much less) poop.

[Deleted]

Well, honestly, I'm a vegetarian. I don't expect my furballs to be too, but I cringe at watching them tear apart me. So I only want to feed them raw, but that still kind of bugs me.

I think I'll ask for a mentor soon. I know it's selfish of myself to keep them from getting what's best, but it's just hard lol

[Deleted]

You could try using a commercial raw/freeze dried raw. It's not much different in appearance from kibble when it's all mushed up.

[Sherry]

Also, you can use gloves to handle it. They'd likely need a raw soup for transition, so that's pureed to start.

[Deleted]

Alright. I think I could do the soup and freeze dried. =] I wouldn't mind raw meets too much either, just no whole prey.

Slightly off-topic. How do I go about getting a Mentor? ((Ooh wait, I figured it out hehe)

[Sherry]

You don't need to do whole prey, you know I do simply because they enjoy it so much, and it's so good for them. But you can replicate the whole prey diet for the most part with "frankenprey"(raw meats)