The quick bit: feeding Nutro Max Kitten.  This food makes up a significant
portion (usually 50%) of our mix here.  Our ferrets are in excellent
condition, and they have lovely soft coats.  I like the food; it has no
byproducts or artificial preservatives, and uses rice rather than corn for
fill.  It also has high amounts of Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, which are
excellent for skin and coat health, and are being studied for their effects
on humans.  They seem to reduce the incidences of certain types of cancer.
Wonder if they do the same thing for ferrets?  Lots of fatty acids in
ferretone...
 
Anyway, we cut it with the ferret store's new food at this point, and we've
cut it with TF in the past, but the Nutro is the one component of our mix
that doesn't change.  The ferrets love it.  I wouldn't call you a bad
ferret mom at all. :-)  In general, rather than trusting what the label
says about the food, start reading labels and decide what you're
comfortable with.  My vets are both very open to discussion on the subject
of ferret foods--maybe you should look for one who will discuss it.  Nutro
Max Kitten is undeniably a safer food than many "ferret" foods out there,
like 8 in 1 regular, or Kaytee Fiesta.
 
The long bit:
>Hello all.... We are in the process of switching our two 4 yr old ferrets
>to TF (from Mazzuri).  So far neither is eating much.  One picks out the
>Mazzuri and eats it, the other isn't eating much of either now....
 
>A couple of questions.... I have been following the posts on switching
>foods but nothing seems to be working.  Ok first one, will ferrets
>eventually change over if the get hungry enough, or will they hold out to
>the point of health problems?  I would rather not switch them over than
>put them at any kind of risk.  Second, since both of our fuzzies are 4yrs
>old, we thought we should go with the TF for older ferrets.  Are they two
>young for the older ferret mix?  Our boy (Jasper) tends to run on the
>skinny side, and our girl (Teeka) is actually on the plump side.  Both get
>tons of exercise as they are "free rangers" in one room of our house....
>Any suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated.
 
I've been reading a whole lot of stuff about cockatiels (honest, BIG, this
is on topic!) and weaning them onto solid food.  Some of what I read really
seems to apply to ferrets as well.  And most critters, I think.  (I like to
do that cross-species generalization trick, don't I.  Oh well.)
 
The trick, when weaning baby birds, is to make sure they're full all the
time, then give them bits of solid food as treats.  If they're hungry, they
lose energy and get stressed out and wait for the next feeding; if they're
full, they have the energy and curiosity to try new things.  This seems to
be true of ferrets as well.  I have seen plenty of ferrets who would starve
rather than try a new food, not because of stubbornness, but because the
new food doesn't smell like food to them.  Once they've missed a couple of
meals, they have a lower energy level and just don't feel like eating
anyway.  After a few more missed meals, they'll stop drinking too--just
because they don't feel well--and, in all honesty, you can lose a ferret
quite quickly at this point.  Some ferrets will try new foods immediately;
some take a *lot* of convincing.  Generally speaking, the older the ferret
(and the more health concerns there are already), the slower the process
of change should be.
 
So, keeping the concept of "abundance weaning" in mind, we tried our new
technique, which incorporates all the old techniques plus a "new" one (I'm
sure a hundred people have done it, but haven't posted it to the FML as far
as I've seen).  We do mix a quantity of each type of food in a sealed
container for the smells to mingle.  But rather than feeding a mix right
away, we start by putting two food dishes side-by-side, one with each type
of food.  Ferrets being the curious buggers they are, after a few days
they'll almost certainly try the new food, just because it's there.  They
don't have to stress about their old food being mixed with something
inedible (ferret perspective), so they're full and content and willing to
sample new things.  If they won't, we try putting a few pieces of the new
food in foil or a plastic bag and giving them out as treats.
 
Once the ferrets have at least tasted the new food, even if they still
prefer their old stuff, we move on to mixing and eventually phasing out the
old stuff.  Even when mixing, we offer two dishes, and start out with one
mostly old, one mostly new.  Eventually, both dishes are full of a mix of
mostly the new stuff, and then we cut back to one dish.
 
Is that too confusing?  Make sense to anyone?
 
Please, everyone, don't ever try to starve a ferret into eating--or any
animal.  The ferret (cat, dog, bird, kid) isn't being stubborn when they
refuse to eat a food--they just don't know it's food.  Patience and
persistence will get you a lot further than any other method.
 
Jen and the Crazy Business
http://home.maine.rr.com/tesseract
[Posted in FML issue 3120]