I must admit, it took me some time to come around to the benefits of
feeding a more natural diet to my ferrets.  Not that I didn't believe in
it... it had more to do with if I could personally stomach it myself.
After great debates with myself, I finally took the plunge and I am so
glad I did.
 
As far as it goes for "leftovers", be prepared for some initially.  There
was a good suggestion of feeding in the bathtub yesterday and you can
still do that.  I find that since I have such a large group of ferrets,
there are never any leftovers of any kind.  What one ferret won't eat,
another one will.  I guess they don't like waste either.
 
I have also given the occasion cricket, but I find far more leftovers
with the cricket than I do the mice.  And for some reason, I think it
bothers me more... I don't know why.  I used to have a tarantula that
we had for many, many years and we found pieces of cricket everywhere in
her enclosure.  I guess my time for dealing well with cricket parts has
passed.
 
We feed only hoppers, which are a step up from pinkies.  They have hair
and look more like mice.  They are always dead by the time I pick them
up.  I don't have the heart to kill anything.  Feeding the mice was hard
enough... killing would devastate me.  I just can't do it.  I also don't
like feeding live mice.  I know that the ferrets could gain come benefit
out of it, but I hate to see even a mouse stressed.  Frozen mice has
worked fine thus far.  We had tried full grown mice, but the ferrets did
not like them at all... even our Guido, which is a nickname for one of
our ferrets who sucks up the tails like a piece of spaghetti... ewwwwww!
I know....
 
We had been supplementing the diet with day old chicks, but my supplier
has had some difficulty getting them in lately.  It's the same story
with the chicks too.  Nothing is wasted or left over after the meal.
Everything is eaten... feet, beak, down, head... nothing is left as a
reminder of what it was.  What one ferret does not finish, the others do.
 
I will add this... not all ferrets take to the raw diet quickly.  Some
need more convincing.  We also have ferrets that prefer chicks over mice,
and mice over chicks.  And a few that like both.  Surprisingly age had no
relevance as to who took to what.  Even ferrets that newly came to our
home that were older ferrets (6, 8, 9) were absolutely intrigued by the
new meat.  We had one little lady that had no real teeth and so when we
gave her a mouse, it took hours for her to eat it as she slowly "gummed"
it into her system, bones and all.  Recently, our Spazman, at 10+ years
of age, took a hold of a piece of cooked chicken of which he had never
shown interest before.  It just goes to show that we need to keep shoving
this stuff under their noses... one day, they'll get the idea.
 
One last word of caution... if you are trying chicks or mice or any new
natural food, try it in small quantities first as they may not understand
it to be food right away, and you don't want to waste it.  But do offer
it often.  Don't give up just as soon as they turn their noses away.
They need to get a taste of the new food first.  And until then, they may
not *seem* interested, when in fact they just needed a little convincing.
 
This is the way ferret's will be fed more in the future.  One day I
hope to have them all on a more natural diet.  In the meantime, I will
continue to feed the natural foods with the kibble.  Good luck to all
that try.  Your ferrets will love you for it too!
 
betty and her blur o'fur
for the love of ferrets
[Posted in FML issue 3935]