I don't have the money nor the time to do raw feeding, and even when I
tried when the fuzzies were younger, I just didn't have the interest
from them that I needed to continue on it. I wasn't going to force it
on the older ones. With rescue, too, the animals just sometimes won't
change over, and I wasn't prepared to dive into it. It takes a lot of
work (IMO) to make sure everyone is eating enough, and the right
ratios, etc.

Anyway, on to your question: I used to give the ones who would eat it,
raw chicken from when I was cooking. They wouldn't touch cooked, but
relished raw. I have gotten a few comments about salmonella and I
agree, it's a risk, but I did it anyway. I just gave small pieces
that wouldn't be hidden, and were eaten immediately.

I also ordered some frozen chicks one time, and they were pretty gross,
so I didn't try to give them more than one. The one I did put in was
chewed on and one part ended up in the top of the cage, and the other
in the litterbox. That was the last and only time I ever bought chicks
(a long, long time ago, when I was with my first fiance! Wow time
flies). I wonder if anyone else tried chicks and had the same result.

If anyone wants to know mine have always been on Totally Ferret, and
sometimes Innova EVO half and half, although now and for the last 2
years they have been only given TF in their cage. All duck soup I make
is from TF, and they won't touch the Uncle Jims.

Also (this part is pretty much unrelated) one of mine ended up killing
a mouse that escaped it's enclosure, but it was only killed and not
eaten. This mouse was on medications, couldn't jump, and couldn't run
on its wheel, was blind, and had debilitating infections. I have no
clue how it escaped as to get out it would have had to jump up three
times its height, all hobbled over and limping, and then squeeze
through the bars that were too small for her to get through. But she
did it, and I found her dead. I hope it happened fairly quickly as she
was very frail and weak. But I still wonder how she really got out. My
fiance imagined it was that she wanted to pass away outside the cage
(of course not knowing I had ferrets out) and found the strength to get
out - I can't figure it out. I will always consider that mice will try
to find a way and might be stronger than they appear.

As far as rats - I had rats at one point at the same time, all were
rescues, but the ferrets did not attempt to kill them. They would
just play as they would play with each other. One hairless rat kept
climbing into the ferret nation cage below her to sleep with a single
adrenal rescue, Angel. Angel didn't like her but never hurt her, and
reluctantly curled up around this strange "bald" rat, like her.
However, I have noticed that my rats were fairly calm. When more
rescued rats came in and acted skittish, the ferrets became much more
active with chasing these rats and I could see the excitement was not
good, and might go overboard. After that I just used my Lucy, the calm
fuzzy who wouldn't hurt a flea, to find and scruff the rats to get them
out of my closet for their bedtime. They sure liked to hide in there
and some of my totes weighed a good 70-80lbs so sending her in to get
them was a lifesaver.

Laryssa

[Posted in FML 6222]