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Date: Tuesd, 13 Dec 1994
=46rom: vos.vos.vosjol memo4.ericsson.se
Subject: Vegie ferrets
 
Dear ferret friends,
I have just recently been connected to the FML, and have eagerly
been studying all interesting questions debated on the net. I
have had ferrets for almost ten years and experienced a lot
of different things from each individual ferret. One question
that I always get when I have contact with non-ferret people
is what they eat. The answer to that is not quite sipmle, as
there is one thing what they actually can eat and another thing
what is good for them.
I always recommend to give them a varied diet, based
predominantly on dried and canned cat food. This gives them a
nutrition which is sufficient under normal circumstances.
However, one day you come to the situation that your ferret gets
sick. All of a sudden you have to feed it with special diet. I'm
most certain that I'm not the only one that have experianced the
difficulties in making the ferret eat something completely new,
especially if it has been fed more or less with the same food all
the time.
My experiance though, which I know is shared by a lot of
other ferret people, is that you can get your ferret used to
more or less anything, if you do it when they are small. There
is a whole range of different things you can feed a ferret,
without any danger, if you just do it in small proportions. One
thing that is easy to make them eat is vegetables, others are
fruits, candies, meat etc.  The important thing is to do it
when they are small. An adult ferret is almost impossible to
get to eat soemthing new if it hasn't been trained when young.
I have now four ferrets, of which one, Maia, came to our house
when it was just about one year old. All the rest of our ferrets
eat meat with delight. They actually comes running as soon as i
start to use the scissors (we normally cut the meat into small
pieces with the scissors). But it is impossible to make Maia eat
meat. She was only fed on dried cat food until she came to us.
After a couple of months she started to eat canned cat food, but
she still refuses to even taste meat. I have seen equal reactions
on other ferrets who have never ever tasted meat. But you can be
certain that if fed on meat when young, it will be the absolute
favourite for ever.
One thing I have noticed with ferrets is that they often like
vegetables with a lot of water (ie cucumbers, green peppers) and
banana. Also other types of fruits are popular, like oranges
and apples. This also depends on what you have trained them
to eat when they are young, but in some cases also older ferrets
eat both fruit and vegetables without ever having tasted it
before. It is though a bit individual, but it is not that tightly
connected with training them when young as compared to make theme
at meat. I don't know the reason to that, but it is quite common
situation.
One of our vets in Sweden said that the best thing for a ferret
to eat, if it shall have the right nutrition and training for
the teeth, is to give it whole animals. Try one day old chickens,
they love it.
Greetings from Sweden
/Johan (and ferrets: Maia, Penelope, Zeus and Amanda)
[Posted in FML issue 1042]