Chris--
       When you were talking about feeding soft food, I am assuming
you mean canned food?  If you are feeding canned food, please do get
your ferret switched to a high quality dry food as soon as you can.
Canned food doesn't provide the amount of protein needed for a healthy
ferret.  Find a dry food that has 32% or better protein and check the
ingredient list to see that the first thing listed is an animal
protein rather than a vegetable derived protein.  A suitable fat
content is in the 15-25% range, though the higher numbers are intended
for young animals. I personally prefer a food with added taurine and
little or no preservative or color added.  Some suggestions for brands
to try are Iams Kitten, Science Diet Kitten, Wysong Vitality Feline
Diet, Nature's Recipe Optimum Feline Maintenance, Max Cat, Mazuri
(which must generally be special ordered, but has 40% protein) by
Purina.  For comparison, the Iams Kitten canned food only has 10%
protein!  Their dry kitten food has 34% protein!  Another problem that
may develop with alot of wet food in the diet is that plaque can form
more easily on the teeth as there's nothing crunchy to knock it loose.
You may find you need to soften the dry food at first and/or mix it
in with the canned food to get your baby to accept it.  Good luck!
 
                Debra
 
 
This tagline has 34% protein, 20% fat, & no artificial preservatives.
 
[Posted in FML issue 0640]