>From:    "marie i. schatz" <[log in to unmask]>
>I am thinking about a dog and/or cat but have free roam ferrets.  How do
>you keep the animals from eating each others food?  Also am wondering if
>some dog breeds are better than others.  I'm not necessarily interested in
>a pure bred per se but rather just get a dog that needs a home, but what if
>it doesn't work?  Are puppies better?
 
My ferrets raised a baby cat, with great success...they were best buddies.
Charlie the cat (until my brother moved away with him to Idaho) used to turn
all the extra energy he got from eating the fert's high-octane food into
pure muscle.  For a fairly small cat, he was outrageously strong.
 
We watched for signs of him getting fat on fert-food.  Had that happened, we
had plans for putting the cat's food on a table or other place the ferts
couldn't jump up to, and put the fert-food in a box with a smallish opening,
and do a shared water dish.  They'd eat the ferret-grade food right out of
the same bowl at the same time, with no squabbling.
 
A dog would be harder to do seperate food with, and more critical.  Cats can
do fine on fert-food, even "superstuff" like Totally Ferret, as long as you
watch their weight.  Charlie turned into Arnold Shwartzencat(sp?) on similar
stuff...which made bathtime pure hell...
[Posted in FML issue 1636]