> >  All this constant talk about feline food...  Doesn't anybody use
> >  "ferret food"?  There are several brands sold in Colorado, is there
> >  something I should know about using this stuff?
>
> I think it's mainly because ferret food is hard to find in many places.
> Also, apparently once most ferrets have had cat food, they get finicky
> about ferret food.  Apparently it's not as tasty as cat food!  If yours
> eat ferret food without complaint and you've got a good supply, that's
> great!  Ferret food has a higher percentage of animal protein, which
> ferrets need, than most cat foods.  (Not surprisingly, ferret food also
> costs more than cat food.  I'd be happy to pay the premium, if I could
> find a steady supply, and my guys would eat it.  As it is, whenever we can
> find it, we get it and mix it with the cat food.)
 
I have used both Purina and Kaytee ferret food.  The pet store where I
purchased Chaos (female silver mitt) was feeding them the Purina food.
I switched to Kaytee because, if I remember correctly, it has less ash
content and slightly higher protein.  Chaos seems to like both kinds
equally.  I've never fed her kitten food.
 
> * >    It's me again(Marie Hines) with my new family member and I have some
> * > questions.  Oshi shivers when she first wakes up and when you take her to
> * > new places.  Is that normal?  She's 6mos old.
> *
> * When you go to new places it could be mild fear or
> * excitement (or she just woke up :) ).  Nothing to worry about.
 
Chaos shakes when she first wakes up.  It stops after a minute or two,
though.
 
> I find it depressing that the FML is dominated by discussions of various
> illnesses lately instead of the more pleasurable aspects of being owned by a
> ferret.  ...
 
Chaos has had a couple of incidents which, once I was sure she hadn't
hurt herself, were hilarious.
 
When she was younger, Chaos liked to chase ping-pong balls.
Obviously, her mouth was nowhere big enough to get around the ball,
but she would chase it all over the kitchen, pushing it ahead of her
and trying to eat it on the fly.  She once chased it into a corner,
only to have it roll back out along one of the walls.  It went under
the doorstop.  She didn't.  Chaos hit the doorstop (the kind that
screws into the baseboard) at full speed with her mouth open, and with
the doorstop perfectly lined up with her mouth.  This, of course,
caused a rather abrupt stop in Chaos, but not the ball.  So, after
sitting there for a second with a doorstop in her mouth, she simply
backed up, changed direction, and went tearing off after the ball
again.  Didn't seem to phase her a bit, but it looked just like a
cartoon.
 
Another time, again when she was younger (come to think of it, she'd
had a rather wild youth - she's three now), she was pushing the tube
from a paper towel roll around with her nose.  She pushed the tube
into the wall, and promptly got her head stuck in the tube.  She
started backing up and wildly shaking her head trying to get the tube
off.  I was washing some dishes at the time, and grabbed a towel to
dry my hands so I could pull the tube off.  In the meantime, she made
a backwards beeline to the basement stairs.  Before I could grab her,
she went over the edge into the stairwell.  I was only a step behind
her, and when I got to the stairs she was in the process of
cartwheeling down the stairs.  This is sight not to be missed: small
ferret, all four legs splayed out, head stuck in a tube, bouncing
(spinning, really) down the stairs.  I though for sure she was going
to kill herself.  By the time she got to the bottom, the tube had come
off.  I was running down the stairs, but she just looked at me and
decided to explore the basement a bit.  The fall didn't seem to phase
her in the least, and she probably forgot about it seconds after she
was at the bottom.  The stairs certainly don't frighten her at all
now.
 
It is just mind boggling how tough these little critters are.  I was
worried about when these things happened, but since she came through
unscathed, the images in my mind still make me smile.
 
Chaos charms virtually everyone she meets.  I took her to a new vet
the other day for her yearly checkup and shots.  When we were done and
I was in the reception area paying the bill, the vet actually came out
so she could play with Chaos some more.  When I brought her (Chaos,
not the vet :-) with me to the ferret shelter a while back, even they
were enchanted with her.
 
Frank
 
--
 ==============================================================================
Frank Weil | [log in to unmask] | phone: (708) 576-3110 | fax: (708) 576-3131
 
Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself:
"Mankind".  Basically, it's made up of two separate words - "mank" and "ind".
What do these words mean?  It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind.
Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself:
"Mankind".  Basically, it's made up of two separate words - "mank" and "ind".
What do these words mean?  It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind.
 
[Posted in FML issue 0455]