Q:"Some of my ferrets love duck soup but I was wondering what to feed them
when they are in the between duck soup and kibble phase. Any suggestions?"
 
A: Like where to put the CaCa Fishing Gestapo? I have a suggestion for
   that one....
 
Here is a great trick that can be used with a ferret with a very queasy
stomach, or one just coming off a liquid diet and not wanting to eat solid
food.  Because most kibbles are about 60% grain, a lot of ferrets will
accept bread because it smells like kibble.  When I have a ferret that just
won't eat much, I dip a *tiny* piece of bread into a gravy made from pureed
chicken.  The chicken goes in with the bread, which they recognize.  Soon,
they are licking chicken from my fingers, then sucking it out of the bowl
on their own.  Then I make the chicken puree "lumpier" until I get them on
solid chicken (tuna also works).  The only problem with chicken is if you
don't puree an entire chicken with its skin and fat, it is too lean to be
healthy, so you need to add an outside source of fat so the mixture is
roughly 70% chicken, 30% animal fat.  Here is my recipe:
 
Bob's Chicken Gravy (Yum!)
 
1 whole roasting chicken (cut into pieces to fit in the blender; do not
  remove skin, fat, bones or giblets-small pieces puree better)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon ferrettone (or whatever vitamin supplement you use)
1 Cup ferret, mink or high-grade cat kibble
2 Tablespoons fine bran OR whole oats OR Metamucil
1 Tube Nutrical
3 or 4 Eggshells
4 Tablespoons honey
1 Cup fat trimmings (uncooked; I save trimmed fat for just this purpose)
 
Puree the chicken with the fat, kibble and eggshells; add water until you
make a thin gravy.  Pour the mix into a pot and cook for 30 minutes, or
until it has the consistency of cream or thick gravy.  Add the rest of the
ingredients and mix well.  Now, here's the hard part.  Put one cup of
chicken gravy into a ziplock, push out the air, and set aside.  Repeat this
process until all the gravy has been portioned out, then dump the ziplocks
into a container to store in the freezer.  Ha!  Not hard at all, especially
after all the grinding has been done.
 
To serve, just allow a bag-o-chicken to thaw, mix water or pedalyte to
the desired consistency, and nuke it for 20-30 seconds.  This is a
high-calorie, high fat, high protein, low carbohydrate food that is
extremely easy on a sick or injured gastrointestinal tract (well, compared
to kibble), and provides for all the ferret's nutritional needs in excess
of most requirements.  Mine eat it as a treat every couple of days or so,
and all my sick and dying eat it was a primary food.
 
BTW, it is very easy to digest, and it digests well, so not a lot comes out
the back end when compared to kibble.  However, if your ferret is not used
to it (its on the rich side), it can come out the waste chute somewhat
runny.  That is not a problem with a hydrated ferret, so don't worry about
it; there are plenty of electrolytes and the ferret will just drink more
water.  Once the digestive system figures out what is coming down the pike,
it will adjust.  If not, then cut the metamucil in half.  Also, this food
has a lot of water in it compared to kibble, so your ferret will probably
not drink as much at the bottle.  Finally, it has a whole lot of really
good nutritious stuff, so your ferret might not eat as much of this as when
they eat kibble.  It also has a lot of undigestible bulk (fiber, bone,
shell, other connective tissue) which helps clean out the tubes, which I am
personally convinced lessens the impact of ECE and other intestinal
diseases.
 
Now, this is mostly chicken, and your ferret may not want it at first,
especially if raised for a long time on a kibble diet.  So load up a
syringe and squirt it in their mouth.  It might take one squirt, it might
take 100, but eventually your ferret will sniff the stuff and dive in
grinning.  Once that happens, it is easy to get them to accept ANY poultry,
from duck to turkey, which they will learn to eat off the stick, so to
speak.  ALL my ferrets eat chicken and turkey, even those that are shelter
adopties raised for years on cat chow.  Once they get used to it, omit the
kibble and grind the chicken so it is "lumpier."
 
A really fun treat for ferrets that love this stuff is to put a tablespoon
full in the bottom of an eggshell prior to serving.  Thats how I give it to
mine; each ferret gets a half an eggshell containing a tablespoon full of
chicken gravy.  They don't fight at the dish, they all get an equal share,
and they can carry their eggshell to their favorite eating establishment.
Now, I use a thickened gravy rather than a thin one, so usually the only
cleanup is vaccuuming small pieces of eggshell.  Don't worry if they happen
to eat some shell; it won't hurt them and the minerals will actually do
some good.
 
Now, this isn't a replacement of anything your vet might prescribe, duck
soup or any other food; its just something I use and highly recommend.  But
its not etched in stone either; if it is too rich for your ferret, take out
some of the fat or oil.  If there is too much bulk, cut back on it.  Make
whatever adjustments you need for your individual ferret's needs.
 
Bob C and 20 Mo' Lip Smaking Sofasnakes
[Posted in FML issue 2540]