OOPS!!
 
So sorry  that I forgot to list my address in my posting about making the
home-made ferret food LUMPS.   Here 'tis:
 
                FERRETS NORTHWEST
                4321 86TH AVENUE SE
                MERCER ISLAND, WA
                98040-4124
 
Please make out check to  FERRETS NORTHWEST.
 
Thank you very much for you interest.  I sincerely hope that your preparing
this soup for your beloved ferret(s) will make them very happy, healthy,
and long-lived.  And, let me tell you, you will feel so happy watching them
eat it.
 
I get a big kick out of the little ferret when s/he just starts licking the
soup out of the tuna fish can.  They kinda squint their eyes almost closed
and an itty bitty tear forms in the corner of their eyelids.  At first few
licks they don't seem to want to get their muzzles (lips) wet with the soup
so they lap it very daintily, but after a couple of licks, they sometimes
completly immerse their lower jaws into the soup and really drink it down.
Most times they lick the soup off the inside wall of the can, but if really
hungry, then they just gulp it down.
 
After drinking to satiation, they will slither along the floor (like carpet
or heavy cloth) and slide their chin, as if rubbing it clean of the drips
of soup still clinging there.  Then they will curl up in their sleeping
cloth, in their darkened nest box, and will take a l o n g nap with their
belly filled with that wonderful warm "full" feeling.  Ahhh, good ole
LUMPS.
 
In the pamphlet there is a writeup about getting ferrets to eat the soup
the first time you try it.  If you ferret is an older ferret and has eaten
the same ferret food all its life, it may not go for the soup at first try.
Just be patient and keep trying.  You can leave the soup in the cage or on
the floor for about 2 days (unless the weather is really hot, then a
shorter time should be considered.) On the other hand, if you ferret is a
wide-ranging food eater (just about eats anything you offer) it will likely
scoff down the LUMPS at the first offering, especially if you dip your
finger in it and let the ferret lick it off your soup-smeared finger.  Some
ferrets, on the other hand, will not eat the soup very ravenously, until
the second day when it has cooled and kind of thickened fat has formed on
the top.
 
Don't forget to put in the cooked oatmeal (fresh eggs and raisins added to
the oatmeal mix cooked separate from the soup).  You can also try cooked
okra from time to time or cooked barley.  The ferret has a very pronounced
taste preference for the mucoidal, slick mucous gelatinous sticky substance
and will always lick the inside of the tuna fish can as clean as a whistle.
This way he gets his fibre and cooked vegetables that is mixed with the
oatmeal, and man-o-man does he poop a whooper!  They make like little
cigars and boy does it clean them out so that their bowels are super clean
- you know, pretty much just like us when we eat a lot of veggies and fibre
in our diet.
 
You know, maybe that just could be the reason why I've never ever had a
case of ECE in any of our shelter ferrets or in any of our breeder ferrets.
And of course there's the yoghurt bacteria that I innoculate in them, so
that their digestion and food assimilation is enhanced.
 
Oh, just an afterthought here.  LUMPS, unlike that wonderful DUCK soup, is
not a palative, emergency food to help a sick ferret recover its health,
but instead is a primary food source intended for full time feeding of the
ferret and is to be alternated with almost any kind of dry kibbled food on
alternate days to help keep the ferret's teeth clean.  I'll use ferret
food, kitten chow, cat chow, and even small kibble dog food from time to
time just to provide the ferret with variety in its diet.
 
Good luck.
 
Edward Lipinski
[Posted in FML issue 2918]