Debi writes of ferrets, from the sounds of it, numerous ferrets
reaching 20 years of age and many regularly reaching well into their
teens - who called Guinness Book of Records? Anyone? A 20 year old
ferret sounds miraculous and definitely worthy of a World record.
More than one too would definitely bring out the record keepers!
People's recollection of the age of their pet at death tends to get
skewed the farther in the past the death becomes. Rather like the
whopper of a fish that got caught starts out as a credibly large fish
and over the years turns into something that wouldn't fit into the
boat.
But it must be true "if someone said...." o.k. yeah, if you say so.
I'm still working on the longevity aspect with my natural fed ferrets.
But none of mine are from natural fed parents, all are early alters and
the youngest they got started eating natural are my two most recent
rescues Whoopi and Wanda Wonka at 4 months old, then there's Roman who
got started on raw at 6 months old almost 4 years ago. The rest started
on natural diets as adults some at 2 and three some at four, five and
six. There have been 5 that have crossed "the Bridge" - a 14 month old
from lymphoma, a 6 year old from insulinoma, his 7 year old buddy from
a broken heart, a 4 or 5 yr old from insulinoma and ravages of previous
poisoning and starvation, and a 6 or 7 year old from adrenal &
insulinoma. Fizzle, my eldest now, will be 7 after January; she started
eating naturally and being allowed free roam at 3.
Being as I wasn't adventurous enough to have a vet cut open any of my
rescues to get a look at any internal insulinomic issues I can't say if
feeding naturally has reversed any insulinomic issues. So far the only
issues I'm seeing are adrenal related. Thinning tail tip hairs in one
male and a female which also has thinning hair at the nape,and a puffy
vulva, 2 slightly aggressive males. One is already on Lupron and
Melatonin, the other three will be on meds soon too. All of these
ferrets are in the 4 and 5 year old range and came from homes that kept
them caged most of the time and fed kibbled cat chow mostly and were
not kept according to ferret photo periods.
Will their natural diet prevent the onslaught of adrenal? Not likely.
Didn't think it would. Has it halted any insulinoma? Possibly for the
older ones, but for the younger ones - most likely! After watching two
die in my arms from that horrid disease - I'm committed to do what I
can to prevent other ferrets from suffering the same way! So how long
will they live? Time will tell!
It isn't right to simply chalk up a ferret's life span to just genes
when nutrition and environment play such a large factor in the ferrets
life. Genes are only a blueprint. Nutrients are the brick and mortar.
The environment influences how those bricks retain their integrity.
Does Nancy owe an apology? Apologies aren't banked - neither owed, nor
paid; apologies are freely offered. It's up to Nancy.
To answer Nancy's direct question again, and to stop Nancy's rumor
mongering: I have NEVER perused ads for free pocket pets to feed my
ferrets. I've never taken in a child's pet under the guise of adoption
then served it to my ferrets. I have purchased uncountable mice from
pet stores that were sold as feeder mice, I've raised several
generations of mice as feeders. I've purchased feeder rats from pet
stores. I did have a lady give me a box of 9 guinea pig pups she was
throwing away, her only question was "Do you want these? I'm getting
rid of them". I've purchased chicks from tractor supply. I've bought
creek chubs from bait stores and feeder gold fish from pet shops. Were
any of these animals someones "pet"? NO!
Beyond that, no one except herself, made Nancy research the FML
archives for posts she so often claims she never bothers to read which
upset her gustatorily.
Apologies to Selina for confusing her post with Meryl's.
As to lengthy of posts - Bill can monitor that quite well thank you -
didn't know the word police restricted us to posts of tweet length!
Press a little harder on that scroll button - you'll zoom past what
you don't want to read!
Myself I had a wonderful thanksgiving! I ate "ferret food"! Yup! I
roasted one of the ferret's cornish game hens and had mince pie with
hard sauce for dessert! Mmmm Yummm! Ferrets had Cornish game hen too -
raw! Now, gonna have leftovers!
Cheers,
Kim
please visit :
for ferret help and info:
http://holisticferret.proboards80.com/index.cgi
http://ferretopia.proboards51.com/index.cgi
yahoo groups Natural Ferrets
[Posted in FML 6894]
|
