>I was also wondering if anybody had any good suggestion on how to
>keep food the freshest possible without having to bite into a piece
>of kibble to make sure it isn't stale.
 
Freeze it!  Like you, I feed a mix of four or five different foods at a
time, so I buy 10lb bags or larger (it's cheaper that way) and freeze it
until I need it.  The idea isn't mine - I got it from an old, old FML
nutrition series from Bob C - I believe it's one of the highlighted docs
on the FML archive page.  Anyway, what I do is divide the food up into
half-kilo Ziploc bags and throw them in the freezer.  Then, I take out
just what I need and mix it in a large Rubbermaid food storage container.
That way I only have a week or two of fresh food out at a time.
 
Since kibble contains very little water and has a high surface area
to mass ratio (in other words, it's in tiny pieces) it doesn't freeze
"hard", it doesn't clump, and it "thaws" in a couple of minutes.
Sometimes my ferrets even like to steal a cool "kibble-sicle" right
after I take the food out of the freezer!
 
Ferret food CAN go rancid if left out - it has lots of fats in it.  At
least the good foods do.
 
  -------------------
 
Bob is right - digital scales are the only way to go.  Very few
mechanical scales have the accuracy OR precision to weigh 2lb ferrets.
I bought one mechanical animal scale from Drs. Fosters and Smith....it
was C-R-A-P - junk.  Please don't waste your money on one of those.
 
Your best bet is to get good digital kitchen scale, many of which can be
had for under $30 US.  Most will have a tare function (VERY useful), and
can be switched to read metric or English weights.  Most will handle up
to 4-5 pounds, which is more than enough for most pet ferrets.
 
There are two minor drawbacks to a kitchen scale, though.  First, most
have a tiny platform, so unless your ferret is trained to stand in place
on his back legs for a couple of minutes, you will have a hard time
fitting him on there.  I solve this by placing a bowl on the platform,
zeroing the weight (with the handy tare function), and placing the ferret
in the bowl.  A plastic or stainless bowl works best - glass is too heavy
for the scale.  A tall, deep bowl works better than a shallow, broad bowl
as well, since a ferret WILL try to climb out of the broad bowl and will
end up tipping the whole thing over.
 
The other problem is that most food ingredients don't tend to move much
on their own - at least not once they get to us - so most kitchen scales
don't have the "weight lock" or "average" function that you will find on
veterinary scales.  That means that the ferret's weight will seem to jump
around a bit as you weigh him, so you will have to somewhat estimate the
correct weight.  This effect is more pronounced if you weigh in grams
instead of ounces.
 
Unfortunately good veterinary scales seem to start around $300.  If
you're willing to part with that much though, they're well worth it and
far more precise than any kitchen scale.  Just ask your vet to purchase
one for you through their suppliers.  (I haven't found ANY good small
animal scales available on the consumer market.)
 
I personally weigh even my healthy ferrets once a month, and I know of
others who do the same once a week.  Even with a healthy ferret, doing so
helps you spot health trends before they become crises.
 
  -------------------
 
>I did not know that Marshall's did such a thing as guarantee cards.
>I got something like a birth certificate with some adoptees, but the
>two I bought from a store did not have such papers.  I would attack
 
This seems to be extremely common.  From what I have seen, many of the
distribution centers (often run by the store chains themselves) don't
even bother to send the cards on the stores.  It's a deplorable practice
as far as I'm concerned.  We don't have a single guarantee card/birth
certificate for ANY of our ten Marshall's ferrets - five bought and
five adopted.  I think many of these stores will take the ferrets back
themselves, but we don't want to return our babies like some defective
"goods", we just want help with the medical bills!
 
roger
missing bear, lancelot and kodi
[Posted in FML issue 4402]