>We have 2 girls out of a rescue shelter and they are NOT eating or drinking
>unless forced, do ferrets starve themselves?
>Marsha & Jerry   Verrrry worried fert parents!
 
Dear Marsha & Jerry,
 
At Ferrets NorthWest we've found that the way to the tummy is over the
tongue, or, to put it another way, find out what tastes good to these two
girls and start with that.  Hmmm.  Easy for me to say.
 
It's quite likely that they have a taste for cantalope, honeydew mellon,
watermellon, cucumbers, or even kiwi fruit, not to mention red licorice.
Try samples of each and see which they'll lick or even eat out of your hand.
When you then find out what they like, then make a warm soup out of that
particualr substance and add to it just a tiny amount of what ever kind of
kitten chow or ferret chow you have on hand.  Be sure to pulverize the soup
in a high speed blender (mix in a drollop of fresh yoghurt) since you want
to ESPOSE as much as possible of the SURFACE AREA of the food to the
ENZYMATIC digestive juices of the ferret's tummy and gut.  (Oh, have you've
tested them for Ferretone?)
 
I assume you have not been able to find out from the previous owner what the
diet of these two has been.  Chances are they've been restricted to just one
and only one type of food, and as a consequence they won't easily be
converted over to some other food that's not familiar.
 
Man, this really gets me a little hot under the collar, when it becomes
obvious that a LAZY owner will restrict a ferret to one and only one kind of
food over a long period of time.  Here at Ferrets North West we are somewhat
contrary to the average in that we emphasize feeding ferrets the widest
variety of foods possible, so that, in effect, they'll eat almost anything
nutritous & wholesome
 
    Omne ignotum pro magnifico. [L.]  Everything unknown is magnificent.
 
        Edward Frettchenvergnuegen Lipinski,  Der
Frettchenlustbarkeitsfuehrer !
[Posted in FML issue 2128]