[Posted in 2-parts. Combined here.]
 
Having had fat, normal and thin ferrets, I think that there are some
things that need to be taken into consideration...
 
Example #1: We have one ferret.  Slim, who is definitely his name sake.
In the summer, he is sleek and streamlined.  You can feel his spine bones
and compared to a *normal* looking ferret, he appears underweight.  Slim
eats well, and there is nothing physically wrong with him.  He is simply
a thin ferret *normally*.  In the winter, the weight goes up and it is at
this time of year when we feel we have a ferret of normal weight.  Every
year the same thing happens... summer... weight drop... winter weight
gain.  What I had to realize was that Slim was a naturally skinny ferret.
Luckily I have a vet who did not overreact and force me to put weight on
him.  He understood that body types vary.  Although thin ferrets are
usually associated with sickness, in Slim's case it was not.
 
Example #2: We have Mushu who came from a pet store and was a *normal*
weight.  She was not heavy nor was she thin.  In the first year she
maintained a good weight and there were no issues to speak of.  Then one
summer for 4 months I babysat a group of ferrets and ending up cutting
their living space in half.  My group got the upstairs, and the new group
got the downstairs.  Soon after this, Mushu gained weight.  She went from
normal to overweight.  And when I say overweight on a ferret, I mean the
kind of fat that stores in the neck, under the armpits, over the spine...
you can literally feel the fat.  I surmised that Mushu, along with my
other ferrets, did not get access to the stairs as much as they would in
a freeroam situation, and her level of exercise had changed causing the
weight gain.  She was the only one that reacted this way.
 
Once the stairs were opened to all ferret all the time, her weight did
not change.  In fact, here it is over 2 years later and Mushu is still
heavy.  She has lost some weight, but not very much.  My concern for
her is heart problems.  We don't feed junk food, but I have noticed that
she is a ferret that now eats all the time.  Did a change in her daily
activities by cutting off access affect her mentally, similarly to people
who binge eat, gain/loose weight... was she depressed?  Possible.  But to
see her you would find a happy ferret, loves to be cuddled and lays so
quietly in people's arms.  She is a sweetheart.
 
Example #3: We had a ferret named Tinder who came as a private adoption
and was a small female to begin with.  Her weight was in the middle to
low range.  Just enough weight to feel the spine.  One day, we noticed
her snoring... a cute high pitched one that was awfully darn cute.  It
made it easy for us to find out where she was sleeping.  About a month
or so later, we discovered a lump on her neck.  She had a surgery that
removed a large hard mass of something.  It was responsible for pushing
her trachea up and over, causing the snoring.
 
In the months that followed Tinder began to put on weight, and then more
weight, and then too much weight.  She began to balloon.  The vet we had
at the time told me she was in kidney failure and we gave her Lasix and 6
weeks to live.  6 months later, Tinder was still alive and still getting
bigger.  It got to the point where she was so fat that her legs could no
longer support her.  They became flipper feet instead.  Her breathing
was laboured and it was hard to see her having a tough time getting
around.  We fed her only twice a day in hopes of aiding weight loss, but
she only got bigger.  Finally, we had to make a decision and we had her
euthanized.  The necropsy revealed she was filled with fat but all of her
organs were fine.  Unfortunately, adrenals were not checked.  Much later
we found out that maybe something else could have been done.  But for
Tinder, it was too late.  The reason I changed vets.
 
Example #4: Thalia came to us as a severe biter.  She was huge!  I
thought she was a male.  She had been given depo prevera to induce a
false pregnancy to help the biting.  It didn't work.  Her belly dragged
on the ground where no light could come through.  She too had heavy neck
padding.  When she ran, the fat lolled like waves in the ocean.  We did
nothing special with her.  We did not restrict food.  For her it seemed
strictly a matter of exercise combined with gentle understanding to deal
with her biting.  It took almost half a year for her weight to drop to
*normal*.  And now she is good about drawing blood too.
 
Example #5: Nova came to us as an obvious adrenal case and ended up
having both adrenals removed with the left being a total vena ligation.
Nova was a tiny ferret to begin with.  Without fur, she is noticeably
thin.  Although she has recovered from the surgery, we are dealing with
other issues here and getting her to put on even a gram of weight
permanently is a challenge.  She will need further tests to determine her
condition, but for the most part, aside from her thinness, she is active
and has the muscles and strength to prove it.  She is doing okay for her.
 
So what is too fat?  Fat that covers the bone to the point you can't feel
the spine, fat that pads the neck so much your fingers disappear, and a
belly that drags on the floor.  BTW, a big ferret should not be confused
with a fat ferret.  A big ferret is proportionately solid but does not
have excessive fat padding.  Can a ferret be naturally fat?  I would have
to assume if a ferret can be naturally slim then the opposite is also
true.  But the danger of what is determined as normal weight has to be
based on other factors.
 
1. Mental state.  Caged or not, the mental well being of the ferret has
to be addressed.  We have to ask ourselves if the mental state of the
ferret also plays a part in their weight, similar to how it affects
people.
 
2. Activity level.  We all know that exercise does wonders for body and
mind.  We have to ask ourselves if the ferret is getting enough physical
activity to control a decent weight.  But this leads into another
discussion of what exactly is enough exercise.  Some people find if their
ferrets have out of cage time for an hour to two a day, that is enough.
Some people, like me, feel that unlimited access to run, jump and play,
and allowing them to *self administer their activity* is a better way to
control weight.  I tend to feel that if a ferret is clawing at the cage
to get out, or destructive behaviors are happening, then the time
allotted is probably not enough.  But until a definitive study is done,
all we can do is be our own best judges as to what is enough exercise.
 
3. Personal views.  The factor of our own personal feelings comes
heavily into play here too.  My father felt that fat was a social status
signaling success in the ability to feed a family.  It was also a
repercussion from the war they endured.  For whatever personal reasons
people have for liking fat ferrets or viewing fat as the norm, we have
to understand that this way of thinking *may* not be the reality of
having a healthy animal.
 
4. Societal perception also plays a big factor.  Some of you may be
familiar with the study done years ago in which children and adults were
given a sheet that showed outlines of men and women in underweight,
normal and overweight sizes.  Adults picked the overweight male as normal
weight for men, and the underweight female for women.  If I remember
correctly, the children reflected the adults.  Some people go along with
what is accepted for normal weight for a ferret.  I have seen people with
overweight ferrets tell me mine were too thin.  Fat is perceived as
healthy.  Skinny is perceived as sick.
 
5. Vet opinions.  Relying on the professionals to tell us what is normal
and healthy can have as much variation as any other field.  Although vets
have books to give them the normal body weight ranges, a vet's own
perceptions will also affect how he or she feels about a ferret's weight.
For a vet who does not have a great deal of experience with ferrets to
tell an owner that their skinny ferret is too thin, or too fat, has to be
tempered with what we as individuals supplement our own knowledge with.
 
6. Health.  Disease and other medical factors can have a direct affect
on the weight of a ferret.  Tests need to be done to determine the true
health of the animal, and in some cases, an exploratory done, bearing in
mind that an underweight ferret is not a good surgical candidate.
 
7. Diet.  As we've seen over the last little while, there is still much
to be settled on in terms of what to feed a ferret.  Common sense says
rule out the sweets, but we have a long way to go to determine the rest.
 
8. Breeding.  It is thought that there is a genetic link to obesity in
people.  Can the same be said for ferrets?
 
9. Geography.  Do ferrets in different areas of the world have different
weight ranges than the ones we are familiar with?  And if they do, what
are the factors we need to keep in mind?  All of the above and more.
 
10. Environmental.  Pollution, Chernobyl... all need to be factored in
somehow.
 
11. The unknown.
 
Lots to think of... and more.
 
betty and her blur o'fur
for the love of ferrets
[Posted in FML issue 3953]