Hi everyone, I know this thread happened a few days ago but I was just
catching up, and wanted to share since the topic of feeding ferrets
crickets and grasshoppers came up. I wanted to post this when it
originally happened early this fall, but I was scrambling to repair
the damage! So here's what happened: A few months ago I was sharing
my bedroom with a guy who raises preying mantises as pets (you can
probably already see where this is going). I thought they were pretty
neat; I took care of mantises at the children's museum where I work.
Unfortunately, aforementioned guy had never shared a room with
ferrets before, and it did not occur to him that plastic wrap was not
sufficient covering for the mantis containers. These were his babies,
and the three he had left were a good 3 1/2 inches long.

Let me stress that I take full responsibility for what happened on this
occasion. i *knew* Eddie was a bug hunter. He tore apart a couple of
katydids that got in through the screen and left bits of them for me
in my bed. I also knew he was interested in the mantises. I thought
they were out of his reach when I went downstairs for a cup of coffee,
figuring he couldn't do much in the time I'd be out of the room. HA!
You'd think in practically 10 years of ferret caretaking i would have
known better. I come back into the room, and there's Eddie the Great
Sable Hunter, sitting contentedly in the box with all the mantis
containers.... munching. I see the torn plastic wrap and say out loud,
"Oh, Eddie, you didn't...." He did. It was the biggest, prettiest (and
apparently juiciest) one, and he had eaten half of its fat abdomen.
(sorry if that's a little graphic!) And the poor thing was still alive!
I called my roommate, who was understandably furious, then my boss at
the museum to see if he knew any way to help (mantises can survive with
half a head, but probably not half a gut). The poor bug was ultimately
fed to one of its siblings (hey, that's how they work), and I spent
the entire day trying to figure out a way to make it up to my roommate.
This was the totally wrong time of year for raising mantids, but I
managed to find some fancy baby ones as an apology. I think he
eventually forgave me, but Eddie stayed in trouble with him for a
looooong time.

Moral of the story: yes, ferrets love to eat bugs! I can't blame Eddie
for being a ferret; he was proud as anything that he caught that big
ol' bug, and it was probably quite nutritious. It was after this
incident I started thinking about feeding him crickets, and the posts
over the past few day reminded me. Sorry this was so long, but I just
had to share. Hope everyone and everyfuzz is well, good thoughts to
those who are not.

Rachel, Pukka, and Eduardo Zeppelin-Godzilla von Bugslayer!!

[Posted in FML 5858]