>From:    Anonymous Poster <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Spoiled fur ball
>One of the vets told me to just stop feeding the Duck Soup and when he got
>hungary he would eat his regular food.  I can't bring myself to do that
>because the weight increase has been so good I'm afraid he will lose weight
>again, and I also enjoy the closeness of him sitting in my lap.
 
Bobbie and Joey, don't feel bad if you don't want to give up hand feeding
with the duck soup yet.  It hasn't been that long.  One of our ferrets has
been on duck soup for going on two years almost every day - we just cannot
wean him off of it because his health deteriorates when we try.  I'm sure
he's getting all the nutrition he needs but it gives real dirty teeth and so
we have to clean the teeth (not really a favorite activity for either of
us).  One thing you can do to transition him if you are ready is to start
adding powdered dry food to his duck soup.  If you grind it in a coffee
grinder til it is like powder at first this works.  Just a little bit and
then more and more as time goes on.  Then eventually you can start feeding
the dry food dipped in the duck soup piece by piece from your hand to him.
I used to do this for one of ours.  I also had to have a coffee cup of water
within easy reach because she needed to be "hand fed" her water too in
between each piece of dunked food.  (They train us so well).  Usually it is
not so difficult to wean them off of duck soup, but I don't think you need
to rush it if you're ensuring his nutritional needs are being met completely
and he is doing well on the recipe.
 
>From:    Anonymous Poster <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Fancy Feast Cat Food
>the flavor is (Whitefish & Shrimp).  From everything I have read ferts are
>not suppose to like fish, my concern is that she is lacking something in
>her diet that gives her the urge to eat fish.
 
Most of our guys LOVE fish.  We found this out because we have cats and as a
treat we give them canned tuna and canned red salmon (water packed) from
time to time.  Well the little ferrets found out about it and after I would
put some fish down in a bowl for the cat and walk away the ferrets would
sneak out and steal every last piece of fish before the cat got any.  So,
now when giving fish treats we have to give EVERYBODY some... (They also
really like the canned chicken and canned turkey too - it's an easy snack.)
 
Have a good day,
Charlene
[Posted in FML issue 1744]