To Shron + Rocky
 
Feeding Ferrets
 
Many pet owners in the UK will use only dry food for their animals, yet
there are others who will never use it at all.  Others will feed cats,
dogs, or ferrets on raw food, although some will have nothing to do with
it.  Some people accept the concept of raw food, but for one reason or
another will not use it.  Having said that, some people are willing to
feed both.
 
As I have been breeding and rescuing ferrets, as well as other small
animals for over 30 years, I have fed totally raw diets to ferrets, cats
and dogs, but even after my advice to some of today's pet owners they see
a raw diet as something nasty and to be avoided
 
Most pet food manufactures would go out of business if we all went back
to feeding a totally raw diet to our animals; they are not in the
business of producing food for a market that is not there.
 
Who is to blame for what we feed our pets, its not the pet food
manufactures, as your animals are your pets it up to you what you feed
them, with ever the rule is there are exceptions.  I feed raw food to all
the kits daily, plus a bowl of dry food that is replenished each day.  By
the time they are a year old the raw food is only given three or four
meals a week.  I just find it less wasteful.  For many people it is the
money in your pocket that counts.  The food that I have always used is a
cat breeder's mix with 30% protein.  My ferrets are doing well on it and
it is a fraction of the price of any of the dry ferret foods
 
It is through better management of today's pets and better feeding that
the life expectancy of these animals has gone up.  When I first started
with ferrets the life expectancy was 3 years, but I know of many ferret
owners who now see seven years as the lower age limit.  If our animals
are living to a minimum age of 7 years, then that is all we need to worry
about.
 
I dug out one of my many books on small mammals; this quote by a West
Country author was printed in 1983.  "Feeding Ferrets; The traditional
bread and milk can be supplemented by offal or tinned dog and cat food".
That is less than 20 years ago and we are still arguing over the best way
to feed ferrets.  Although ferrets have been proven lactose intolerant,
we still have people who feed them on bread and milk, saying that working
ferrets work better if they are starved.
 
Between my thirteen adult ferrets they also get the following a few times
a week, but not all at the same time.  Canned cat food, (cheapest brand),
brawn, six raw eggs mixed with raw green tripe, raw minced whole chicken,
raw necks - livers - giblets, raw pet mince with a high fat content.  The
dogs and cat sit in the kitchen while the food is being prepared knowing
that if the ferrets are getting it then they will also be included on the
list
 
This argument of how to feed our pets will go on for years, but I would
like you all to remember just one thing.  While our pets are getting the
best food possible that we can find for them, some children in less well
off countries are dying of malnutrition.
 
Written by Tony O'Sullivan )
 
http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/houseferrets/
http://uk.profiles.yahoo.com/houseferrets13uk
http://mysite.freeserve.com/House_Ferrets_UK/
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/house-ferrets
http://www.geocities.com/houseferrets13uk/index.html
http://communities.msn.co.uk/UKHouseFerretsSmallPetsAssociation
Founder of an independent pet group. Articles written about ferrets and
other pets for locale, national, international and internet magazine.
[Posted in FML issue 3931]