Hi,
Just to introduce myself a little bit, I have just one ferret, Annika.
Before Annika was the proud mother of Suki, who passed in September of 1998
after a four year battle with lymphsarcoma at the age of 7.  Suki never
liked other ferrets so she, like Annika, was an only child.  Annika is just
11 months old, and a joy to behold.  I live in Victoria BC, and attend
university full time, so I am able to be with Annika about 18 hours a day.
I love my little fuzzy to death, and she has been an enormous help in
getting over the loss of my precious Suki, who I think is always with us.
Alas I would not be writing if we were not having serious problems with
Annika.  Not only does she chew everything in site, bite just about
everyone but she refuses to eat.  In the last two months my partner and my
parents and I have been waging what seems like a loosing battle with Annika
over food.  If I make her a baby mush formula she will eat a decent amount
of food.  Of course she will only eat if I sit and hand feed her.  I
managed to get her weight up and slowly ween her from syringe to spoon.
Then I started to lower the amount of wet food she was offered hoping she
would start to eat solid food.  In the last couple of days on the advice
of my vet and other friends we have tried to out stubborn her.  The theory
being since we know nothing is wrong with her ability to chew, digestion or
ability to swallow that if I dont feed her she will eat her regualar food.
Five days, she has lost almost a quarter of a pound and will only eat the
occasional raisin and dog biscuit.  She gets up and rushes to the fridge
(which contains the wet food) and waits there to see if I will give in.
I am not prepared to let her starve, but we are at our wits end.  See she
did not have eating problems until she was about 7 months old, now she has
always been a sparse eater, but I measured and in five days she has eaten
1 tablespoon of kibble.  We have changed her diet, even ordered in the
Zupreem ferret food 'cause they said she would not have to eat as much to
maintain weight, but she just won't eat.  I have had vets checks, she has
no parasites NOTHING WRONG WITH HER at least that is what all the tests
report.  Nothing wrong except that she wont eat.  Has anyone else ever had
this problem?  Does anyone have any solutions.  I am assuming that if we
can get her eating properly that we will see a change in some of her
chewing and biting, which we all suspect is more because she is hungry then
anything else.  She did not bite and her chewing was to an acceptable level
when I was feeding her wet food twice a day.  Sorry this is so long, but I
just want to make sure that I have not missed anything that might help
explain her behavior.  Oh Annika has not been fixed or descented, part of
the reason for waiting so long is that she has not been able to maintain a
stable weight for any length of time and the vet is afraid of the effect
surgery might have on her if she is too thin!  She needs to be spayed soon,
and this adds a kindof urgency to our plight.  If need be I am willing to
feed her every day for the rest of her life, I just want her to have a
normal life and she is not helping me in this regards.  Any advice would be
of great help.  Please feel free to email me directly at:
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Thank you in advance
Jenn and annika seven of nine and shawn
[Posted in FML issue 2927]