It seems as though my husband and I have been lucky (knock on wood!) when it
comes to our little kids' eating habits. We feed them a variety of kibble -
Dad's (low magnesium one), Iams, Marshall Farms, and Purina One. They have also
had  various kitten chows, Science Diet and some Ferret Chow (the only kibble
that they unequivocally refused to eat). Their food dish always has no less
than 2 different types of kibble at any one time. It makes it easy to introduce
new food since you just mix in a little of the new kibble along with everything
else. It may take a few days of trying before they eat the new kibble, but I
think once they get used to its smell/taste, they eat it with as much gusto as
the rest. This way they always have a choice as to what they want to eat and
the variety does them good since different foods have different amounts of
fats, minerals, vitamins, etc. We're also not "tied" to the availability of one
type of chow - it seems as though whenever you get low on one particular type
of food, the stores are out of that kind! :)
 
We're pretty choosey about the cat foods we pick up in the supermarket.
Many of the cat foods we see there don't label their ash and/or magnesium
contents. We had read that male ferrets were prone to the same problems as
male cats when it came to urinary crystals. After seeing the difficulties my
sister has had with 2 of her cats (she currently has 10!!) and urinary
crystals, we try to be real careful as to the ash/magnesium levels of the
various foods.
 
I'm kind of curious to see how Squirt and Pippi would accept the Totally Ferret
food. I've haven't seen it in the Pet Stores here yet.
 
-kim, mike,
Squirt, who wonders if Milton Bradly got the idea for "Twister" from ferrets,
and Pippi, who knows that the saying  "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed" was
        originally in refernce to ferrets!
 
 
  Kimberly Burkard          |              _     Everything I needed to know in
  Xerox, Rochester, NY      |       _____C .._.  life I learned from my ferret:
  [log in to unmask]   |  ____/     \___/   Be flexible and go with life's
  [log in to unmask]  | <____/\_---\_\     twists and turns.
[Posted in FML issue 1095]