My husband and I just took in another ferret *smile with a sigh* and are
having some food issues with her.  We have taken in ferrets for years and
have had various issues with all of them, but this is one that we just
can't seem to figure out.  I think we have the situation figured out, but
some suggestions would be great on how to better handle the situation.
The little girl, Samantha, is 18 months old.  She came from a home with
no other ferrets or animals.  She had some free-roam and cage time.  When
she had her time out of the cage, she basically got into everything,
according to her previous owner.  She learned to scale trash bags hanging
outside of the can and climb into the can and steal all kinds of food.
She was always stealing any human food that she could get from Ho-Ho's
to Oreo's to bologna.  She was fed a diet of Purina Kitten Chow and ham.
Our problem is that she will not eat anything!  We feed our ferrets a
variety of 8-10 different foods, so there is always a selection.  We
bought the kitten chow so that she would eat that as we try to wean her
off of it to better food.  But...she won't eat it now.  We can't get her
to eat anything but crud.  I cooked up chicken, and she won't touch that.
I ended up buying some cubed ham, boiled off the salt and gave her a
piece.  She snatched it out of my hand and took off with it, hissing the
whole way to her cage.  She is kind of skinny, so we have come up with
the conclusion that we need to feed her what she wants to at least get
food into her tummy, with the hopes of her eating regular kibble, since
she won't eat chicken.  She hisses at the drop of a hat for anything,
especially when it comes to food.  She isn't mean at all, but just snotty
around food.  I have tried soaking kibble in chicken broth, and she snubs
it.  She just wants ham.  Are there any suggestions out there to help?
She acts as if she hasn't eaten in years.  Our next step will be to try
to get her introduced gradually to the other ferrets.  She encountered
one the other day and she screamed and snapped at him.  Obviously, there
is some animosity, but we hope that will work out too.  But, we aren't
going to do anything until she has the food issue under control a little
better.
 
Thanks for any suggestions!  We are stumped here!
 
Angela and the crew:
Rugsy, Ralphie, Peekers, Pepper, BearBear, Alex, Radar, Dagwood, and
Samantha
[Posted in FML issue 4638]