On Thu, 24 Dec 1998 08:22:45 -0500 Mary Sennwald <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>Hello Edward, I know you are very busy, so I will try and keep this
>short. If you have time to respond in the next couple of weeks, that
>would be wonderful, if not, well, whenever you have time. :)
Dear Mary and others who would like to share your amusing story about how
your "terrible 10" deal with little mice as a potential snack, I should
like to respond to your querry. Please see my response below you original
email.
>I am of the understanding that you feed your ferrets mice. I have tried
>with my tribe of 10, but only 3 are interested in even looking at them.
>Two bury them under blankies, and our only one that is interested, (a
>spayed Path Vally Farms lady, almost a year old) takes them and lines them
>up against the inside wall of the bed, keeping them all neat and tidy.
>Commendable housekeeping, but mice tend to uh.. lose their appeal after
>24 hours. I have tried fresh killed, frozen, skinned, not skinned.. any
>ideas? They normally eat Totally Ferret. All are within a few months of
>a year.
>
>Thank you Edward.. and here's wishing you the peace and joy of a
>Christmas season filled with family and friends.
>
>Mary and the terrible 10
Dear Mary and others,
No, as of this time I have not offered any of my Frettchens little
Ma(umlaut)uschen [Maeuschen [G] mice], primarily because I've no source of
them currently. However, there is a nice lady friend of mine (Carol) who
has snakes as pets and does breed mice and rats for them. She has offered
baby mice (called "pinkies") as well as baby rats (?) to me as a
supplementary food source for Miss Minkie, our resident fur-farm female
mink.
I would think that Miss Maggie (our resident magpie) would probably like
them too.
Up to this point I must admit that giving our Frettchens "pinkies"
(new-born mice & rats) had not occured to me. The reason for this is that
I get all the fresh meat I need from the local supermarket meat department.
I put this meat into my ferret meat/vegetable soup (about 3 gallons) I cook
up every day (it's called LUMPS*) for not only our 38 Frettchens but also
for Miss Minkie and for Miss Maggie as well.
The meat product I use comes free. All I have to do is jump in my
Volkswagen Squareback (What else would I, a Germanophile be driving?) and
putt-putt down to the local supermarket with a few dirty jokes in mind to
yak it up with the butcher. He cleans out the catching tray in the big
meat saw (the meat, bone, blood, fat, fish, turkey, chicken, lamb -
whatever is cut up that day - and hands it over to me, a completely
pulverized collection of goodies sometimes as large a package the size of
the thing that fits into a DDD bra cup, less the nipple.
Unlike the famous DUCK soup, which is used primarily as a remedial additive
or substitute food for an ailing Frettchen, LUMPS is a primary staple food
source for our Frettchens and is complemented from time to time by whole
cooked chicken parts (39 to 49 cents a pound when you buy 10 pound bags of
it on sale) and also complemented from time to time by whatever crunchy
cat food I buy (20 pound bags) when I see it on coupon sale.
As a shelter operator myself, I would suggest that other shelters consider
adopting our food preparation procedures too, since costs can be minimized,
there is never ECE, never dehydration, no cancer or lymphosarcomas (that I
know of) and the daily soup feeding will turn a biting ferret into a kissy -
lickey ferret in a very short time without going through the agony of
punctured, blood dripping fingers.
Should it be the case that our LUMPS procedures (including the recipie) be
requested, (it's a 15-sheet, illustrated document) please be so kind to
send a SASE** and enclose 8 (eight) 32-cent US postage stamps. Send to
FNW, 4321 86th Ave SE, Mercer Island, WA 98040-4124. Surely, your beloved
ferret is worthy of eight stamps and a SASE.
I know that mine are - all 38 to them.
*LUMPS = L . ipinski's U . ltimate M . ustelid P . orridge S . oup
SASE** = Self-Addressed Stamped (52 cents) Envelope (business sized 4-1/8
in. by 9-1/2 in.)
Edward Lipinski, Er selbst sagt: [G] he himself says:
Empta dolore docet experientia [L] Experience bought with pain teaches.
[Posted in FML issue 2539]
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