Ah yes, about food and offering variety! I am sure it is a good idea.
I have always given a variety of food, but instead of mixing it I put
different kinds in different locations and also vary the varieties over
time. Now I am going to do some mixing.

Here's the story: I haven't given them Marshalls for about a year.
becasue of the scent it gives their bodies. When I fed it, I actually
liked that molasses-fishy scent, but some of my friends did not -- a
couple wouldn't even come in the house -- I think they had extra big
nasal imaginations, don't you? So the gang has been getting Mazuri,
Zupeme, Totally Ferret, Wysong (lately), and I forget what else.
Nowadays I am utterly broke (partly due to my wonderful ferret outdoor
pens and soon-to-be-complete (I HOPE) elevated walkway between them).
So I bought two enormous bags of Marshalls.

Well, the only other food in the house now is Wysong's Archetype 2, and
I had been feeding it a lot, and then, by chance, exclusively for a
couple of weeks. But now they have Marshalls in their indoor cage and
Wysong outdoors. When I put them outside, you would think they had been
starved indoors the way they crowd around the Wysong food bowl and how
long they stay there eating. Are they shunning the Marshalls? Uh oh! Or
maybe they are just too lazy to go up to the top level of their cages
where the food is?

I switched a week ago from a  connected pair of Super Pet cages to a
connected pair of Martin's cages. (This was partly becasue the Super
Pet ones are hell to keep clean and to change bedding.) In the old
setup, the food was on the middle level, and now it is on the top 
level -- a big dispenser in each of the two cages. I am sure they 
know where their food is, and the food level has been going down!
But clearly they want Wysong.

It is tempting to gove in to the and give them only Wysong. It
certainly does seem to have a lot of great balanced ingredients.
But they need to accept a variety inc ase they get sick and need
to eat unfamiliar things, right?

[Posted in FML 5398]