MC wrote:
>Leigh, I think it is true for MOST ferrets, not few.  Yes, if one is
>willing to spend a month or so, mixing foods, doing the blends, you can
>get most ferrets to switch foods.  However, it isn't as easy, in most
>cases, at your post would let readers to believe.
 
I don't personally see anything wrong wih mixing foods for a month.
What's so difficult about that?  I guess we have different ideas of what
is too much trouble.  And yes, I think that over a month or even two there
are probably very FEW ferrets who coudn't be convinced to switch.
 
>We are dealing with people that wouldn't think to blend and grind or
>deceive a ferret into eating a new food.
 
Actually, as I was posting to this list, I guess I was giving people more
credit than that.
 
>They are given a ferret or buy an older ferret from a pet store or get a
>ferret from the pound and then watch as the fuzzy wastes away from
>starvation because no one knows what food it likes.  If the people are
>lucky enough to find the FML or one of the many lists on ferrets and ask,
>they will be helped, but very very few ever find out what killed their
>ferrets.
 
You are completely right in this, this can be a problem, if you don't know
what the ferret ate before how can you gradually change it over to another
food.  That's not really the point I was addressing in the last post.  I
guess my point in the last post was that I have known a LOT of people who
are feeding their ferrets low quality, grocery store cat food.  They tell
me they have tried to switch the ferret to a higher quality food and that
it 'just wouldn't eat' so they switched it back.  I have tried to convince
these people to try to do it gradually.  And yes you will get a big mess
at first, yes the ferrets will snorkle through the dish to pick out the
Purina from the Totally Ferret, yes they might even lose a little weight,
but it can be done (I would still be willing to say IN MOST CASES) in a
manner of one week to several months.  I do beleive all the trouble is
completely worth it.  Whatever the higher quality foods may lack they are
still so much better than the grocery store brands, that even a few months
of scattered food is worth it for the health of your animals.
 
Leigh
[Posted in FML issue 3112]