--- Inkommet fr=E5n VOS.VOSJOL 08-744 7279 94-12-13 17.03 -> ERI.EXM4."FERRET-LIST..CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU"..INET3..EDS -: - - - - - - - - - - > (ERICSSON) Date: Tuesd, 13 Dec 1994 =46rom: vos.vos.vosjol memo4.ericsson.se Subject: Vegie ferrets Dear ferret friends, I have just recently been connected to the FML, and have eagerly been studying all interesting questions debated on the net. I have had ferrets for almost ten years and experienced a lot of different things from each individual ferret. One question that I always get when I have contact with non-ferret people is what they eat. The answer to that is not quite sipmle, as there is one thing what they actually can eat and another thing what is good for them. I always recommend to give them a varied diet, based predominantly on dried and canned cat food. This gives them a nutrition which is sufficient under normal circumstances. However, one day you come to the situation that your ferret gets sick. All of a sudden you have to feed it with special diet. I'm most certain that I'm not the only one that have experianced the difficulties in making the ferret eat something completely new, especially if it has been fed more or less with the same food all the time. My experiance though, which I know is shared by a lot of other ferret people, is that you can get your ferret used to more or less anything, if you do it when they are small. There is a whole range of different things you can feed a ferret, without any danger, if you just do it in small proportions. One thing that is easy to make them eat is vegetables, others are fruits, candies, meat etc. The important thing is to do it when they are small. An adult ferret is almost impossible to get to eat soemthing new if it hasn't been trained when young. I have now four ferrets, of which one, Maia, came to our house when it was just about one year old. All the rest of our ferrets eat meat with delight. They actually comes running as soon as i start to use the scissors (we normally cut the meat into small pieces with the scissors). But it is impossible to make Maia eat meat. She was only fed on dried cat food until she came to us. After a couple of months she started to eat canned cat food, but she still refuses to even taste meat. I have seen equal reactions on other ferrets who have never ever tasted meat. But you can be certain that if fed on meat when young, it will be the absolute favourite for ever. One thing I have noticed with ferrets is that they often like vegetables with a lot of water (ie cucumbers, green peppers) and banana. Also other types of fruits are popular, like oranges and apples. This also depends on what you have trained them to eat when they are young, but in some cases also older ferrets eat both fruit and vegetables without ever having tasted it before. It is though a bit individual, but it is not that tightly connected with training them when young as compared to make theme at meat. I don't know the reason to that, but it is quite common situation. One of our vets in Sweden said that the best thing for a ferret to eat, if it shall have the right nutrition and training for the teeth, is to give it whole animals. Try one day old chickens, they love it. Greetings from Sweden /Johan (and ferrets: Maia, Penelope, Zeus and Amanda) [Posted in FML issue 1042]