Post by Forum Administrator on Mar 27, 2008 8:56:47 GMT -5
Disclaimer:
The advice given on the Holistic Ferret Forum is in no way meant to replace the advice of a liscensed vet. Not all vets agree with feeding ferrets a raw/natural diet, but many out there are starting too. Please check out our list of natural diet supportive ferret vets to find one near you (this list is constantly being updated):
holisticferret.proboards80.com/index.cgi?board=medicine&action=display&thread=35
All information/advice on this site is to be used at your own risk. By posting on the Holistic Ferret Forum you are saying that you have read, understand, and agree that the Holistic Ferret Forum Administrator, Moderators, Mentors, and Members are in NO WAY to be held liable for any advice/info given.
It is YOUR responsibility as a ferret owner to take ALL advice (including the advice we give) with a grain of salt. We encourage you to do this with anyone (us, your vet, books, websites) your ferrets are counting on you to make choices for them. BE INFORMED and QUESTION everything you learn. If someone can't support their claim with reputable sources, take it (their claim) with a grain of salt.
We want our members to be safe and have fun. Please cooperate with the HF staff and keep us up-to-date on the progress of your ferrets. By monitering your ferret's diet we can do our best to ensure things dont go wrong. Accidents CAN and WILL happen and there are risks with ANY diet, so be aware of this. Again, The Holistic Ferret Forum is in NO way to be held liable should the info/advice on our forum lead to problems with your ferret.
The Holistic Ferret Forum Goals:
As a forum we strive to be:
1. Informative: Our site is monitered closely by a variety of experienced natural feeders. Our goal is to provide the newest, most accurate, most helpful info out there regarding natural ferret diet/care. The Holistic Ferret Forum is an offshoot of the upcoming Holistic Ferret Website (informative site). The upcoming HF website is the most cumulative, easy to use, complete guide to natural ferret diet/care on the net!
2. Personal: Each and every member is attended to. From the second you set "foot" on our forum, the Holistic Ferret staff is here to help you out. Got a question about natural diet/care? We're on it! Ready to swith your ferret(s) to a natural diet? We're here to help! We guide you every step of the way. We moniter your progress, and we help you succeed! We dont just answer your questions, we guide you. You will never meander about, confused on what you are doing. We "hold your hand" every step of the way! We PROMISE!
Not only that, but we are always open to your suggestions on how to improve the site.
In addition, I (the forum admin) check in on each and every one of our members via PM or email atleast once a month. As forum Admin I am VERY involved in this list. Want a siggy banner? I'll make you one! Want a "custom title" under your user name? I'll find one for you! Just having a rough day and need to talk? PM me! I can talk to you via email, PM, forum, AIM, or phone!
We strive to "get to know you" and "make you part of the family". At The Holistic Ferret Forum, you and your pets are our priority!
3. Fun: From our whimsical forum graphics, to our cute ferret-y emoticons, to our staff's sense of humor, we strive to make the HF forum a fun place to be!
4. Fresh: We do our best to keep the forum fresh and exciting. We are constantly adding new emoticons, and from time to time we create new sub-boards in the Odds and Ends section. Ferrets aren't the only thing to discuss here at HF! In our O&E section you can connect with World of Warcraft players, talk about natural diet/care for your dog or cat, catch up on the latest books in our book club, or just shoot the breeze and talk about what's on your mind.
5. Friendly: Our staff and our members are the friendliest around! The HF forum is packed with people that are polite, caring, and friendly. Unproductive arguments are kept in line, and all in all our members really get along! In addition we try and foster a friendly relationship between other ferret forums. Respect and caring are two of our main priorities here at the HF Forum!
6. Organized: We keep the forum "easy-to-navigate" by "stickying" important topics, organizing the forum into appropriate sections, and subsections and constantly grooming the forum to keep topics properly labeled.
7. Fast: Here at HF we pride ourselves on the speed at which your questions are answered. No more waiting around for a day and a half to get an answer to your question(s). Got a question? We've got an answer for you in 12 hours or less, GUARENTEED!
Holistic Ferret Philosophy:
Here are the core beliefs of Holistic Ferret. Not everyone may agree with them, and thats okay (you are still welcome here!) but its important to know what we stand for:
1. Natural nutrition for every ferret! Here are Holistic Ferret we believe that EVERY ferret should have access to a total (or at the very least partial) natural diet. There are many natural diets out there. Holistic Ferret believes the ideal diet for a ferret is a whole prey diet. However, we realize that not everyone can/wants to feed this way, so we also help our members to feed a raw diet (based on the prey model), a commercial raw diet, or a raw diet as a supplement to kibble.
Here at HF we DO NOT believe that kibble is a biologically appropriate food for a ferret. We discourage the feeding of kibble, but you are still welcome here if you choose to feed kibble (such as if you are looking to supplement your ferret's diet with natural foods, or if you are looking for non-diet related ways to provide natural care to your ferret).
Here are some wonderful quotes that express the philosophy of Holistic Ferret:
Leave your drugs in the chemist's pot
if you can heal the patient with food.
Hippocrates
He that takes medicine and neglects diet,
wastes the skill of the physician.
Chinese Proverb
When diet is wrong medicine is of no use.
When diet is correct medicine is of no need.
Ancient Ayurvedic Proverb
You are what you eat.
American proverb
Let food be thy medicine, thy medicine shall be thy food.
Hippocrates
Let nothing which can be treated by diet
be treated by other means.
Maimonides
The doctor of the future will give no medication,
but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame,
diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.
Thomas A Edison
if you can heal the patient with food.
Hippocrates
He that takes medicine and neglects diet,
wastes the skill of the physician.
Chinese Proverb
When diet is wrong medicine is of no use.
When diet is correct medicine is of no need.
Ancient Ayurvedic Proverb
You are what you eat.
American proverb
Let food be thy medicine, thy medicine shall be thy food.
Hippocrates
Let nothing which can be treated by diet
be treated by other means.
Maimonides
The doctor of the future will give no medication,
but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame,
diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.
Thomas A Edison
2. Natural care for every ferret!
Healing: Holistic Ferret believes in integrative medicine, that is combining traditional allopathic medicine and homeopathic/holistic/alternative medicine to create the ultimate healing model for your ferret. We feel that you get the "best of both worlds" when you combine these two methods of healing. We encourage our members to pursue acupuncture, acupressure, herbs, aromatheraphy, healing massage, and more for their ferret. We advise pursuing these treatments under the supervision of an experienced Holistic/Homeopathic vet.
Chemical Flea/Tick/Mite Preventatives: We DO NOT support the use of flea/tick/mite preventatives. We feel that there are natural alternatives to these pesticides and we encourage you to make use of these instead of putting pesticide/poison onto your ferret.
Heartworm Preventatives: While we absolutely DO NOT recommend using a flea/tick/mite preventative, when it comes to heartworm preventative, things are a little different. If a ferret gets heartworm, its almost impossible to treat it. Therefore, we encourage our members to weigh the benefits and risks of using a preventative vs. not using a preventative before making a choice on what to do for your ferret.
Enrichment: We recommend providing your ferret with enrichment to keep them mentally stimulated and sound. We feel that enrichment is much more then just "play time" and that it is VITAL to the (mental/emotional) health of your ferret.
Time Outside: We feel that ferrets should get outside as often as possible. Even if its just playing outside in a playpen, or going for a short walk, we feel that ferrets benefit IMMENSELY from time outdoors and that this is not a luxury, but a necessity.
Vaccinations: Some of our members do not support ANY vaccinations at all, EVER, while others re-vax every year. While there may be different opinions on the Holistic Ferret Fourm, please know that Holistic Ferret believes that all ferrets should recieve their initial distemper series of shots (with optional rabies vaccine). HOWEVER, we recommend titering every year (please participate in the Mongo Memorial Distemper Research Fund: www.ferret.org/news/07-april-titer_study.html) BEFORE choosing to re-vax. Overvaccination has serious consequences and HF feels that its best to avoid these issues by using titers.
The Holistic Ferret Forum Rules:
By posting on The Holistic Ferret Forum, you agree to the following terms and conditions:
1.) The name of this site is HOLISTIC ferrets. This board is geared towards providing ferrets with a holistic lifestyle. To be a member of this board you must either a.) currently provide your ferret with natural/holistic diet/care OR b.) you must be in the process of learning HOW to provide holistic diet/care to your ferrets.
2.) This board is NOT the place to argue about whether or not a natural diet/lifestyle is better than a commercial diet. By posting on this board you are stating that you feel a natural diet/lifestyle IS better for your ferret. Therefore, there should not be any arguments about this subject anywhere on the forum. This board is a place for natural feeders to post about their ferret's diet without having to worry about being harassed. Please respect this. If you do not, you will be immediately banned.
3.) Please post in the appropriate section. For example, do not post about ferret litter in the raw diet section.
4.) Please refrain from using swear words or talking about R rated content. Swear words that are censored ARE okay (such as s**t) but you MUST be dilligent about this or disciplinary action will be taken. Please do your part to keep this a family-friendly board. Discussion of religion and politics is also strictly prohibited! No racial slurs, derogatory comments, sexual comments, or 'bashing'. No posting of sexually-explicit photographs, icons, etc.
5.) No spamming!!!
6.) Please conduct yourself in a mature, respectful manner when posting on the boards. Debates are welcome, but any threads that contain debates that turn sour and unproductive will be locked.
7.) Harassing other members, moderators, etc WILL NOT be tolerated and will result in immediate banning. Please respect the moderators, their job is to help keep this forum fun, safe, and running smoothly. If you are experiencing a problem with another member, DO NOT argue with them. PM a me or a moderator immediately and we will sort out the conflict.
8.) By posting on this board you are agreeing to the proboards TOU (terms of use).
9.) Holistic Ferret understands that many of our members are members of other forums as well. At Holistic Ferret we like to foster a relationship between other boards. We encourage our members to get out and get involved in multiple ferret message boards. As such, we DO allow you to post, advertise, and promote other forums on our website. Feel free to discuss other useful forums/websites on the board, or post links to them in your siggies.
10.) No 'animal for sale' ads are allowed on this site. We DO allow you to post a re-homing ad for your ferret in the "Find A Ferret" Section if for some reason you are no longer able to care for your ferret. If posting a re-home ad using our site, please use one of the 'adoption info forms' that is stickied at the top of the Craigslist section. We encourage you to charge a rehoming fee, but ONLY to cover the costs of getting the ferret ready for adoption (adv test, vaccinations, etc). Charging a large rehoming fee to recoup costs of food, litter, supplies, etc is NOT permitted!
11.) The Holistic Ferret Forum is a branch of the Holistic Ferret website. We have an entire site dedicated to natural ferret diet/care. Because of this, we do not have many articles stickied in our nutrition, care, and medical sections. As a member of the Holistic Ferret Forum, we expect you to read and review the Holistic Ferret website when it opens this August.
12.) Please refrain from making threads addressed to a single member, such as: "Hey aJK49 how are your ferrets doing?" The Holistic Ferret Forum offers a PM (private message) service. Please utilize this service to privately contact other members.
13.) Posting pointless, or useless posts to increase your post count is not allowed. This clutters the forum and provides no benefit to other members. Please keep posts relevant and useful.
14.) Each member is allowed ONE username/login name. Multiple accounts will not be allowed and will be deleted as needed.
15.) All accounts that have been inactive for 3+ months, or any account that has been opened and contains 0 posts one month after opening the account, will be deleted. This is to ensure that our 'members' list does not become clogged with the names of people who dont even post on the forum anymore. If you wish to remain and ACTIVE member of the HF forum, please respond to the email we send you and let us know. If your account is deleted and you later decide to come back to the Holistic Ferret Forum, you are more then welcome to create a new account, just keep it "active" by logging in atleast onced every three months.
16.) Please refrain from "hijacking" threads. We understand that sometimes a topic comes up in a thread and it would feel more natural to just continue the topic rather then start a new thread, but hijacking detracts from the usefulness of a thread, so please keep all posts relavent to the thread you are posting in. If a topic comes up that you find interesting please make a post saying "Hey, this topic is interesting, I am starting a thread on it in the ________ section, here is the link:" then go back to discussing the topic at hand. Just a note, in O&E (odds and ends) I have no problem if you hijack threads. That is an off-topic causal area. It is in the ferret-related areas that I need everyone to stay on track. This will help EVERYONE in the end. Thank you for your cooperation.
17.) There is no post limit required to advertise any ferret related items. If you run a store, a home-made bedding site, etc feel free to post away. All posts about things for sale MUST be in the "shopping" category and posted in the appropriate forum. All we ask is that you read this link before posting: holisticferret.proboards80.com/index.cgi?board=stuff&action=display&thread=138 Thanks for your cooperation.
18.) Please check the news fader (it says "news' and then various messages flash below it) each time you come to the HF forum. I know some forums might not utilize this feature very much, but here at HF Forum we use it regularly. This is the place to check up on news each day that you log in. Please do not miss out on important announcements because you did not read the news fader.
19.) Please regularly check your PMs (private messages). From time to time I will PM you imporant information (and other forum members might be trying to contact you). To learn about PMs and how to enable a pop up window that shows up to alert you each time you get a PM please check out this thread:
holisticferret.proboards80.com/index.cgi?board=support&action=display&thread=37
Just a few side-notes (not really rules, but they ARE important):
1.) If for any reason the forum is not working or the board is down email me at Holisticferret @ yahoo.com and I'll be able to let you know what is going on .
2.) You can check the progress of the Holistic Ferret Website by visiting this thread:
holisticferret.proboards80.com/index.cgi?board=rules&action=display&thread=48
3.) For updates and info regarding the HF FORUM (such as new graphics, emoticons, features, etc) please regularly check the "Info, Announcements, and Board Rules" section
4.) Don't foget to check out the other forum on natural feeding and care, NaturalFerrets:
www.NaturalFerrets.com
There is a wealth of information on natural feeding/care in the NaturalFerret archives. We encourage all HFF members to join NaturalFerrets as well
Member Titles
Periodically you will notice titles below member's usernames. Here is a guide to what each thing means:
1. Holistic Ferret Mentor: Holistic Ferret Mentors are natural feeders with several months-years of natural feeding experience. They assist natural diet newbies in making the transition to a natural diet. Holistic Ferret Mentors are paired up to work one-on-one with specific newbies in order to help them succeed in switching their ferrets to a natural diet. Each mentor "specializes" in feeding a natural diet to a certain kind of ferret. We have mentors that specialize in switching/feeding:
*Insulinomic Ferrets
*Adrenal Ferrets
*IBD Ferrets
*Ferrets with Ulcers
*Kits, Adults, Seniors, and Nursing/Pregnant Jills
*Ferrets that are proving difficult to switch
*And More!
Feel free to PM a Holistic Ferret Mentor with any natural diet questions you may have. Holistic Ferret Mentor's user names are green and they have several blue stars below their user name.
2. Moderator: Helps to keep order and organization on the forum by moving misplace threads, locking threads, deleting threads, and preventing arguments, etc.
3. Holistic Ferret $$$ Contributers: Members who have donated money to the Holistic Ferret Forum to help with the costs of running the site.
4. Forum Name Below Username: These members are moderators or administrators for the forum listed below their user name. We encourage you to check out their forum and see what they have to offer.
5. Raw (and/or) Whole Prey Feeder: This is a member that has completed the switch to a natural diet with assistance from Holistic Ferret. Upon making the switch, the diet that they have switched to is listed below their user name. Just because someone doesnt have this below their name DOESNT mean they dont feed a natural diet, it just means that Holistic Ferret hasnt helped them to switch to a natural diet.
6. Natural Ferret Breeder: These members are reputable ferret breeders that raise their kits on a natural diet and no/limited vaccinations. Feel free to PM these members for more info on their ferretry.
7. Name of Ferret Shelter:[/u] This person is the shelter mom/dad of that ferret shelter. PM them for info on the ferrets in their shelter.
8. Name of Ferret Bedding or Supply Shop:[/u] This person runs a ferret bedding or supply shop. PM them for info on their website and their goods.
9. Holistic Ferret Mentor (In Training)[/u] This means that this person is a recent graduate of the "Holistic Ferret Mentor Program" and they are undergoing 6 months of monitered (by Holistic Ferret Mentors) training to become a full blown Holistic Ferret Mentor. During the first 3 months of training, HF Mentors in Training are responsible for answering all questions posted in the "newbie questions" area of the nutrition forum, they are also responsible for greeting new members, and directing them to the nutrition areas of the forum. During the final 6 months of training, HF Mentors in Training, proceed to mentor newbies with direct assistance (supervision) from the HF Mentor that taught them how to feed a natural diet. After 3 months of this supervised mentoring, a HF Mentor in Training officially graduates and becomes a full blown HF Mentor.
Thank you for reading the board rules and extra side notes
-The Holistic Ferret Forum Moderators and Administrator