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Post by kilasxxrattery on Aug 12, 2008 17:20:41 GMT -5
My name is Maureen but everyone calls me Mo. I have 3 ferrets currently and I want to make sure they get the best diet possible, especially for the little girl I have. She is so tiny and skinny, I want her to bulk up a little so she don't look "sickly". I am currently feeding them Innova Evo with some kind of wet food mixed with it, but would like other suggestions as to what other, better foods I can be giving them so they live long happy lives.
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Post by josiesmom on Aug 12, 2008 17:33:29 GMT -5
Hi Mo! Welcome to the forum! You've come to a great place for ideas and varied approaches to offering your ferret optimal health! Some of us feed raw meaty bones, some feed prepared commercial natural diets, some feed whole prey, some offer live prey and some offer dehydrated and freeze dried. Most of us do a mixture of various diets, but practically all of us have completely moved away from kibble because kibble is definitely bad for the teeth and will likely be soon proved to be a major cause of several illnesses in ferrets.
Some of us will use kibble while transitioning the ferret to a natural diet, other go "cold turkey" - read through many of the posts here and you'll get many ideas. We welcome questions and love sharing experiences.
Glad you joined and looking forward to your exchanges!
Cheers,
Kim
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Post by suds on Aug 12, 2008 17:44:16 GMT -5
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Post by Forum Administrator on Aug 12, 2008 18:37:40 GMT -5
Welcome, I see you have a rattery, so I wouldnt be suprised if you decided to forgo the whole prey  I can understand if you dont feel comfortable doing that, but never fear, you can still do a raw diet (with no whole prey). You've been given all the links you need to start to navigate around the site. If you have any questions just feel free to ask. I am happy to see you made it over from the ferret.com forum.   |
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Post by kilasxxrattery on Aug 12, 2008 18:38:39 GMT -5
Thank you for the warm welcomes! I am interested in feeding live whole food but I'm not sure how I would go about it, rats are totally out of the question as I breed them for pets only and not to mention my ferrets get play time with the rats everyday and none of them have ever tried to kill the rats. Lotus use to be housed with my 2 older boys for a little bit and nothing ever happened. Does anyone on this forum feed natal rats otherwise know as African soft furred rats? That would be something I would be interested in as they have terrible temperaments and cannot be tamed. Here is a picture of my 3 little guys. The big white guy is Johnny and I was told by the previous owner that he is 2 years old. The little one in the bottom right corner is D and we couldn't get an age on her, the only thing the previous owner said was that she was older than Johnny and then the other guy in the bottom left corner with his butt cut out of the picture is Lotus and he is 8 months old.  We got Johnny and D for ferret friends' for Lotus so he wouldn't be the only ferret in the house. And as you can see D is real small and sometimes she looks real skinny. I want to her to gain some weight and maybe grow a little longer too but if she is older than the 2 year old than I'm thinking she probably won't grow anymore, but I'm not sure as I'm not a ferret expert. |
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Post by Forum Administrator on Aug 12, 2008 18:50:12 GMT -5
If you were going to feed live prey I would go with live MICE. They are actually more nutritious then rats If you decide to go the live prey route then I'll probably wind up assigning josiesmom as your mentor. She breeds and feeds live mice to her crew |
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Post by kilasxxrattery on Aug 12, 2008 18:56:50 GMT -5
Super! But I won't be able to start until the 1st of next month when we have no bills and such sucking up all our money and I'll be able to go out and buy some feeder mice.
But on snake forums I have read that rats are more nutritious than mice... But I guess that would go with the snake's needs and not the ferret's needs.
I am really interested in learning about feeding a natural diet to my business, what did the ferrets eat naturally before they were domesticated?
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Post by kilasxxrattery on Aug 12, 2008 18:59:27 GMT -5
I also wanted to add that natal rats, aren't really rats. They are smaller than the fancy rat and bigger than the fancy mouse. Some people believe that they are the genetic link between mice and rats and they are actually easier to breed than mice and rats because they have virtually no smell to them and they have extra sets of nipples to help with raising big litters.
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Post by Forum Administrator on Aug 12, 2008 19:08:38 GMT -5
Well the ferret's closest wild relative, the European Polecat eats the following:
According to Wikipedia, Polecats: "Feed largely on small mammals such as voles and rats and, seasonally, on frogs and toads. Small birds and insects are a much smaller component of their diet"
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Post by Heather on Aug 12, 2008 22:40:41 GMT -5
Hi and welcome on board. Your furbabies are cute. D is tiny but she doesn't appear malnourished by any means...at least not by the photo. I've had some really tiny ferts. I think my tiniest male was little Mischief who weighed just over 1 lbs, which is small enough for a female much less a male. Whatever had happened to him must have happened when he was a kit, to have so badly damaged him that he became so small. He didn't appear to be malnourished (by the time I got him he had numerous health issues including an ulcer and IBD). Please feel free to check out previous posts and ask questions. They're a real friendly lot here, so ask away One of my suppliers is in the process of breeding natal rats for me to feed to my guys (they will be delivered frozen). I've not had the chance to see these yet. I've been considering breeding my own mice to supply my furbabies but I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to do that yet For now I'm quite content to have a supplier who gets me both mice and rats for my furkids (she breeds to supply her snakes). ciao |
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Post by kilasxxrattery on Aug 13, 2008 14:39:22 GMT -5
Hi and welcome on board. Your furbabies are cute. D is tiny but she doesn't appear malnourished by any means...at least not by the photo. I've had some really tiny ferts. I think my tiniest male was little Mischief who weighed just over 1 lbs, which is small enough for a female much less a male. Whatever had happened to him must have happened when he was a kit, to have so badly damaged him that he became so small. He didn't appear to be malnourished (by the time I got him he had numerous health issues including an ulcer and IBD). Please feel free to check out previous posts and ask questions. They're a real friendly lot here, so ask away One of my suppliers is in the process of breeding natal rats for me to feed to my guys (they will be delivered frozen). I've not had the chance to see these yet. I've been considering breeding my own mice to supply my furbabies but I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to do that yet For now I'm quite content to have a supplier who gets me both mice and rats for my furkids (she breeds to supply her snakes). ciao It really isn't that difficult to breed feeders, you just get adequate cages, food and water bottles and a few things like a wheel and something to chew on for when they get bored, and put 1-3 female(s) with a male and let nature takes it's course. I know of an ASF breeder in my state and I was planning on buying some to start my own breeding colony to feed to my ferrets, but we'll see how that goes. I need to learn how to introduce them to live food first as my ferrets will play around my rats so I think they don't see little animals as being food. |
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Post by whipple on Aug 13, 2008 15:56:59 GMT -5
I would be interested to know if feeding live mice would change the friendly relationship your ferts have towards your rats. I kinda doubt it, but they are ferrets. Also, I'm assuming the rats are not scared of the ferts, so they don't run. That could be a huge factor in how your ferts view them. Oh, I was also thinking of breeding natals. I like the bigger size and that they have larger litters. Do you know if there are any issues around breeding them? Do they need more room than mice? Good luck with the switch!
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Post by kilasxxrattery on Aug 13, 2008 16:32:49 GMT -5
I would be interested to know if feeding live mice would change the friendly relationship your ferts have towards your rats. I kinda doubt it, but they are ferrets. Also, I'm assuming the rats are not scared of the ferts, so they don't run. That could be a huge factor in how your ferts view them. Oh, I was also thinking of breeding natals. I like the bigger size and that they have larger litters. Do you know if there are any issues around breeding them? Do they need more room than mice? Good luck with the switch! As far as I know of people just put a 1.3 in a 10 gal tank and then once babies are weaned, separate sexes into more 10 gal tanks. Some people also go with rubber maid Tupperware that have been modified too but I would just suggest keeping them metal cages or aquariums so they can't chew out because they are known for chewing. I'm not sure on issues on breeding them yet as there isn't much information online about them. |
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Post by weloveourweasels on Aug 13, 2008 20:35:59 GMT -5
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Post by buzzonesbirdie on Aug 17, 2008 8:09:44 GMT -5
im a little late but |
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