Ferret is a piggy!

[sherrylynne]

I tried fresh water smelts for the kids as a different meal for a change. The older 3 weren't that keen, but 4m. old Lucrezia went absolutely crazy over them ! Now, I've generally understood ferrets will not overeat, so when she went through 6 small smelts, I wasn't too concerned. What I didn't realize at the time was that she was also eating what the others had stashed, but not eaten. I woke up about 10:30 last night, couldn't sleep, and came downstairs. Heard what sounded like a wretching noise coming from the cage, and there was Lucrezia, literally throwing up semi-digested fish! Kept and eye on her, after she did this 3 or 4 times, she gave me a rather irritated look, crawled into her hammy, and went to sleep . And yes, she's back to normal this morning. Playing, eating, drinking, and pooping just fine!

[Heather]

Yes, ferrets can eat too much of a good thing Poor little thing. She will learn that her tummy has limits. Keep a close eye on her to make sure she's still eating and isn't suffering anything other than overeating. I've had a couple of ferret do this over the years, it doesn't seem to cause any serious problems, though. It's just so unsettling as we've been conditioned to panic with a ferret that upchucks it's meal. The biggest problem with ferrets, is that on kibble, they're so close to dehydration even one session of puking will send them on a electolyte downward spiral. Raw or natural fed ferrets seem to be able to handle this much better, which gives you just another advantage to a raw diet
ciao