Balancing Food and Freedom

[luci]

I know there are plenty of members here that have more pets than just your ferrets and I'm sure you will have a creative solution to this issue. If I give the ferrets big hunks of meat (1.5 - 2 oz.) they will chomp on it until they're full for that moment and then drag it out to stash it somewhere other than their feeding den. Which the cats find. And eat. BUT if I cut their servings into 1/2 oz portions they will eat a portion and leave the rest in their den. I feel okay leaving the cage open and they can come and eat at will. But if I serve big pieces I need to lock them up until they're done and put away the leftovers. I want them to have as much freedom as possible, but is serving smaller portions a detriment to their dental health? The pieces are still big enough that they have to work on it for 5-10 minutes. I feel like that's about as much time as they'd spend eating in one sitting whether it was a small piece or a big hunk anyway, but what do you guys think?

[Forum Administrator]

I have a raw fed kitty too, and Zeph will always steal the ferret's stashed meat. I came up with a great solution. I put a big rubbermaid clear, plastic tub into my living room. When the ferrets need to eat, they run to the tub and look at me. I will put food in for them about 4x per day. I put them in the tub with their meal (say, a chicken wing) I put the lid on the tub and let them eat till they are full. When they want to get out, I remove the remaing food (if there is any) put it in a plastic baggy and put it in the fridge. Next time they want to eat, I give them the food again. I choose to not leave food in their cage overnight (because my guys do fine without it) but you can also leave food in the cage overnight.

Instead of feeding tiny chunks, just give them a whole meal (a chicken wing, a palm sized portion of meat, etc) let them eat what they can and the put it back in the fridge in a plastic baggy for later feeding

[lorelei0922]

I chose Locked in the cage with big pieces.. but i should clarify...

my ferrets live outdoors in a large shed...they get Mostly whole prey and larger cut meats... which are chucked in .. they drag it off to where ever they are gonna fight over it..very happily dooking away i might add lol.. and no food is given when they are inside for playtime.. with the exception of training treats which are eaten on the spot...

[animalsgetrevenge]

I had a lot of issues decided what to do with my guys. I was really afraid that they would bring meat out into their bedroom. I don't want them to stash meat or drag nasty stuff on the carpet!

I found that when I feed them in the top section of their FN cage, they usually keep it up there, even when they have access to outside the cage. I also have a cardboard box up there that takes up about 1/3 of the space with many holes for getting in and out. When they want to stash their food or eat in privacy, they bring it into the box. They probably figure it is easier to stash there than outside of the cage because it is more conveniently located.

Every once in a while Didj tries to bring something to the bottom half of the FN but he usually leaves in there instead of taking it into the room.

[luci]

I may have stumbled onto a solution by accident. This morning as I was prepping their food den I put a paper towel in there because it seems like Little Princess Ghia doesn't like her delicate feet to touch the plastic. All day today they've been using the paper towel to cover up the food when they're done eating and leaving the food in the den (which is up on the third level of their cage). So, knock wood, maybe they feel secure enough with the den now. I hope so. I'll keep you guys posted.

In other news... they're pooping everywhere but the litter box!

[Jen]

I really do both. We start off with about a serving size and Weasel is locked in cage when fresh (raw) food is put in his bowl. When he's finished eating, he falls asleep in his basket; then I'll open his door so he can get out. This will backfire if I leave a big piece of meat with him (like a chicken leg); he'll have drug it out onto the floor by morning. We've used a feeding den out of the cage and it worked for about a week (he kept his food there), but then he started pulling his food out onto the floor again. Oh, and leftovers that aren't put away or eaten are given to the outside cats.

Oh, and Weasel isn't too good with litter boxes either. He has a corner box in his cage (uses sometimes, misses sometimes) and a small rectangle in his room (rarely uses). As a result, I just lay out newspaper in each empty corner of our room. This works best to catch most of his "droppings".

[cloudtickler]

We have the ferts split into two groups. Nyx and Arthas live together in on quadrant of the cage, and the other 4 have a larger area.
Nyx and Arthas get fed soup, in the cage.
The other 4 get very very chunky soup because when I gave them pieces of meat I couldn't get them to stop stashing it everywhere, even when we had several "dens"! So now we blend the meat JUST enough so it *starts* to stick together a little bit, and they don't run off with it.
We have to keep the cage locked when they're eating because Shadow will climb into their cage to eat the meat. He loooves raw meat. He gets their leftovers if they don't finish it by dinner time.