How much food???

[sherrylynne]

Quick question- If fuzzbutts are putting away between 14-15oz of meat a day between 4 of them(they are not overweight, and are not stashing), do they need food in the cage 24/7? When they finish their breakfast/supper, I've been putting out Wysong's, mainly because of Lucrezia. She is now 7 months old. And yes, someone generally finishes off the Wysong's as well

[Heather]

My fuzzies have food available 24/7 .... now I don't cage my furbabies but that shouldn't make any difference. Ferrets like cats are meant to eat mulitiple times during the day. You can feed in set meals during the day, but that's not how these little guys are supposed to eat. That's why they stash, so that they can have food when they run out or if they can't eat within the needed time frame. We force them to conform to our feeding schedules, but my guys eat at all times during the day. They're not overweight and their activity levels remain steady.
This is just my opinion of course
Ciao

[animalsgetrevenge]

Here is what I do for feeding since I don't let them stash outside of their cage either:

Here is a typical day:
8am wake up and let ferrets out to play (3 hours)
11am lock ferrets into cage with breakfast, leave for work
4pm let ferrets out to play without access to food (7 hours) If anyone is begging for food, I let them eat in the top half of their FN without access to the floor until they are done.
11pm Put the ferrets to bed in their cage with dinner until morning.

So my ferrets are locked in their cage with their meals when I am not home or sleeping. They have access to food for about 14 hours a day and are out of their cage without access to food for about 10 hours a day.

If you want to stop feeding them Wysong, try giving them about a pound of meat each day and see how they do.

[sherrylynne]

Thanks, everyone! I'll keep on with the Wysong's in the cage, if they've finished their meat meals! I just wasn't sure.

[spiritualtramp]

I'm late with answering this (stupid ice storm) but I'm with Heather. I leave something out at all times (never tried Wysong though) so that between raw meals they have something too. Not to mention I let them stash some meats for the day and clean it all up before bed. (Gross? Maybe. But it works!)

[suds]

I feed twice a day but they never eat it all in 1 sitting so basicaly they have food available to them 24 hours a day i only remove the left overs when i put down the next meal plus there is always wysons and freeze dried treats they have access to with forgenging cups and other stash places I hide it in .

With that said as long as they eat enough during there feedings I dont believe food has to be around 24 hours a day if you think about it in nature they wont have food available 24 hours a day and probly would have to fast several times untill they caught there prey ..