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Post by weloveourweasels on Jan 5, 2009 2:12:43 GMT -5
I have heard of many people giving slippery elm bark and papaya extract so I thought this would be good for the ferts. I am going to be ordering them some food from petfooddirect this week and was searching around in the site to see if there was anything else I might want for them and found this. I have to crush it up and give it in a soup. I figure 1 tablet for all 4 of my weasels in a soup would be OK since they say 2 tabs per day for a cat which weighs around 8-10 pounds or something. What do you all think? www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2751912#prodTab1 |
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Post by mustelidmusk on Jan 5, 2009 9:38:57 GMT -5
I've never used the slippery elm bark, bu I know Heather has. You may want to pm her if she doesn't see your post.
It helps soothe the digestive system if your ferrt has irritation.
The papaya extract contains enzymes that help to break down proteins. If your ferrts have trouble digesting food, the most effective use of the papaya is to sprinkle it on or mix it in with the raw meat a few hours before you feed it. This will help to break down the proteins before they even get to the stomach.
If your ferrets have good digestion, there's really no benefit to using either one.
-jennifer
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Post by nwheather on Jan 8, 2009 12:37:03 GMT -5
I use the slippery elm bark powder for my ferrets & my dogs. I put a little in the soup (Pingford Porridge) mix I make, they get soup every day. I also used it when the dogs helped themselves to the rest of the chicken wings on New Years Eve. They still had a little diarrhea, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it would have been.
I get the powder from a health food store & mix it into the soup blend for the ferrets. Usually about a teaspoon to a tablespoon of powder to a weeks worth of soup mix.
I've never tried the papaya extract.
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Post by fortheloveofferret on Jan 13, 2009 17:17:48 GMT -5
The slippery elm is good for diarrhea, I've used that for mine in the past. Papaya (and also pineapple) is good for preventing hairballs (well, it's not known for sure if it does, but many people believe that it *might* help) - my chinchillas get a small piece just about every day. I know Oxbow has some papaya tablets for rabbits (and I think other rodents as well). I'm not sure if it works for ferrets though. Papaya was mentioned somewhere else for use in ferrets and someone replied that it wouldn't work for two reasons - ferrets' digestive cycle is too short and wouldn't give the payapa time to work; they lack a cecum and can't digest or process the fruit. That is just one person's opinion, but I've never read anything saying it definitely does or doesn't work for ferrets.
Personally, I think the tablets would be a waste of money. Using a natural laxative, pure pumpkin, or some type of oil will help prevent hairballs and do pretty much the same thing as those tablets. Sometimes I think we try to supplement our pets with too much stuff and we just end up doing more harm than good.
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Post by Heather on Jan 14, 2009 0:20:29 GMT -5
My preference is purity. Meaning one thing at a time. I'm not much into mixing what I'm trying to do. Slippery elm is a wonderful herb for easing stomach upsets and can be used for both loose poopies and constipation depending on the dosage. Slippery elm also requires a lot of water to work properly so should always be mixed into a gruel or soup and mixed into food (except for humans who can be told to drink their 8 oz of fluids that have to be taken with each tablet  ) I've heard of using Papaya but only as a pro biotic and sprinkled on meats (usually about 10 min before being eaten) so that it can start to dissolve or digest the meat proteins. I've heard about it being used for dogs who have problems when they first switch to raw to help their bodies to learn to digest meats or dogs who have been ill or being treated by chemo. I don't know about it being used as a hairball remedy....Will it work for ferrets...I have no idea, that shortened digestive track really screws people up and a lot of companies really rely on information and studies that are actually for cats and sometimes dogs. I personally would be more inclined to buy slippery elm powder...it's really cheap and I know exactly what it would do or feed pure pumpkin also very economical and easy to use. This is just my opinion of course  ciao |
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Post by weloveourweasels on Jan 14, 2009 16:43:44 GMT -5
I forgot to mention I was hoping to use it in place of the pumpkin and olive oil I have been currently using. I don't have an ice cube tray and out freezer is horribly small. We have to play tetrus to get everything in there right. Sherry mentioned I could put globs of it on a cookie sheet with wax paper and then bag the globs once forzen and that would work awesome if we had the space *sigh* I have never seen smaller cans of pumpkin to where I can just keep it in the fridge and use it up before it goes bag. Dr's Foster and smith stopped selling the natural lax I got a few months ago and ran out of and I can only buy it from one site and altogether for one 3 oz tube it would be around $15 with shipping. The other brand I am interested in is always on backorder because it is so popular. Petsmart does have a natural brand of lax made by Sentry and the ingredients are pretty much the same as the other 2 natural lax's.
I liked the idea of the tablet being able to firm up poop and act as a lax at the same time like the pumpkin without the fuss of the pumpkin. I guess I will just have to suck it up and free it in 4 different ziplock baggies so it will stay fresh and I can use it all before it goes bag. Thank you for the insight everyone.
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Post by sherrylynne on Jan 15, 2009 9:36:58 GMT -5
Sorry, didn't know your freezer space was so limited! Is there any way you could freeze maybe half a dozen globs at a time, then bag and repeat? The pumpkin should hold in the fridge in a plastic/glass container for 2-3 days at least. Maybe that would give you enough time to freeze/bag most of it?
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Post by Kerit on Jan 19, 2009 10:10:30 GMT -5
Dr's Foster and smith stopped selling the natural lax I got a few months ago and ran out of and I can only buy it from one site and altogether for one 3 oz tube it would be around $15 with shipping.  The company changed the formula and label. I think it now contains catnip, and just didn't seem as ferret-friendly as before. If you can find the old stuff somewhere else still in stock, I would say get a couple! But to be sure, call and ask to confirm it's the the same tube pictured, because sometimes vendors don't bother to tell their buyers that a product has changed, and the company might have recieved and is shipping out the new stuff without realizing. I was giving it to my ferts and cats too... luckily I still have two or three tubes in reserve. |
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Post by weloveourweasels on Jan 19, 2009 23:28:51 GMT -5
I got a magazine from Doctor's Foster and Smith and it still had the lax in there in the ferret section. I e-mailed them and asked why it is in the magazine but not on the site and they said the magazine was printed before the lax was discontinued. Such a shame. The should at least get some kind of other natural brand on the site. Every time I have money to buy the Vetbasis hairball gel it is on backorder. . There is this stuff at petsmart though I am going to get. Hopefully they actually have it at the store and it isn't just listed on the site. www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2751724#prodTab1It seems to have very similar ingredients to the Lickables hairball gel. It IS $10 a tube but I don't have to pay shipping if I buy it at the store lol. Do you put their hairball gel in the fridge? I did with mine and it wasn't all runny. |
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Post by Kerit on Jan 22, 2009 12:03:46 GMT -5
I got a magazine from Doctor's Foster and Smith and it still had the lax in there in the ferret section. I e-mailed them and asked why it is in the magazine but not on the site and they said the magazine was printed before the lax was discontinued. Such a shame. The should at least get some kind of other natural brand on the site. The main body of the ferret catalog is only printed once a year, so unfortunately this tends to happen to more than one product. There is lots of planning involved with what goes in the book and what is only online, but manufacturers are unpredictable! I have nothing to do with product selection, but you can bet I make lots of suggestions. Anyone else have a brand they like? |
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