Post by fuzzymom on Feb 11, 2009 13:59:14 GMT -5
Ok, so this is not about ferrets. It is about our newest kitten (6 months old), Liam. He is a little DSH, orange and white. He is so wonderful to have and we have discovered, he has a thing for raw foods.
We try and feed raw to our kitties at least once a week (meat is so expensive) and we had gotten a slab of pork ribs for the ferrets and decided to treat the cats to a raw dinner. We have to feed the cats seperately so that we make sure everyone gets enough. When it came time for Liam's turn, we were not sure what he would do. The first bite, he wasn't sure what it was, but as soon as he tasted it, he tried to climb into the bag that held the rest of the meat. (we freeze the meat in ziplock bags) He went nuts.
Then, last week, we noticed something interesting. We had some feeder/breeder mice get loose a few weeks ago and when we came home one day last week, we noticed Ramman carrying something down the stairs. This thing in his mouth had a tail! We got it away from him to find it a hopper mouse. One of the mice that had gotten loose had bred and this was the result. We fed it to the ferrets since we didn't want the poor thing to suffer (Ramman was playing with it and it was almost dead). When we got into the room to give the mouse to the ferrets, we noticed Liam paying close attention to something on the floor. Behold! Another mouse hopper! He pounced and tried to play with it, but since he wasn't killing it, we fed it to the ferrets.
Later that week, we fed the ferrets some of our gerbils. Either they dropped it out of the cage or Liam stole it, but I found him eating it on my bedroom floor! I went to take it away from him to give back to the ferrets and he started growling at me. (If you've ever had a 6 month old kitten growl at you, you know how incredibly funny this was) I scruffed him and tried to pull it out of his mouth, but he was not giving up. I ended up having to trick him to get it away from him. So at least two of our cats have hunting instincts and at least one will actually eat a whole prey item.
Should I start introducing whole prey to the two?
We try and feed raw to our kitties at least once a week (meat is so expensive) and we had gotten a slab of pork ribs for the ferrets and decided to treat the cats to a raw dinner. We have to feed the cats seperately so that we make sure everyone gets enough. When it came time for Liam's turn, we were not sure what he would do. The first bite, he wasn't sure what it was, but as soon as he tasted it, he tried to climb into the bag that held the rest of the meat. (we freeze the meat in ziplock bags) He went nuts.
Then, last week, we noticed something interesting. We had some feeder/breeder mice get loose a few weeks ago and when we came home one day last week, we noticed Ramman carrying something down the stairs. This thing in his mouth had a tail! We got it away from him to find it a hopper mouse. One of the mice that had gotten loose had bred and this was the result. We fed it to the ferrets since we didn't want the poor thing to suffer (Ramman was playing with it and it was almost dead). When we got into the room to give the mouse to the ferrets, we noticed Liam paying close attention to something on the floor. Behold! Another mouse hopper! He pounced and tried to play with it, but since he wasn't killing it, we fed it to the ferrets.
Later that week, we fed the ferrets some of our gerbils. Either they dropped it out of the cage or Liam stole it, but I found him eating it on my bedroom floor! I went to take it away from him to give back to the ferrets and he started growling at me. (If you've ever had a 6 month old kitten growl at you, you know how incredibly funny this was) I scruffed him and tried to pull it out of his mouth, but he was not giving up. I ended up having to trick him to get it away from him. So at least two of our cats have hunting instincts and at least one will actually eat a whole prey item.
Should I start introducing whole prey to the two?