Beef Problems?

[Zoshi]

Sometimes I wish our kids could speak to us... So, mine have been having problems with beef. Well, let's put it this way - Coco eats absolutely anything I put in front of her, Mis is hit and miss with beef and veal (he's not entirely convinced about it), and Tikki has always been iffy about it.

Now, I've finally put some things together and I think I've come to a realization. This hadn't been happening in the beginning, but the past few weeks I've caught Tikki doing the hack-cough during a beef/veal day. First I thought she was eating too fast, but now that I've put together her iffiness about beef days overall, I'm starting to think that it might have to do something about the beef.

I'm not sure, but I've noticed that the day after beef she's a little off her game - not sick, and her poops look fine, but just not quite happy. I'm replacing the beef with lamb now, but I'm wondering if there's a possibility that she might have allergies to beef? Or maybe there's something else going on there... Either way, beef is pretty much no longer on the menu at our place.

Has anyone else ever had a problem like this? The whole poultry-allergies thing I know about, but I've never heard about a ferret having beef allergies. Maybe it's just a Tikki thing, heh heh...
Oh, yeah, Tikki was eating EVO before the switch, and it has beef in it, so I'm really lost.

[Heather]

Ok, I don't think that she's allergic persay. Maybe sensitive, but something to consider is that beef is a heavy meat. It takes longer to digest, that may be why she seems off her game or more tired the next day. I know we say protein is protein, and I will still say this but ferrets were probably not designed to eat beef as easily, so are probably more likely to be sensitive or find it more difficult to digest than say rabbit or mouse which is their natural foods. That doesn't mean that you can't feed it but lets just say not to feed it as often. There are a number of people who have noted that what their little ones are allergic to in kibble (or not) them may be not sensitive to (or are) when they go to natural or raw food.
I hope that makes some kind of sense
ciao

[sherrylynne]

My guys aren't overly enthusiastic about beef either. Boris will inhale beef heart, but the rest could take it or leave it. If you leave it off the menu, it's not going to hurt them. Especially if you replace it with another, more digestible protein.

[Zoshi]

Ah, holidays! Sorry I'm so late replying, things are hectic around here!

Putting the beef aside seems to be the best thing I can do, Tikki is really liking the lamb and she hasn't had a problem with hacking afterward.

Thanks for your thoughts and help!

[spiritualtramp]

You are not the only one, my Ranger has always had issues with beef. He'll vomit with anything beef, regardless, and will be sluggish and off his game for a day or so. Like Heather said, it's a fairly heavy meat, with drastically less nutrients than other meats - so I've just cut beef out of their diets completely. I don't even bother buying it anymore! I know no one has ever questioned as a beef allergy before, and my gut tells me it's less of an allergy and more of a sensitivity - but I feel like it's fairly common among our furkids, enough to be of note so I always mention to my newbies to watch carefully when introducing beef to the diet. Many kids don't have problems, but some just do.

Hopefully you can find enough variety that not feeding beef isn't really an issue!