Post by odin on Jan 23, 2010 11:10:39 GMT -5
Me and my fiance are the proud parents of a 1 1/2 year old fuzzie named Cassi. We are looking to give her the happiest and healthy life we can. She has recently had some issues with her kibble. She has had a big decrease in her appetite. We switched foods, from 8in1 ultimate to zumee and it seems to have helped. Still need to mix her kibble with ferrivite or ferretone to get her to eat a substantial amount. We are taking her to the vet to get a checkup, but i'm not really sure what could be wrong. She has had an obstruction several months ago (very scary and upsetting) but came out of surgery like a champ and was back to herself in no time. We are very vigilant ferretproofers now and she does have the run of the house. She has a very active life, tons of homemade and bought toys, lots of exercise and playtime with mom and dad etc. poops changed a little with the new food, but no blood that would indicate ulcers, also no salivating or pawing at the mouth or grinding of her teeth or flatferreting or any other indication that she is in pain or sick. she just doesn't have an appetite. frustratingly weird, but some improvement here and there.
anyway, we have all kinds of questions about switching her once we get a clean bill of health.
first of all, we have so much space and so much ferret stuff our house looks like and amusement park for ferrets. We are considering getting a second. We need some advice about doing so. Should we go with a male or a female to match with our female? Should we get a baby like we did with Cassi so we can train him/her as well as Cassi? (Cassi is extremely well trained for all her litterpans around the house, nip trained to the point of never biting anyone ever, knows her name and comes when we call her etc.) Do we need to worry much about the fact that Cassi has the whole house and may not want to share all her hidey holes? She is also very bonded to us, follows us everywhere, always wants to be where we are, will this change with a new one? Will she bond better with a younger one, maybe be able to work out the pecking order faster? We'd like to let her choose her own new friend so we plan on bring her along when we get a new one... how do we know which one she likes? What does a first-positive interaction look like?
ok, now on to feeding....
We are concerned about sanitation. I know that it really isn't a big deal for Cassi, but we keep a pretty clean ship. What about her paws and fur getting the raw food on it and then her running around the house, up on the couches... I really do not want to feel the need to wash her every time she eats or follow her around with a spray bottle. Nor do I want to have to change out her bedding everyday. I'm cool with building her a feeding den, and i understand that sanitizing it is for me not her, but what about her tracking it all around our house? Her favorite place to nap in the afternoon is right next to us on the couch.
Next: What about hormones in meat you buy at the grocery store? There's all kinds of reports about it being crappy for us, what about for my furkids? Are you guys talking about going directly to the butcher? Is there a butcher in most grocery stores? I'm not concerned anymore about her with the bacteria, but i am about additives.
Is there a real chance of her getting internal injuries from bone? maybe i should wait to see how it works, but my head is definitly having trouble with her eating bone, yet everyone says its find and i shouldn't worry. (i'm a little overprotective, especially after the surgery)
I ordered Wysons archetype I, to see if it would help me with the whole healthier than kibble she's not eating enough of of problem... what is the deal with this stuff? Is it good, not good... you guys have articles on here written by doctor wysong. Can this be a good start, or mix in for her?
We are also interested in finding information in whole prey for both enrichment and nutritional value- how do we know if our feeder animals are healthy? We live on LI- any suggestions on where to go (we don't want to breed our own)?
All the ferret books say that ferrets are opportunistic and need to have food available at all times. This site talks a lot about feedings times, which we have been doing with the kibble. Which is correct?
So... that might be the heavy hitter questions for now. I intend to sign up for a mentor. This site is awesome. Looking forward to becoming one of the good ferret parents out there and plan to bring that to as many ferrets as i can.
Thanks
anyway, we have all kinds of questions about switching her once we get a clean bill of health.
first of all, we have so much space and so much ferret stuff our house looks like and amusement park for ferrets. We are considering getting a second. We need some advice about doing so. Should we go with a male or a female to match with our female? Should we get a baby like we did with Cassi so we can train him/her as well as Cassi? (Cassi is extremely well trained for all her litterpans around the house, nip trained to the point of never biting anyone ever, knows her name and comes when we call her etc.) Do we need to worry much about the fact that Cassi has the whole house and may not want to share all her hidey holes? She is also very bonded to us, follows us everywhere, always wants to be where we are, will this change with a new one? Will she bond better with a younger one, maybe be able to work out the pecking order faster? We'd like to let her choose her own new friend so we plan on bring her along when we get a new one... how do we know which one she likes? What does a first-positive interaction look like?
ok, now on to feeding....
We are concerned about sanitation. I know that it really isn't a big deal for Cassi, but we keep a pretty clean ship. What about her paws and fur getting the raw food on it and then her running around the house, up on the couches... I really do not want to feel the need to wash her every time she eats or follow her around with a spray bottle. Nor do I want to have to change out her bedding everyday. I'm cool with building her a feeding den, and i understand that sanitizing it is for me not her, but what about her tracking it all around our house? Her favorite place to nap in the afternoon is right next to us on the couch.
Next: What about hormones in meat you buy at the grocery store? There's all kinds of reports about it being crappy for us, what about for my furkids? Are you guys talking about going directly to the butcher? Is there a butcher in most grocery stores? I'm not concerned anymore about her with the bacteria, but i am about additives.
Is there a real chance of her getting internal injuries from bone? maybe i should wait to see how it works, but my head is definitly having trouble with her eating bone, yet everyone says its find and i shouldn't worry. (i'm a little overprotective, especially after the surgery)
I ordered Wysons archetype I, to see if it would help me with the whole healthier than kibble she's not eating enough of of problem... what is the deal with this stuff? Is it good, not good... you guys have articles on here written by doctor wysong. Can this be a good start, or mix in for her?
We are also interested in finding information in whole prey for both enrichment and nutritional value- how do we know if our feeder animals are healthy? We live on LI- any suggestions on where to go (we don't want to breed our own)?
All the ferret books say that ferrets are opportunistic and need to have food available at all times. This site talks a lot about feedings times, which we have been doing with the kibble. Which is correct?
So... that might be the heavy hitter questions for now. I intend to sign up for a mentor. This site is awesome. Looking forward to becoming one of the good ferret parents out there and plan to bring that to as many ferrets as i can.
Thanks