My ferret has junk in his trunk lol

[ferretfreke]

My kids have been on the raw/whole prey diet for around 1 1/2 years now. Ever since BillyBob realized he liked the food I was switching him to he has been chunky. I posted about this before and the responses were that he would probably slim down after a bit, which I thought he would too. Well he is still a chunky monkey. He literally has love handles. So my question is how do I get this extra weight off of him on this diet?

He has to be the first to be given a mouse or whatever animal I feed or else there is big fighting. He also often times will chow down his mouse then go steal someone else's. So I usually have another ready for him. He doesn't usually eat the whole thing of the second.

He is a big boy with a big frame already. He is very active and muscular. He just has his love handles. I really want to avoid separating him during feedings, but I will if I have to. Any suggestions are appreciated.

[mustelidmusk]

I have the same problem with Tonto ad Kachina. They come from the same litter, and they are both PIGS!!!!

Tonto's blood work was a little high (relative to his baseline blood work) in insulin and blood sugar in January. He was kid of pre-diabetic, which is RARE for ferts. I cut back on feeding all of my ferrets, I feed a little olive oil ad a little liver with each meal. All kind have slimmed down a bit and are more energetic. The liver ad olive oil help with metabolism add/or glucose utilization.

Tonto is now on a regular exercise program of running the stairs.

As your kids get older, the extra weight can cause problems.

-jennifer

[sherrylynne]

You can try getting a teaser toy, and run him up and down the stairs, like mustelidmusk mentioned. It was the ONLY thing that took weight off my fatboy, Vincent. ANd believe it or not- I had to try 3 or 4 different teaser toys before I finally found one he could NOT resist