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Post by cailynne on Sept 8, 2010 7:00:23 GMT -5
Hi All, This might not have been my brightest idea, but on our way home from taking the kids to school yesterday I noticed a young brownish bird that had a badly broken wing. So i caught it and took it home for Slinky. I gave it to him outside in an old cat box..he was having a good time killing it...warned the cat off a time or two, eventho the cat did steal it I got it back for him.He would snuffle thru its feathers trying to figure out how to eat it,once that novelty wore off it was time to explore elsewhere. I put the dead bird in his cage and let him have it for about 8 hrs. I go to take the bird out and both wing were severed,it's side opened...yum organs, and both legs missing..crunchy. Its a good thing i'm not squeamish. i tell my hubby and our roommate this and they start in with it might have been diseased ...I'm thinking yea...but what isn't in the wild..even if its the suburbs. I think I prefer to feed live. I know that I can get live mice and rats and even rabbits not too far from where I live. I would like to get live birds for him to eat too. The farm stores won't have chicks until the spring..does anyone have any ideas of where i can get small live birds..maybe hatcheries? Slinky has been active and seems to be doing ok with his improptu birdie breakfast. Anyone else think I'm crazy? LOL Lisa G
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Post by shilohismygirl on Sept 8, 2010 7:29:39 GMT -5
I have heard that it is NOT a good idea to give a ferret something wild, as I know you've heard from your hubby and things-I don't know about the rest, though.
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Post by sherrylynne on Sept 8, 2010 8:11:59 GMT -5
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Post by Kerit on Sept 8, 2010 8:29:16 GMT -5
I personally wouldn't feed a wild bird... or just about any wild animal without properly dressing/freezing it first. The risk of parasites is too high, even with a ferret's specialized system. You're also introducing all those potential problems to yourself and your home.
If you want to feed live (or pre-killed), it's best to stick to animals from known, controlled sources. If you can't get chicks year-round, that's okay. In the wild, predators' meals vary with the seasons.
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Post by bluemoose on Sept 8, 2010 10:52:18 GMT -5
I agree with Kerit that feeding wild animals that haven't been frozen for a while probably isn't the best idea. Chances are it would be fine but personally I wouldn't take the risk.
I only feed mice live myself as many ferrets can kill them quickly and humanely. Larger animals like birds of any substantial size and adult rats & rabbits can take much longer to kill. It's an ethical question that everyone has to answer for themselves but keep in mind that rats can be fierce fighters and could cause injury to your ferret. If you want to feed live rats, I'd stick to young ones rather than adults.
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Post by Heather on Sept 8, 2010 13:45:15 GMT -5
I agree with what's been said, you really have to watch what you feed live and in the wild. There are parasites that birds carry that can harm your little one. First off, I condone hunting and feeding live prey, but within reason. My brats have hunted and eaten their prey. All their prey is hand raised. Do take care though, my guys handle mice handily without any trouble. They do get bitten on occasion but they learn and it's not often that they will take a bite twice. Hunting the larger prey can be problematic. My guys started with rats not mice. These rats were too large to be fed to my friends young snakes so that worked well for both of us. The one day that she dropped off a couple she warned me that these were larger than what she had been giving me would this be a problem. They weren't much larger so I couldn't really see an issue, after all, ferrets hunt rabbits right ....Yes, and no....they hunt them, most of the time they flush them into waiting nets. They do make kills if their prey runs into dead ends and gets trapped or is younger but most people don't get to watch the ensuing death match. Attila was my alpha male and key hunter, he weighed in at just under 5 lbs, Napoleon, Ghenghis, Thor, Loki and Odin were also there to back him up but rarely needed to. They were topping in at that time at around 4 lbs, some just over others just under. Then there was Lady "B", pound for pound a real nasty hunter. Even she weighed in at just under 3lbs. These rats....were too big. Now they did kill them in the end and it was horrible. Ferrets are usually solo hunters but this group hunted as a team. The rat gave good account for himself but it was horrible and I will never do that to another creature again. It was that simple. I'm not squeemish but a hunt should be clean and as painless as possible with little to no anguish for the prey. Ferrets normally kill by strangulation. Attila was too small to get his mouth around either the throat or the neck, so a clean kill wasn't possible. As the guys were hunting in the room, there was no way that I was going to grab a scared rat who was fighting for himself or 6 bloodthirsty little furbrats. So they got to make the kill.....rather reminded me of a lion kill on the Serangeti. Really makes you appreciate the abilities of our "tame" little weasels and the fact that they allow us to be their friends. I will not go into the gory details or how long it took them to make the kill. Lets just say that all hunts are now carried out in a confined area and prey that is small enough for one ferret to make a clean kill. I have 2 frozen rabbits in my freezer at the moment....I would never ask a ferret to hunt one of these. I have a friend who lives in the UK who uses her ferrets as they're supposed to be. She had one hob who was blind in one eye, had most of his teeth broken and scars on his face, legs and chest from taking on rabbits. Rabbits will not go placidly either. I understand wanting to offer this type of stimulation for your furkids but please remember carnivores are often injured in the hunt.....can you deal with that. Oh, one final note....it is against the law to use ferrets as a hunting animal in most of North America. If you decide that you are going to allow your ferret to hunt, outdoors, please check with your local bylaws. They can and will confiscate and destroy your ferrets and you can be charged. Please do not give the authorities any reason to come down hard on ferrets. This is a general warning not necessarily to this particular poster but to all that read this thread. ciao
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