General good vs evil ferret food talk.

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Any story, any, if you know any thing like "a ferret was feed only such and such food for 3 weeks and it killed him/her". Or " a vet was taught that raw feeding is cruel and only marshals dry kibble should be feed for a healthy ferret, and was payed $400000.37 a week to refuse to be converted to any other belief" Or even something like " a ferret starved to death on a %100 vegetarian diet and the vet and owners never figured out what went wrong".

I wanna hear these story's vs "the handsomest healthiest, strongest ferret celebrity is feed raw and 67 kinds of meat, yours to can have a shinny coat strong mussels and normal philological patterns just like him!"
Got anything for me?

[shilohismygirl]

I'm not really sure what you're asking, 1. Is it that you want to hear stories about people who killed their ferrets by feeding them inappropriate food?

[1]

Dec 7, 2010 19:34:19 GMT -5 shilohismygirl said:

I'm not really sure what you're asking, 1. Is it that you want to hear stories about people who killed their ferrets by feeding them inappropriate food?

That almost scared me! In a way, I just want to hear the effects of a good diet vs a bad one. How to explain better? Ok say their is a food that is highly advertised and aggressively promoted as good for a ferret but its all just a bunch of lies. I just wanna hear history of why its NOT good for them. Then say theirs a food that is good for them, I wanna hear historical reasons why it is good. I suppose at the same time their might be those reading a tread like this for the wrong reasons. Am I doing any better this time? I'm not by nature easy to understand, thats why I'm hear.

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I know, how about, I saw a snack item for ferrets and am a owner of 3 (not really, its a example). I want to get my little buddy's a delicious snack because I love them so much and hear its a really grate product. As I walk to the store, you know, because I'm to manly to drive, I met you (reader who's listening now). And you tell me "I gave that to my ferret and it gave him a stumic ack and he through up for the next 5 days and lost wight, luckily I found this to feed him instead and now he's happy and playing with (insert friend or family name hear). Any better?

[josiesmom]

Do a google image search for "vegetarian ferret". Should take you to a photo from a vet book of a ferret forced to eat vegetarian food!

Eight in One products currently sold for ferrets have a LOT of ingredients which ferrets should not eat - like ground corn, corn meal, raisin juice, glycol, to name a few. The Products they sell at Walmart - their "Premium" Ferret food (with added taurine) and the "Ferret fruit and veggie treats" ought to be pulled from the shelves! These items are not only indigestible for ferreets - but could easily cause intestinal blockages!

There are zero kibbled foods on the market and precious few processed frozen foods designed that are truly suitable for the "hyper-carnivore/ obligate carnivore" that is the ferret. To kibble a product requires some sort of binder that can then be cooked and baked, shaped or pelletized. so the cooking will destroy what nutrients are in the original ingredient requiring synthetic nutrients to be added back in or sprayed on after kibbling. The ingredients they start with are already often the dredges of animal carcass wastes - items that normally wouldn't be eaten ( beaks, feathers, hooves, feet, scales, hair etc) but will account for a "guaranteed analysis of "X" protein ( even if that protein is NOT digestible protein) for the packaged product.

Kibbles do NOT allow for proper good oral health and exercise. They scratch and dull the teeth and do NOT remove tartar or calculus or plaque. Ferrets don't chew their food, they slice and gulp it so kibble hits the gut simply cracked open. The kibble cannot properly be digested so you end up paying for it to be pooped out just about the same as it went in! The carbs create overwork of the pancreas to regulate wildly fluctuating blood sugars. this constant overwork ends up causing insulinoma cancers of the pancreas - often starting as early as 2 years old! The grains are attributed with contributing to IBS as well.

Basically while there are definitely extremely POOR kibbles - there really aren't ANY that are appropriate for ferrets - just some that are a bit better ( IF you believe the manufacturer claims) and some that list ingredients from better sources.

The ideal diet for a ferret simply, unequivocally is the diet they evolved to eat - which is a whole prey diet! The next best thing for most pet ferrets is a raw meaty bones type diet. Which if you read through this forum there are many ways to offer to the ferret, the natural diets encompass a wide variety of animal protein sources and ideally incorporate food sources from invertebrates, fish, rodents, poultry, and even insects!

There are many photos in the before and after section of this board that illustrate the outward changes. And owner accounts of the changes in their ferret's vigor, attitudes and muscle tone.

Basically I approach it from this standpoint - if you cannot identify the actual food source then you really don't know what you are feeding do you?

Fruits, veggies, sweets, artificial flavors, smoke flavorings, grains, roots, plants, seeds, flours really offer no digestible benefits to the ferret and typically end up detracting from its overall health - which is the main reason behind this forum - empowering people with the knowledge and support to feed their ferrets what they were designed by nature to eat!

There is more to the "Holistic Ferret" than simply diet too - its more of a lifestyle change than just a food bowl change.

Cheers,
Kim

In my own experience out of 16 ferrets coming to my home only 1 has remained a kibble cruncher. Since I refuse to starve them into switching. I'll continue to feed him a mix of the three best grain free kibbles I can locate until he dies or changes his mind about raw.

[sunnyberra]

Well, I know from experience with my new guy, the owners told me, "oh, he loves gummy bears. Just give him a few as a treat or if you need to get him in the carrier. You have to brush their teeth anyway, and our vet said there's nothing in there that can hurt him."

On top of that, they fed him Wal-Mart bought kibble that had pictures of papaya and grapes and stuff on it :/ Guess what I found underneath his winter fur? Skin and bones. *That* close to starvation, and these people thought they were just fine.

About a month later, now, and he's put on weight, is a sweetheart, and has loads of energy + a much softer coat. The raw diet has also helped build up the muscle tone on him, which is good because he has weak back legs (malnutrition + past physical abuse).

Besides that, the internet is full of "oh my god, the last thing you should do is feed raw meat and bone. Ferrets aren't *made* to eat that, and you'll poison them/harm them if you try it." I have seriously seen this posted by not unintelligent people.

WHAT.

[1]

Thanks, thats just what I'm looking for.

[maddiesmom]

www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=280603&id=94826160169&ref=mf\

Now, I can't remember if Sampson ending up being adrenal or not (I believe so) but he was pretty starved. I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but I think a picture is worth a thousand words (or whatever that saying is )

[WTFerret]

The change in Sampson is amazing, crystal put alot of effort into him.

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And I find it super heroic!

[shilohismygirl]

Oh my gosh! Poor sampson! I'm so glad he's doing better!

[katt]

I almost cried looking at those pictures. He looks like Death. I'm so glad he's doing better and hope his previous owner gets his "come-uppins" as Shane would say. *insert long string of obscenities* I want to snuggle Sampson and feed him when I see those pictures. I'm thankful to people who do rescues, you are all angels.

[sherrylynne]

Finally found the picture of the ferret fed a vegetarian diet. It was in a book of ferret husbandry.

[miamiferret2]

i will not demonize all kibble. i actually know a girl that works at totally ferret and - she obviously feeds them TF and her ferrets live a long time and are generally healthy. i am sure they develop insulinoma, etc. however, she has ferrets that are as old as 10 years old. There are very few kibble foods that I feed. I always mix ferret evo, serengheti cat from timberwolf organic and petcurean go. I have also mixed in wysong epigen. The reason I do this is because I worry about what will happen to my ferret if something should ever happen to me. Feeding raw also becomes an issue if I ever get home from work late or if I'm out of town. Raw feeding (except for the freeze dried) is a lot to ask of a pet sitter. This is why I always leave out a bowl of high quality kibble. If god forbid anything happens to me, I doubt that anyone will go out of their way to feed them the way I do. However, he will go many days without even touching the kibble. He eats the raw and he gets everything he needs from it. He makes his own variety and he will decide to pick at the kibble and eats it whenever he feels like it. I also put water in the kibble so it doesn't damage his teeth. But like I said, he prefers the raw and barely ever eats kibble. I am sure that other people here on this site that do the same thing and also leave out some kind of high quality and grain-free kibble. but they probably won't admit it. lol.

[sherrylynne]

I'll be honest. I've had to leave my ferrets at the vet before, unexpectedly. Obviously, the vet feeds kibbles. Not one of them has ever refused it when offered. Even my little ones who've not really known what kibble is.
There are some who will in no way, shape, or form, will accept kibbles once they've gotten accustomed to raw. But the majority(IMO), when not given the option of kibble/raw, will eat kibble when presented to them. So I don't really think that would be a major concern for most.