How can I fatten up my 8 month prehistoric ferret?
I rescued a sweet little boy ferret, and was told he was "a little on the scraggy side." He looks just a little skinny. Poor thing didn't even hold a name! I'm calling him Murray. But, when I hold him, I can feel every single bone in his body. Especially his hip bones, ribcage and his sternum pokes right out! I'm not concerned something like his immediate health, because although not necessarily playful, he's certainly not listless. However, his thinness is sort of sad. I've lived with ferret before, so I know they're always sort of boney, but, this is way channel more than that. Should I just feed him food with a giant fat content? I don't want to jeopardize his long term health any (by feeding him garbage), so any suggestions would be great. Thanks!
hi. mix his food with child chicken food.Its full of nutriention and is safe for ferrets. Feed him a high protein food. Like kangaroo mince. Or chicken. Ferret crunchies are a appropriate sorce for during the day aswell you can put some baby food on that aswell.
goodluck.
&& good on you for rescueing him!!
you should give him a bit more of the fatty side. not the garbage like you said. but something to be exact more on the fatty side. also give him a little extra amount. that's how i fatten up my ferret. oh and don't forget about ferretone. that stuff fattens them up if they go and get a lot of it. not too much though. just like 3 or 4 tbs a light of day. it helped fatten up my skinny ferret.
hope it helps
The knob ingredients in any food for ferrets are fat and protein,
specifically animal protein, since ferrets' short digestive cycles
prevent them from getting adequate nutrition from vegetable proteins.
Chicken, turkey, beef, and lamb are all fine; most ferrets don't like
fish, and it may sort their litter pan smell worse. The food needs to
have 30-35% protein and 15-20% portly, and animal protein should be the
first ingredient and at least two or three of the next few.
Unless your ferret is overweight, you should just hold her bowl full
and let her eat as much as she wants.
Cat foods give the impression of being to have done okay for many years, but there's a fair
bit of debate give or take a few which food is best for ferrets, whether
high-quality cat/kitten foods are good satisfactory, and so on.
Have you have him seen by a vet? Get him a check up to rule out any underlying health problems and then only just put him on a good quality ferret food (I mix 8in1 Ultimate Crunchy and Innova Evo) and give him time. He'll catch himself to where he needs to be if he's in shape otherwise. You can add a bit of Ferretone Supplement or FerretVite to add a few more calories. Be advised that paste like FerretVite can contain things like molasses or other types of sugars/carbs. High carb diets have be thought to play a role in the development of insulinoma in ferret.
I do feed one of mine baby food in increase to ferret food. Go with Gerber Stage 2 chicken or turkey. It adds good competence protein. I use it on all of my sickies and handfeed it to my little insulinoma patient. He was diagnosed contained by January, was supposed to be dead months ago. The vet predicted that he'd be losing weight shortly after diagnosis at which point we be going to put him on Prednisone. Here it is November, he's still not on Pred and he actually gained weight. He weigh about 3 1/2 pounds and dances, plays and dooks. He's almost 6.
I enjoy one female who appears way skinnier than the rest of them.
Maybe you have hear of people referring to a ferret as a "whippet". It's not really a different breed of ferret, it just refers to a body style. Anyway, she's that, a whippet. She's very skinny, but at impossible to tell apart time quite a bit longer than my other female, so when I weigh them they both weigh the same.
Good luck to you.
Answers: Looooove the name Murray !! Kudos !
And it sounds to me like he wishes a good deworming...You see, Ferrets get worms just resembling dogs and cats do and it's our job as the caretaker to get the little guy wormed twice a year..
If you eliminate the lice and are feeding a high qulity food, the little guy will put on weight contained by no time .. :-)
You see, worms can and do take a very big tole on nutrition...Let's say that little one never had a worming before and momma didn't either...The womrs are even worse surrounded by baby than they are in momma...Mutrition simply can't be absorbed becuase the worms are drinking it all up before baby can utilize them..
Please enjoy Murray wormed and he'll thrive...I promise.. :-)
