From:
Steph
Date: 2001-11-07 20:35:00 UTC
Subject: [Ferret-Health-list] Re: New ferret - need help and
advice!
Hi,
A ferret of one of my friend's tested positive for e-coli and
was quite sick. This ferret was fed a commercial food, so I
am not sure where she got it, but ferrets can get e-coli.
Take care,
Steph
----- Original Message -----
From: Melissa Litwicki
To: Ferret-Health-list@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2001 7:54 PM
advice!
> From: "Robert Rose" <robert-rose@robert-rose.com>
> feed her cod liver pate, a type of sardine, and raw eggs.
And
> occasionally persimmon and grapes. Does anyone have
suggestions about
> diet? I live in Moscow, Russia, and the people who bred
her advise me
> to feed her raw meat (beef or lamb), fish, but not pork.
And nothing
> fatty. Plus a few fruits now and then. Should meat be
frozen, then
> thawed? I'm a little worried about worms, trichinosis, and
so on, if
> the meat was fresh. What would you suggest about bathing a
ferret? Are
There is plenty of information in the FHL archives about the
fat and
protein requirements of ferrets as it applies to dry,
kibbled cat food.
However, that is not as good a food as a raw diet
formulation, or as a
whole prey diet. If you can feed your ferret fresh mice and
occasional
day-old chicks, she will be happy (if she will eat them!).
Some of the UK
owners can talk better about balanced raw diets. If I were
to make up my
own raw diet for the ferret, however, it would involve:
- primarily raw meat
- smaller amounts of organ meat (liver); 1/4 to 1/5 the
amt
of muscle meat, same source animal as the muscle meat
- calcium source (clean powdered eggshells, clean bone
meal, or raw
bones)
- small amount of indigestible fiber
- small amount of fatty oils
- small amount of glandular tissues
- some raw egg for balance
There are raw diet formulations available on the web; one
suitable for a
cat ought to be suitable for a ferret as long as it has no
vegetables or
fruit in it.
Ferrets need no vegetables or fruits in their diets. They
may enjoy them
as treats, but they can be unhealthy for them - the
vegetables are
indigestible and the fruits contain too much sugar. Avoid
making these
anything but the most rare of treats.
> From: "Mike Janke"
>
> I don't know if freezing would kill any parasites or
bacteria in the
> meat, though I think not. Cooking the meat thoroughly
would be the
> best way to insure there is nothing harmful in it.
Cooking the meat destroys a significant portion of what
enables ferrets to
live off the meat, and requires the addition of tons of
supplements to
make up for that loss. Don't feed pork or rabbit meat that
you're
uncertain about. Human-grade chicken, lamb, and beef should
be fine as
long as it's fresh and clean. Ferrets can contract certain
parasites
(giardia and coccidia) but are unlikely to get e. coli or
salmonella.
Whatever meat you feed the ferret will have sufficient fat
in it to meet
the ferret's needs.
Go back to the breeders and have them give you more details
on what they
feed their ferrets, and do the same if it seems like a
well-rounded diet.
If their ferret diet is impractical, you can mimic a
"whole-prey" recipe
yourself with things you would buy in a normal grocery
store.
I have been feeding my cat a raw diet now for months with no
problems. The
ferret gets as much of this as she can steal while the cat's
eating, but
for practicality's sake, it is not her primary food. The
cat eats raw
chicken and raw chicken bones with no ill effects whatsoever
- remember
that their digestive tracts are hugely different from ours,
and optimized
to digest prey (well, most of it :) with a minimum of risk
from parasites
and bacteria.
Melissa
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