From:
shelterwoman@yahoo.com
Date: 2002-10-06 03:11:57 UTC
Subject: RE: Underweight ferrets
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <5067159.1033873917642.JavaMail.root@scandium>
Hello Jessica,
Kaytee food would not cause the ferrets to lose weight, however not getting enough of it would definitely do so! It sounds as if they are very hungry, so by keeping food available for them you will be able to monitor their intake over the next few days, but make sure if you have already changed their diet that both the ferrets are eating.
If you still have the Kaytee food check and make sure it is not stale and if it is fine, I would continue to give it to them until it is all gone, to prevent any gastric upsets. Just put it at the side of the new food that you are changing them to.
You will need to do a fecal check to make sure there are no worms and also check to see if there are no visible tape worms in the stools, which they may have if they had fleas in their last home. If this is a possibility they can lose weight rapidly from having tape worms. They will not pass them to your ferrets unless there are still some fleas on them.
If you are concerned about their underweight, perhaps you could supplement their diet with some chicken baby food until you are sure they have no illnesses, for instance older ferrets could have insulinoma which could cause weight loss also--Angela.