From:
katharine@nettally.com
Date: 2002-11-28 13:12:34 UTC
Subject: RE: Post-op Ferret Not Eating - Help
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <16504306.1038489154519.JavaMail.root@scandium>
The rule of thumb we use with injured or orphaned wildlife is to feed about 20-25% of their body weight, spread over the day. In this case, you can use grams and cc/ml interchangeably. If your ferret weighs 2 lbs., that equates to 908g (l lb = 454g). 20% of that is 181g. If you do, say, 5 feedings a day, you would need to feed about 35cc per feeding. 25% would up the feedings to about 45cc per feeding. This is just a general rule to go by. A little less or a little more won't make a huge difference but, as you can see, 10cc twice a day is not nearly enough. An ill animal needs a lot more calories/protein/fat in order to heal.
Katharine
Author wrote:
> I'll start with my two questions first and then give some history. First, how much food can you force into a ferret belly at one time, my most recent force feeding was about 10cc's of Science Diet AD, is this too much, too little? I'm feeding that much about twice a day.