From:
"Roary"
Date: 2004-06-13 20:02:53 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Skinny Ferret
To: <ferrethealth@smartgroups.com>
Message-ID: <001101c45181$6a129410$26a12344@digitalcmp5a4v>
Two pounds is about average for a ferret. What really means more than weight
is how the ferret feels - i.e. muscular, solid, dense, ect... Is the ferret
in proportion to weight and length? All these factors are more important
than simply just how much a ferret weighs.
Heavy (fat) ferrets can be sickly. We rescued a ferret several years ago who
was kept in a cat carrier and fed cheap cat food. Her name was Farrah.
Farrah was about two when we got her. She could barely stand up and when she
did she would just fall over. She was basically a skeleton of a ferret. She
had never been let out of her cat carrier and had basically led the life of
a caged hamster - arrrrggggh!
We hand fed her and got her healthier, but she was never truly healthy. She
ended up gaining all kinds of weight (ended up around 3 pounds), but her
metabolism and immune system were compromised because of the poor care she
received the first two years of her life. She was never very active. We were
overjoyed the one time we saw her do the war dance. We just wanted her to be
a normal ferret ;) We ended up losing her to giardia - something most
ferrets can fight off pretty easily.
Roary
Albuquerque, NM