From:
"Jim Kennedy"
Date: 2009-12-12 00:56:52 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Will a ferret starve to death if they do not like their food???
To: <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>
Anita,
I'm sure you will get a variety of professional answers, but I will tell you
about one ferret we had years ago.
Linus and his sister Lucy came to us back in 2001 +/-, after being dropped
at the local ASPCA.
They were given to us because they were not eating, and they were quickly
losing weight and body mass.
A friend of ours took Lucy, and we took Linus, just to ease the work load of
having to deal with both starving ferrets
at the same time.
Lucy seemed to take to whatever food our friend gave her, but Linus would
not eat anything. We tried every ferret food we had
in the house/shelter, to no avail. We tried several of the better and not so
good cat and kitten foods, and still he would not eat.
He continued to lose weight, and I was starting to worry that we were going
to lose him. He was very frustrating!
Then one day while refilling our cat's food bowl, a piece of food fell on
the floor. Before we could pick up the food,
so the ferrets wouldn't eat a food that was not "good enough" for them, we
heard a crunching sound. When we looked down to see who the lucky ferret
was, it was Linus obviously enjoying the treat he had found. We gave him a
few ore pieces to see if he would eat them, and he went to town. :-)
I still don't know why we never tried the cat food we had in the house, but
we tried literally 25 different kinds of cat/kitten and ferret food,
even opening bags at the local Petco to see if he would eat it.
Several years later, in 2004, Linus developed MegaE, and spent the next few
months being syringe fed. We tried everything we could to save him,
but eventually we had to let him go to his rest. He came to us starving, and
he left us starving. :-(
I'm not sure if this is indicative of ferrets in general, but it was for
him, and we have seen the same thing in others to a lesser degree.
Jim
[Moderator's Comment:
I am sure that Jim opened the bags with the store's
knowledge and consent for purchase to help decide
what Linus would eat as well as the others eating it,
so, please, gentle interpretation when reading...]
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