From:
"Tressie"
Date: 2010-07-27 17:47:26 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: BALD BABY FERRET????
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Do you know where the ferrets came from? Were they from a private breeder? If you have the name of the breeder you can contact them and get more information about their genetic lines. If they came from a backyard breeder, they may not have been fed properly from the onset. Or the jill who gave birth to them might have had a poor diet during pregnancy.
Canned and dry 'cat' food would have given this trio a poor nutritional start. This may have contributed greatly to the hair loss in the sprite shortly after you got them.
8-in-1 have different levels of food. The Premium Ultimate is the one you want if it is your preference to feed this brand. I would eliminate 'puppy' anything in their diet - because dog/puppy food of any kind is not nutritionally balanced for ferrets! I would suggest feeding a high quality ferret food with a little bit of chicken or turkey mixed into it. The proportion of ferret food should be greater than the turkey/chicken.
A whole prey diet is nutritionally balanced, feeding only meat is not. The higher quality ferret foods have been developed to meet the nutritional needs of ferrets, i.e., Innova EVO; Totally Ferret, etc.
Most carnivores do not tolerate bovine milk.
I am wondering whether their nutritional needs are not being met and the littlest one is the most vulnerable to an unbalanced diet and hence may be showing more overt signs of malnutrition?
I acquired a ferret kit who was the smallest of 16 last winter. I was told he was a runt as well. I watched the kits for over 2 hours and observed their interactions. I noticed that when eating - a hard, lower quality ferret kibble, the littlest kit was always bumped by more assertive kits. And when he managed to actually grab a kibble he had trouble chewing it.
I took him home with me and by 4 1/2 months of age he had surpassed even my biggest boys in size and weighed a solid 3 lbs. He is a handsome healthy gib at 10 months of age and is my biggest ferret.
Point is that he was not eating well when he was one of sixteen and was not growing well but quickly caught up when given a more nutritionally balanced diet.
I think you are asking for trouble by not litter or puppy pad training them. At this stage cleanliness is not the issue in their minds. They don't know they are not supposed use their bedding for a toilet. They are not learning toileting habits early on and will be a nightmare to clean up after as they mature.
The soiled bedding may create other health problems for them with risks of some of the nastier fecal parasites like Giardia. Unless you are changing their soiled bedding every time they defecate, that is, roughly every 4 hours - it will be impossible to keep on top of it.
I believe someone has already recommended Kim Schilling's book 'Ferret for Dummies.' It is an excellent resource for experienced and inexperienced ferret folks alike.
Tressie
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