| Is There A Decent Soft Ferret Food? - CLICK HERE for the Pet Manual Forum Home Page |
| sn2000py@webtv.net |
Hi,
I have a very old ferret who is starting to show signs of having trouble
chewing dry food. She still does eat dry food, but she prefers the food
be placed in a bowl with water. My concerns about that is such food
starts growing bacteria...although she actually doesn't ever seem to eat
the wet food after the first time I put it down... and I'm not home all
day to give her fresh dry food in water whenever she wants it.
Thus, I went searching for soft food. My thrill of finding a soft Path
Valley Farm food was short lived--they put pork fat and pig blood in it!
(What are they trying to do, compete with Hartz???) Also the fiber
content is above 3%. There is now a soft Ultimate 8 in 1...but the
ingredients didn't sound that great...and my ferrets never liked the
hard Ultimate 8 in 1.
They also in the past have refused to eat Marshall's and that new
pelleted one with 50% protein...not to mention, 50% protein sounds way
too high for an elderly ferret.
(And my elderly one cannot eat any food that has corn itself...not corn
meal...in it. She LOVES food with corn in it, but it makes her scratch
constantly.) They will eat Path Valley, Iams Kitten, and Purina One
Chicken & Rice Cat food. The minimum fat amount of the Purina One is
only 13%, but it obviously has enough fat. I acquired a very large, very
underweight female ferret this summer, who only seems to eat the Purina
One, and she is now a very large, very heavy ferret. (Not overweight
mind you, just heavy.) She's not caged, either, and is the most active,
playful ferret I've ever seen.
I was going to try Royal Canin Baby Cat, but the fiber is like 4.3%.
I've also tried cooked chicken, chicken liver, and eggs in various forms
in the past with no takers. No one would touch canned kitten food
either...but I may try that again with my elderly one.
Thus, back to my initial question...is there a decent soft ferret
food...or kitten food suitable for ferrets...anywhere?
Thanks,
Snoopy & the 4 Girls
P.S. How soft or hard is Mazuri?
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| lin |
I have a similar problem, w/ my Ariel. She's 5.5 yrs old, has a heart
problem, had her left adrenal removed slightly before she turned 2, & now
has a right adrenal that we're trying to figure out what to do w/. For some
reason, she seems to have lost her taste for harder kibble. I normally feed
them a mixture of Totally Ferret & AvoDerm Feline.
I got a free sample bag of the Mazuri recently, to see if Ariel would eat
it. I was told it was softer than the average kibble. Either I got a stale
bag, or it simply isn't that much different, other than the shape. Everybody
turned their noses up at it, including Max, who'll eat practically
*anything*.
So, until I find something that's a softer kibble-type food, I've been
getting her out several times a day to eat a mixture of Hill's Prescription
A/D, mixed w/ a bit of crushed kibble, heavy whipping cream, & a bit of
FerreTone for taste. She wolfs it right down. But, as w/ kibble softened w/
water, I feel uncomfortable leaving a bowl in their cage. Even though I keep
up w/ their food well, the fact that (a) everyone eats the soup except Puck,
& (b) it gets hard & yukky when left out, doesn't leave the option of
keeping a bowl in the cage for free feeding.
If anyone else knows of any softer-type kibble, I guess there's 2 of us who
are looking!
--
Lin, Ariel, Oberon, Max, & Puck
To email me back, take out everything from "K" to "2"
<sn2000py@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:22-4361BDCC-380@storefull-3134.bay.webtv.net...
> Hi,
>
> I have a very old ferret who is starting to show signs of having trouble
> chewing dry food. She still does eat dry food, but she prefers the food
> be placed in a bowl with water. My concerns about that is such food
> starts growing bacteria...although she actually doesn't ever seem to eat
> the wet food after the first time I put it down... and I'm not home all
> day to give her fresh dry food in water whenever she wants it.
>
> Thus, I went searching for soft food. My thrill of finding a soft Path
> Valley Farm food was short lived--they put pork fat and pig blood in it!
> (What are they trying to do, compete with Hartz???) Also the fiber
> content is above 3%. There is now a soft Ultimate 8 in 1...but the
> ingredients didn't sound that great...and my ferrets never liked the
> hard Ultimate 8 in 1.
>
> They also in the past have refused to eat Marshall's and that new
> pelleted one with 50% protein...not to mention, 50% protein sounds way
> too high for an elderly ferret.
> (And my elderly one cannot eat any food that has corn itself...not corn
> meal...in it. She LOVES food with corn in it, but it makes her scratch
> constantly.) They will eat Path Valley, Iams Kitten, and Purina One
> Chicken & Rice Cat food. The minimum fat amount of the Purina One is
> only 13%, but it obviously has enough fat. I acquired a very large, very
> underweight female ferret this summer, who only seems to eat the Purina
> One, and she is now a very large, very heavy ferret. (Not overweight
> mind you, just heavy.) She's not caged, either, and is the most active,
> playful ferret I've ever seen.
>
> I was going to try Royal Canin Baby Cat, but the fiber is like 4.3%.
> I've also tried cooked chicken, chicken liver, and eggs in various forms
> in the past with no takers. No one would touch canned kitten food
> either...but I may try that again with my elderly one.
>
> Thus, back to my initial question...is there a decent soft ferret
> food...or kitten food suitable for ferrets...anywhere?
>
> Thanks,
> Snoopy & the 4 Girls
>
> P.S. How soft or hard is Mazuri?
>
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| lin |
"Joan" <jbclague@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1130504567.773247.122880@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Natural Gold kibble is now softer, re Bob Church's findings on the
> damage hard kibble does to ferrets' teeth. I've also found that the
> EVO cat/kitten is comparable and much less hard. MIne are on those
> two, plus whole prey and raw meat/bones.
I'll have to check into those, Joan. Thanks!
--
Lin, Ariel, Oberon, Max, & Puck
To email me back, take out everything from "K" to "2"
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| chasw |
S: Our ferret currently eats two types of kibble, Mazuri and 8in1 Ultimate.
Both are high quality, Mazuri is fairly soft and 8in1 Ultimate comes in two
varieties, crunchy and soft. Mazuri is carried by PetSmart, 8in1 is carried
by Petco. Check their web sites for stores near you. - CW
x<> wrote in message news:22-4361BDCC-380@storefull-3134.bay.webtv.net...
> Hi,
>
> I have a very old ferret who is starting to show signs of having trouble
> chewing dry food. She still does eat dry food, but she prefers the food
> be placed in a bowl with water. My concerns about that is such food
> starts growing bacteria...although she actually doesn't ever seem to eat
> the wet food after the first time I put it down... and I'm not home all
> day to give her fresh dry food in water whenever she wants it.
>
> Thus, I went searching for soft food. My thrill of finding a soft Path
> Valley Farm food was short lived--they put pork fat and pig blood in it!
> (What are they trying to do, compete with Hartz???) Also the fiber
> content is above 3%. There is now a soft Ultimate 8 in 1...but the
> ingredients didn't sound that great...and my ferrets never liked the
> hard Ultimate 8 in 1.
>
x snip
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| lin |
"Joan" <jbclague@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1130504567.773247.122880@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Natural Gold kibble is now softer, re Bob Church's findings on the
> damage hard kibble does to ferrets' teeth. I've also found that the
> EVO cat/kitten is comparable and much less hard. MIne are on those
> two, plus whole prey and raw meat/bones.
I'll have to check into those, Joan. Thanks!
--
Lin, Ariel, Oberon, Max, & Puck
To email me back, take out everything from "K" to "2"
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