Introducing a new ferret

Question
Hi there

I have had a trio of ferrets that have been together as a group for about 2 years now. Ducky (Female) is the youngest and she is 2 years old.  Chino (Female) is the oldest and she's 6 years old.  And Harper (Male) is five years old. I recently decided that I was going to adopt a rescue ferret and she finally came home yesterday .  Her name is Coco and she's 5 years old. I have been very careful with the introductions, making sure that I am there to supervise at all times. Three of my ferrets are "out of cage" ferrets and live in our bedroom. (I dont let them run around the house alone and I put them in a cage when I am gone) Coco, the new ferret is living in another cage alone until I get them all used to each others scent, etc. I have also been switching the bedding between cages so that they can get used to each other .

Anyways, yesterday, I went to go pick Coco up from the foster mom (She's been with her for about 3-4 months, and before that who knows) I brought one of my other ferrets along so that Coco wouldn't feel alone and scared.  When I brought Coco home she showed a lot of confidence.  I gave them all a bath, she was running around, having fun, playing with the other ferrets without incident.  But today, when I went in to get her from her cage, it was a different story. She didnt seem to have a lot of energy like she did yesterday. Also, I noticed that she is having diarrhea and is not eating anything except FerretVite.  When I brought her to my bedroom to play, she vomited . I brought her immediately back to her cage to rest and she seemed fine afterwards.  I went back into her room a few hours later and noticed that she had vomited in her cage a few times. So I cleaned it up and held her for a few minutes and she felt fine. Again, a few hours later, she was throwing up again and having diarrhea. She also seems very tired and "depressed" if that makes any sense.

Now I have a few theories of my own, but I was wondering if you could give me some input. Is it possible that this could be caused by stress from being  brought into my home? She did have companion ferrets at the old place and they lived together just fine. Plus, she does look a little "
sad" to me today. Is it possible that she could be grieving because she lost her old family?  Also, I was wondering if this could be caused by the sudden change of food? Her poop is brown and runny, almost like liquid.  The foster mother neglected to tell me what kind of food she was on previously. I am currently feeding her 8in1 Premium ferret diet because that is what my other ferrets are on.  I sent her an email but no response. I also received vet papers from the foster mother that Coco was checked three days ago with no illness and no serious previous illnesses in her past.  I've also had no really health problems with my three other ferrets as well.

My other three ferrets have been kept separate from Coco since she got here, besides living in their bedding and meeting briefly for about 1 hour the first day .

Thanks so much for your time in reading my letter.
Dayna

Answer
Hello Dayna,

I am so sorry for the delay in answering this question. How is Coco doing? Has she been eating better, I hope? You say she was health checked before coming home? Is there for sure up-to-date documentation of this health check? If not, I would say that you need to get her in for a check of your own asap. Also, it may be a food issue and/or a depression issue if she was living with other ferrets. Did she have cage mates that she was separated from? In most all cases of cage mate separation, you'll notice some depression issues in the ferrets involved. In fact, I'm highly surprised that she would be separated from her cage mates. So it could be stress from the move, new food and separation anxiety all rolled into one and this could be causing the changes in her behavior. The first thing you need to do is hound that woman to figure out what food she was feeding her because ferrets imprint on their food so they don't recognize anything else as food after a while. This would be why she isn't eating anything. So, you really should figure out what she was eating before so you can mix some of it in with her new food. You should start out with 85% old food, 15% new food for a few days and then 75% old food, 25% new food and so on until she is all the way switched over to the new food. It needs to be a gradual change so her stomach doesn't get worse. Also, with this, you need to make sure she is drinking lots of water and staying hydrated (make sure her gums stay wet and that if you scruff her, her skin snaps back rather than staying tented because if the skin stays tented, this means severe dehydration and that is not good! That requires a vet visit ASAP!).

Please update me on the situation and we'll see how she's doing! I would say keep an eye on her and keep her separated from your original kids until you know for sure that she doesn't have something that will pass to your other kids. I hope she's doing better now and let me know if you need anything else! I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,
Emilee Andrews