My ferret sniffed laundry detergent....!!!! help please

Question
Hi my name is Talei I'm a new ferret owner had both of mine for about 6 months. Just about 10 mins ago my ferret bear sniffed some laundry detergent i wasn't aware was on the floor. after he got really startled and ran under the couch (his hiding place) it was really weird so i got him out with his favorite squeaky and he was acting really weird and didn't want me to touch his nose. could it be it burned or could it be a serious issue? I'm a little worried but i never know what to look for if something is wrong. He is running around fine now though.

One more question: about how much would you say a typical ferret eats each day? One of my ferrets eats all the time and sometimes i think he might be getting obese but he's not the other one i barely see eat i have caught him a few times and i have tried numerous foods to see what he like more. Could it be he just doesn't eat as much or what? Is there anyway to tell if a ferret is eating enough?

Answer
Hi Talei:

I'm sure we're a little late now for some first aid for that sniffing of the laundry detergent. Sorry, I was on vacation.  I hope he was able to snort it all out and everything is okay now. Yes, it could well burn the insides of his nose and sinuses.

As far as eating is concerned, maybe one ferret likes the food more than the other one does. It is quite common for people to feed a mixture of 2 or 3 different foods when they have more than one ferret. Stick with the premium ferret-specific foods and any of them will be okay.  Here is a page of foods and they rate them from "10" being the best and lower numbers being not as good.  Try not to feed anything less than a "9" on the list:

    http://www.mdferretpaws.org/care/food_treats.html

You may have to try a few until you find one or two that both ferrets like a lot. Remember to always make changes slowly.....put just a few kibbles of the new food into a whole bowl of the old food and keep increasing the new food slowly until they are used to it. Buy very small amounts (or ask for samples) of the foods so your kids can try them out before you buy 20 lbs or more.  Once you get them on a regime, keep them on it. It's better than constantly changing them around.

As long as your 'skinny' ferret isn't too skinny, I wouldn't worry. However, if there is a huge diference and they are both the same sex (NOTE: female ferrets are much smaller than male ferrets - this is normal), it might be a good idea to have a vet exam just to be sure he doesn't have a partial intestinal blockage or other reason for being skinny.  Sometimes ferrets don't give us very many signals that they are sick, so we have to keep our eyes and ears open at all times looking out for anything that could possibly be a symptom or signal they are not quite feeling perfectly up to par.  Is he energetic when he plays? If not, a vet trip is definitely in order.   Hope that helps.

Sincerely,

Jacquie Rodgers