Food Scattering

Question
My 4 year old ferret, Quigley, has started some strange behavior I can't figure out. Recently, Quigley has started to scatter his food all over his cage and onto the floor. His diet is the same and he is healthy, nothing has changed that would cause him to start this new and annoying behavior. Can you help me get into his head and figure out why he has started doing this?

Answer
Hi Marla:

You didn't mention what food Quigley (cute name BTW!) eats. There can be several reasons for food scattering, but since he just started it, my first suspicion is that the company making it has changed the recipe in some way and Quigley can taste the difference.  Ferrets "imprint" on their food at a very early age and if they aren't introduced to other tasted/foods early in life things like this can happen in older ferrets and I've even heard of big changes in manufacturer's recipes causing panic from owners as they scramble to try to find bags of the "old recipe" as they all try desperately to get their ferrets to accept new foods.

Of course, there are all the other emotional factors such as divorce, new baby in the house, financial problems, moving - ferrets pick up on all these problems and internalize them much more so than even dogs or cats do. They can feel when mom and dad are tense and upset and they try so hard to dance and make them laugh and when that laugh doesn't come (or isn't full-hearted enough), they know something bad is going on. Sometimes I think that ferrets are sent to earth with the assignment being to keep their humans happy and laughing and when they aren't successful at doing that, they really feel inadequate!

My oldest ferret scatters his food and has only started it in his older years...but if I look really close at what he is scattering, it is almost always PIECES, not the whole kibble. It's not like he's getting up there and intentionally digging in the food bowl to make a mess (**NOTE: If your ferret IS intentionally digging in the food bowl as if trying to make a mess, write again and let me know because that would be treated differently). I haven't met a ferret yet who eats the whole piece of a piece of kibble and I haven't met an owner yet who can explain why! That is one of the true mysteries of owning a ferret. :-)  

Anyway, the other night I sat here and watched my older ferret, who is incredibly well-behaved and social, as he gently tipped the bowl towards himself and nudged some kibbles out on  the floor in front of him, then laid there in the middle of the food and ate! It was the first time I had actually observed the process, though I've been vacuuming up the results morning and night for over a year now. He eats about 90% or more of what he pulls out of the bowl and he does use his paw to flick away the "leftovers" once he gets an area 'finished' (when there are only pieces of kibbles left) to make sure he has gotten them all.  It made me laugh, actually - reminded me of an old grandpa ferret sitting at the head of the family table; doesn't really think about anything but eating once he sits down... never lifted his head once to look around until he was finished. He was definitely "in da zone". I had to smile as I watched him - he's had a good life here with us; has never known hunger, too hot/cold, abuse, or anything except love. And he has never given us anything but love.  I hope when I'm the old 'grandma' sitting at the head of the family table, *somebody* will remember me kindly and won't mind too much scooping up the extra kibbles for me.  

Something as simple as a dish with  low sides is helpful with both food and water for older ferrets and could help with your problem. If it doesn't, I really would recommend you look closely at the "food" before you throw it away - it could very well be those 'dreaded pieces' that they don't consider as 'food'. And other than that, if that's the worst problem he has as an oldster, you will be one very very lucky ferret mommy!  Hugs to one l'il old food slinger to another.

Sincerely,

Jacquie Rodgers