Pregnant ferret diet

Question
The ferret shelter I volunteer and foster for just received 70 unfixed ferrets
from a breeder that retired. Through cleaning all those cages I fell in love with
one of the jills but we dont know who is pregnant and who is not. We suspect
she is as over half probably are (56 are girls) but we dont want to abort the
babies and can't afford a sonogram for every girl ($50 each even for the
shelter) anyways I read that you knew a lot about diet and I do too but not for
pregnant jills (if she is). My kids eat totally ferret premium, zupreem, and
wysong archetype 1. Does she need something different? I am worried sick
about her and may just pay for a sonogram (200+ for not shelter people)
but if it turns out she is pregnant I have no idea what to do. Any suggestions
or tips are appreciated. Also she is 1 1/2 and has been with the shelter a
week and a half. She is a biter but I am still trying to figure out if its fear or
just not knowing how hard she is biting but she usually licks so I think she
just doesn't know it hurts when its that hard. Sorry I'm rambling I'm stressed!
Thanks for your help.

Answer
I'm sorry for the delay, I wanted to research this before I gave an answer.

First let me say what a wonderful person you and I wish there were more people like you out there. I hope this all turns out alright!

The best diet for a pregnant ferret would be a raw whole diet consisting of a variety of f/t (frozen/thawed) feeders and RMB's (Raw Meaty Bones).

I answered a question recently in which I explain how to go about a raw diet and what different ones are out there (Here: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Ferrets-2277/2008/3/Meaty-diet-ferret.htm )

Now, for a pregnant ferret I would also add some extra calcium to it. You can do that by taking egg shells and grinding them up into a powder. They are very rich in calcuim so a little will go a long way.

You could also go to most any holistic/natural/health food store and get powdered calcium.

Farther on in my reply I will give you a list of dry foods that would be good. If you don't want to feed the raw choose one of those or stick with just the Wysong with added calcium. Don't add in the Zupreem or TF.

Now, I'm going to be completely blunt here and I'm incredibly sorry if I come off rude, I don't want to.

Totally Ferret and Zupreem are both low quality foods in my opinion. They aren't as bad as Marshalls or Kaytee by any means and I comend you for that, but they are still low quality

First ten ingredients in TF premium

Chicken by product meal, rice flour, egg product, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols, a natural source of vitamin E), poultry fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols, a natural source of vitamin E), wheat flour, whole ground corn, herring meal, beet pulp, chicken liver meal

1st is a by product- That is the cheapest part of the chicken. It is the left overs of the left overs and is typically melted down feathers and beaks. So if that is the first ingredient there is very much the likely hood that there is no actual meat in it.

2nd is Rice Flour- It's a grain and the 2nd ingredient. Rice should not be part of a ferret food to begin with. It's a cheap filler that they can't digest and gives no nutrition. Because it is the 2nd ingredient it means it makes up the majority of the food

3rd is Egg product- That's fine, eggs are great for ferrets

4th is Chicken Fat- Chicken fat is a good ingredient and rich in nutrient's

5th is Poultry Fat- This is decent, it bothers me is just says "poultry" and not a named animal source

6th is Wheat flour- Once again, it's a grain and a low quality one at that. Just a cheap filler that is bad for your ferrets

7th is Whole Ground Corn- This is the worst grain of them all and if there is EVER corn in any ferret food (or cat and dog) I immediately dismiss it. It's cheap and terrible for ferrets. Just that alone makes this food low quality (though other things to, as I've stated)

8th is Herring Meal-This is a good ingredient. But it's also 8 ingredients in which means it took this long from the first ingredient which was a meat by-product to get another named meat source

9th is Beat Pulp- There is some debate on this, but from my reading it's a low quality ingredient that higher quality foods don't have.

10th is Chicken Liver Meal-Good ingredient


So all in all this is a low quality food. And it's actually worse than I thought it was, I didn't know they had only by products for the meat source in the first five ingredients and I didn't know they used corn.

Zupreem

Chicken meal, Chicken fat, Ground wheat,Wheat flour,
Chicken, Egg product, Beet pulp, Natural chicken flavor,
Brewers yeast, Flax seed,

Chicken Meal- Good, a named meat source for the first ingredient and a meal which is good.

Chicken Fat- Also good, very rich in nutrients

Ground Wheat- Bad, a grain and same as I said earlier

Wheat Flour-Grain

Chicken-Good, named meat source and not too far down

Egg Product- Nutritious and great for ferrets

Beet Pulp- Debatable, but I believe is low quality ingredient

Natural Chicken Flavor-Neither good or bad

This food is no where near as bad as Totally Ferret but still has too many grains and fillers for my taste

Wysong Archetype 1 though is a GREAT food and I highly recommend it. You would be better off just feeding that and not the other two.

Here is a list of the best dry ferret food out there and in my opinion. I think choosing some of these foods (or going to raw, which would be best) would be a good idea.

Innova Evo Feline
http://www.evopet.com/products/default.asp?id=1500

Innova Evo Ferret
http://www.evopet.com/products/default.asp?id=1502

Wellness Core Feline
http://www.omhpet.com/wellness/cat_wellness_dry_core.html

Orijen Feline
http://www.championpetfoods.com/orij...gredients.aspx

Nature's Variety Instinct Feline
http://www.naturesvariety.com/conten...56ysN180FC8 7
http://www.naturesvariety.com/conten...56ysN180FC8 7

Nature's Variety Raw/Freeze Dried Medallions (this is only for supplementing, not for a complete diet)
http://www.naturesvariety.com/content.lass...38BA5jqM286D780

Wysong Ferret Archetypal-1 (only this one, all of their others aren't appropriate for ferrets)
http://www.wysong.net/Merchant2/merc...roduct_Count=3

Two decent foods that aren't as high a quality as the ones mentioned above are

Natural Gold Ferret Food
http://www.fuzies.com/natural_gold_ferret_food1.htm

Chicken Soup for the Pet Lovers Soul
http://www.chickensoupforthepetloverssoul....kitten_formula/

I know I gave more information that you probably wanted but I can tell you care a lot about your ferrets and other ferrets out there. So I figured I would throw this info out there in hopes it helped you.

I also am going to urge you to join:
Pets-Galore.net It's a small pet forum just getting off the ground and getting ferret people on there would be wonderful.

...Ok, I admit it, I just want to see pictures of your ferrets and especially baby kits if she is pregnant! But please, consider it. We would love to have you.

Hope I helped and didn't offend you :)

Lindsey