Kaytee Fiesta DEADLY to Ferrets

Question
Hi, I've noticed that the ferret food that I give my ferret has bits of dried bananas in it. This got me wondering if I can feed Momo some fruits, and if so what kinds?

Answer
Hi Daniel:

I'm SO glad you wrote!  I know without asking - you are feeding your ferret Kaytee Fiesta!  I know because when I got my first ferret I fed him Kaytee Fiesta also. It was the food that looked the most appetizing and I *thought* I was feeding my ferret the BEST food available, that I was spoiling him, because all the other foods on the shelf looked so boring!

WELL......it didn't take me long to find out that ferrets should never ever ever have dried fruits!  Ferrets are obligate carnivores, which means their stomach is designed to digest ONLY MEAT!  When vegetable and fruit materials are eaten, they do not get digested, but pass into the intestinal tract - OFTEN CAUSING INTESTINAL BLOCKAGES, WHICH ARE DEADLY!  

About two years ago, I started a campaign against Kaytee requesting they take Fiesta OFF THE MARKET so that well-meaning feret owners would not buy this stuff and unknowingly kill their beloved ferrets. We had HUNDREDS of ferret owners names on our petition and many many who had lost their ferrts to intestinal blockages caused directly by Kaytee Fiesta! As events turned out (too many variables involved), we were unable to proceed with a class-action lawsuit, but my heart is still in that project and I still try at every opportunity to educate ferret owners about Kaytee Fiesta and the dangers of feeding it to our ferrets.

Daniel, you are one very smart ferret dad!  I don't think anyone has ever written and said "since there is fruit in this food, can I feed my ferret fruits?"  It's usually more like :  "I feed my ferret banana chips and dried apples and...."  and my heart just drops because I know that little ferret has a belly full of dried fruit. It breaks my heart to answer those letters.  Thank heavens you asked first!

The best thing you can do now, since ferrets are very difficult to change to a different food - is to dump the Fiesta out into a big bowl and pick out all the pieces of fruit of ANY KIND. Make sure the only thing left is PELLETS.  Then put the pellets back into the bag. Toss the fruit in the trash and thank God, it looks like your ferret is one of the very very lucky ones because his dad asked the right question!  As soon as possible get some Totally Ferret and put 1/2 TF and 1/2 Fiesta WITHOUT THE FRUIT in your ferret's food bowl. Feed this mixture until you run out of Fiesta, then hopefully he will eat the TF by then.  If not, you can get one more bag of Kaytee - but NOT the Fiesta - they have just a food pellet without the fruit (it costs less too).  It's basically "junk" food, but if he absolutely won't eat anything else, you will need it to mix with the new food until he starts eating the new food. The best way to get him accustomed to the new food is to mix them together and STORE THEM TOGETHER SO THEIR SMELLS BLEND.  Since the quality of Kaytee products of ANY KIND is really bad, I hate to see any ferret eat their food. I sure hope you can get him changed over as soon as possible.  

Once he is changed over to the Totally Ferret, you will need to add another food, so he is still eating a mixture of TWO premium ferret foods. It's a good idea to have at least TWO foods in a mixture just in case one manufacturer changes their ingredients (have seen that happen several times in the past few years and each time ferret owners scramble trying to find SOMETHING their ferrets will eat). It can be a real problem if your ferret eats just one food...sometimes the ferret just stops eating if they can't have the food they are used to! If your ferret eats a mixture of two foods, you just change one and life goes on just fine. Protein should be AT LEAST 37% and fat should be AT LEAST 20% and from ANIMAL SOURCES. Always read the labels. Here's a chart to help you choose and see what's available near you (or you can order online and have it delivered to your home):  http://www.mdferretpaws.org/care/food_treats.html

Just to be safe, it would be a really good idea to give your little guy a 3-day hairball (any kind of potential blockage) treatment with Vetasyl and Uncle Jim's Duk Soup Mix just to be sure he doesn't have anything trapped in the folds of his intestines. It's possible to have a 'partial' blockage that would continue to collect fur and could cause serious problems in the future. This is something you can use routinely for hairball prevention anyway, so now would be a perfect time to start him on it. Use this INSTEAD OF the goopy, sweet hairball laxatives and prevent problems before they have a chance to get started. The last blockage surgery we had cost over $1,000.....here's how to prevent one:

"Vetasyl" is a safe bulk product made of psyllium and barley that absorbs liquids as it travels thru the digestive system and works like Metamucil works for people.  I gave him the CONTENTS OF ONE VETASYL CAPSULE (toss the cap itself away) blended into 6-OZ OF VERY WARM WATER and TWO LEVEL TEASPOONS of Uncle Jim's Duk Soup Mix (by Marshalls and available at pet stores or online pet supply stores).  I let him eat all he wanted...and he ate all 6 oz of it!

I repeated this and fed him 'lax soup' ONCE A DAY FOR THREE DAYS IN A ROW.  The first two days he passed a few small hairballs here and there, not enough to explain the tiny poops I had been seeing.  However, on the third day I gave the lax, he passed a hairball the size and shape of my little finger!!  It had some green pus on one end of it, so no doubt he was very close to having a very serious problem - but it was averted just in time!  

Since then, I have been giving the 'soup lax' treatment about once every two weeks. I make up the soup at bedtime and he goes to bed with a tummy full of warm soup.  By morning when I check the litterbox, I often find hairballs that he has passed in his poops.  The first time, for the initial 'clean-out', give it for three days in a row to be sure everything is out, but subsequent treatments can be just one feeding of the 'soup' every couple of weeks.  

My large male ferret eats the whole 6 oz of soup. The 'soup' is very thin like water - it must be for the Vetasyl to work. Smaller ferrets may eat less, but they should eat at least 1/2 of the mixture in order to be effective. The secret is in giving it with enough fluids so that it can swell up in the intestines and move whatever it finds in its path out.  You can get your ferret familiar with Uncle Jim's Duk Soup - it's a treat to my kids - they LOVE it and if you use 2 level teaspoons in 6-oz of warm water and the contents of one Vetasyl capsule, the proportions are just about perfect!  Initially you may have to dip your finger in it, then into their mouth until they develop a taste for it and eat it readily.  I haven't seen a ferret yet who doesn't love Uncle Jim's, so it is perfect for this....and MUCH healthier for our ferrets than the sugary vaseline laxatives we have given for years (and they don't work as well as Vetasyl!). Since you are a bit isolated, I'm sure you can get these products delivered to your home - here's where you can get them:

VETASYL: http://www1.shopping.com/xFSKW=vetasyl&CLT=SCH

UNCLE JIM'S DUK SOUP MIX: http://www1.shopping.com/xFS?KW=Uncle+Jim%27s+Duk+Soup+Mix&CLT=SCH



It sometimes takes a little time to change ferret foods. In your case, the quicker your ferret will tolerate change, the better. I'm so sorry to see that Kaytee is still getting by with their merchandising tactics of having the 'colorful attractive' food that ferret owners *think* they are treating their ferrets with. Please, any time you are in the pet store and you see anyone reaching for Kaytee Fiesta, speak up and save a ferret's life. I had it removed from our local pet shop shelves....they had NO idea it was deadly either until I showed them the emails from owners of ferrets who had died (pieces of fruit removed from stomach/intestine after death). We CAN make a difference if we speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves...........

Sincerely,

Jacquie Rodgers