Orange Poop

Question
I have a ferret named Mogget, I love him so very much but I have started to noticed that sometimes his stool is orange. I've looked through all of my ferret books and it list bloody poo, but not orange. And he doesn't have any other symptoms like scratching or loss of appetite, and is as energetic as ever. Every thing else I've read says it could be something that he ate. The only thing is he doesn't eat anything except his ferret food, and occasionally cat food when he weasel his way into some. He doesn't like any treats, not liver, ferretone, peanutbutter, raisins, nothing i can find besides his usual food. He goes insane for potatoes though, not to eat just to sleep with and carry around, so that can't be it. I hope it isn't a health problem, his stool is only orange about once a month, from what I've described what do you think it is?

PS
if you think its bc the cat food might be a red or orange, its dark brown.

Answer
Hi Sarah:

Orange poops certainly aren't 'normal', but no doubt they are orange due to *something* he is eating.  Even if the cat food you have appears to be brown, there is a great chance that it contains artificial colors (check the label) and one of those colors is probably a deep orange in order to make it brown.  You can test this by  wrapping a few kibbles in a wet paper towel and leave it lay a few hours, or even overnight and I will be it leaves an orange residue.

If it does not, I would strongly suggest that you search high and low to see what he is getting ahold of that is orange....cuz something definitely is.  There's nothing inside a ferret that could turn normal poops orange colored :-)   

Here's a great "poop chart" you may appreciate. It show how obsessed with poop we ferret-lovers really are!

http://www.ferret-fact.org/HealSymPoop.htm

One other suggestion I have is to move the cat's food up off the floor when your ferret is out. Ferrets normally crave cat food instead of their food - cat food to ferrets is like a child eating junk food instead of what is good for them.  Although it may seem harmless, it can and will cause many illnesses later in the ferret's life, and will ultimately shorten the ferret's life, and cost you much more in vet bills than what you pay by feeding the ferret a good, healthy premium ferret food.  They have enough diseases without any help from bad foods.

I will bet that if you remove the cat food so the ferret can't get to it for a week, the poops will go back to normal color. No doubt his digestive system is trying to tell you he has eaten something that is sending up a red....er, orange flag.

Sincerely,

Jacquie Rodgers