Ferrets Wont Eat!

Question
We have ferrets that won't eat anything on a regular basis.  We've tried everything including cat food and they might eat for a second, but not again.  Any suggestions.  

Answer
Hi Jami:

You don't say how long you've had the ferrets - I will assume not long, since they aren't eating much.

Ferrets "imprint" on their food at a very young age, so whatever they were used to eating when you got them is what they are waiting for.

I highly recomment Marshalls "Uncle Jim's Duck Soup Mix" which is in a jar, is a powder you mix with very hot water and let it sit for a while until it reconstitutes and becomes a gravy. Then add more water as neessary to keep it gravy thickness.  Dip your finger into it and then onto the ferret's gums a few times and give them a good taste of it and they *should* take right to it (every ferret I've ever tried this with LOVES this stuff).  Keep them on this for 2 or 3 days, feed 4 times a day as much as they will eat.

Then on the third day, choose a good ferret food such as Totally Ferret or 8-in-1 ULTIMATE, Path Valley Foods, Mazuri or Marshalls and mix the same gravy mixture and pour it over a bit of this food.  Each day use less and less of the gravy and more of the dry kibble.  Eventually they should eat just the kibble.  

It's a good idea to have TWO different foods in their dry kibble just in case one changes their formulation -- you will be right back where you are now, trying to figure out how to get them to eat.

Another thing you may want to do if you can is contact the previous owner and find out what they were eating and feed them that IF it's a good ferret food.  You can find a great list of ferret foods for comparison in quality here:

http://www.ohioferret.org/INFO/nutri.asp

Hope that helps. You will need to get something down them SOON, so I hope your local pet store carries "Uncle Jims".  If not, you may try wetting the food and offering it to them that way, but unless they are tiny babies, they probably won't like that any better than regular kibble.

If you can't get Uncle Jim's, go to a local vet's office and get some Hill's A/D (canned) Feline and Warm some of that in a microwave, add water until it is gravy thickness and feed that to them for several days (just as above), then try pouring it over their kibble mixture and hopefully that will get them eating.  You can keep them on the A/D four times a day as long as necessary, but hopefully you can find out what they were eating before and get them back on that.   IF what they were on was not a good ferret food, you will HAVE to start them off by giving them what they are used to because that is what they are 'imprinted' on.    Get a better ferret food (get two and mix them together), and slowly add a little of the new food and a little less of the old each day until eventually they are changed over to the new one.

If they are skinny and have already lost weight, get them on the Hill's A/D, THEN after several days, do the above - use whatever food they WERE eating and slowly add in new food until they are changed over and you can feed them warm A/D 'soup' in between to be sure they don't lose any more weight.  Ferrets will actually die if they can't have food they are used to.  You will probably need to take your finger, dip it in the warm A/D or Jim's Duck Soup and put some on their gums to MAKE them taste it several times before they give in and eat.  

Best of luck - just keep trying. They WILL eventually give in and I think the A/D or Jim's Mix are the things ferrets love most othat are very good for them, so you can't go wrong with either of those.  Be sure to do it TODAY  - you have no time to waste if your ferrets aren't eating.  A ferret shouldn't go even 24 hours without eating or they can become very very ill.

IF anything I've told you here doesn't work, they may already have gone too long without food and need intravenous feedings from the vet. Please, if they refuse to eat any of the above, get them to a vet for IV feedings and let him get them started on some food with a bit more force (or some other tricks), but they MUST EAT.

Thanks so much for your question - I hope and pray your babies eat SOON.  Please let me know how they progress?  I will be worried about them.  Just be consistent and persistent and make SURE they get food and water down them every few hours every day. SOon they should be eating on their own.

Please keep me updated, Jami.  

Sincerely,
Jacquie Rodgers