Hubby brought home a Ferret.... Questions

[Lyn]

Yup a Ferret! At least it wasn't a wild critter. The last time I heard "Honey.. Come here for a minute" he handed me 2 baby Raccoons.

So a little back story on this Ferret. His friend works full time, his wife also started back full time and the oldest kid was suppose to be feeding and caring for this Ferret but he wasn't and she was being neglected. The wife asked my hubby if he would take her and since my job didn't pan out as expected, I'm home the majority of the time now. Of course he couldn't say no.

Now it's been years since I had a Ferret but she is small and thin compared to my last one. I'm not sure if she's underweight from lack of food or if there is something else going on with her. She's a Marshall Ferret (2 dots in her ear) She is probably close to 4 years old and I know their life span is 6-10 years old with 6 being the average so she's 'middle age' ish. Do they thin out during middle age?

She was in dire need of a nail trim and we started trimming lastnight. I got all but 2 nails on the front feet before she decided she wanted to boogie. She needs her ears cleaned, they are waxy but no ear mites or the like that I can see. She has loose poop that I'm hoping is just stress related to the move here (we just got her Saturday). Or possibly food related? She's eating 8in1 ferret food, but I'd like to get her on something better. Any suggestions? I'm going to get a stool sample into my vet for a parasite check just in case.

We are getting her new digs too either a Ferret nation 142 or the Marshall Mansion. I don't have a room I can devote to her so she needs a large cage.

Here's a couple pics. She doesn't hold still on the floor so I took them while she was in her cage. You can see how long her nails were..

Anyone know what color she is?

[Newly Newfed]

Congrats on the new family member!  I also have a ferret named Roxy.  She is younger than yours, only about two years old.  I don't know if they tend to get thinner at middle age, but Roxy is very small body-wise.  She really didn't get much bigger than she was when we got her at 4 months old.  She is a chubby little rodent but still only weighs about 2 lbs at most and she is the same color as yours - sable    Females can tend to stay small body-wise, but her thinness could very well be because of her being neglected.  Your vet will steer you in the right direction and with your love and attention, I'm sure she'll be a happy, fat little stinker in no time.

P.S. - thanks for the Ferretone trick...I'll have to try that with Roxy.  It's like trying to trim the nails on a beserk slinky!!!

[Newly Newfed]

Our biggest problem at the moment is creating a ferret proof area for her to play in. I need a 26 foot baby gate to go across our recroom. LMAO

chaosndestruct ion, Thanks for the food info. The only Ferret food I can find locally other than Marshall's is Zupreem. Now now I'm more used to dog food ingredients but EWWW. Lots of wheat, beet pulp, egg 'product' and salt is pretty high up on the list. But at the same time I'm hesitant to try a cat/kitten food since I tried switching my last ferret to Wellness and we ended up at the vet clinic, dehydrated from booty blowout.

We lucked out with Roxy...she pretty much has run of the house when we let her out of the cage.  She doesn't chew furniture or wires, she just hides all the time.  She'll jump out ambush your feet as you walk by whatever hiding spot she's in.  Kelsey found out that she can lure her out by playing her cell phone ring tones.  Roxy comes running when she hears them!!

I would check with your vet about the cat food.  Roxy had a seizure about a year or so ago and she refused to eat afterwards.  She was slowly starving so I started to give her with a liquid mix of KMR, Iams wet kitten food and a ferret vitamin paste.  I started out having to force feed her (and ended up wearing more of it than I got in her belly) but she eventually started to eat and got better.  I told the vet and she said not to feed cat or kitten food to ferrets.  She was pretty adamant about it.  Then again, this was the same vet that couldn't figure out why she had a seizure and pretty much sent her home to die...so who knows? 

[Newly Newfed]

I wish I had BPO when she was sick!!  I didn't know what else to do and was desperate for her to get some sort of food in her belly so she didn't starve to death.  She hasn't had any problems since but if she has another seizure I'll be sure to have her blood sugar tested.  I honestly don't remember what that vet did.  I know she kept Roxy overnight and ran tests.  We left her after that because we blame her for two fawns dying.  They were sick and we called every day asking her for help and she actually got nasty with Jeff saying she was "too busy with patients" to make a house call.  I guess she didn't consider our babies patients.

Anyway, what matters now is Roxy survived, and now I know better.   

BPO to the rescue.  Yet again.   

Modified to add pics of Roxy.