How Long To Starve A Ferret?

[arsinoe]

i adopted a boy ferret about a year old from a gal who need to get rid of him cause of financial reasons and because he tended to bite her son. Anyway she turned him over to a friend who was thinking of buying him from her. She had him a week and must not have fed him and didn't keep the cage clean. Cause when the owner went to pick him up for me, he was filthy, flies were around the cage and he was all boney.

He is very alert and has a good appetite and drinking fine. He's obviously dehydrated after his ordeal too. His poop is fine too. If that other person would have kept him, she would have killed him for sure.

My question is....how long does it take to starve a ferret into this condition? Though the real owner said she only had him a week, I wonder if she had him longer.

Plus I want to know how long will it take to get him back into shape? This is his second day with me and I already notice just a bit of weight change.

[arsinoe]

Also would giving him meat of some sort (which?) help him gain weight faster?

[Barbara]

I don't know....but the important thing is he is now with someone who will give him the love and attention he needs. A good kibble and some duck soup would be great. There are several duck soup recipies in the nutrition section but I use their ground up kibble and mix a/d cat food (you have to get that from a vet). I don't like to add heavy/whipping cream but a lot of people do. Remember too, ferrets get stressed easily and it could be the change in homes and a change of diet could cause him to loose weight and they can loose a lot in a week. I'm sending lots of good thoughts, prayers, and hugs. Forgot to add, add water to my mix, warm a little in the microwave and try spoon feeding first and hopefully he will like it so much he will lick the bowl clean.

[arsinoe]

Actually he's already put on a tad of weight. He's eating his kibble like a horse. I'm keeping him on my bed in a weasel cuddle hole by my feet and the other's will curl up with him. He's getting alot more attention than he used to.

The other 'temp' babysitter must have let him get filthy and didn't feed it ...I heard from the original owner that he would bite if he was hungry and I would bet that the 'temp' was not feeding him for this very reason, she must have been afraid of him.

The first night it---and I don't know who instigated it but my alpha female and him locked teeth on each other and I had to break it up. He looks frail but obviously not down for the count. After the initial altercation they all stay with him now.

I really don't think he was ever getting the attention he needed--he certainly didn't have any others of his own kind around. He used to bite her boy kid too. But they can be too rough anyway.

[Barbara]

I love good news.

[arsinoe]

Dec 6, 2010 8:16:48 GMT -5 Barbara said:

I love good news.

Sami is already up to 2/3rds of his wieght. I miscalculated his weight initially. I think he was actually 1/3 of what he should weigh. His skin was so baggy you couldn't even tell he was a boy. And he was nothing but skin and bones. I personally think if I hadn't gotten ahold of him when I did he would have been dead in a couple of days.

I put him on Marshall's Premiun and bought him Furo-Vite paste yeaterday and he's coming along really nice now

[Katiebug]

Poor little baby! I'm so glad you have him now and he's gaining weight. If she didn't feed him for a week, I would bet he'd be in pretty rough shape. So you could be right. Ferrets have to eat every 4 hours, so if she was barely feeding him once a day, I would imagine he'd go downhill fast. How awful. Anyway, I'm glad this story has a happy ending! Ferretone is a great supplement for skin, so you could always pick that up. It doesn't contain sugar like the Furo-Vite might which can be bad for them.

[odin]

I'm always amazed at how quickly fuzzies bounce back. They heal like their cousin wolverine.

You can starve a young ferret into skin and bones in a matter of days, but with the right diet they'll put the weight back on in days too. It's that amazingly, stupid fast metabolism they have. Carnivores are like that. It's also why they're a little bipolar, crazy hopping all over the place bags of mayhem and then they crash into a four hour nap.