heart broke

Laurie LeAnn · Post by **Laurie LeAnn** » Sun Oct 05, 2014 2:47 pm

My fur grand babes are gone..My son Kyle had ferrets. They have such personalities and you grow to be so attached to them. Zayne had got sick and one surgery angel Kyle 700$, then just two later his non biological brother started getting sick. When they show blood or rust color it means they are getting bladder stones. They don't pass these and can because by their food or other things. Just to walk in he vet is 65$ and they want to x Ray that's 100$, we tried to think of ways to work around it, but another 700$ vet Bill is just to much, he's still paying for zayne. He decided to pack them up and all their belongings and take them to the no kill ferret animal shelter in Quincy, Il. There they will get Toby the vet care he needs and be adopted out with other ferrets. Why not just keep zayne and take Toby? They have imprinted on each other and they would become so depressed they can become sick and quit eating and no guarantee that his stones wouldn't return. I didn't sleep at all last night, nightmare after night mare..Just worrying about them..They showed unconditional love, ran to you when came in a room and loved to be held and their tummies rubbed. My kids are not married, Kyle is 24 says he isn't getting married. Eric has a girl friend of 3 yrs they live together now, so gee what's the hurry?? Get on the ball.. your mom would like to have grandkids before she gets to much older and something that doesn't have fur or feathers..but I'm tore up as much as my son I loved these little fur babes

jenok · Post by **jenok** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 5:28 am

Gee, I hope i don't have the same problems with my ferrets. Oh, by the way I have ferrets now. I decided to get them for my b-day and my daughters b-day which is just over a week apart. I found them on craigslist just needing a new home so we took them in. They're only 8 months old and so cute and playful. I'm sorry your losing all your furbabies though that must make you really sad.

Laurie LeAnn · Post by **Laurie LeAnn** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 10:03 pm

Don't feed them food w peas in it! That was one of the main issues. If you can get them on a raw diet of beef heart, liver, chicken, lamb, egg yolks, do a lot of research! Stay away from cat litters, clump litters and pine litters. They will make your ferret very ill. Sport mix cat kitten dry food is the closet cat food you can get to give them, no zupreem no grain bad bad stuff! The can get human colds and flu to. No other foods other than what they are supposed to have.. giving them table scraps, junk food ( yes some ferrets are junk food junkies ) can cause blockages. They can't poop it out and you have a surgery. They will chew the crap out of wires, plastic stuff, shoes, anything rubber..They can shrink down to nothing. If you think a ferret can't fit in it? Your wrong. They have ocd..Will stick to one thing like scratching at one spot until you put them in another room. They will pee and poop in one spot for the longest time then change their mind. We didn't use those litter trays out side the cage cause they just miss them or wouldn't use them. We got the plastic mats for dog food and water to keep from going all the floors they would just back up on those and go. We just t.p. and wipe up. Saves on litter to and smell. Bathing, only bathe them once a month, do it more you will make them smell worse, change out there baby blankets, sleeping hammocks every 4 days to keep smell down wipe ramps down to. Have fun with YouTube babies if you have any questions just yell. I belong to a ferret group to

jenok · Post by **jenok** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 5:42 am

The people I got them from had them on Purina Healthy Cat so I switched them to Walmart brand (Wild Harvest) ferret food. I had an older ferret book which said raisons were ok for treats and then looked online and realized that they're not. I have tried feeding some plain cooked chicken but they didn't eat it I don't even think they tasted it. I'll try again with some fresh meat cooked and uncooked. I don't really feel comfortable feeding raw meat cuz the kids handle them a lot and I don't want them to get sick. I did read about the once a month bath thing after we gave them a bath when we got them and a week later another one. So far we've used the expensive paperlike litter since I found some on sale and had It on hand I was planning on using pine shavings after that though. Guess I won't now. I did have someone suggest the pellet type bedding for horses what do you think about that?I did remember that they can get anywhere and everwhere. If their head can fit so can their body just like a hamster.For curiosity purposes what is wrong with plain clay cat litter? I was planning on using that in a litter box in the cage cuz right now they just go in the corner of the cage.

Laurie LeAnn · Post by **Laurie LeAnn** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 4:24 pm

Clay litter causes dust and they play in it. Pine causes them to get sick to, it's to strong.They get upper respiratory infection. You can use wood burning pellets from the hard ware stores. Cheaper, breaks down and doesn't have a smell. Any food that has tons of veggies and fruits in it is bad..You want one high in proteins. The chicken flavor / beef flavor treats are oaks treats as the vitamins you can buy. When they shed and you hear them cough, go get hair ball stuff for cats. Follow directions for it. Some ferrets shed more than others and will groom themselves more and they can't pass fur balls like cats. Fleas- use regular plain blue dawn dish soap and bathe them in it, rinse well, wash all bedding. Wait 3 days get revolution from a vet for kittens and use per body weight. We used 1 dose for 2 ferrets. Repeat in one month.

jenok · Post by **jenok** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 6:39 am

I think the bedding pellets are similar to the wood burning pellets. I think that is what i'll use. So far no problems with fleas. Have you ever tried the stuff you can add to the food or water and it's supposed to help with the smell? It's called odor be gone or something like that.

Laurie LeAnn · Post by **Laurie LeAnn** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 3:18 am

Nope, figure the less you put in their body the healthier they will be. Just clean the poop out daily and change the whole box every 4 days or so and when you do that give then new blankets to cuddle up in and you shouldn't have a strong smell. We used a carpet cleaner on the floors once a month. Sprayed them down and waited for them dry well and vac ed them. Up really good. My library I worked at had a steam cleaner so I steam cleaned the room they played in the most. Kyle lived in a small apartment and you couldn't smell his 2 at all.

jenok · Post by **jenok** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 5:45 am

Yea, that's what has me a little confused now. The last one I had would get a little bit of a smell but you had to actually smell it to tell. These two get a smell pretty fast and everything smells. I still think they are descented but maybe they didn't do it properly or something? They stink but I'm pretty sure that if they weren't descented they would smell a lot worse. We're changing the whole cage and all every 3 days.