ferrets

Duck Soup

Duck soup is the term used to describe any number of versions of soft/liquid food that a ferret will eat when it doesn’t feel good. Most soups contain some form of high protein (meat-based) food, most commonly chicken, although turkey is used a lot, too.

Some people use the ferret’s own food, crushed and soaked in a liquid (water, Pedialyte, low-salt chicken broth, vanilla Ensure, etc) and made soupy. Sick ferrets seem to like their food easy to swallow, and the sicker the ferret is, the more liquid most of them like it.

If the ferret just won’t eat, it may be necessary to force-feed the ferret, and in that case, having a smooth, soupy food is very important.

Other people will use canned A/D (from the vet’s office) which is mostly liver and designed for carnivores. A ferret is definitely a carnivore, and while some hate A/D, others like it.

Some people use chicken or turkey babyfood. We’re talking about the “second food” type babyfood that is very smooth and does not contain noodles or vegetables. Many say things like “chicken and chicken gravy” or something like that.

A “quick and easy” version I’ve used is one can of A/D to two jars of chicken or turkey babyfood. It seems to be reasonably well-accepted, at least once they get used to it, and it has the advantage of having a liver in it (good for building up the blood) and is smooth enough that it can be syringe fed easily.

Tomorrow: More on duck soup

The basics of caring for a sick or post-op ferret include:

Don’t worry, I haven’t run out of photos. I just thought it was time to start talking about something a little more serious than photography (but I WILL be back to that topic!).

This weekend I’ll be at the International Ferret Congress Symposium in Pittsburgh, PA. They are having 3 days of talks, workshops, and shopping. I particularly like shopping. :)  I’m the resident shelter operator, so they asked me to do a talk on nursing care of sick and post-op ferrets, something I do a lot of in the shelter.

First, I’d like to talk a little bit about why you’d want to do this. Many vet offices keep post-op animals; why would you want to take them home and take care of them yourself?

Well, first of all, it can save you money. But more importantly, it will be more comfortable for your ferret. Ferrets stress out in unfamiliar places, and stress is a bad thing when they’re sick or recovering from surgery. Ferrets enjoy their own home, their own cage and most of all, their own food.

Another reason to take care of the ferret yourself is that no one knows or cares about your ferret more than you do. You can check on them more often, and with proper guidelines from the vet, you can usually handle post-op care. Mostly what a ferret needs is food, hydration and warmth. They might need some medication, too.

Another facet to keeping a ferret comfortable is his buddies. If they are gentle, especially with elderly ferrets, they really are much happier in the same cage with their friend.

Most of all, ferrets respond to affection. Vets and vet techs might have more knowledge, they might even think your ferret is adorable, but no one loves them like you do, and the ferret knows that. They respond to affection by eating just because you want them to. You can carry them around in a sack (if they like that). Sometimes, especially with old ferrets, they need a reason to stay.

Tomorrow: The Basics

While I’m on a roll, I figured I’d post a few more cute photos I got recently while I was playing with the beads. Little Bear didn’t seem to mind the beads at all. Meringue-atang was NOT thilled and made it his number 1 priority to get them off.

This is Little Bear, always the ham. He didn’t seem to care what I put around his neck. He was content to leave them on. He’s a mama’s boy who likes to be picked up a lot.

This is Meringue-atang right after he removed his beads. He left them inside the tunnel. I think he was pleased with himself.

This is a good example of a funny photo you just happen to get. Meringue-atang looks drunk in this shot, but he’s really just trying to get those darned beads off.

This is my favorite shot of Meringue-atang. Doesn’t he look regal?

Here is Meringue-atang with Samson. I love the expression on Samson’s face. Some of these quick shots show a ferret’s personality better than an hour’s worth of set-up shots.

This is a nice shot of Samson. Look at those feet! My goodness! He looks like he’s auditioning for the part of a duck!

Some of the best photos I’ve ever gotten were just snapped on the spur of the moment without photo sets. Unless you consider draping beads on a ferret being a photo shot, these are more candid photos than setups. But they’re cute anyway.

This isn’t the best photo in the world, but it’s cute It’s especially cute because this is a reformed biter.

Look at that face! He can still be nippy from time to time, but he’s just too cute not to pick up!

This is Geronimo offering his opinion  of the stupid beads.

Here is Geronimo on a chair, modeling his gold beads. It’s funny just how cute these guys look when you put completely weird things on them. He was quite patient with me, actually.

Technically speaking, this isn’t a very good photo. Not only does it have my leg in it, but Little Bear’s face is a bit overexposed. But these are the kinds of photos that are fun to look at in the future. It shows the personality of the ferret, and that’s what you remember.

I hope you’re not getting bored with all these photos. I’ve taken so many! Here’s one that should have a caption, but I’m just not sure what to say …

To get the ferret to stand up like that, we dangled a female ferret above his head. LOL! Maybe he’s thinking, “Ooooo … woman!”

This is Ren. He was wiggly and I made my noise, and he looks like he’s saying, “What in God’s name was THAT?! Is it going to eat me?”

This is Rocky, offering his opinion on the state of ferretdom… It might make a good Christmas ornament. “Hark the herald ferrets sing … ” Of course, if the ferret’s name was Harold, it would be “Hark, the ferret Harold sings …”

This darling little girl named Angel had given me quite a scare. I’d been hunting for her for over half an hour when I found her in this tissue box. It needs a caption, but I’m drawing a blank.

This is Peter-Peter-Finger-Eater and Clarisse, two rather nippy little critters, shortly after they dismantled one of my photo shoot sets. I swear Clarisse is looking at someone saying, “Hey! You said to smile for the camera! He’s smirking! Make him stop! Mom!”

What do you think Gus here is thinking? I’m not sure, but I’m certain it contained cuss words. LOL! He’s just gotten a bath (which they don’t like much anyway) and the volunteer helping me decided to give him a mohawk. Heh. Some ferrets seem to object to that sort of thing more than others.

What do you think this ferret was saying? I think maybe, “Hey! This thing moves! Cool.” Or maybe, “Oh darn, my nail is caught! Now what??”

“Hey! No fair scaring me! Mom, he scared me!”

And of course, this is one of my favorites. The “Angry Bunny” photo. I’ve made some stickers from this one thay say, “I am NOT a rodent! Look at these teeth! Do they look like rodent teeth to you?”

Are you getting bored with this yet? I hope not! I don’t seem to ever get bored looking at these photos.

This is Chico. He looks like he’s winking at me! I’d love to see what people could come up with for a funny caption for this photo!

This was a candid shot, and not from a photo shoot, but it’s one of my favorite “tongue” shots … this is what happens when you give two ferrets some Ferretone … they decide to clean off each others’ faces! LOL! This is a good shot of Laredo’s tongue — he’s a big boy and has a wide tongue! Any ideas for captions for this one?

This isn’t a tongue shot, but it’s from another one of my photo shoots. This is Little Bear, one of my personal ferrets. He was just a baby here, and was very frightened. I draped him on the box (covered in that bright orange fabric) and made that noise. He was terrified! Poor little thing looked like his eyes were going to pop right out of his head!

I never get tired of looking at cute ferret photos, and my favorites are the ones most people would consider not good enough to print. I love the tongue photos and the funny faces, too. Yesterday I published a set of cute photos with rather funny faces. Here are a few more.

This is Kali’s cute little tongue showing. You can tell they really, really like that Ferretone stuff. I like it, too, as long as my helper doesn’t squirt it all over my favorite backdrop. This was an incredibly soft piece of material that was so soft, all the ferrets wanted to curl up in it. I was very disappointed when a helper managed to dribble Ferretone all over it. For some reason (maybe because it’s oil-based) that stuff stains worse than anything I’ve ever tried to get out.

If you look closely, you can just see where Leo has reeled in his tongue after a manly slurp. If you think he looks alert and hopeful, that’s because he is really hoping for a lot more of that tasty treat. And if he can’t get more Ferretone, he’d be happy to settle for a little human blood. He’s one of the nippier guys at the shelter. I don’t know why, but people just don’t seem very interested in the ones who draw blood.

This is one of my favorite backdrops, and one of my favorite photos. Raven looks like he’s ready to pick a fight with someone. “Who are YOU lookin’ at?” His little nose is even crinkled a little. It’s a tiny bit blurry, since this was just moments after one of those big licks, but definitely worth keeping. A lot of these funny photos just beg for captions.

Tomorrow: more cute and funny photos

Yesterday I mentioned how sometimes I’d get some very funny faces using the Ferretone as a way to keep the ferrets still. Here are some funny, yet still really cute results.

This is Nibbles. You’d think she was looking incredibly demure for a ferret. Actually, she has just completed a very large slurp. Some ferrets will fastidiously clean their chops after a taste of Ferretone. Left slurp, right slurp, left slurp … look for more.

Jillybean, here, isn’t laughing at me (although it sure does look like it, doesn’t it?). She’s just trying to get that tongue under control. She’s just completed a nice, thorough slurp and her tongue is currently curled up in a ball inside her mouth, savoring every last drop of Ferretone-y goodness.

Duchess here, was caught in mid-lick. She’s a dainty slurper, only showing a little tongue. It comes off as looking incredibly dainty and cute. Of course, that ferret was a huge female. Most females are pretty small compared to the males, but this one was a hefty little girl with a delightful personality.

Bitsy here is showing just a bit more tongue. Still pretty cute, but you’re getting a better idea of just how long a ferret’s tongue really is! Some are positively astonishing. I’ll save those photos for next time.