jultaylor1972 2 Posted May 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2008 Its all so odd really, Im so careful with everything to do with my ferrets; I feed them a raw diet every night and remove any leftovers the next morning to avoid any food poisoning, they get cleaned out twice daily and get fresh water morning and night. When I have no raw diet they get James Wellbeloved dry food. I read so much about ferrets and whats best for them etc, etc. So Im a bit gutted that I gave my best working ferret something that she may be intolerant to I suppose any animal could be allergic to anything at any given time All I can say is its such a good job terrier lady was here, I was totally panick stricken and she was so calm - me a nurse too No bother, your just a head nurse anyway, it'll be fine if they have mentl health problems The only thing you'll kill them stinkers with is love Its a fact!! Quote Link to post
Riot 0 Posted May 18, 2008 Report Share Posted May 18, 2008 (edited) Hi I'm new here and not introduced myself yet, but thought I would just say that Lactol isn't the same as whiskas cat milk. It's what you use when you need to hand rear young animals because they have no mum and it's a replacement for mothers milk. It's entirely possible that your jill would react to it as it's the closest thing you can buy to a lactating bitches milk. You can use it for very sick animals which are not eating but I would imagine it would be far too rich for a perfectly healthy animal. Edited May 18, 2008 by Riot Quote Link to post
socks 32,253 Posted May 18, 2008 Report Share Posted May 18, 2008 why do you feel the need to give your jill ANY type of milk when she is in kit ??? mustelids in the wild are not seen hanging of the udders of cows to supplement themselves with some miracle vitamine that only milk can provide to ensure a healthy strong litter of kits .... as you have learned the hard way carnivores DO NOT do well on milk and dont need it ... as long as your jill has plenty of fresh meat and fresh water she will happilly deliver a nice healthy litter of kits and will look after them all by herself without any help from us humans ... as she is a caged animal all we need to do is give her a nice dry warm bed a clean living area and fresh food and water ... she will do the rest ........... Quote Link to post
TOMO 26,176 Posted May 19, 2008 Report Share Posted May 19, 2008 IN AGREEMENT WITH SOCKS , HAD THE SAME DISCUSION ON RABBITERS LAST WEEK , NO NEED FOR ANY MILK FOR ADULT ANIMALS. MOST MAMMALS LOOSE THE ENZIME THAT BREAKS DOWN MILK AS THEY GET OLDER, Quote Link to post
The one 8,479 Posted May 19, 2008 Report Share Posted May 19, 2008 why do you feel the need to give your jill ANY type of milk when she is in kit ??? mustelids in the wild are not seen hanging of the udders of cows to supplement themselves with some miracle vitamine that only milk can provide to ensure a healthy strong litter of kits .... as you have learned the hard way carnivores DO NOT do well on milk and dont need it ... as long as your jill has plenty of fresh meat and fresh water she will happilly deliver a nice healthy litter of kits and will look after them all by herself without any help from us humans ... as she is a caged animal all we need to do is give her a nice dry warm bed a clean living area and fresh food and water ... she will do the rest ........... Quote Link to post
samg246 0 Posted May 19, 2008 Report Share Posted May 19, 2008 why do you feel the need to give your jill ANY type of milk when she is in kit ??? mustelids in the wild are not seen hanging of the udders of cows to supplement themselves with some miracle vitamine that only milk can provide to ensure a healthy strong litter of kits .... as you have learned the hard way carnivores DO NOT do well on milk and dont need it ... as long as your jill has plenty of fresh meat and fresh water she will happilly deliver a nice healthy litter of kits and will look after them all by herself without any help from us humans ... as she is a caged animal all we need to do is give her a nice dry warm bed a clean living area and fresh food and water ... she will do the rest ........... loving the 'hanging of the udders' bit!!! but i suppose it was to give her some strength Quote Link to post
para1 11 Posted May 19, 2008 Report Share Posted May 19, 2008 why do you feel the need to give your jill ANY type of milk when she is in kit ??? mustelids in the wild are not seen hanging of the udders of cows to supplement themselves with some miracle vitamine that only milk can provide to ensure a healthy strong litter of kits .... as you have learned the hard way carnivores DO NOT do well on milk and dont need it ... as long as your jill has plenty of fresh meat and fresh water she will happilly deliver a nice healthy litter of kits and will look after them all by herself without any help from us humans ... as she is a caged animal all we need to do is give her a nice dry warm bed a clean living area and fresh food and water ... she will do the rest ........... :clapper: :clapper: Quote Link to post
COMPO 54 Posted May 19, 2008 Report Share Posted May 19, 2008 Further to what socks said. all ferrets become Lactose intolerant once they reach adulthood. When they said it was OK for ferrets they may have presumed orphaned young ferrets!! Quote Link to post
jultaylor1972 2 Posted May 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2008 why do you feel the need to give your jill ANY type of milk when she is in kit ??? mustelids in the wild are not seen hanging of the udders of cows to supplement themselves with some miracle vitamine that only milk can provide to ensure a healthy strong litter of kits .... as you have learned the hard way carnivores DO NOT do well on milk and dont need it ... as long as your jill has plenty of fresh meat and fresh water she will happilly deliver a nice healthy litter of kits and will look after them all by herself without any help from us humans ... as she is a caged animal all we need to do is give her a nice dry warm bed a clean living area and fresh food and water ... she will do the rest ........... I see your point Socks I just thought that with her almost ready to have the kits I would keep a kind of bond going with her so she knows its safe when my hands are in the hutch cleaning it out and changing her water, giving her a little kitten milk was supposed to be my way of doing that , like you say, Ive learned the hard way where any kind of milk is concerned and she will now be getting a little raw meat every night as her treat (They are on dry food at the minute as my freezer is empty of rabbits)Perhaps I read too many books Nothing like personal experience when it comes to learning - only my learning curve seems to be a baptism of fire!! Quote Link to post
mole catcher 1 Posted May 19, 2008 Report Share Posted May 19, 2008 regarding the feeding milk to nursing jills it was me that said on rabbiters that i feed a porridge mix of dry ferret food soaked in a little warm kitten milk. this wasnt said as a diet change to a meat diet but as a help to wean the kits onto solids. and yes i have read each and everyones opinions on the whys and why nots of doing it. I would like to add that i have kept ferrets for well over 20yrs and have done the porridge bit for all of the litters i have kept and reared, this amouts to well over 100 kits and i can honestly say i have not had or seen any ill effects of doing it. its a personal choice of how we as the owners see fit to keep and look after our stock, and with the fact of over 20yrs of never having a problem i simply offered an opinion of what i consider to be a practise that has worked for me. Quote Link to post
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