Up early this morning

[mattydski 560]

I dont normally sleep late at the weekend, so got up to watch some tele, and have a cuppa.

 

What was on tele before river cottage repeats.....Pet rescue....

What was on.....a nice albino hob..

 

Vet says very authoritively " yes becareful with ferets, put those huge welding gloves on behind you in case he bites, grab him from behind so he cant bite you, firmly now...."

 

TV presenter put the mother of all leather gauntlets on, and goes in straight to the kitty cage an pulls out the now terrified fert..

 

" oh yes" says the vet, "this was found abandened in a car park..shocking it is....Very underweight."

"How are we going to treat it ?" says tv presenter..

"oh they are very similar to dogs" says vet." we will just give it eggs and dog food....Thats what it needs"

 

Poor ferret....It will now get humanely slaughtered no doubt, because it bites.......

Very upset now.....wish i had stayed in bed.

 

This information goes out on National tele without any sense checking whatsoever, so now every lost ferret is going to get picked up with gauntlets and fed on pedigree Chum..

 

[Kay 3,709]

Well remind everyone never to use there practice with that sort of miss information , would you trust a vet who thinks dog food & eggs is a staple diet for a ferret, class clown

[ianrob 2]

I dont normally sleep late at the weekend, so got up to watch some tele, and have a cuppa.

 

What was on tele before river cottage repeats.....Pet rescue....

What was on.....a nice albino hob..

 

Vet says very authoritively " yes becareful with ferets, put those huge welding gloves on behind you in case he bites, grab him from behind so he cant bite you, firmly now...."

 

TV presenter put the mother of all leather gauntlets on, and goes in straight to the kitty cage an pulls out the now terrified fert..

 

" oh yes" says the vet, "this was found abandened in a car park..shocking it is....Very underweight."

"How are we going to treat it ?" says tv presenter..

"oh they are very similar to dogs" says vet." we will just give it eggs and dog food....Thats what it needs"

 

Poor ferret....It will now get humanely slaughtered no doubt, because it bites.......

Very upset now.....wish i had stayed in bed.

 

This information goes out on National tele without any sense checking whatsoever, so now every lost ferret is going to get picked up with gauntlets and fed on pedigree Chum..

 

 

If it's been a handled ferret, possibly someone with half a brain will notice that, before it's put down. Though if anyone ever needed a good reason to always use a locator, then this is it. Possibly this is one of the better fates that awaits lost ferrets. I'm sure that away from the camera's gaze, on programmes like this, there'll be people like you or Kay, people who care, it might still make it. Ps. In the bad old days when ferrets were fed on bread and milk, I tried mine on pedigree chum, "bear in mind if you couldn't get fresh food, there was nothing else available, no dried or day olds", and they did well on it. Not as good as real, or todays Wellbeloved type things, but they thrived and were far better than others fed bread and milk. Just to stop you thinking it would harm the ferret. :thumbs-up:

[mattydski 560]

If it's been a handled ferret, possibly someone with half a brain will notice that, before it's put down. Though if anyone ever needed a good reason to always use a locator, then this is it. Possibly this is one of the better fates that awaits lost ferrets. I'm sure that away from the camera's gaze, on programmes like this, there'll be people like you or Kay, people who care, it might still make it. Ps. In the bad old days when ferrets were fed on bread and milk, I tried mine on pedigree chum, "bear in mind if you couldn't get fresh food, there was nothing else available, no dried or day olds", and they did well on it. Not as good as real, or todays Wellbeloved type things, but they thrived and were far better than others fed bread and milk. Just to stop you thinking it would harm the ferret. :thumbs-up:

 

Hi Ian, i am calming down now but...

I no doubt that it will not harm the ferret, but a vet is a supposed to be an authoritive source of information for animal owners. New owners would expect him or her to give accurate advice, perhaps taking that advice over an experienced ferret keeper. The vet is the expert after all???

The ferret as you quite rightly point out is not going to suffer any short term harm on that diet.

My point is that it is not the optimum care for the animal, the advice given on an animal program, shown to millions should be correct. It is nothing like a dog, has different dietary requirement completely.

A child will live, grow and put on weight given a diet of sweets, crisps, and biscuits for some time. But how many of us would advise on national television feeding our children on that diet? What is the longterm outlook for the child?

Advising the audience that the ferret must be handled with gloves because it wil bite, is just wrong..IMO. What happens when the ferret is put up for rehoaming, it may have lost its confidence in being handled, therfore minimising its chances of a successful re-hoam with the likes on myself, Kay or you..

If the vet had recommended feeding pedigree chum to a kitten thare would have been a national outcry, but it would do it no short term harm.

Can you magine what would happen to the next ferret found as a rescue by a viewer of this program? Arrrgh it's a ferret, get the gloves darling it may bite.... WRONG WRONG WRONG

 

 

Matt

 

Edited for spelling....

[Kay 3,709]

I dont normally sleep late at the weekend, so got up to watch some tele, and have a cuppa.

 

What was on tele before river cottage repeats.....Pet rescue....

What was on.....a nice albino hob..

 

Vet says very authoritively " yes becareful with ferets, put those huge welding gloves on behind you in case he bites, grab him from behind so he cant bite you, firmly now...."

 

TV presenter put the mother of all leather gauntlets on, and goes in straight to the kitty cage an pulls out the now terrified fert..

 

" oh yes" says the vet, "this was found abandened in a car park..shocking it is....Very underweight."

"How are we going to treat it ?" says tv presenter..

"oh they are very similar to dogs" says vet." we will just give it eggs and dog food....Thats what it needs"

 

Poor ferret....It will now get humanely slaughtered no doubt, because it bites.......

Very upset now.....wish i had stayed in bed.

 

This information goes out on National tele without any sense checking whatsoever, so now every lost ferret is going to get picked up with gauntlets and fed on pedigree Chum..

 

 

If it's been a handled ferret, possibly someone with half a brain will notice that, before it's put down. Though if anyone ever needed a good reason to always use a locator, then this is it. Possibly this is one of the better fates that awaits lost ferrets. I'm sure that away from the camera's gaze, on programmes like this, there'll be people like you or Kay, people who care, it might still make it. Ps. In the bad old days when ferrets were fed on bread and milk, I tried mine on pedigree chum, "bear in mind if you couldn't get fresh food, there was nothing else available, no dried or day olds", and they did well on it. Not as good as real, or todays Wellbeloved type things, but they thrived and were far better than others fed bread and milk. Just to stop you thinking it would harm the ferret. :thumbs-up:

 

I did have a ferret here who would only eat dog food, i tried everything to get it to eat other foods but it wasnt having any of it, so i had to feed it what it would eat,

 

The dried food was very much in its infancy when i got my first ferret so i fed meat to start with them moved over to dried food when it became easier to get hold off but switched back again when i realised they carried far to much weight due to the dry food

[The one 8,504]

Them sort of programmes are only aimed at the general public and to keep the cash flowing in it will be a cold day in hell before i watch that trash

[stealthy1 3,964]

You never know, may have mistaken the assistant for a rabbit and gone for her throat.

[will.f11 24]

I dont see the point, unless the gloves are soo thick, it still hurts, so IMO the best bet is with a biter is just go in slow with a clenched fist, then pick it up nice and slow, then force my finger into its mouth, (which usually stops it biting IMHO) and then keep doing this for a while. shame though that ferrets get a bad name