(no subject)

[graculus]

I'm starting to wonder if Dougal losing weight has got something to do with his teeth, since he'll happily eat wet food but there's no evidence that he eats the dry food if that's all there is. Given his age, however, I'm extremely reluctant to put him through being anaethatised to deal with this if it is the problem so I'm currently making dry food soup for him. Chicken paste and the like is okay as a short-term thing but it doesn't really have enough protein to work as a long-term food - I need to go and scour the wet kitten food labels again for one that's high enough in protein to be a possible substitute (ferret food is around 40% protein because of the shortness of their digestive tract).

In other news, we get the 4th season premiere of The Closer on Monday and then next Friday sees the season 3 premiere of Psych. I watched the second season premiere of Burn Notice this morning, which was enjoyable (and I can't wait for the four-episode arc with Michael Shanks!), and I also enjoyed the pilot episode of the new show Flashpoint which aired last night. Given that it's ostensibly set in Toronto and has both Hugh Dillon and young hottie David Paetkau in it, Flashpoint also ought to be good fodder for Canadian Actor Bingo, as well as hopefully giving Enrico Colantoni (better known as Keith Mars) more well-deserved screentime. He's got that air of calm competence that just works perfectly in this show, even if it does look a little odd seeing him in the SWAT-style outfits rather than a sheriff's uniform... ;)

Comments

[manna]

You could try checking at zooplus.com, which is where I get my cat food. They have some unusual brands, and they often list the composition on the page.

I also came across this page. You probably already have the link, but it's a big list of various foods, assessed by suitability for ferrets. I guess they might be mostly US brands, but I know you can get some of them over here.

Presumably that 40% must be for dry food, not wet? I don't think even a chunk of pure muscle is 40% protein by wet weight.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Presumably that 40% must be for dry food, not wet? I don't think even a chunk of pure muscle is 40% protein by wet weight.

You know, I hadn't even thought about that. I found a webpage which goes through all the protein etc. of both dry and wet catfoods and was dismissive of their figures until it started talking about dry food analysis. Clearly this is why I am not a scientist. ;)

[manna]

I guess what you need to do is find the percentage of water, and then work out the protein content as if it were dry. Presumably, when the ferrets are eating dry food, they must be drinking a lot more than they would if they were eating wet food.

The Almo Nature Jelly and Cosma are what I buy for our cat. They're basically pure meat in jelly. The Applaws has a slightly higher meat content than either of those, 75%.

[phantomas.livejournal.com]

Can't help with food choice, but sending good thoughts your and the ferret's way! Hope you find something that works.