Website News
Tracking changes in foods
by ferretpapa
Today I just launched a new feature where I can keep track of all the changes in the different foods.
Here's an example, for Ziwipeak air-dried mackerel and lamb. Ziwi recently updated all of their air-dried recipes. Some of the protein, fat, and fiber percentages were also slightly changed. And the old URLs to their products were also broken.
Feb 20, 2023
Protein percentage increased from 43% to 44%
Fat percentage decreased from 25% to 24%
Fiber percentage increased from 2% to 3%
Source URL updated
Ingredients list changed:
Removed:mackerel inulin from chicory dried kelp sodium selenite
Added:
whole mackerel lamb spleen inulin dried apple pomace lamb cartilage dried organic kelp
This will only be for new changes moving forward, so unfortunately any past recipe changes are lost.
In the future I'm hoping to let you "watch" certain foods so that you get notified of changes. For now, when you view a food, if there have been changes since I started tracking it, a "History" section will appear at the bottom of the page with more details.
Article series and artwork
by ferretpapa
As I've been writing more articles, I've noticed it's getting a little hard to find any structure and read through them.
So today I added new article series which group related articles together and in an order that makes sense.
Please check them out and let me know what you think!
Update: You can also now search articles, so that should make it easier to find what you're looking for.
Finally, I'm working on awarding badges when you complete a series.
I'm also super excited to announce that Katelyn McManis is making custom artwork for my articles. Hopefully the text and artwork will be published in a book someday.
How to support this website
by ferretpapa
I just started a Ko-fi page where you can support me with one-time or monthly donations ☺️
Support me on Ko-fi
You can also shop using one of these referral links (preferably Chewy) or any of the links from my food chart, and I'll earn a small commission.
Every ferret around the world deserves a happy, healthy life, and I will always share as much as I can for free. My email and Instagram DMs are always open as well if people have questions.
However, donations will help me to support my own rescued ferrets and to free up my time to work on research, writing, and developing my website.
All of my ferrets except Auri have been adopted from the GCFA, many of them already on their last legs when I take them home. The GCFA has a foster program which covers vet bills, but I don't take part in this program - aside from some medications, I pay for all of my ferrets out of my own pocket (my lovely vet still gives me the shelter discount though).
In 2021 I had over $10,000 in vet bills that I paid for myself. In 2022 my vet bills have added up to $15,000 and counting.
My current focus is to write more articles and flesh out the ones that are currently there. If my content is enjoyable or useful to you, please consider supporting me!
Thank you in advance for your support!
Ferret Marketplace!
by ferretpapa
I'm happy to announce the launch of the Ferret Marketplace!
It’s a one stop shop to find toys, treats, bedding, anything you could possibly need for your ferrets! ☺️ Plus cute ferret merch and gifts for the humans too.
I wanted to make it easy for ferrents to find quality products, and to support small businesses at the same time. I will never charge any shop - all of the profits will still go to them.
Working on this made me realize how many awesome people creating amazing products we have in this community 🥺
You can also create wishlists and share them. View my favorites here!
Vitamins, Minerals, and Preservatives
by ferretpapa
The food chart will now identify most vitamins, minerals, amino acids, additives, preservatives, and artificial flavors and colors. More will be added as I see that some are missing.
Foods with limited ingredients get a small bonus. These types of ingredients will no longer count towards the ingredient total because they're not really something that can be noticeably consumed. And most vitamins, minerals, and amino acids are good for the ferrets anyway, so they shouldn't be punished for having more of them.
Some manufacturers kind of "cheated" anyways, by just saying "vitamins and minerals" instead of listing them all out, so previously those foods were incorrectly getting a bonus for having limited ingredients. Now all foods will be ranked fairly regardless of how the ingredients are listed out.
I did notice that almost every food was now getting that bonus, so I made it more exclusive and set the maximum number of ingredients to 10 instead of 20.