Blog
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!
An enrichment toy for ferrets
by ferretpapa
Keeping ferrets happy is a never ending task. Toys that challenge them both mentally and physically are hard to find.
One of the best toys I've discovered recently is this treat puzzle toy!
It has varying levels of difficulty - the center white bone pieces can be removed, so that just the red ones slide left to right. So the easiest level is just to hide treats under the red pieces.
Next is that the red pieces also are hinged. It's a little tricky for ferrets because they only open in one direction. Mine could smell the treats and knew that they were inside the red boxes, but it took a while to learn how to open them. It's something they still struggle with a little bit (but that's a good thing - if it were too easy they'd get bored quickly).
And finally, the most difficult thing is to put the white bone pieces back in and put treats underneath them. It's not easy for ferrets to remove these. In fact so far none of mine have been able to, but I'm sure they'll figure it out eventually
The best part is that you can hide treats in different areas every time, so that they always have to do a little work to get them out. So far it's been a couple weeks and the toy hasn't gotten old yet. They get excited and run for it as soon as I let them out and start sniffing and nudging the pieces around.