Posted: May 30, 2008, 7 p.m. EDT
Q: When my little baby boy, I call him Otter, was first weaned he ate ground ferret food that had been mixed with water to form a gravy. He absolutely loves this gravy. He’s now 5 months old, and he still does not want to eat any dry kibble. He only wants his nice warm pleasant gravy. It is a lot of trouble to constantly make sure he has warm gravy all of the time, and I don't want him to go hungry. How can I make him eat his dry kibble? Right now he loves to play with it and dig through the bowl, but he doesn't recognize it as food.
A: Start by leaving some bigger chunks of ground ferret food in the gravy. Once he gets used to the larger pieces, add less water. Slowly, make the food pieces bigger and the water less until he is used to almost completely dry food. During this process, give him access to the dry kibble, making sure it is the same food as the kind you use in the gravy. In time, you should be able to have him transition to the kibble.
When I have newly weaned kits, I simply add water to their food, without the grounding process. This makes it easier to eat, but not too different from the kibble they will be eating.