Yes, ferret lovers tend to be poop watchers. We're either cleaning it up or examining its color and texture to monitor the health of our ferrets. Here is a
chart on
the various color and consistencies that one may see and what it might mean. This information was originally posted to the
Ferret Mailing List by Dr. Bruce Williams, noted veterinary pathologist and ferret expert.
Green poop -
a very non-specific sign it just means that food is moving through too fast. The normal brown color seen in feces is the end product of breakdown of old red blood cells. The pigment goes through a green stage called biliverdin, before it becomes brown (called stercobilin). So if it is going through at an accelerated rate, it never breaks all the way down, and has a green color to it. Anything that accelerates passage of food or causes diarrhea can result in green color - ECE, rapid food changes, lymphoma, just about anything.
Black tarry poop -
Very suggestive of gastric bleeding and usually associated with gastric ulcers. You have to have significant bleeding in the stomach for the feces
to turn black. The color is the result of digestion of blood, which usually only occurs in the stomach.
Bloody poop -
lf you see fresh blood in the poop - it is usually either from the large bowel or rectum (if seen in small amounts) - or if there is a lot of blood, it could come from the entire length of the G. !. Tract. Massive hemorrhage is seen either from severe gastric bleeds or shock in ferrets and, as one might imagine, is a really bad sign.
Birdseed poop -
Generally, a sign of maldigestion or malabsorption. Also non-specific, it can be seen with any disease that severely affects the small intestine. Most commonly seen with ECE, the individual seeds are usually undigested fat and starch complexes. When you see this, you should consider removing a ferret from kibble and going to a bland, easily digested supplement for a while.
Pencil-lead thin stools -
Think partial obstruction-usually a foreign body. FACT Supplemental Note: Add to this list: foreign bodies in poop-your ferret's been EATING
something! Make sure you search out whatever the little buggers have been chewing and take it away! Many ferrets will eat cloth-if it's cotton, it should be digestible, but be more cautious about synthetic fabrics. And if the object is plastic or rubber, you should take your ferret to your vet for a full x-ray series and carefully watch their eating & elimination for several days.
2008
Decorating With Poop
By Mira (franslated by L. Vanessa Gruden) in: "Paw Printz" July-August, 2001
Very few humans realize that we ferrets have a highly evolved sense of aesthetics. Our sunoundings and living conditions are very important to
us. This is why certain items such as stuffed toys, squeak toys, and car keys must be put away in proscribed places.
Humans imagine we are STEALING these items! Not so! We are ananging these knickknacks and collectables in a pleasing manner that will improve the beauty of our sunoundings as well as contribute to the harmonious feng sui of each room. One of the primary tools ferrets have to
decorate with is poop. Some humans do not give us many toys; some place their plants and car keys in areas where we cannot reach them. Some ferrets simply do not like to decorate with manmade items, and prefer to enhance our environment with the bounty that nature provided to us. But whether a fenet uses poop exclusively or integrates it in with their other decorating schemes, poop offers us the opportunity to decorate in a truly personal way. Here is an overview of some of the ways fenets can use poop to create a variety of design styles.
Traditional-Poop in comers
Some might call this style boring, but I believe it has a solid dependability about it that feels very comfortable. lt hearkens back to a simpler time, when ferrets were ferrets and litter boxes were unknown. A few fenets will poop in the same comer time after time until the pile reaches great heights; I feel this is taking the easy way out and recommend these fenets broaden their horizons by integrating otherstyles into their
homes. The formalway to deposit this poop is to stand stock-still in the corner, head high, searching the sky for predators.
ModemShort poops all over the floor
At the opposite extreme is a style that I think really reflects the busy, active lifestyle of today's ferret. Who has time to stop and deposit a great big pile? Run, run, run, take a cell phone call, and leave a little poopie. The danger here is that the overall effect can feel scattered and random. I worry that ferrets who only utilize this style are similarly scattered and indecisive in other areas of their lives. "Slow down!" I say to them. Relax and try another styfe. Your horne and your bowels will be the better for it.
Surreptitious-Hidden poops under furniture
This is a popular style with those fenets who are nervous or shy. Perhaps they have an inational fear that their human will "erase" signs of
poop and in a way, "erase" their own existence. Trust me, humans can never fully erase your decorating! Scrape and scrub as they may,
some residue always remains. Maybe some ferrets think they wont look adorable while they are pooping-again, this is just nonsense. Ferrets look adorable doing ANYTHING. Free yourself! Come out into the open and poop smack in the center of the rug. lt's GOOD to expeilment with new effects!
High Traffic-Pooping in front of the door
This is a style which really can compliment any of the above noted decors and still serves as a personal statement. "Protest pooping" has
a long and classic history in the fenet world. lt is closely related to "Pooping in the hallway" and the time-honored "Pooping right in the
middle of the floor." To me, each has a distinctive aura about it that says, "Hey world! | have spirit and an adventurous fashion sense.'
Expansive-Pooping outside the cage
An athletic and supple fenet can manage to decorate OUTSIDE their limited environs and spread their artistic skills far and wide. I don't have
a cage, so I can only admire this style from a (safe) distance.
Eclectic-A smooth meshing of various poop styles.
This is a method easiest to attain if you have a muttiple ferret household, where you will often find clashing personal visions at work. But it is not impossible for a single fenet to achieve! With effort, you can amaze your humans with your ability to poop in many ways and many places.
Using a Litter Box-Ha ha!
Exclusively using the box a human has provided for you to decorate in is so rare that I include it merely as an example of what you absolutely should NOT do. Really, if you have so little imagination that you want to only use that box and not your entire environment as a landscape for
your decorating skills, you don't deserve to be a ferret-you deserve to be (shudder) a CAT.
2008
Ferret Mailing List by Dr. Bruce Williams, noted veterinary pathologist and ferret expert.
Green poop -
a very non-specific sign it just means that food is moving through too fast. The normal brown color seen in feces is the end product of breakdown of old red blood cells. The pigment goes through a green stage called biliverdin, before it becomes brown (called stercobilin). So if it is going through at an accelerated rate, it never breaks all the way down, and has a green color to it. Anything that accelerates passage of food or causes diarrhea can result in green color - ECE, rapid food changes, lymphoma, just about anything.
Black tarry poop -
Very suggestive of gastric bleeding and usually associated with gastric ulcers. You have to have significant bleeding in the stomach for the feces
to turn black. The color is the result of digestion of blood, which usually only occurs in the stomach.
Bloody poop -
lf you see fresh blood in the poop - it is usually either from the large bowel or rectum (if seen in small amounts) - or if there is a lot of blood, it could come from the entire length of the G. !. Tract. Massive hemorrhage is seen either from severe gastric bleeds or shock in ferrets and, as one might imagine, is a really bad sign.
Birdseed poop -
Generally, a sign of maldigestion or malabsorption. Also non-specific, it can be seen with any disease that severely affects the small intestine. Most commonly seen with ECE, the individual seeds are usually undigested fat and starch complexes. When you see this, you should consider removing a ferret from kibble and going to a bland, easily digested supplement for a while.
Pencil-lead thin stools -
Think partial obstruction-usually a foreign body. FACT Supplemental Note: Add to this list: foreign bodies in poop-your ferret's been EATING
something! Make sure you search out whatever the little buggers have been chewing and take it away! Many ferrets will eat cloth-if it's cotton, it should be digestible, but be more cautious about synthetic fabrics. And if the object is plastic or rubber, you should take your ferret to your vet for a full x-ray series and carefully watch their eating & elimination for several days.
2008
Decorating With Poop
By Mira (franslated by L. Vanessa Gruden) in: "Paw Printz" July-August, 2001
Very few humans realize that we ferrets have a highly evolved sense of aesthetics. Our sunoundings and living conditions are very important to
us. This is why certain items such as stuffed toys, squeak toys, and car keys must be put away in proscribed places.
Humans imagine we are STEALING these items! Not so! We are ananging these knickknacks and collectables in a pleasing manner that will improve the beauty of our sunoundings as well as contribute to the harmonious feng sui of each room. One of the primary tools ferrets have to
decorate with is poop. Some humans do not give us many toys; some place their plants and car keys in areas where we cannot reach them. Some ferrets simply do not like to decorate with manmade items, and prefer to enhance our environment with the bounty that nature provided to us. But whether a fenet uses poop exclusively or integrates it in with their other decorating schemes, poop offers us the opportunity to decorate in a truly personal way. Here is an overview of some of the ways fenets can use poop to create a variety of design styles.
Traditional-Poop in comers
Some might call this style boring, but I believe it has a solid dependability about it that feels very comfortable. lt hearkens back to a simpler time, when ferrets were ferrets and litter boxes were unknown. A few fenets will poop in the same comer time after time until the pile reaches great heights; I feel this is taking the easy way out and recommend these fenets broaden their horizons by integrating otherstyles into their
homes. The formalway to deposit this poop is to stand stock-still in the corner, head high, searching the sky for predators.
ModemShort poops all over the floor
At the opposite extreme is a style that I think really reflects the busy, active lifestyle of today's ferret. Who has time to stop and deposit a great big pile? Run, run, run, take a cell phone call, and leave a little poopie. The danger here is that the overall effect can feel scattered and random. I worry that ferrets who only utilize this style are similarly scattered and indecisive in other areas of their lives. "Slow down!" I say to them. Relax and try another styfe. Your horne and your bowels will be the better for it.
Surreptitious-Hidden poops under furniture
This is a popular style with those fenets who are nervous or shy. Perhaps they have an inational fear that their human will "erase" signs of
poop and in a way, "erase" their own existence. Trust me, humans can never fully erase your decorating! Scrape and scrub as they may,
some residue always remains. Maybe some ferrets think they wont look adorable while they are pooping-again, this is just nonsense. Ferrets look adorable doing ANYTHING. Free yourself! Come out into the open and poop smack in the center of the rug. lt's GOOD to expeilment with new effects!
High Traffic-Pooping in front of the door
This is a style which really can compliment any of the above noted decors and still serves as a personal statement. "Protest pooping" has
a long and classic history in the fenet world. lt is closely related to "Pooping in the hallway" and the time-honored "Pooping right in the
middle of the floor." To me, each has a distinctive aura about it that says, "Hey world! | have spirit and an adventurous fashion sense.'
Expansive-Pooping outside the cage
An athletic and supple fenet can manage to decorate OUTSIDE their limited environs and spread their artistic skills far and wide. I don't have
a cage, so I can only admire this style from a (safe) distance.
Eclectic-A smooth meshing of various poop styles.
This is a method easiest to attain if you have a muttiple ferret household, where you will often find clashing personal visions at work. But it is not impossible for a single fenet to achieve! With effort, you can amaze your humans with your ability to poop in many ways and many places.
Using a Litter Box-Ha ha!
Exclusively using the box a human has provided for you to decorate in is so rare that I include it merely as an example of what you absolutely should NOT do. Really, if you have so little imagination that you want to only use that box and not your entire environment as a landscape for
your decorating skills, you don't deserve to be a ferret-you deserve to be (shudder) a CAT.
2008