Q - What is duck soup, and why should I give it to my ferret?
A - What is commonly called Duck Soup is a meal source for ferrets in a gravy or soup form.
It is a general rule that Ferrets imprint on food at a very early age and will not willing eat a new type. That is why all ferret owners should have a mix of food. To read more about that click here. With that being said, as ferrets get older there will be a time when you will have to give your ferret medication, or they are too ill to chew hard kibble on their own. Duck soup may be the only thing that is able to save your ferret. It is best to allow them to learn to like it far before this happens.
The real Duck soup was designed for and used to help ferrets that have insulinoma. The real Duck Soup was designed/made by a human that was owned by ferrets and the one ferret that had insulinoma was named "Lucki Duck." That is why it was named Duck soup!
The recipe used at the Shelter:
2 cups of your kibble mix (I save all the crumbs to use)
12 Papaya Enzyme Tablet /50 mg
2 tsp Lecithin (dry) 1200 granules
2 capsules dry Vitamin E 400/400 IU capsules 300
2 mL Pet Tinic
For immediate preparation:
Fill a blender 1/2 full of warm water. Place on base.
Add dry soup ingredients to the water. Cover and mix well. Once soup is mixed well add more water to the blender to fill vessel (do not over fill) and mix well.
Let mixture sit for 30 minutes before serving.
This mixture is only good in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
For freezer preparation:
Pour mixture into ice trays and let set for approximately 10 minutes. Place in deep freeze freezer. This recipe will make approximately 56 ice cubes.
How to reheat:
Remove from freezer, place one cube in a small crock, and place in a microwave. Set to defrost and heat for 75 seconds. Once defrosted, add warm water until crock is full. Serve warm.
I depend more on warm water to heat the soup than I do the microwave. I only defrost the cube till I can mix it well with warm water. One cube per ferret per meal.
If meds are required you can add meds once the soup is ready for eating. I do not recommend heating soup with meds in it as it may alter the medication.
Tip: For weight gain add 1 tsp of Heavy Cream (not milk) into the crock just before serving.
Mum found a message in her inbox this morning telling her about a little fur kid that was here at camp a while back, she was taught to like duck soup... Mum got permission to share this with you so you can see how important it is to teach your fur kids to like soup BEFORE they get sick... we are thrilled that this little one pulled through and is doing better.
This is the message from her Mom:
I wanted to thank you again for getting my guys on soup while you boarded them. I am convinced that the soup saved Ygritte's life this weekend. Unfortunately I'm at drill out of town now and no vets had space to examine her Friday (several ferrets were in the same condition that day, weird since this is the same time Achilles always got sick too), so I won't know what's going on until this week. She had diarrhea and was refusing food, water and soup to the point she could barely move. But she finally responded to a dropper. She took a tiny bit at first and I kept trying every few hours. She took a bit more with each feeding and this morning she was really going to town. I actually had to quit feeding her to get to drill, but before I left the house she was eating on her own. My pet sitter will continue the soup. I know it kept her hydrated enough to pull thru, so thank you!!
The Duck Soup Imposter
Hey Stevy, Sierra & Frosty here with a bit of important information for you all! Now you need to pay real close attention to this because it could mean the life of our cousins so take care and read carefully!
There is this company out there called Marshall Farms it is selling stuff for ferrets and telling humans that the stuff they sell is good for our cousins. We have to ask you humans that are owned by ferrets to be careful and be sure it is safe and okay for your ferrets. We are going to give you an example of what we mean.
"Uncle Jim's" Original Duck Soup: It may be their original duck soup but it is NOT the real Duck soup!!!!!!
The real Duck soup was designed for and used to help ferrets that have insulinoma; a long, long, long time ago, way before we were born. The real Duck Soup was designed/made by a human that was owned by ferrets and the one ferret that had insulinoma was named "Lucki Duck". That is why this real soup was named "DUCK SOUP"!
Now the Marshall Farms soup is NOT harmful BUT it does not appear to have the ingredients that are necessary to help your ferret that has insulinoma. So if you are buying the Marshall Farms "Uncle Jim's" Original Duck Soup for the purpose of insulinoma it can not help our cousins the way the REAL DUCK SOUP was designed for!
So PLEEAASE if you have a sick ferret go on line and look for the REAL DUCK SOUP so your fuzz butt will get the correct ingredients they need to help make them feel better. There are many many versions that contain the correct ingredients for the purpose of helping fur kids with insulinoma.
If some of our cousins have never tasted REAL DUCK SOUP we wants you humans to treat them to some before they get sick and need it! We ferrets don't like to try new things when we are sick. Our Dad makes us soup at least three or four times a week; we looooove Real Duck Soup. Our sissy Sierra got it 2 times a day after her Adrenal surgery to make sure she would get better quicker! AND SHE DID!!!!
Sierra earned her wings August 2008... Fly high little one, you will be Missed.
Our Dad feeds us Aunt Brenda's REAL DUCK SOUP - MM MM GOOD!!
Seal Of Approval from the many fur kids that have tried Aunt Brenda's soup:
• Rocky my oldest and dearest Ferret who has insulinoma sends a "BIG" THANK YOU!!! For your duck soup...he loves it! Thank you for making him happy and me happy too!! - Leona
• I had one down (she had lost a lot of weight and wasn't getting out of bed)...I wore most of the real duck soup the first time....by the third serving...she was waiting at her door...even caught her eating on her own too! She has made a full recovery and looks so much better! I am just so sad that Badger (the first one I lost, to an ulcer) never had the real duck soup...she only got the Marshall's brand...I feel if I would have known better and have been better prepared (with the real duck soup) she would have recovered from the ulcer and lived longer. I can't preach the stuff enough...IT IS A MIRACLE WORKER!! - Darbie
• Thanks so much! All six of mine now like the Soup. Rascal gets his first and I credit it in keeping him as well as he is. I think Snickers had more time with me because of it. I thought I would lose her 3 months before I did. And Rascal; I didn't expect him to be with me for long after they diagnosis him with a malignant right adrenal tumor. They did debulk it. That was eight months ago. I have two deaf girls who came malnourished and plumped up beautifully! They both had left adrenals but were fit when they went for surgery. They were back to themselves in no time! I have one box now that Lucy loves. Katie is trying to take it over so I will spread them around now so they can share. Lucy takes her "treasures" in her box! She loves those eggs and you can hear her in there giving them a shake! Thanks again, Olivia =^..^=
• Hi, my name is Marcia and I fell in love with two black-eyed white ferrets that my college age son brought home on vacations and some weekends. I started looking after them more and more because my son went to school full time and worked a part time job that kept him quite busy. Cicero and Vinnie were good companions for years. I started to notice Vinnie was loosing his hair. I took him to the vet in our area who said he had adrenal gland disease and that he couldn't do anything for him.
Vinnie lost a lot of weight and was getting close to death when I came across Brenda's web site for her shelter. Brenda told me about Doctor Edwards in Brockport NY and the next day I had an appointment for Vinnie. Doc was able to fix Vinnie's adrenal problem Doc always checks the pancreas to look for insulinoma nodes when he is doing surgeries for other things, Doc discovered Vinnie had Insulinoma too. Doc did remove nodes that were visible from Vinnie's pancreas but unfortunately that doesn't cure the disease. The node removal will allow the ferrets to go without medication longer but eventually they will need medicine intervention and or more node removal surgery.
As Vinnie was recuperating at home from surgery I had to give him medications. It was stressful for him and me to try and get liquid and pill meds down his throat. Brenda said when he felt better I should get him to like duck soup because it is healthy for him and I could hide the meds in the soup. He could lap it right up and there would be no stress involved for him and me.
Before I was able to introduce soup to them, Cicero suddenly became ill. He stopped eating and I couldn't get him to eat or take any medicine. I believe if he was already eating soup he would have made it. Sadly, he got sick very quickly and passed away.
I started giving soup to Vinnie and he loves it. He needs prednisone 3 times a day which he gets in his soup. He doesn't even know it!
It has been 10 months since he started soup. It helps him feel good. I have learned from Brenda that Insulinoma is caused from an inadequate diet. The most important step you can take to try to prevent this condition is to feed your pet a high quality, meat/poultry-based diet with as few additional plant ingredients as possible. Ferrets are very little animals, so even a few high-carbohydrate snacks and treats are significant and can contribute to this illness. Duck soup is a healthy and important supplement to a ferret's diet. I so wish I had known about duck soup and used it, sooner. It really can make the difference between life and death.
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