Ferrets must eat meat in order to survive. Natural diets of the ferrets wild ancestors would consist of the whole of their prey, in other words, meat, organs, bones, skin, feathers or fur. Some owners feed their ferrets meat-based diets that are whole like mice and rabbits and also raw meat like beef, veal, chicken etc. This is preferred in Europe and Australia, and has become increasingly acceptable in the US due to concerns over high carb levels in many processed ferret foods possible leading to hyperactivity or certain ferret health problems.

Certain kitten foods can be used as well, as long as they contain a high protein and fat content food for ferret that is needed to balance the ferret's metabolism. High quality commercial ferret foods with correct levels of carbohydrates are the first choice for most ferret owners because the foods are geared more toward a ferret's metabolism than to a cat's.
 
Most foods for Adult cats are however, unsuitable for ferrets, this is because they usually have a low level of protein content and large amounts of fibre. Ideally, ferret food should have around 32% of meat based proteins as a minimum requirement and around 18% of fat with a maximum 3% fiber. Low quality pet foods very often contain proteins that are grain based, ferrets have a real problem with grain based foods as they are unable to properly digest them, resulting in lower nutritional intake which leads to the poor ferret increasing their food intake and creating more waste.

Ferrets very often have a love for sweet stuff like raisins, bananas, peanut butter, and pieces of cereal. Unfortunately the large amounts of refined sugars in these sorts of treats has been linked to ferret insulinoma and other diseases. Vets actually recommend that you don't feed these sorts of foods to ferrets at all. Also, like most carnivores, ferrets eventually lose their ability to digest lactose after they have been weaned. Because of this, lactose-free milk is the recommended choice for your ferret.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.