Ferrets are carnivorous animals. It’s not going to work well for their health if you are feeding them veggies, fruits, and occasional treats only. You should include a good amount of meat in their regular meal. Today, we will be discussing what do ferrets eat and how to feed them.
What Can Ferrets Eat?
As a carnivore, Ferrets mail meal must be meat. You have to ensure it is taking meat properly. Without meat, it will be suffering from nutrition issues that you don’t want to happen.
Primarily, raw meat is great. You can treat your pet with plenty of raw meat. Additionally, you can provide it kitten food, as well. These food are high in protein, just like dry Ferred food. You can try that, too.
Ideally, a Ferret’s food should have 32-38% of protein and around 15-20% of fat.
You can try a lot of whole raw meat for your Ferret. For example – chick, rats, mice, etc. Ferrets love all the whole meat.
What Human Food Can Ferrets Eat?
As we said, Ferret is a carnivore animal. So, there are some similarities between Ferret food and human food. But the difference is, Ferrets like to eat it raw. Here’s a list of raw meat options that you can feed your Ferret.
- Chicken.
- Chicken Wings.
- Turkey necks.
- Minced beef.
- Pigeon.
- Lamb.
- Lamb’s heart.
Prepare this meat as raw as you can, and your Ferret will jump into the bowl to its utter excitement.
An Ideal Ferret Diet
A Ferret’s intestinal tract is a bit short, and it doesn’t perform well when it comes to absorbing natural nutrients. So a meat-based protein is really a necessity for a Ferret’s diet as it can digest it faster and more efficiently. Plus, it provides lots of energy to their bodies.
It’s okay to feed veggies and fruits to your Ferret once in a while. But you should be limiting the treat. Fruits and vegetables come with complex carbohydrates and quite rich in fibre.
Ferrets have a hard time digesting fibre. So it doesn’t add any nutrition value to their system. Moreover, it can casue a lot of disease to these animals, as well.
Should You Buy Dry Ferret Food?
It’s okay to give dried Ferret food that you find on the market. For most of the cases, this is the easiest option you have got. But before you buy a pack, make sure it is rich in protein and low in fibre and carb.
Diet Plan for Baby Ferrets
For those of you who own a Baby Ferret, you need to be extra careful when you feed it. Its digestive system is still developing, and you need to put extra effort into preparing its food.
You can combine fresh meat, low lactose milk, and pure water and feed it to your Baby Ferret. You can divide the day into four feeding sessions and plan as follows.
- For breakfast, you can go for fresh meat pieces with water.
- At lunchtime, you can provide only fresh meat.
- Dinner should be consisting of low lactose milk and fresh meat.
- Late-night food can include bone meat and goat milk.
Making the baby Ferrets used to food is quite crucial. The bonding with food starts to develop at this stage, and you don’t want to mess it up. If their food habit grows now, you will have a smoother feeding in its adult life.
How Often Should I Feed My Ferret?
Honestly speaking, there is no single opinion on it. It depends on your Ferret’s eating habits. Ferrets do show a tendency of hoarding food, so you need to consider that, as well.
If you are working the whole day, you can put some extra food in its cage before you leave. Put some fresh meat and Ferret kibble in its cage. It can eat it all day long. After daytime, a couple of feeding sessions at night would suffice.
Can Ferrets Eat Cat Food?
It’s really not possible to replace a Ferret food. You need to realize that a Ferret is a carnivore animal that needs high-protein food. That being said, Cat food that we find on the market, do contain some level of protein. So if you find the protein level to be enough, you can feed Cat food to your Ferret. But remember, it will not be as beneficial to your Ferret as Ferret food.
But still, you can give your Ferret some good quality Cat food once in a while.
Best Cat Food For Ferrets
There are a number of top quality Cat food that you can feed your Ferret. Here’s a list of Cat food that you can find right away in the market.
Blue Buffalo Wilderness High Protein Grain Free – This Cat food is made from real meat, and its gran free.
Blue Buffalo Multi-Cat Natural Adult Dry Cat Food – The ingredients of this food is non-GMO, meaning, there’s no health issue.
Instinct Raw Boost Indoor Health Grain-Free Recipe with Real Chicken – This one is an ideal Ferret food with high protein inside!
Whole Earth Farms Grain-Free Recipe Dry Cat Food – Ingredients are specially selected for balance formula.
Wellness Core Natural Grain-Free Dry Cat Food – It contains 80% more meat than any other food product!
Can Ferrets Eat Rabbit Food?
Generally speaking, a Ferret can’t eat Rabbit food. Rabbit food contains too much vegetable ingredients that are hard to digest by a Ferret. Ferrets lack a part in their digestion system named cecum. This one does the work of digestion of vegetables.
That’s why it can’t take the nutrients from the veggies and can’t digest it properly. That’s why experts suggest that you should avoid feeding Rabbit food to your Ferret. Even if you do, make sure you are feeding the best Rabbit food on the market and at a very low amount.
What Should Not Feed Your Ferret?
Get one thing straight. Ferrets shouldn’t be fed anything that contains high complex carbohydrates. As we discussed earlier, they can’t digest fibre, which means you must avoid giving them many vegetables and fruits.
High complex carbohydrate will create high glucose in the Ferret’s blood. It can cause insulinoma that may even lead to complex health issues.
According to The American Ferret Association, you should avoid the following fruits for your Ferret.
- Apple
- Blackberries
- Pears
- Pigeon beans
- Pink beans
- Pinto beans
- Spinach
- Small white beans
- Winged beans
- Bananas
- Blueberries
- Broccoli
- Brussel sprouts
- Dates
- Figs
- Green Beans
- Guavas
- Kiwi fruit
- Onions
- Oranges
- Split peas
- Dried plums
- Sweet potato
- Peanut butter
- Raisins
- Rice
- Bananas
- Salt
- Chocolate
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Final Words
Your Ferret is not only your pet but also your responsibility. Taking good care of it calls for providing it with the best possible food. We hope our feeding guide today will help you to feed your Ferret even better and healthier!
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