One thing was obvious in 2006 there is a lot of bad advise going around
regarding ferret's diet, and not just the pet shops (the worst) but vets as
well, which was very surprising to me, one vets advised, a lady not to feed
her ten week old baby ferret meat because it would make it bite, IDIOT
was not the first word I thought of, she had called in desperation, she could
not stand the pain of being bitten by the baby any more, I told her to carry
on feeding the ferret biscuit's but feed as much raw meat (not pork) that it
would eat in three meals, the baby stoped biting, could it be the vet was
wrong? of course he was.
We have had people feeding, as a ferrets main diet, fruit and veg, rabbit
food, cat food and dog food, why! ferrets are not cats, dogs or rabbits,
We also have lots of people ask us why there ferrets don't look as good as
ours, they always feed, just dry ferret food or wet cat food, one lady could
not believe the size of my ten week old baby compared to hers, on the way
home from the show that she saw us at, she was going to buy some meat to
feed her baby.
Below is a picture of a three week old baby ferret, in 2006, his eyes have
not opened yet, but he has crawled out of the nest to tuck into some of
mums dinner, a nice chick, ferrets are carnivores, and this baby knows it,
just because its not convenient to you, does not mean its right to deny them
meat.
We have people with 30 years
experience of keeping ferrets at
Ferret Friends, and we know a
thing or two about keeping these
wonderful little animals, what I
will now write is how we think you
should be feeding your ferret, I
think we are right, because of
comments on the condition of
our ferrets by people who fed only
dry food, I say, who fed, because
95% of those people do change to
our type of diet, the rest like the man who fed Petox dog meat roll, who
thought it was good enough, even though his grandchildren were cuddling
our ferrets, but could not do the same to his,clearly did not think enough
of his ferrets to give them a good varied diet.
When I talk about how many (gutted) chicks I feed, just think of it as meat,
its not something you have to feed, but ferrets do like them, but you can
feed turkey, chicken, chicken wings or beef, all raw and cut into small bits,
but never pork, its just easier for me writing this article because its one
of the things I feed, I also feed the best dry foods, which are turkey based
James wellbeloved, and chicken based Vitalin, and just in case you didn't
know ferrets eat more in the winter.
Diet is most important when a ferret is young and growing, we start
feeding meat to babies from 3 weeks old, by the time our babies are 8
weeks old and at the age you may take your ferret baby home we would
be feeding 6 chicks in three meals and Turkey at one meal, per ferret, and
dry ferret food fed freely, if they eat all the meat increase how much you
feed, if they leave some cut back on the meat, not all ferrets eat the same
amount. If you take a baby home and just give it a bowl of dry food, when
you look at what we would feed a baby, it would not die, but it would not
grow as big and strong, and would start biting hard.
Do not feed just prime cuts of meat there is not everything a ferret needs
in it as a diet, like bone, fur and feather, you have to feed dry ferret food
as well, we find this to be the best combination, the only way to feed an all
meat diet is to use, mature whole carcass (this does not mean chicks)where
everything is consumed.
The most important thing in getting a good baby, is diet, the second most
important thing is handling, when young, we had a female handed in to us
and she gave birth to 11 babies one hour later, we started to handle them
at the age of two weeks old and they turned into very good babies so try
a ferret rescue center, if they don't have any babies they may know of a
good breeder who handles there babies well.
As your baby gets older they will eat less, adults get dry food fed freely
then 1-4 chicks at night plus a bit of turkey, chicken or beef 3-4 days a
week, meat is fed at night so fly's are not a problem, ferrets get meat every
night, increase or decrease amount so everything is consumed over night,I
try them with different types of meat and chicken gravy which is something
we make for the old and sick ferrets just to give them a change.
One of my groups has a 1 X 3 month old 2 X 4 month old 1 X 6 month old
1 X 1 year old and 1 X 3 year old, because of the youngsters they get fed
twice a day, 12 chicks in the morning, 16 chicks at night, plus a big bowl
of dry ferret food and they eat it all, if I feed turkey or beef I cut the chicks
down by five, to be replaced by the meat, as the youngsters get older they
will not eat as much.
We had someone bring his two jills to us when he went on holiday we said
his ferrets were thin, he did say they were biting, he was feeding chicks
and dry food but he said they left a lot of the chicks we suggested he try
feeding some turkey or beef, next time they came to us they were in
wonderful condition and didn't bite, always keep an eye on the condition
of your ferrets, just because they leave food does not always mean they are
getting enough to eat, they may not like what you are feeding or are just
sick of the same thing, also make sure everyone is getting there fair share
when you have a group of ferrets, if they are eating and still thin then a
visit to the vet could be needed.
If you weigh your ferrets regularly you will see if anything is going wrong
much earlier, you will need to get used to each ferrets summer and winter
weight, I can't tell you a good weight for a ferret because each ferret is
different, I have Hob's from, 1.75lb to 4lb and Jill's from 1.5lb to 2.5lb
and all of them are healthy, whole Hob's can weigh up to 6lb, they lose
weight after neutering.
If you are going to try and get your ferret onto meat, patients is needed
some ferrets are hard to change over, (not normally babies though) cut
the meat into very small bits, put ferretone or gravy on it, one of my jills
will not eat turkey thigh, chicks, chicken or beef but loves turkey breast,
only the best for her, so she gets that every day.
Treats like banana, cucumber, tea with sugar, cat milk and eggs are fine in
small amounts, too many eggs can make a ferret lose its fur.
I personally like to give water in a bowl its more natural then a bottle but
with a bottle as a back up, which is totality unrealistic when you have six
young ferrets using the bowl as the local swimming pool, but when they get
older and more sensible a bowl could be an healthier option, drinking out
of a bottle is hard work to get a good drink, drinking lots is good for
flushing out the system, like the kidneys which is better for an older ferret
so think about using a bowl especially in old age.
My six baby lunatics get a tray
of water when they come out to
play every day, to jump in and
to drink lots, when they grow
up they will get a bowl.
