Just like people, ferrets enjoy a good meal. A nice mix of pellets, treats and salmon oil, as well as fresh water will make your ferret healthy and happy. Continue reading for more information about what to feed your pet ferret!
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Natural Diet of Ferrets
It’s important to understand what ferrets and their ancestors would eat in the wild, as this information informs what and how you should be feeding your pet ferret!
Ferrets are obligate carnivores, meaning that their wild diet consisted of the entirety of their prey – including the meat, bones, skin, feathers, and fur. Rabbits, rats, birds, and even snakes are natural prey!
Although ferrets have been domesticated for a while, they haven’t developed the ability to eat much beyond animal flesh and its derivatives. In fact, ferrets lack a cecum in their digestive system, which means they cant digest plant matter. Taking this information into account, you can start to get an idea for what pet ferrets need to eat.
Pellet Food
A high-protein pellet food, specifically formulated for ferrets, should make up the majority of your ferret’s diet and be available at all times. The best ferret food is as close to their natural diet of whole animals as possible. Ferrets don’t need fancy food. They simply need a food with high protein concentration, a decent amount of fat, and meat as the primary ingredients of the food.
If finding food that meets this criteria seems daunting, use the following nutrition stats to check a potential purchase:
- Protein percentage around 40%-60%
- Fat percentage around 18%-22%
- Fiber percentage around 3%-5%
- At least the first ingredient is meat such as chicken, turkey, or duck
- A lack of grains, fruits, and vegetables (especially peas – dangerous to ferrets)
One thing to note is that ferrets are very picky with their food. In fact, they imprint on it around 6 months of age, and it’s very hard to get them to eat something else once this happens.
Many owners and breeders prefer to mix two or three similar but different foods together in an attempt to provide some variety and limit the ferret’s pickiness regarding one particular food. However, there’s no problem with feeding your ferret the same food forever, especially if it’s the best ferret food available.
Raw Feeding
Some owners decide to feed ferrets a raw diet, consisting of meat, bones, and organs, to closely match a ferret’s natural diet. While many will start this process when a ferret is very young, others may aim to switch their ferret over. If a ferret is already imprinted on a pellet food, it can take a while for them to realize that the raw flesh you’re providing is food, but they can learn over time through a slow transition.
A raw ferret diet isn’t made up of just a single cut of meat. Instead, it should mimic the composition of a whole animal, so roughly 80% meat, 10% organs, and 10% bones. In terms of quantity, the amount to feed your ferret varies with age. A young ferret can eat 10%+ of their body weight every single day! An adult ferret that’s no longer growing generally eats around 100-140g leading up to winter and 60-80g in the summer.
For a great in-depth resource, read this article about raw feeding ferrets.
Water
Fresh water needs to be available to your ferret around the clock. Hanging water bottles are best, as they keep the water source secure. If you don’t have a cage, a bowl of water is totally fine, but you run the risk of your mischievous ferret spilling or flipping it, so it’s not ideal.
Monitor the amount of water that your ferret drinks. Pretty quickly you’ll catch on to how frequently your ferret empties their bottle/bowl. If your ferret does not seem to be drinking enough water, it may be a sign that you should take a trip to the vet.
Treats
Ferrets, just like everybody else, love a delicious treat every once in a while, but they should be given in moderation to help keep your ferret healthy. There are several ferret-specific treats on the market that are great as a daily surprise. Just make sure that the treats are grain-free and don’t contain any fruit or vegetable products.
Speaking of fruits and vegetables, these should never be given to ferrets as treats, as even a small amount can make them sick. This means apples, bananas, lettuce, watermelon, strawberries, blueberries, peas, and many more food items are off-limits.
This doesn’t mean your ferret can only eat specific ferret treats or their pellet food, though! There are several different animal products that make great occasional treats, including:
- Chicken
- Turkey
- Lamb
- Venison
- Ham (1-2 times per week)
- Beef (1-2 times per week)
When feeding your ferret these meats, avoid lunch meats with excessive sodium, or any meats with added seasoning/flavoring. The closer to raw, natural meat, the better.
Vitamin Supplements
The final category of food products for ferrets is vitamin supplements. There are a couple of oil-based ferret treats and supplements that many ferrets go crazy for, and also do wonders with helping maintain healthy coats and skin. There are two primary products in this category, Furo-Tone and Salmon Oil.
Furo-Tone is a fatty acid and vitamin supplement for ferrets that can be fed daily to promote coat and skin health. Many owners also enjoy the added benefit of putting some on a spoon and using it to distract their ferrets while the trim their nails or give them a good brushing.
Salmon oil ultimately accomplishes the same thing for ferrets, but with less of an emphasis on specific nutrients. Regardless, ferrets tend to find it delicious, and owners will often put some on their pet’s food to add some variety.
Ferret Diet Frequently Asked Questions
Thanks to a ferret’s short digestive tract and high metabolic rate, they process their food very quickly and thus need to eat frequently, to the tune of around 6-8 times per day.
Ferret treats or salmon oil make for great ferret snacks. Ferrets can also occasionally have a bit of cooked egg, chicken, turkey, and lamb. Avoid meats with added spices, and never feed your ferret any type of grain, fruit, vegetable, or chocolate.
Ferrets imprint on their food at around 6 months of age, so their favorite is usually what they were eating around that time. However, many owners will say that a raw diet is preferred by ferrets, which is a diet made up of raw animal flesh and bones.
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