What do Ferret's eat
Ferret's are Obligate carnivores (meat eater's) Our's are fed on a wide range of raw meat's such as Beef mince, Brisket or stewing steak cubes, Ox or Lamb Heart (essential for Taurine) & other offal in small quantities they also get whole bone in Raw Chopped Chicken, It gives them calcium & is good to help keep their teeth clean. & Turkey cubes Chicken liver in moderation defrosted Day old chick's twice a week & defrosted mice as an ocasional treat, suplimented with a mix of Ferret kibbles, They also get whole rabbit & game skin/feather's etc left on when available. They also like cooked deboned chicken & other meat's.
Complete dry food's or Kibble
Kibble should be changed regularly to ensure freshness & be available at all times, Some ferret's will only eat kibble of a particular sort as they imprint on their food at an early age, It is a good idea to find out what your ferret has been fed by it's breeder or owner before taking him/her home It is good feed several different kibbles in a pick & mix format. Quantity depend's on appetite & size of Ferret although they do eat more in cooler autumn weather to store fat for winter warmth, & in hot weather they will eat very little & it is best to feed raw at night.
How much to feed
On average as a rough guide we feed 80g-100g of Fresh Raw per Adult ferret per day split into 2 x 50g meals for a hob & a bit less (40g) for a small Jill, Kit's will eat considerably more, often double the amount a large adult will eat. I recomend 4 meat meals a day for youngster's to promote Healthy growth & to help stop Nipping. A full kit rarely nip's, A hungry one usually will.
Meat must be fresh & or properly defrosted, Ferret's can easily get salmonella & food poisoning from off meat, If it is not fit for us to eat then it doesent get fed to the Ferret's.
Ad lib Kibble & Fresh clean water should be available at all times, I find that a big flat bowl is better for water especially in summer although some will use it as a paddling pool, I get round this by putting the water bowl into a small clean litter tray.
Ferret's rarely over eat, they tend to trickle feed & hide some for later rather than bolt it down in one go. It is essential to check Hutches & cages for uneaten meat at least once a day, No-one want's rotting meat or flies around or worse a sick Ferret
A few well known brand's of Ferret Kibble
Science Selective Ferret food, James wellbeloved, Chudley's, Alpha Ferret Feast, Pet's at Home Ferret Nugget's, Dr Johns Merlin, Vitalin Ferret, Burgess complete supaferret food, this is not a comprehensive list there are other kibbles out there.
Some Kitten food's are fine in moderation such as Iams Kitten as they are high protien although I have never fed it to any of our's.
I also have a Ferret who has IBS so cannot be fed Ferret Kibble (it gives her tummy ache & runny poop's) so I feed her & her freind's raw meat but No chicken & Ziwi Peak Cat food which is nearly all meat & is a soft jerky flake which does not contain any cereals to irritate her tummy, It has worked well & all the ferret's like it as a treat. It is quite expensive for a small bag but my little lady is worth it.
Treat's
Ferret's may be given a small amount of either whisker's or store brand catmilk or Lacto free milk, Never ordinary milk as ferret's are lactose intolerant. For Kit's or underweight Ferret's Lactol or other kitten milk will help them
FerretOil may be given as a coat supliment during moulting, Treat after nasty medicines or encourage them to eat new food's. It can also help weight gain in a poor condition animal, a training reward, treat or to help gain the confidence of a nervous or nippy Ferret. A little bit on the tummy work's like magic so you can trim nails & clean ear's etc with Your Ferret sitting nice & still on your lap while your Ferret contentedly licks it off. (it may help to slightly warm a few drops before applying as cold liquid often makes them jump especially Jill's) 2.5ml a day is quite enough, so a 250ml bottle should last 1 Ferret approx 100 day's (just over 3 month's). too much will not do any harm but may cause loose bowels for a few hour's.
Plain Dehydrated meat or Jerky is a good treat too, I make my own with a dehydrator as most of the cat treat versions contain sugar's or preservatives & other things a Ferret should not eat.
What Not to feed or give as a Treat
Please do not feed Your Ferret Sausages, bacon, ham or other Cured, salty or spiced cooked meat's. Pizza, Fruit, Vegetables, crisp's etc May cause gut blockages as they cannot digest them at all. Ferret's are naturally diabetic too so Sweet's can be lethal, Raisin's & Chocolate Will poison him/her or make your ferret very ill.
Cat food in general is not high enough in protiens or fat's & contains far too much cereal & is inadequate for nutritional need's, Dog food should Never be fed to ferret's
Ferret's are Very mischevious & are also very fond of nicking tea, coffee, soft drink's & beer, food off your plate etc, If they get the chance, So try to make sure your's is well out of reach as it can make them extremely ill or worse
Neutering is it Necesary
In my personal opinion it is better to have your pet Neutered & Microchipped, There are far too many ferret's in rescues needing good homes. Breeding ferret's is not an undertaking for the inexperienced & can lead to costly vet & food bill's. Please remember those cute little kit's will mature & if not neutered either with a chemical implant or surgically speyed/neutered an entire in season Hob will stink the place out, They also often change temprament & possibly go Very bitey & fight with/kill or try to mate with other males & any females around or escape in search of females to mate with. Many ferret's are lost each year & never found because of this.
Micro chipping gives a good chance of your pet being recovered & returned to you, shop around I get mine done for around £10-£15 each
Jill's will come into season from feb to april dep on daylight hour's & temperature & need's to be brought out of season by either mating with a Vasectomised Hob or Jill jab (Both of which often lead's to Phantom pregnancy) then either spey or Implant several week's later once the vulva swelling has gone down, I preffer to jill jab then implant first summer then spey when the implant wear's off, usually around 18 month's later but there is a new higher dosage implant out that aparently last's for 4 year's, Too early neutering has been linked with Adrenal cancer & other life shortening diseases. Leaving your jill in season Can cause aplastic anemia & she will die a slow painfull death as a direct result of being left in season. Speying is a one off cost, Implant need's replacing & is quite expensive but it does mean the ferret can be bred from at a later date & also has a lower chance of Adrenal cancer in the long run.
How do I know if My Hob/Jill is in Season
Hob's will become smelly, coat will become oily & undercoat go orange/yellowish coloured temprament change is very likely, Possibly agressive with other ferret's & will try to mate with or fight every other Ferret around & "scent mark" everything & everyone & will usually need to be separated from other ferret's
Jill's will also smell stronger & her Vulva will swell & become damp, she may also get a little nippy or clingy.
Please Do Not leave your jill in season for more than a few week's, It could kill her
I tend to get our's neutered/speyed end of January-mid February Before they come into season which is dependant on weather & temperature, Indoor ferret's often come into season earlier than outdoor kept. If your ferret goes in to be speyed or neutered Do Not starve night before the op leave kibble/meat in until 7/8am, taking food away can kill, Just put your ferret into your carrier & take to the vet's & make sure they know what time food was withdrawn. He/she will need to be kept indoor's in a warm place for a day or 2 afterward's as they cannot regulate their body temp very well after surgery, I have a hospital cage kept for this & after other medical procedures
Houseing & space needed
Ferret's are in the main very sociable animals, it is far better to keep 2 or 3 together in a group to both play with each other & snuggle up to snooze with,
when awake tend to be extremely hyper active inquisitive animal's & need plenty of exercise & thing's to do, When it comes to houseing the bigger the better, they need plenty of space to play in, Outdoor's A small hutch on it's own is not suitable they need a run as well as plenty of out of cage playtime & human interaction Tubes of all sort's are loved by ferret's & can be attached to wall's & runs to increase available space, Multi level shelving is also good as it encourages them to climb & explore. the minimum space for a ferret or 3 is a 5'x2' double storey hutch with a 5'x6' attatched run. This need's to be on a solid suface such as on paving slab's or concrete or they will dig their way out in no time. or if in a shed floor should be solid plywood Not stirling board (they will dig through Very quickly) Lino on top makes floor cleaning a lot easier as well as being more hygenic. Ensure your ferret's home is out of the sun, Heatstroke kill's, in hot weather make sure they have a cool area to lie on even if it is a small concrete paving slab or glass/marble chopping board in a hutch. In winter check water bottles are not frozen, keep ferret's in a sheltered place out of wind & rain etc & add extra bedding, on our ferret houses I have fitted plastiglass sheet's to keep the wind & rain out during winter month's but left adequate space for ventilation, Hutch cover's May seem like a good idea But can cause condensation, dampness & serious lung/health problems due to lack of correct ventilation, A lot of hutches/coop's etc are very badly designed, They often look nice & Great in the summer but let rain etc in during winter,Look carefully at construction before you buy. I usually totally cover roof back & sides in roofing felt so no external water can penetrate the houseing.
Kept indoor's in cages is fine again as big as possible, our indoor cage for our antisocial with other ferret's lone girl is 3' x 2' x 5' high with 3 full level's plenty of hammock's bed's toy's & ladder's. Put the cage in a cool Area not too warm as Ferret's suffer heat stroke very easily & make sure they have a dark sleeping area, Indoor Ferret's will need at least 3-4 hour's out of cage playtime a day with plenty of human interaction or they will often become frustrated destructive & nippy, Think how you would feel if you just had a bedroom & bathroom & were just stuck with no escape or anything do do.
Bedding, I don't recomend hay or straw as bit's can get in eyes & they can harbour parasites such as tick's or mites, Some people use shredded paper in bedroom area's but I & many other's use vetbed on top of newspaper then a pile of clean fleecy blanket's & cat bed's etc, they need changing & washing about twice a week, I use detergent & pet safe disinfectant in the wash, Either Safe4 or Mistral both of which come in pleasant scent's & leave everything smelling great.
Toy's
Ferret's are very intelegent & get bored very easily so need plenty of thing's to keep them busy. The best toy's are usually the cheap or free , a paper sack or plastic carrier bag or 2 with the handles broken or cut off is a favourite toy, they will jump in & out roll round & dance all over it & each other, plastic drainage pipes or cardboard carpet tubes are another favourite ferret toy, also a dig box full of compost, rice or pasta causes much excitement to our little furry freind's.
A lot of cat toy's are ok for ferret's but do not give them Anything rubber, for some reason they love chewing it & will swallow it, this can lead to a gut blockage & either cause a massive vet bill or worse your ferret could die
Litter training & Hygene
Most ferret's are fairly easy to litter train as they are naturally clean animal's. Usually they will choose a corner of hutch or run to use, simply put a large litter tray in the corner & put a bit of poop in it at the back corner, they usually get the message pretty quickly, Best way to litter train is simple, Ferret's usually "go" just after waking up, so if you see him/her about to go in the wrong place simply pick them up & pop gently into the tray, when he/she get's it right give praise & a small treat of either FerretOil or a small piece of meat or jerky, they learn fast, some of our's pretend to go several times before actually doing their business just to get a treat, lol.
Most of our ferret court's have at least 2 litter tray's one at each end & for the super messy ones a tray in each corner & one in the hutch, sometimes they will move the tray's & poop where it was, This is Very annoying but the problem can be solved, I either clean the area with Safe4 or Mistral pet disinfectant or use Simple solution which destroy the scent of urine etc & are pet safe, I dry the area Before allowing the Ferret's back in. Some people cable tie, velcro etc tray's into place. Me being lazy I just put big square stone or concrete plant pot's etc on their sides against them to hold them in place, the pot's also work was ambush play or meat stashes for the ferret's they also provide a cool place to lie or rest in hot weather. Clay based cat litter is not good as particles can get into the ferret's lung's & cause respiritory problems, non dusty wood pellet's, straw pellet's & dust extracted shaving's are ok so are paper based litter's, newspaper on it's own can be used but it get's messy fast not very absorbent tend's to be rather smelly & the ferret's stamp the poop around every where & if a litter tray is Just a bit too dirty they will poop next to it, lol. I usually take out the poop in the morning & poop & wet patches in the evening, Having Plenty of litter in the tray is far more effective stay's cleaner & wastes less than just a bit in the bottom which just get's soggy & nasty Very quickly & then the ferret will refuse to use it.
Indoor cages I melt holes in the top of the tray & tie to the bar's with string useing a quick release knot to stop them moving or tipping it over although some people use stick on Velcro, indoor's puppy pad's cut to size to line the tray work's well as shaving's/litter get's everywhere & newspaper just isn't absorbent enough, usually cleaned out 2/3 times a day to cut down on smell etc.
Where Can I Buy FerretOil
Go to our New FerretOil Shop Page
Usefull
link's to Ferrety thing's & welfare associations
We will add more link's later
Three Shires ferret rescue & welfare
http://www.threeshiresferretrescueandwelfare.co.uk/
Wicked Weasel Bedding
http://www.freewebs.com/wickedweasels/
Heart of England Ferret Association
Sta Rescue
National ferret welfare society
Safe4 disinfectant
http://www.safe4disinfectant.com/
Dooking Ferret Imaging
http://dookingferretimaging.yolasite.com/
If you think your ferret is Ill or has eaten or drank anything it shouldn't or you are worried about general health Please consult Your vet for advice.
