What is a Good Ferret Diet?

This is probably one of the most asked questions when it comes to owning a ferret. It's also got a very simple answer. There are a few ways you can go about feeding a ferret, and each person will tell you something different about what's the "Best" for a ferret.

A lot of people all over the world feed their ferrets a raw diet. This, in my opinion, is the best diet that you can feed your ferret. I will go over raw diets first (this will be brief, however; I just want to discuss the good and bad ferret diets, and I will make a more in-depth post about raw feeding at a later date).

Raw Diet

Belle eating part of a quail.

Oliver and Belle eating half a quail.

Raw feeding is what is the closest you can get to how a ferret would eat in the wild. Typically, people want to feed this because it's the healthiest thing to feed. The bones they eat keep their teeth clean, so there's no teeth cleaning you have to do; the meat won't give your ferret insulinoma. This is what ferrets are meant to eat. Some people even feed prey live. Not everyone, but some do. Some feed whole prey, and some feed bits and pieces.

One issue a lot of people have, however, is getting their ferret to eat the meat! A lot of ferrets that have been on kibble their whole life, will NOT see raw food as a food! Think about it: if your child grew up only eating french fries and chicken nuggets, do you think they would be keen on eating a salad? If you have a young ferret, however, it can be quite easy to switch them over to a raw diet; young ferrets are not picky. Older ferrets can be tricky to get to eat the raw food, and again, I will make a more detailed post about how to switch your ferret over to raw food at a later date.

Kibble

This is the other way to feed your ferret. Some people will say that you shouldn't own a ferret if you cannot feed them a raw diet -- I do not agree with that. At this moment in time, I am having to feed my ferrets kibble again; Belle had not been digesting the fat and lost a considerable amount of weight, so they are eating kibble again.

Kibble can be alright to feed, if you feed them GOOD kibble! Here is a link to a kibble chart If you feed the kibble that are on the top of this list, you are doing good. Of course, with feeding kibble, there are some drawbacks: Stinkier ferrets, stinkier poop, teeth cleaning, the possibility of insulinoma.

There are a few brands to stay far away from. Those are: Marshalls (all Marshalls ferret foods are BAD!), Kaytee, and 8 in 1.

I hope this helped even a little bit! As I said, I will be going into more depth about raw feeding your ferret, as it really is the better way to go. However, like I said, if you really can't feed raw, that's OK! A lot of ferrets live happy lives on kibble!