Feeding a ferret: how, what and when to feed your pet?

0

1975

Article rating

Kira Stoletova

The ferret is a medium-sized animal, up to 50 cm in length. It is perfect for people with small apartments and small children. The pet will become a good friend and even a family member. Like any living creature, a ferret requires care and attention. First of all, we are, of course, talking about nutrition and proper drinking regimen. Any breeder or farmer needs to know what the animal eats and how to properly feed domestic ferrets. To keep your pet energetic and healthy, he needs to eat properly. The most common food is minced meat for ferrets.

What to feed your ferret at home

It must be kept in mind that a ferret is not a cat or a parrot. He is a full-fledged resident of the wild, moreover, he is a predator, so feeding must be appropriate. Your pet will not eat greens, vegetables and fruits in large quantities. These products are more likely to harm and undermine the health of the ferret. The ferret gets vitamins and minerals from other foods, for example, from cereals. The main diet for a predator is meat and products such as milk, cottage cheese, cheese, eggs.

Feeding ferrets in nature

Ferrets are solitary hunters by nature. In the wild, these animals are predators and feed on rodents. The diet of ferrets consists of hamsters, ground squirrels, rabbits, field mice, rats, and gerbils. Ferrets easily catch lizards, frogs, and hunt poisonous snakes.

These animals have the ability to silently sneak up, ferrets attack hazel grouse, destroy bird nests on the ground in order to eat chicks and eggs. Ferrets' favorite delicacy is hedgehogs; their thorns do not frighten ferrets at all; they eat hedgehogs with great pleasure.

Ferret diet plan

When keeping ferrets, special attention should be paid to nutrition. After all, an incorrectly selected diet has a negative impact on health. Thanks to the wide variety of options, each breeder can choose the appropriate nutrition plan for himself.

Natural food

From natural products, ferrets are given meat - chicken or turkey, raw, with cartilage and bones, with the exception of tubular ones, and other offal. Breeders add dairy products other than milk to the diet because these animals are lactose intolerant.

Be careful with the fish. Not every type of fish is suitable for ferrets; animals are allowed to be given shrimp, squid, red fish - salmon, trout, but in small quantities.

Natural food should not be boiled; food should be given raw or defrosted.

Dry snacks

Food for ferrets, the ingredients of which include poultry meat containing easily digestible protein of non-vegetable origin - these are snacks. Currently, the market offers dry food, the composition of which was developed by specialists specifically for ferrets. The protein content in dry food is 32-36%, carbohydrates, fats - no more than 20%, up to 5% plant fibers.

In the absence of special food, you can purchase premium food for kittens and pregnant cats. Dog food is absolutely not suitable.

When feeding on dry food, your ferret drinks a lot of liquid, so you need to constantly ensure that the sippy cup is always filled with water.

Live food

Eating live food gives ferrets great pleasure. After all, by choosing such a scheme, breeders get as close as possible to the natural nutrition of these animals in nature.

The following are suitable live food, which is sold in veterinary pharmacies:

• mice;
• chickens;
• mealworms;
• marble cockroaches.

Treats

From time to time the ferrets are given various treats. Ferrets will eagerly eat cheese, cottage cheese, baby kefir and quail eggs, which can be present in the diet once a week. Pieces of fruit are allowed as treats, because ferrets really love apples, bananas, and pears.

Choose your ferrets' treats wisely; don't please them with treats from your table, as this will only cause harm. Indeed, in nature, plant food enters the body of these animals only if it is inside the caught prey.

Vitamins and supplements

For proper development and growth, ferrets need to be given vitamins and minerals. They are part of ready-made additives, which come in two types:

• vitamin pastes;
• vitamin complexes.

Pastes and complexes can be given to ferrets separately or added to food.

Vitamin paste helps animals recover faster, recover and regain strength after undergoing operations. Vitamin complexes are given to ferrets all year round, the dosage varies depending on the season, and the age of the animal is also taken into account.

The vitamins and minerals included in the supplements are important during shedding, lactation and estrus. The additives contain:

• minerals – calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron;
• A, E, D and other vitamins;
• Brewer's yeast.

Before choosing a vitamin supplement, be sure to consult a specialist.

Treats

Sometimes pets can be given treats at home, but they should eat them in limited quantities. Many owners of these animals often ask the question: can a ferret have a watermelon? This berry can be given to these animals, but as a reward and not too often. The following foods can also be given as treats;

• melon;
• pears;
• banana pieces;
• yoghurts;
• raisin;
• small hard pieces;
• oatmeal cookies;
• yoghurt sweets.

But whether a ferret can have milk is a controversial issue. But still, you should not give them this product. It is better to replace it with kefir, fermented baked milk, and yogurt.

Many treats for these animals can be purchased at pet stores. Moreover, these places provide a wide range of goodies that do not have a harmful effect on these animals.

But before giving these products, it is worth remembering that they are best used as a reward and in limited quantities. Still, the main part of the diet should consist of meat feed mixtures with a balanced composition. It is through these feeds that the full development of ferrets is ensured, and their vital energy is also maintained.

Farshekashi recipes

Farshekasha is a mixture that is often used to feed ferrets. It may contain several ingredients.

Recipe No. 1

Designed for young puppies and growing individuals. The composition of farshekashi includes:

• chicken stomachs – 1 kg;
• chicken necks – 2 kg;
• rice or buckwheat groats – 400 g.

The breeder presented the recipe for farshekashi in his video below:

Preparing farshekash is very simple:

1. Grind the cereal into flour, then cook until completely cooked.
2. Grind the offal into minced meat, which is mixed with the finished porridge.
3. Add vitamins in the required quantities to the minced meat.

Recipe No. 2

This recipe is prepared for adult animals. Farshekasha consists of the following components:

• cottage cheese – 60 g;
• fish – 150 g;
• beef heart – 100 g;
• chicken meat – 0.5 kg;
• rice – 100 g;
• poultry fat – 10 g.

The cooking process is very simple:

1. Cook the rice for 2-3 hours, grind the remaining ingredients into minced meat.
2. Mix the resulting minced meat with porridge, add the necessary vitamins.
3. Divide the finished minced meat into portions and place in the freezer.

Features of feeding in different periods

The diet of ferrets becomes special at certain periods of life. What remains common is the obligatory presence of minerals and vitamins.

Growth period

During breastfeeding, young ferrets receive the nutrients their bodies need through their mother's milk. Deprived of mother's milk, ferrets' gastrointestinal tract becomes vulnerable to infections, which is why probiotics should be kept in the breeder's medicine cabinet at all times.

Ferrets are transferred to “adult” feeding 3-4 weeks after birth. At this time, their baby teeth begin to erupt. In order for babies to quickly get used to this diet, liquid minced meat is introduced into the diet, and low-fat cream or baby kefir is added to the mother’s menu.

Don’t forget about vitamins - 3-4 drops of fish oil are dripped onto the tongue of ferrets. If more male furos were born in the litter, more calcium and phosphorus are added to the food, since males are more active.

Don't forget to give your pets vitamin pastes and supplements. Lack of nutrients negatively affects the growth and further development of ferrets.

Shedding period

Furo molt in early spring and autumn, with the exception of pregnant females who shed on the 20th day of pregnancy, and animals that have suffered a hormonal imbalance. Shedding lasts 1-2 weeks and is accompanied by severe itching. In some areas of the body there is practically no hair.

Ferrets are very clean, so they carefully lick themselves, as a result of which a lot of hair gets into the gastrointestinal tract and vomiting begins. To prevent this from happening, the animals are given fur-removing pastes. Pets are helped to cope with shedding by combing their fur with a brush or using a furminator.

During molting, ferrets need vitamin complexes containing sulfur, brewer's yeast and B vitamins. Thanks to which the new fur will be thick and shiny.

Pregnancy period

In order for the offspring to be born healthy, a pregnant female is given an individual diet.

The menu of a pregnant female must contain:

• phosphorus, calcium for strong teeth and bones;
• vitamins A, E, D and group B - in increased quantities.

When feeding chorihi with natural food, the menu includes meat and bone meal, calcined cottage cheese, and fish oil. If the female eats dry snacks, she is given special food for pregnant women or a product intended for cats. You can’t overfeed a choriha – this leads to obesity, but limiting the female’s nutrition is also dangerous.

Before childbirth and in the first days after it, the chorikha's appetite worsens. The ferret's menu during lactation is identical to the diet during pregnancy. Nutrient requirements are still high.

What to do if your pet doesn’t want to eat a new type of food?

Frequently changing food for ferrets is not recommended, so you need to choose a brand of food that is sold in your city and that you can afford at any time.

It is impossible to determine whether the food is suitable for your pet at first glance. It is necessary to give the ferret’s body time to get used to the new type of product, and only then draw conclusions about its suitability.

If your pet refuses to accept food from any manufacturer, then a special analysis can be performed that allows you to determine how your ferret's body reacts to this food.

If the ferret does not want to eat a new type of food even after a long period of time, then it is best to abandon this manufacturer and choose the food that is most suitable for your pet. With the correct selection of food:

• The ferret's fur is bright, shiny, without foreign odors or secretions;
• the smell from the toilet is minimal or practically absent;
• the stool has a uniform consistency, without mucus and other secretions, and so on.

How to choose dry food?

Before choosing dry food, be sure to read what components are listed in the composition. It is worth paying attention to the following points:

• Poultry meat should be listed first; if it is premium food, then there may be two types of meat.
• The content of plant fibers should be no more than 3-5%, since furo is difficult to digest fiber.
• The percentage of ash should not exceed 7%, otherwise the pet runs the risk of developing urolithiasis.
• The food should contain the amino acid taurine, which is good for the heart and eyes.
• It's best to avoid foods that contain cornmeal, especially if it's listed first.

Store-bought treats: are they worth buying?

So what kind of treats can you give your ferret? In the store, a variety of ferret treats (including cat food) immediately catch your eye. However, you should not immediately buy the first product you come across, as it can be dangerous for the animal, especially if it is abused.

First of all, you need to consult with a veterinarian what he thinks about this or that manufacturer, and also look at the packaging and read the ingredients. If the composition does not contain any meat components, and they are replaced by all kinds of sweeteners, fruits and grains, such treats will certainly not benefit the ferret.

What should you not give to ferrets?

There is a whole list of foods that should not be given to ferrets.

Water in the diet

Ferrets often drink liquids, especially if they are fed dry snacks. With this diet, the number of approaches to the drinking bowl reaches 7-12 times. It is important to keep water bowls clean, and the water itself should be fresh, at room temperature. Filtered water is best for drinking and is changed at least 2 times a day.

Ferrets should always have water, because it not only promotes thermoregulation, but also saves the animal from sunstroke in the summer.

We create comfortable conditions for eating

Small ferrets should always have fresh water freely available. It must be changed at least once a day. Most of all, pets like to drink from regular bowls, although the cubs can accidentally knock them over or dirty them.

Ferrets love to dig and “extract” their food from the container, scattering it throughout the cage. The best way to prevent this is to use a deep cup or plastic plate mounted high enough on the side of the cage to make it inconvenient for the ferret to dig into it. If you have several pets, it is better to provide a dish for each.

Photo source:

Consequences of ferret malnutrition

The choice by breeders of feeds high in fat and carbohydrates, as well as feeding treats in large quantities, leads to the occurrence of various types of diseases, including:

• obesity;
• helminths;
• salmonellosis;
• insulinoma;
• enteritis;
• colitis;
• gastritis;
• pancreatitis;
• hypovitaminosis H, D.

We recommend that you additionally read our article about what diseases ferrets suffer from and how to treat them.

By providing their ferret with proper nutrition, breeders will have a healthy and active pet. Therefore, it is so important to pay special attention to the ferret’s diet and drinking regime, which can change at different periods of life.

0

0

Copy link