Feeding Ferrets
After purchasing a variety of different recommended ferret food, and preferring to live a low preservative lifestyle for myself and my pets, I decided to make my own ferret food. This is very simple and anyone can make it, while also saving money! Having said that, my ferret has a varied diet which includes commercial cat food (Fancy Feast seems to be a favourite) and high quality dry kitten food (Nutrapet). It is interesting to note the dry ferret food advertised on most websites was disappointing to say the least. Not only does my ferret hate it, but it is bulked up by corn. Being predominantly carnivorous, ferrets should have a diet high in fat and protein. From your butcher you can buy low-grade fatty beef or chicken mince, or ask for the fatty offcuts that are usually bought for dogs and just put it through the mincer when you get home. The key with feeding any animal is variety, and with the example below I have used 1kg of kangaroo mince. This is not the fattiest type of meat available.
Althought nutritionally ferrets do not require high amounts of vegetable and grain content, I prefer to include it for flavour and roughage, and because in a natural diet they would be eating the stomach contents of small, herbivorous animals, which includes vegetable matter. Even the best commercially available ferret foods contain grains and vegetables. The most important thing when including vegetables is to finely grate or mash the pieces so they do not cause blockages which can be fatal for ferrets.
|
 |
Add rice and finely grated carrot to mince. You can leave it like that, or vary it according to your ferrets taste and for a change. This time I also included a small amount of grated celery and a very tiny amount of cheese. Mix the ingredients together.
 |
 |
 |
Obviously ferrets wont be able to eat all this amount fresh, so cut squares of glad wrap and put a spoonful of mixture into the centre of each. Wrap tightly, and put all the extra packages in your freezer. These can be defrosted individually the next day. The amount shown made 24 servings.
 |
 |
A ferret should be able to eat one of these servings in a day, along with a constant supply of dry food. About twice a week, crack a raw egg over the mince mixture and stir through.
Bon appetite!
Like what you have read? You can follow Porsche on Twitter or read more articles.
