Food Fit For A Ferret

Providing your ferret with a healthy diet is as important as planning your own meals. Your ferret relies on you to provide nutritious and tasty food to maintain good health. So what should you look for in a ferret food? How do you know which one is right for your ferret?

Ferrets are obligate carnivores, which means that they must have a meat-based diet. They need meat for protein to maintain muscles and fats for energy. Ferrets have a short digestive transit time (the time it takes the food to pass through the intestines) of about four hours. Their bodies cannot break down vegetable matter in that short period of time, so almost any vegetable matter consumed passes through undigested. Some plant ingredients usually need to be added to the meat and fat mixture of extruded ferret food as a binding agent to keep the food from crumbling apart, but this amount should be minimal in quantity. Following are some guidelines to use when selecting a food for your ferret. Note that individual ferret needs may vary, so always consult your ferret’s veterinarian about the best food to offer your ferret.