Ah, dinner time. For most of us, we get excited about what meal we will be enjoying. Will it be something new, will it be a favorite, will it be something simple and delicious? Sadly, the diversity we enjoy as humans is not something we can offer our ferrets. Ferrets imprint on food at a very young age, and unless you have already gone through the laborious process of introducing a variety of new foods, they are stuck with the same-old, same-old every day. While we can’t offer a lot of variety in food, we can offer variety in other ways.
Enrichment is a buzzword many people toss around nowadays. Officially, the dictionary and www.enrichment.org define enrichment as “the process of creating a challenging environment to address an animal’s social, psychological and physical needs.” Enrichment falls into six categories: sensory, feeding, environmental, social, play and training. Let’s focus on using food as enrichment, examining ways to present ferret food that makes it more interesting and stimulating.
Hide-N-Seek Food
Ferrets are not naturally foragers because carnivores are more suited to hunting, but hunting can be considered a slightly more complicated type of foraging. After all, foraging is simply the act of searching for food. Focus feeding enrichment on providing more space, multiple den sites, and day-to-day environmental variability, and control exposure to aversive/rewarding stimuli. Hiding food is a simple and easy way to add novelty and fun into a ferret’s day. This works best with kibble and only takes a little creativity.
For the full article, pick up the 2012 issue of Ferrets USA or click here to buy the issue.