My ferret is a

[Rio and Me]

vegertarian,lol
She wont eat ham, tuna, beef, chicken, sausage, bacon, salmon nothing (all of the finest quality).
She will eat bread, dried ferret complete, cat biscuit.
Wierd huh?
I will tempt her with cat meat just to see if she will like it as a treat.
Its hard because i want her to have a varied diet but if she wont then its hard.
Ky and Rio
PS any Ferret owners who have an IRRISTABLE treat i can give please spill

[Karen]

I would ask your vet about what her diet should be, just to make sure she is getting the proper nutrition, especially as ferrets are usually carnivores, not vegetarians!

[Rio and Me]

Dont worry i feed her the highest quality dried ferret fed around "James Wellbeloved", I just wanted to treat her with meat sometimes but she dosnt eat it, she looks great and healthy.
the guy i got her off said he fed them all rabbit (raw or cooked i dont know), but i dont think i can get hold of it.
It just my friends love all meat and mine wont eat any!
I also tryed her on a bit of raw beef of the bone but nope not interested, shed rather eat her dried food and loves cat biscuit (so thats her treat,lol) she did like speciel ferret treats but the dog ate them and i cant get them anywhere but the city and i dont go there much
Ky and Rio

[lv4dogs]

Ferrets do not have a cecum, that is what digests non-meat foods. they CAN NOT PROPERLY DIGEST ANYTRHING BUT MEAT. I don't mean to yell, but this is important, it can cause major major health problems, which can result in many different diseases, surgeries & death. an OCCASIONAL raisin is ok. Bread can be very dangerous as it gets larger when wet, the ferrets intestines are only the size of a straw so it can't digest the bread, it gets larger & gets stuck, a blockage. Ferrets blockages can be difficult to point out, as many have partial blockages for a while (the food or article) moves around the stomach, temporary blocking & unblocking the intestines.

Ham, suasage & bacon are very bad for ferts, as they have a lot of preservatives & salt, which is a no no.

I would rather see the ferret on only ferret food than giving it those foods.

Cat treats are fine though!! Mine love the pounce treats.

Ferrets get imprinted on foods, once they are used to one diet it is ussually difficult to get them used to eating something else. It took me about a year to get my ferrets to eat raw meat & even now, Maniac is still picky. Just be very very persistant & patient.

[Rio and Me]

Ok thanks i will just stick to her normall food, and the odd cat biscuit.
I herd that in the olden days they fed ferrets on bread soaked in milk (dont worry i wouldnt) but is that true?

She does eat cat treats but i only give her them somtimes.

She seams happy and healty.

i brought her some "Ferretvite" in a tube and she loves it so i let her lick a couple drops off my hand every day.

Ky

[lv4dogs]

That is semi-true, a long time ago (late 1800's) when the ferrets were very young they did feed them special milk & special bread. Again that was only fed when they were young & we have learned a bunch abouyt them since. Here is an some info on a breeder a long time ago & an article from his book that he wrote:


Ferretville USA
Did you know that around the turn of the century, there was a small town in Ohio known as Ferretville? Best known as New London, Ohio, located 47 miles southwest of Cleveland, Ferretville was a major center of ferret breeding.

Arguably the largest, Levi Farnsworth advertised in the 1910 Ohio Farmer that he had over 6,000 ferrets for sale. He also included a book "Care and Working" for free.

Another breeder, O.E. Hemenway advertised 1,000 ferrets for sale and also featured a new illustrated book on "Ferret Culture" in exchange for a stamp.

N. A. Knapp of Rochester, Ohio, in Lorain County advertised 2,000 ferrets, some already trained to hunt. He also mailed out a free price list, which was a 20 page manual on ferret care. His ferrets started at $2.50 for a single male and $3.00 for a female in August to $3.50 and $4.00 by December and $7.00 per pair.

The copy of the price list-manual, which was furnished to the Voice, was presented as his "twenty-first annual price list". Interestingly enough, this manual apologizes for the increase in price and cites a major distemper epidemic across the country as the culprit.

Mr. Knapp, seems not to have shipped his ferrets until they were 10-12 weeks old, and raised English ferrets with pink eyes and brown African ferrets with black eyes. Apparently he kept records, because you could order ferrets "Not Akin" to ones you had ordered before. Fed mostly graham flower mush with the occasional meat thrown in, they were guaranteed to be of the highest quality. He recommended a "salt barrel" as a pen with a sleeping box attached.



1898 Ferret Book
Practical Guide to Breeding, Training
and Working Ferrets.

By Levi and Samuel Farnsworth

Contributed by:
Levi Farnsworth's grandson, Steve Farnsworth




CHAPTER III General Care of Ferrets.

About ten young Ferrets will do well together. The principal food for them should be bread and milk -- we feed milk without skimming. We make bread out of second rate flour; and, for a change we feed graham bread -- this bread made light and sweet. They relish this kind of food.

Some feed corn meal mush as it is cheap -- we think this is poor food, We have seen Ferrets that were fed on mush, and some of them were as large as wood chucks, while some were poor and puny with no hair on their backs. The milk would be all drank up and the dishes half full of soggy mush. If we thought we could raise good stock we would feed it, but we know it cannot be done.

Skim milk while fed to a young and growing will make them big headed, rough boned, loose jointed, inactive, and not able to stand half the work and are no good for rats.

As a rule twice a day is not enough for general feeding with bread and milk. If you have a little meat, give that extra. Feed what they will eat up clean in a few minutes and be looking for more. If you feed them too much they will grow too big for rats. Take a good look at them every time you feed and if there is one that is small and does not seem to get his share of food take him out and keep Ferrets of of same size and age together and there may be no unnecessary loss.

If meat is fed, feed it right, or not at all. This depends upon the age of the Ferret and the time of the year. In the summer time, when the Ferrets are young, meat should be fed sparingly. A little three times a week or even a little every day is a good thing. We cut the meat up fine so each Ferret can get a small piece. They will run and have a lively time eating it and in a few minutes will be looking for more. This is good exercise for them and kept this way will produce hard flesh and lively and strong Ferrets.

If fed too much meat a young Ferret will become dumpish and in hot days will bloat up and sicken, and are liable to become foundered, crooked hacked, and of little value.

After Ferrets get their growth and it gets cool in the fall they can be kept in a good condition on mostly all meat and water for drink -- but where you can, would feed milk. You can dilute the milk half or even more, and they will do well where you have meat every few days. The most handy feed for sportsmen to feed is heads of game and refuse parts -- nothing which is salty as salt will kill them.