Can you really feed a ferret kitten food?

Question

For its whole life?

and I know it has to have alot of protien and not much fiber

What is enough protien? what is too much fiber?

Answer 1

of course

Answer 2

i feed 2 ferrets cat food well, because for one, have you seen the price tags on ferret food lately? Two, they enjoy eating it, and three its almost as healthy as regular ferret food.

Answer 3

my ferret eats meow mix. Also, as a vitamin supplement, try furovite. It keeps them healthy.

Answer 4

Yes - sort of. Ferrets require a high quality kitten/cat food. Look at the ingredients list on the bag. You want as many of the first five ingredients to be meat or meat by-products as possible. Corn, grain, etc are just filler and a ferret cannot digest them. Thus, your ferret will eat more and p**p more, in an effort to get the nutrients they need. I feed my ferrets a mixture of several kitten/cat/ferret foods - thus decreasing their chances of getting picky about what food they eat. Meow Mix and other cheap foods may be tempting because of the price, but believe me, it is a false savings. You will buy more, your ferret will not be as healthy (and probably put on more weight than they need to) if you stick with the cheap foods.

From the Ferret FAQ: http://www.ferretcentral.org/faq/

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The key ingredients in any food for ferrets are fat and protein, specifically animal protein, since ferrets' short digestive cycles prevent them from getting enough nutrition from vegetable proteins. Chicken, turkey, beef, and lamb are all fine; most ferrets don't like fish, and it may make their litter pan smell worse. The food needs to have 30-35% protein and 15-20% fat, and animal protein should be the first ingredient and at least two or three of the next few.

Unless your ferret is overweight, you should just keep her bowl full and let her eat as much as she wants.

The food debate

Cat foods seem to have done okay for many years, but there's a fair bit of debate about which food is best for ferrets, whether high-quality cat/kitten foods are good enough, and so on. The usual conclusion is that while foods designed for cats probably aren't the best we could do, most of the foods with ferret pictures on the bags weren't designed for ferrets either -- they were designed for mink or cats and maybe modified slightly, and priced twice as high. If you choose a food packaged for ferrets, check its label just as you would a cat food.

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I hope that answers your questions. Please read the Ferret FAQ - there is a lot of good info in there.

Answer 5

I feed my ferrets a mix of cat/kitten and ferret foods, the majority of them being cat foods. I think a ferret could be fed a kitten food for the length of its life, as long as it's a good, high quality food. Don't expect a cheap cat food from the grocery store to be good enough. I don't even like the ones found in large-chain pet shops like Petco and Petsmart. Check out http://www.stinkweasels.com He lists some really good foods (and treats) for ferrets, a few of those being cat foods (mine love ZiwiPeak and it's good for them). I also shop on http://www.petfooddirect.com I search for the grain free cat foods. Along with ZiwiPeak, Nature's Variety Instinct, Horizon Legacy ( http://www.horizonpetfood.com/ ), Innova EVO feline, Wysong ( http://www.wysong.net ), Nature's Logic ( http://natureslogic.com/ ), and Wellness CORE are all good cat foods that you could feed a ferret. Keep in mind though, they are not cheap foods and actually cost more than a lot of the ferret specific foods on the market. The only ferret foods my ferrets get are: Innova EVO ferret, Wysong ferret foods, and Zupreem (my least favorite, but one of the better, easier to find foods). Natural Gold Ferret is also good, but it's a little higher in fiber than I like (I believe it's 5%), so I would never feed that as a sole food, it should be mixed with other foods. As for protein and fiber - the higher the meat based protein, the better (38% or higher, EVO has 50%, older ferrets sometimes have a hard time with that high of a protein, so stick with around 38% for them); fiber is best when under 3%. You should also check for carbs. Most foods (cat and ferret) are around the 30% range, but lower really is better. Again, search on petfooddirect.com for grain-free cat foods, they have a lower carb count than most foods on the market. And stay away from foods with corn! Corn can lead to digestive problems.

Answer 6

you can feed them cat food but you have to feed them ferret food sometime.  

Answer 7

yes i have two ferrets and feed them cat food.just make sure that the first ingredient is a meat.