What To Feed?

What Is A Balanced Raw Diet

The first question many owners ask is, what should I be feeding my ferret, and the answer is often a balanced raw diet. Let's decipher that to make it easier to understand.

Breaking down what a Balanced Raw Diet Means:

  • Muscle Meat 80% : this means meat - chicken, beef, lamb, kangaroo etc - hearts can be included in this but should not be all of the meat. A minimum of three different types of meat is good. e.g. don’t just feed all chicken. Ferrets get nutrients from different meat types.
  • Organ / Offal 10% : this is liver, kidney, spleen, pancreas, brains - note that liver should not exceed half of this total - e.g. either 10% of kidney OR 5% kidney + 5% liver.
  • Edible Bone 10% : Chicken wings, wing tips, necks, bone in thigh and/or rabbit, quail, mice, rats, chicken/rabbit carcass mince. *If you feed whole prey, that is complete but feed more than one type of whole prey. 
But what does all of this mean if you go to the supermarket?
You might buy - 1 kgs beef minced, 1.2 kgs of chicken thighs (and chop them into chunks), 1 kgs of lamb mince, 200 grams lamb kidneys, 200 grams chicken liver, 400 grams chicken wing tips = total 4 kgs of food.
  • Note that Organ can be substituted for Predamax Carnivore Supplement but no organ should be included at all if this is used.
We all try to do the best with what we can source. Some weeks you may have to deviate if the budget or products aren't available - but feeding just chicken hearts isn't suitable. We own complex animals and feeding them takes a little bit of time and care. What you put in now assists in a healthier longer life - and that means less vet visits!