Q - Can you point me to some information about mixing ferret foods?
A - We use - ZuPreem Corn-Free Premium Ferret Diet, Marshall Premium Ferret Diet, Purina One Healthy Kitten (ONLY the teal colored bag), Totally Ferret Active Diet and Totally Ferret turkey, venison and lamb. Most of the kids that come here have had nothing else but Marshall Farms; it is most important they have the kind of food they know. If someone donates a kind we do not usually use we will put it in the larger of the two mixes.
Ferrets imprint on there food as kits - within the first year of their life - if they have not been given a variety in that first year they will not recognize what you put in front of them as food.
We recommend you take the one food you use now and add just one other kind to start. The first day you give it to them mix just a tablespoon, dry, of the new food in their dish, when you replenish the dish of food if the new food is still in the dish add their regular food to it again and mix it up.
Keep doing this until they start eating the new kind of food along with the kind they are used to, this may take a few weeks. Once they have started eating the new food mix 2 tablespoons into their dish keep adding a bit more until you have their dish of food 50/50.
Once you have them eating the 50/50 mix you can add one more kind, starting again with just a tablespoon of the new kind in the 50/50 mix.
We recommend you use more than just a couple of foods because manufactures at times change recipes. One change in an ingredient can cause the ferret to sometimes not eat that food any longer. If you have several kinds then it will not matter because they will have food they will eat until they learn to like the food that has been changed.
Ferrets do not have the ability to digest fiber, and they are lactose intolerant. Cheap ferret, cat, and kitten foods are filled with grain fillers so it will cause the digestive system in a ferret to be off and gassy. The grain fillers allow the manufacturer to sell it cheap. Cheap food is NOT good food. Products with dairy/lactose will also cause them to have gas and diarrhea.
Further reading:
FDA Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts - Click the 'Animal Health' tab for products concerning animals.
Food charts (ALWAYS check bag labels as charts may be outdated):
Pea Free Food Chart
Kibble food chart
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