Skinny Ferret

Question
I own two ferrets that I adopted from PetsMart. One is a girl and is in good health and eats fine and is normal size. The other is a boy and when first adopted,was normal size. However now,I see him eat often but he just is really skinny now. He lost so much weight. They are both fed "Authority Kitten Chow" and given ferret treats (ex. "Chicken & Turkey bites" and "Chicken Sticks") often. What can I do to enhance my boy ferret's weight? Do ferret Vitamins help?

Answer
I would suggest switching them to a higher quality ferret kibble. Most do not recommend cat food alone for ferrets since they metabolize their food quickly and it takes cat food longer to break down so they do not absorb all of the nutrients needed. The first few ingredients in the food you are feeding isn't bad but there is much better http://www.mdferretpaws.org/care/food_treats.html

But if you are set with that food I would add a high quality ferret food to it and watch the skinny ferret to see if he is eating. If not I would first take him to the vet to see if there is something medically wrong.

A good way for ferrets to gain weight or to help a sick ferret eat is "duck soup" which is essentially a mixture of different things.

Here are a few recipes for duck soup:

http://forum.ferret.com/tt.aspx?forumid=22