My Ferret Frito & Science Diet Cat Food

Question
We just bought a ferret last week, I am new at being a ferret owner. He is only 5 months old and we bought Kaytee Ferret food to give him. We made it mushy with water like the store told us to and he wasnt touching that so she advised us to put some out hard too. Still hasnt eaten it. I bought some bananas and he looooves those and I want to make sure it's okay to feed him those. But we also have two cats (one who loves to play with him)and we feed them Science Diet Cat Food. We found him eating their food and I was wondering if it's okay for him to be eating this rather than ferret food? We let him run around the house most of the time otherwise he has a huge cage, but whenever we can we let him run around with the cats. I just want to make sure that this is okay to give him. Please email me a response. Thank you for your time.

Answer
Hi Gina,

Congratulations on the new addition to your family! I hope you're enjoying being a ferret owner.

DO NOT FEED KAYTEE FIESTA FERRET FOOD TO YOUR FERRET. I'm sorry to be so "loud" about it, but Kaytee ferret food is not fit to feed a ferret. Hopefully my explanation for that will answer your question about the bananas, too.

Ferrets are obligate carnivores. That means they can only eat meat or eggs, eggs only because they are rich in protein. Eggs should only be a snack, however, and you can give them scrambled, poached, hard-boiled. Make sure they are unseasoned, though. Anyway, other than eggs for a snack, ferrets need an all meat diet. No fruits or vegetables because ferrets lack the enzymes and other things in their digestive tracts necessary to break down fruits or vegetables. I'm sorry, but that means no bananas. It could cause an intestinal blockage and those are serious problems in ferrets and it could mean the passing of your little one.

Back to why Kaytee is bad, they, even though it is a fact that ferrets CANNOT digest fruits or vegetables, put dried pieces of fruit in their kibble (and the kibble isn't even good quality, anyway). It is blockage in a bag, basically, which makes it extremely dangerous.

Here is a chart that I have found quite useful.

http://www.mdferretpaws.org/care/food_treats.html

It lists all the food ferrets are usually fed. I'm not sure what brand you are feeding your cats, but the only Science Diet food I could see on the chart was ranked about a five. That isn't a good ferret food, unfortunately. As you can see by the chart, a good ferret food does not have vegetables or fruits or grains listed in the first three (I like to say the first five, but that isn't totally necessary - its just to be on the safer side) ingredients. The first (at least) three ingredients HAVE to be meat. Meat by-products are *okay*, but they just don't have as much nutritional value as meat products. The next rule for a good food is that it has at least 36% protein and 20% fat and no more than 3% fiber. Usually, you can stick to the foods ranked nine or ten on the chart and be just fine.

If you have any other questions, which I'm sure you will as a new ferret owner, please don't hesitate to ask! I know how crazy it can be at first. Congratulations again!

Sincerely,
Emilee Andrews