Litter box and food

Question
What is best used in litter box,Iwas told by the pet shop owner,rabbit food or a cheap generic cat food is good for litter box. What is best food if ferret food is unobtainable.I feed her cat cafe.She is 10 months old. She is in a large one floor cage sitting on a desk in my bedroom and I never have heat there. I have electric baseboard heat.Poop was brown,firm,not skinny.

Answer
Hi Marylou,

Congratulations on being a ferret parent! I hope you are enjoying it so far.

Ferrets are pretty finicky eaters, as you may have discovered already. They require a very specific diet. If you choose to feed your fuzzy a cat food, you'll want to check the labels on the food you give her. She needs at lease 36% crude protein, 20% fat and no more than 3% fiber. If the food you're giving her meets all these requirements, then you are halfway there. The next thing you want to check for on these labels are the ingredients. A lot of kibble has fillers in it, like corn, cornmeal, and different grains (i.e. wheat). If your food doesn't have any of these ingredients listed as one (or more) of the first three (or anything similar like soy), then the food is generally okay, given that the food meets the percentage requirements. Ferrets cannot digest any of those filler ingredients and it could lead to intestinal blockages if they are fed that for too long. If your food doesn't meet all of these requirements, then you should seriously consider switching.

If you need to switch, there is a relatively simple way to do it, but it needs to happen gradually. You start with feeding her the food she normally gets, then as you refill the bowl start to add a little bit of the new food each time. This process should take place over at least a few week span. I would suggest mixing 15% new food and 85% old food for the first week or two, then 30% new food, 70% old food and so on. Ferrets imprint on the food they are given and it is difficult to get them to recognize other foods as food. This is why it is a good idea to mix a few high-quality foods; that way if one of the foods you feed to her gets taken off the shelves, you still have other food she does like.

I am not sure if cat cafe is a kibbled food or if it is a wet food. If it as a wet food, I would suggest you consider adding kibble to her diet. Not only would it decrease the odor from the poop, but it will help make her jaw strong and keep her teeth clean. I imagine it is probably cheaper, as well. On the upside of wet food, if your ferret already likes it, you will have less of a problem feeding it to her if she is ever sick.

As far as litter goes, I'm not sure what you mean. I wouldn't suggest putting food in the litter box as litter because it probably doesn't do much for absorption or odor control. There are relatively cheap types of litter out there. I like Yesterday's News by Purina. It is pelleted recycled paper, but that is on the higher end of cost. You could try using CareFresh bedding and see if you like that. Wood pellets that you can probably find at a hardware store (or something of the type) aren't bad. They dissolve when they get wet so it is relatively easy to sift out the bad pellets and add fresh ones. Stay away from any type of cedar or pine bedding or any other wood shaving type bedding/litter. This type of bedding/litter is good for guinea pigs and gerbils, but not for ferrets. It can cause serious respiratory infections.

Don't hesitate to ask if you have any more questions. I hope this helped!

Sincerely,
Emilee Andrews