WHAT DO FARRETS EAT?

Question
MY FARRET IT 2 YRS OLD.HE IS A DARK SABLE. I WAS WONDERING WHAT THEY ARE ABLE TO EAT. I GET HIM THE FARRET FOOD. I WAS TOLD THAT THEY LOVE CHEERIO'S.HE WILL NOT EAT THE FARRET TREAT'S. IS THERE A WAY TO GET HIM TO EAT THE FARRET TREATS THAT YOU BUY AT THE PET STORES? CAN THEY EAT VEGTABLES?

Answer
Hi Penny:

The best thing for your ferret is a good ferret kibble like Totally Ferret or 8 in 1 Ultimate for ferrets. Ferrets are what is called "obligate carnivores", which means their bodies are meant to digest meat proteins only. NO VEGETABLES of any kind.  Vegetables often cause intestinal blockages because they can't digest them.  There are many ferret treats out there that are not healthy for your ferret.  If it has dried or fresh fruit or vegetables in it, it's not healthy for a ferret.  Some have even threatened to sue the companies who make treats with fruits and vegetables in them because their ferrets eat it and die from intestinal blockages.  Ferrets are meant to eat meat.  

Most ferrets "imprint" in their food early in life - in other words, whatever they are used to eating, that's what they recognize as food.  Sometimes we need to get them on better diets, so we gradually start adding in GOOD food, like Totally Ferret kibble food, or even Iams Kitten (in the purple bag) is good for ferrets because it is meat-based and very high in protein.  We add in good food and slowly eliminate the bad foods until they are changed over to the better foods.  It has to be a gradual change, usually.  A ferret doesn't usually recognize new foods as something to eat until he gets a taste of it in his mouth, then decides if he likes it or not. Sometimes they don't like it initially, but if it's good for them, we have to keep offering it to them until they get used to it, while keeping  the other food they *will* eat available - a ferret will starve himself to death because he is not used to a new food, so you must always watch and be sure your ferret is eating every single day, at least every 4 hours.  They have a very fast digestive system and need to eat often.

There is a good website at http://www.ferretcentral.org where you can get all kinds of good information about ferrets and there's also a really good book called Ferrets For Dummies (it's not really for dummies LOL, it's just called that) and it has a LOT of really good ferret information in it - every ferret owner should read this book so they will know all about their ferret's needs and health information, etc.  

Hopefully that answered your question.  Thanks for writing and don't hesitate to write again if you have more questions!  Hug that little fuzzy one for me! :-)  Best of luck to you!