RETHINKING THE FERRET
DIET
Susan A. Brown, DVM
Midwest Bird & Exotic Animal Hospital
1923 South Mannheim Road
Westchester, IL 60154
708-344-8166
A nutritious and balanced diet is the
foundation of good health for all creatures including
ferrets. Ferrets have been kept in captivity since 300
BC, but it is only in the last 40 years that we have
changed their diet from raw foods to commercially processed
foods. We have made the change primarily because we,
the public, have demanded a uniformly easy to feed and
hopefully nutritious food that allows us to successfully
keep ferrets in our homes. I think everyone would agree
that it is easier to pour little bits of food out of
a bag than to go out and find whole prey items to feed.
But the question is are we really providing a healthy
ferret diet using processed foods? Is it really possible
to take raw food, grind it up, heat it to high temperatures,
add ingredients that are not part of the normal diet,
add back nutrients altered or destroyed during processing,
press it into amusing shapes and have this be the equivalent
of the natural diet”? I liken it to the Wonder Bread that
I ate as a child. It was highly processed and stripped
of many nutrients, then the nutrients were put back in
chemically and it was put in an eye-catching package
announcing its nutritional value. And didn’t we
love that package with the little colorful balloons telling
us we were buying a healthy product? And don’t
we love the ferret food packages with cute pictures of
ferrets everywhere? The food must be good if it has a
ferret picture on it…shouldn’t that be the
case?
I have been an exotic animal veterinarian
for the past 25 years and I have seen the damage that
has been done in a number of species when we moved away
from a raw, more natural diet, to processed diets. Two
glaring examples are pet rabbits and pet birds. We have
seen over the years that feeding a diet that is completely
processed has caused innumerable ailments and premature
death in both of these groups. When we returned them
to foods that are more in tune with their physiology
we saw a tremendous reduction in the incidence of specific
diseases and we conversely have not seen any new diseases
as a result of this change. There are a growing number
of animal health professionals as well as pet owners
that believe that processed dog and cat diets create
disease as well. Changing these pets over to a balanced
raw diet has shown incredible benefits. I have fed my
own four dogs ranging in size from 200 pounds to 5 pounds
an all raw diet for the past two years and I will never
go back to processed. In my own case there were several
problems that were cleared up in the “pack” with
diet change alone including anal gland disease, skin
problems, ear problems, obesity and gastrointestinal
disease. I personally know a number of people who have
made the same switch with both dogs and cats and the
results are truly remarkable. Most animals experience
a dramatic increase in energy level and a reduction in
excess body weight. Some pets have been able to stop
or reduce medication intake. Of course diet is not a
miracle cure for all diseases, but it makes sense that
if the body is nourished properly it can cope with disease
and utilize needed medications more effectively.
I do
not want to spend time in this article examining the
pet food industry. I don’t believe it is inherently “evil” as
some would like to have us believe. There are of course
people whose sole purpose is monetary gain at the expense
of our pet’s health but there are also involved
and dedicated individuals and companies who sincerely
want to produce a healthy and easy to use product. And
who can fault them for this noble goal? My concern is
whether we can, in reality, achieve this goal going the
completely cooked, processed food route. I believe we
should be rethinking our idea of what is appropriate
pet food. There are even now a small number of pet food
companies who are already going down the more natural
pet food path. The bottom line is that the pet food companies
are going to respond to what the consumers demand and
it will ultimately be up to us to force the appropriate
changes.
So what should a ferret be eating? Let’s
look at ferret gastrointestinal (GI) physiology to find
out. Ferrets are strict carnivores, meaning they are
designed to eat whole prey items, which includes all
parts of the killed animal. The only nonmeat items they
might encounter in their diet would be in the stomach
and intestinal tract of their prey, where it is partially
digested. This might include small amounts of grains,
fruits and vegetables. Ferrets have a very short GI tract
and the flora (the organisms living in the GI tract)
are very simple, unlike animals that eat more vegetation.
It takes about 3 to 4 hours for food to go from one end
to the other and thus they absorb food rather inefficiently.
Ferrets tend to eat several smaller meals and carry any
excess to their dens to eat later. Did you ever have
a ferret that took food and tucked it away in the corner
of the cage, or a chair?
Because of the short GI tract
and the poor absorption of nutrients, ferrets require
a diet that is highly concentrated with FAT as the main
source of calories (energy) and highly digestible MEAT-BASED
PROTEIN. This would match the basic composition of a
prey animal not excluding the essential vitamins and
minerals it also contains. Ferrets should never be fed
carbohydrates (such as vegetable, fruit or grains) as
the main source of energy in the diet. Ferrets cannot
digest fiber, as is found in some vegetable and fruit
sources. If there is a significant amount of fiber in
the diet it serves to lower the nutritional value of
the food. As mentioned, ferrets need a highly digestible
meat-based protein in the diet. Vegetable protein is
poorly utilized. In the presence of excess vegetable
protein the ferret can suffer from such diseases as bladder
stones, poor coat and skin quality, eosinophilic gastroenteritis
(wasting, diarrhea, ulcerations of the skin and ear tips
and swollen feet) poor growth of kits and decreased reproduction.
Dog food and vegetarian-type pet foods are completely
inappropriate for use in ferrets because of the high
level of vegetable protein and fiber. The bottom line
is that ferrets use fat for energy not carbohydrates
and they need a highly digestible meat-based protein
not vegetable protein.
Another concern regarding the
feeding of high carbohydrate foods to ferrets is the
stress that may be created in the beta cells of the pancreas.
Unfortunately, insulinoma, which is a cancer of the beta
cells, is extremely common in ferrets over two years
of age in the U.S. The main function of the beta cell
is to respond to increases in glucose in the blood stream
by producing insulin to control it. If normal beta cells
are bombarded with higher than normal levels of glucose
(which comes from carbohydrates) they can become hypertrophied
(overactive) trying to keep up with insulin demand. If
the high carbohydrate diet continues, the result may
be a complete burnout of the cells, which is what happens
when a pet or a person develops diet-induced diabetes.
However, another possibility is that instead of the cells
burning out, they go from hypertrophy to neoplasia (cancer).
Neoplasia is an abnormal growth of cells and can be preceded
by a hyperplastic condition. I would like to stress that
this exact mechanism has not been scientifically proven
in ferrets to date, but the scenario is entirely within
the realm of possibility. It has been disturbing to note
that over the years in countries where ferrets were fed
a raw carnivore-type diet insulinoma was a rare occurrence
but now in these same countries where processed diets
are becoming popular, cases of insulinoma are on the
rise. Regardless, do we need to be feeding our ferrets
diets laced with inappropriate materials?
Now comes the
question of what is the most appropriate diet for a ferret?
Many of you will cringe when I say (and I have been saying
for years) that a whole prey diet is the most balanced
diet for a ferret. We would like to believe that we have
a pet that doesn’t touch such “nasty” stuff,
but they are carnivorous predators and no amount of packaging
or advertising can change that fact. Personally I think
we should appreciate them for just those predator qualities
that make them the special pets they are and stop trying
to make them into something they can never be!
Available
prey animals of appropriate size would include mice,
rats or chicks. This diet provides all the necessary
nutrients in a highly digestible form as well as providing
beneficial exercise for the muscles of the neck and jaw
and providing material to keep the teeth and gums healthy.
The stool volume is greatly reduced because most of the
nutrients are utilized and not excreted. In addition
there is valuable mental stimulation when eating a diet
that takes effort and has a variety of textures and tastes
as opposed to a uniformly sized pellet. This is the diet
that has been fed for centuries to pet ferrets before
processed foods came along. This is the diet I fed my
last group of ferrets years ago. I have never seen ferrets
more excited by their food and or efficient at cleaning
up every scrap!
There are several concerns about feeding
a raw diet that need to be addressed, however. One is
whether feeding a raw diet will make a ferret more aggressive
towards humans? The answer to that is an emphatic NO.
There is no connection between feeding a diet that is
natural to a ferret and aggression towards humans. I
can tell you this from my own personal experience and
the experience of others both in present times and historically.
The second concern is about passing diseases from the
prey animal to the ferret. This is an excellent question
and indeed there are some diseases that could be transmitted,
however currently there are many clean sources of prey
food available so this need not be a concern. It does
mean, though, that you need to be careful about where
you obtain the prey food and that you won’t be
feeding, say the mouse you trapped in our house. I have
listed two sources of prey animals at the end of the
article, but there are many more available. Most companies
can deliver frozen rats, mice or chicks to your door!
We have these sources of prey animals due to an increasing
interest in carnivorous reptiles that must eat these
animals to survive, because there is no alternate processed
food choice. The final concern is whether to feed the
prey animal to the ferrets dead or alive. I think we
do not need to feed live prey and a reputable source
of prey animals will kill them humanely solving the problem
for us.
Most Americans will not feed a whole prey
diet to their pets primarily for aesthetic reasons. I
do understand that there are emotional issues to deal
with. However, we need to remember that when we feed
any processed food to a ferret we are still essentially
feeding the body parts of some animal that was killed
for that purpose. The only difference is that we didn’t have to look
at the cow or chicken when we feed it, like we have to
look at a cute little mouse. Even if you are not going
to feed this sort of diet all the time, you still might
consider an occasional mouse “treat” for
your ferret from time to time.
 The
next best choice to feeding a whole prey diet is to
feed a balanced raw carnivore diet. There
are more and more of these diets available in either
freeze-dried or frozen form as pet food companies realize
that heat processing the food and making little baked
kibbles may not be the answer. Several of these diets
have been successfully used in ferrets. One of my current
favorites is the Archetype Diet by Wysong. It is cold-processed,
contains beef, lamb and chicken meat products, is well
accepted and comes in small chunks so it is easy to feed.
You should look for diets that they are made from meat
suitable for human consumption (preferably organic) containing
all the parts of the animal (organ meat, muscle, fat
and bone), a high level of fat with no grain or grain
products, sweeteners or chemical preservatives. Do not
use diets designed for dogs that contain vegetables and
grains. I have listed Internet sources at the end of
the article that will lead you to a whole host of companies
where you can research your options. I believe that the
production of raw, balanced, organic pet foods is the
path of the future for pet food companies. It can give
us a “sanitized” alternative to the whole
prey diet.
Now we come to dry, processed ferret diets,
the very diet most veterinarians, myself included, have
used for years. Although there have been tremendous strides
made in the quality of these diets in the 25 years I
have been in practice, I have yet to see one that I believe
is completely appropriate for ferrets. Let’s take
a look at the composition of these diets and compare
that to what we know of ferret nutrition. We have discussed
that ferrets are carnivores and need a high protein,
high fat diet with minimal carbohydrates. To use numbers,
a dry ferret diet should contain at least 30 – 40
% crude protein and 15 –20% fat. The protein should
be of animal origin and highly digestible. Unfortunately,
pet food labels do not indicate digestibility of the
components and the protein percent you read may contain
both animal and plant sources of protein. In addition,
grains, such as corn wheat or rice, are used not only
to increase protein but as a “filler” and
as a means of binding the final product together. Ingredients
on a pet food label are given in order of their amount
in the diet, starting with the largest. For ferrets,
the first three ingredients should be meat-based. In
a survey I did of 12 processed dry ferret foods currently
on the market, only one had the first three ingredients
as meat-based but it was quickly followed by corn, more
corn and sweeteners. Some of the foods had a grain as
the second ingredient, and they all had grain as a significant
part of the composition. The majority of the foods had
a sweetener of some kind such as molasses, dextrose,
raisin juice or corn syrup. Remember what I said about
the pancreas? What do you think this sugar, no matter
how small, might be doing to those beta cells? Processed
dry foods are heated during production and in the process
nutrients can be destroyed or altered and then have to
be replaced artificially. In addition, other additives
may be used to keep the food from spoiling. To add insult
to injury, several of the diets had dried fruits and
vegetables in them. Ferrets do not need these items and
in addition the dried form can make them nearly impossible
to process. We have already had one case of a ferret
that needed emergency surgery to remove a piece of dried
carrot blocking his intestine that he consumed in a “ferret
diet”. Clearly, these diets are packaged to appeal
to human consumers and may have little to do with appropriate
ferret nutrition.
The worst examples of processed diets
are the ferret treat foods. Nine
out of ten ferret-specific treat foods I examined had
no meat products whatsoever and were comprised entirely
of sweeteners and grains, with some fruits and vegetables
thrown in. This is not
only not healthy it is dangerous. In addition, people
who use treats often use too many because it is emotionally
appealing to watch a ferret enjoy a snack. So if the
pet enjoys one treat why not give him five or six? In
an animal with such a small body size, five or six treats
might make up a good portion of his food for the day.
Of course ferrets love the treats because they are attracted
to sweets, but that does not mean it is good for them?
I like chocolate, but if I ate chocolate as 25% of my
diet, I would have some serious health problems including
diabetes! Again, the packaging is for the human and as
long as we keep buying it, companies will keep making
it.
Ferrets do not need supplements if they
are on a balanced raw or whole prey diet. Overuse of
fatty acid supplements can lead to obesity. What should
we then feed as treat foods? First of all humans, not
ferrets, have an emotional need for treat foods, so it
is not necessary to feed ferrets treats. But if you must
give a treat, how about a nice piece of raw liver or
heart, a bit of raw muscle meat, raw egg or maybe a mouse?
If you decide to make a change, you may
find that adult ferrets can be very particular and will
resist change. I do not believe that it is necessary
to “wean” a
ferret off of a less digestible and gradually introduce
him to a more digestible diet. I just change “cold
turkey”. If you keep offering the old diet, there
may never be a change. It will probably be necessary
to let your pet get hungry before he makes a change.
Temporarily coating a new food with a fatty acid supplement
as an enticement may help. Only ferrets that have insulinomas
should not be fasted for more than 6 hours. If your ferret
is currently being treated for any illness, consult your
veterinarian first.
If you finish this article and do nothing
more than start reading labels and shopping more effectively,
I will have accomplished an important goal. If I have
caused you to rethink how we should be feeding our ferrets
entirely, that is even better, but I am well aware that
change takes considerable time. Feeding a healthier diet
will probably cost you a little more and it will take
more effort to get the items you need, but if it saves
you money spent on veterinary bills and prolongs the
live of your pet, isn’t it worth it? Pet food manufacturers
are not going to stop marketing inappropriate foods until
we stop buying them. We have the technology to come up
with reasonable alternatives to the natural diet, we
just have to demand it as the consumer. Be an informed
consumer and decide for yourself what is best for your
pet.
INTERNET SITES FOR MORE INFORMATION ON
ALTERNATIVE PET DIETS
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