Help, please - what do ferrets eat?

1sue23

Be carefull if you have other small pets ,rabbits etc because given half a chance they will see them as fair game ,not so long back one got into my garden and found its way to my chickens and rabbits and killed both , he was a freindly thing to me when I managed to get hold of him and his name is Fluffy he had escaped from down the road and decided fresh meat was on the menu , it was horrible to witness and I will always remember the screams of my rabbit ,not his fault just sticking to his instincts .

babyshoes

Mince is fine for now, raw is absolutely ok but I am sure it will eat it cooked too. A good quality kitten food will be ok for a few days along with a bit of raw meat and plenty of fresh water. Mine love a bit of un-sweetened soya milk as a treat. If you happen to have cat food in the house, that will be ok in the (very) short term too, but it contains far too much carbohydrate for an everyday diet.

Mine often get a bit of turkey (raw) or leftover roast chicken. Turkey pieces are often very cheap in the supermarket and they love it. Obviously if you are not keeping it, you won't want to invest in special stuff, but if you have a source of (dead) day-old chicks they are very good for ferrets. They tend to eat the entire chick, feathers and all, which is like fibre in a human. If you know someone who keeps snakes or if there is a children's petting farm nearby they might have some. Meat with bones is fine raw, but not cooked.

If you do end up keeping it for any length of time you will want to get some proper ferret kibble. (But do be wary of the very cheap types - some of them contain high levels of carbs, or even dried fruit, which ferrets love but is very bad for them!) I buy 3 well known types and mix them together so that if one type changes, there is always something they will eat. As a result, mine are very un-fussy and will try almost anything I offer them! If it is given by hand it becomes a treat, which is handy...

Feel free to PM me if you have any other specific questions. If I don't know the answer I will see what it says in my copy of 'Ferrets for Dummies' - a book I highly recommend!

foreign_correspondent

If it's a cream colour its a ferret, polecats are dark with a racoon like mask... I used to keep both, years ago, and ended up with all the not-quite wild enough looking poleys when I was a zoo keeper!

It will escape through very small spaces, so you need somwhere secure for it. Feed it raw meat and bones (never cooked bones) - rabbit and chicken etc are fine - watch out though, it will take its leftovers back to its nest, and if you dont keep it clean it soon gets maggoty in hot weather.

Oh, and watch out for any small furries you may own - the ferret will try and eat them - I let my little brother take one of mine to his junior school years ago (he was about six) for a 'tell us about your pets' afternoon - cue panicking teachers, hoisting hamster cages and rabbit carriers aloft! Thankfully no casualties!

If you live in a rural area there is a possiblity someone has lost it whilst out rabbiting with ferrets. Hope you can find its owners.

olias

If you don't find the owner and don't want to keep it, you should be able to find a ferret rescue fairly close. Most towns will have one. Just google, find the closest one and ring them. They will either take it or give you details of another local one which will.

As others have stated, the easiest thing to feed is ferret kibble, which most pet shops will stock.

Olias

Mankysteve

That happened to us once. We had a cat so it got some cat food, we checked somewhere that this was ok first but cant remember where. The best was the look on our cats face was really funny I think she trying to decide whether to try and catch it or run away.

eira

If it's friendly chances are it's a pet that's gone missing.They're very intelligent but totally daft-they wander off every so often and get hopelessly lost. Ours were microchipped. Chances re there's a frantic owner-but this could be quite a way away. Local vets may know the animal aslo one of the few useful things the RSPCA offer is a 24 hour lost pet helpline.

Beware-ferrets are very engaging, totally charming, reckless.fearless. and sing and dance ! And they steal

marybelle

Well, Maisie has found her Mum and Dad! :j Someone had opened her cage door and she and her 3 sisters escaped. The owners saw our advert in the local paper and came and collected her half an hour ago. It has been an interesting couple of days - now we are a but more clued up about these cute animals. It would be great if the other 3 could come here too!
Many thanks to all of you who took the trouble to give me advice.:lovethoug

foreign_correspondent

that's fab news - have the other three not been found yet then? Lucky for her she found you!

babyshoes

Oh I am so glad they found at least one of them, do hope the others turn up too. I would be absolutely devastated if mine got lost! They live indoors though, so on the few occasions they have gotten out, they only get as far as another room before they are found. Once, however, one managed to climb into the toilet and then couldn't get out! Poor girl was standing looking over the seat looking forlorn by the time I realised she had escaped and went to look for her. Thank goodness she had the sense to keep looking out and not sit below the rim line or I might not have seen her for a long while... She was cold and miserable, but fine - thankfully the toilet was clean, so she went straight out of the loo into a warm shower, followed by lots of treats to calm her (and me) down! She was back to her normal mischevious self by the next day, thank goodness.

YorkiePud_3

Well the first day I found my ferret, I popped her in a large bird cage I have. (I've yet to find a cage that doesn't have mesh floors but a solid floor so she doesn't get her feet caught in the mesh) ... but, not knowing anything about ferrets, I came downstairs the next morning to find her gone.

AAarrrggghhh!! Panic stations!!!

I searched high and low ... shouting out for her ... nowhere to be seen.
Then I opened a cupboard where I keep cleaning stuff and out from the rubber gloves popped Herself, large as life and twice as cute!!

So what else could I call her but Marigold?! *LOL* needless to say, there are locks on the cage now. You just can't be too careful and they can easily work out how to open latches, hinges and doors so you have to be one step ahead and ferret-proof everything for their own safety.

As has been said before, they are fabulous pets ... I have had her two months now and each time she comes near my face I get showered with licks in greeting. She follows me everywhere just like a dog (well, a well behaved dog, not like my own dog!!), she has a favourite teddy bear that she carries all over and her "den" when she is out is the vegetable trolley!

Anything she pinches, she scampers back under there with and hides it. I moved it yesterday and found the dog's lead, a little keyring that had a teddy on it (she loves soft toys!) and one of the dog's toys - a little furry bone. Everything jammed under the trolley! Oh, and a few pieces of ferret kibble too!

The vet reckons she is about 8 months old and says she can live up to 12 years .... but I have never laughed so much as I have since getting her and seeing her antics! They really are full of the joys ... they play hard and sleep long and I just wish I had had one before now!!!