Welcome To Our Complete Guide To The Best Ferret Food. Helping You To Choose The Right Meal For Your Favorite Furry Friend.
We love our ferrets for their wonderful characters, cute faces and loving natures. We’ve got some great information on ferret diets and feeding styles for you today, including our favorite choices of commercial ferret food.
All products mentioned below were carefully and independently selected by the Squeaks & Nibbles team. If you decide to make a purchase from one of the links marked by an asterisk, we may earn a small commission on that sale. This is at no extra cost to you.
Top choices
In a rush? Check out our best ferret food chart here:
We’ll look at these in more detail below, along with some other popular options.
I grew up looking after ferrets, and I have a major soft spot for them.
These cute critters will eat pretty much anything you let them get their paws on, but it doesn’t mean that it’s all going to do them good.
So, for anyone asking ‘what do you feed ferrets’, in this article we’ll take a look at your options!
And we’ll start by going back to nature.
What to feed ferrets?
Ferrets are carnivores. In the wild your ferret’s ancestors would hunt and kill their food, surviving only on meat. The diet that would be closest to their natural one is one of raw meat and bones.
A ferret’s food would consist of any smaller animals it might come across day to day. Including mice, voles, and probably even beetles and worms. Ferrets will also sometimes eat fruit and berries.
Feeding ferrets on raw meat
Feeding your ferret a raw diet is definitely an option. Health benefits include good dental health and the pleasure that the ferret gets from gnawing on bones and eating fresh meat. But feeding raw, requires some planning and knowledge.
Raw feeding is definitely the closest to a ferrets diet in the wild, but the meat you give your ferret will be quite different to what it would find in nature. Your ferret would probably get these in the wild by eating lots of different animals, and entire carcasses. The easiest option for most of us when raw feeding a ferret is chicken meat. But this means many raw fed ferrets have a rather restricted diet. It’s likely that just feeding raw chicken meat wouldn’t be varied enough to provide a range of nutrients.
In addition, you can’t just feed the meat itself, it doesn’t have enough nutrients. Carnivores need bone and organs too in order to benefit from a raw diet. Don’t be put off if you are keen to go down the raw route, just make sure you arm yourself with information. So you’ll need to read up on getting a good balance of meat and bone, and other sources of food such as eggs, to provide all the nutrients your ferret needs.
Feeding ferrets on dry food
Despite its benefits raw feeding can be expensive and impractical for a lot of people. So most ferret keepers feed a commericially produced dry kibble.
Dry food is not as close to your ferrets diet in the wild, but is much easier to store in bulk. A good quality dry ferret food also has the potential advantage of containing all the vitamins and minerals that may help to keep your pet healthy.
Best ferret food
What can you feed ferrets, then? And, what makes the best ferret food? Because they subsist on meat alone, ferrets have very short digestive tracts. Food moves through them really quickly and they need plenty of easily digestible protein and fat.
A study published in ‘Veterinary clinics of north America’ explains exactly what ferrets need in their food. Dry food should be at least 15% fat and 30% protein, and no more than 30% carbohydrates.
To answer the question ‘what is the best ferret food’ we need to find a food that fits these parameters. We’ll also take a look at what potential risks some foods may pose.
It’s important to point out that any new food should be introduced gradually. Most foods reiterate this on the packaging, but it should be applied to all new foods.
Completely changing your diet in one day would make you feel a bit funny, and it would probably upset your ferret’s stomach too.
Let’s first take a look at some ferret food by Marshall.
Marshall ferret food
The popular
This food ticks all the boxes nutrition wise. There’s plenty of protein and fat and a fairly small amount of carbohydrates.
This food also contains omega 3 and 6 fatty acids. Polyunsaturated fatty acids could have real benefits for your ferrets heart.
There are some really positive reviews on this one, so it’s well worth looking at.
This high protein and fat food is grain free, helping prevent an overly starchy diet.
This food is also available as an identical-formula turkey based food. This means you should be able to switch between these two options with less risk of a stomach upset.
The figures on the ferret diet from Wysong* certainly live up to the brand’s tagline ‘The thinking person’s pet food’
This ferret food by Wysong consists of an impressive 60% protein and 18% fat. The first four ingredients listed on the packaging are chicken products.
This is a big plus because it means a substantial amount of the foods mass is meat or offal. Since a ferrets natural diet is all meat, this is something to shoot for.
We’ve talked a lot about packaged food, and a bit about raw feeding, but what about combining the two? Is it okay to supplement your ferret’s dry food with raw meat?
Supplementing your ferrets food with raw meat can be great, but talk to your vet before switching diets completely.
Raw could be the best ferret food, but it’s hard to get the nutrient balance right, tricky to store and raises some hygiene issues in terms of preparation.
Can ferrets eat cat food?
If you have a cat at home, you have probably noticed that your kitty and ferret have some similarities. But does this extend to their diet?
Is the best ferret food actually your cat’s dinner?
Cats and ferrets are both carnivores by nature, so their dietary requirements are quite similar. For example, both require taurine in their diet to stay at top health.
Taurine is only found natural in animal tissue. When it comes to a cat or ferret diet, food can be approached in much the same way.
As long as we apply the same nutritional standards, you can use premium high protein dry cat food for ferrets.
Evo ferret food was a popular choice, but it no longer exists.
However, they do still make cat food, and as we’ve discussed this can sometimes do as good of a job.
This high protein low carb cat food meets all our requirements for a great ferret food. The ingredients are incredibly similar to a premium ferret food. This could well be the best cat food for ferrets.
The same is not true of all cat foods however, you should always check the packaging. But in this case, I can see no problem giving this cat food to a ferret.
Can ferrets eat dog food?
Dogs are not obligate carnivores like cats or ferrets.
Dogs are omnivores and capable eating a much more varied diet than a ferret.
For this reason it’s probably best to stick to premium ferret and cat foods with a high fat and protein count, and low amounts of carbohydrates.
If you are looking for the best ferret food, stay away from the dog food isle.
What can I feed my ferret
So, what can I feed my ferret?
Well, any of the foods above, really! All of them meet the recommended nutrients, so it’s up to you to choose which one. Although you can see our top five choices in the best ferret food chart at the top of the page.
Your ferret might also have an opinion on which of these foods he likes the most! But they’re not often picky.
The higher the protein and fat, the more suited to your ferrets stomach the diet will be. Always remember to introduce new foods slowly to avoid any upset.
And why not let us know which one you pick as the best ferret food for your pet!
Affiliate link disclosure: Links in this article marked with an * are affiliate links, and we may receive a small commission if you purchase these products. However, we selected them for inclusion independently, and all of the views expressed in this article are our own.
I recently purchased a baby ferret, and I confused that which type of food I feed my pet ferret. Thank you for giving the options to me. You describe nicely, whole the information.
Only problem with every single kibble you listed is that if you actually look at the ingredients and not just the analyses, is that they all include a pretty large amount of non-meat ingredients. One of the first red flags when reading this article is that you said the Marshall’s food, quote, “,,,ticks all the boxes nutrition wise.” Ferrets quite literally cannot consume anything non-meat. Doing so can make them very sick or lead to many different diseases and disorders for them a couple years down the road. There is literally no ferret kibble brand that’s actually “good” for ferrets, just based off ingredients. Marshall’s food is notoriously terrible. The closest I’ve come to an “Okay” kibble brand food for them is the Orijen Cat and Kitten dry food, the ones with 90% protein. It’s about the closest you can get to an all meat kibble it seems. One of the reasons I use it is that my local pet store carries it, and but of course this varies by region. Please do not use foods with so much plant ingredients when feeding your ferrets.
I recently purchased a baby ferret, and I confused that which type of food I feed my pet ferret. Thank you for giving the options to me. You describe nicely, whole the information.
Only problem with every single kibble you listed is that if you actually look at the ingredients and not just the analyses, is that they all include a pretty large amount of non-meat ingredients. One of the first red flags when reading this article is that you said the Marshall’s food, quote, “,,,ticks all the boxes nutrition wise.” Ferrets quite literally cannot consume anything non-meat. Doing so can make them very sick or lead to many different diseases and disorders for them a couple years down the road. There is literally no ferret kibble brand that’s actually “good” for ferrets, just based off ingredients. Marshall’s food is notoriously terrible. The closest I’ve come to an “Okay” kibble brand food for them is the Orijen Cat and Kitten dry food, the ones with 90% protein. It’s about the closest you can get to an all meat kibble it seems. One of the reasons I use it is that my local pet store carries it, and but of course this varies by region. Please do not use foods with so much plant ingredients when feeding your ferrets.