A ferret's diet needs to be high quality in order to properly maintain their system.
Your ferret's diet will need to contain at least 36 percent of protein and 18-20 percent of fat to do this to the fullest extent.
While there are several brands of ferret food on the market, you will still want to check the labels to make sure that each micronutrient they need is in there.
So what do ferrets eat? Well, in the wild, they eat meat.
These predatory animals consume meat every single day, and would actually die of malnutrition without it.
However, they would also die of malnutrition if they were fed a diet of strictly raw meat.
As you probably already know, ferrets are quite energetic by nature.
Your ferret's diet needs to contain that balance of protein and fat to maintain that high energy level.
This immediately takes dog food out of the picture when looking into the best food for your pet ferret.
Dog food is one of the worst things you could feed your ferret, for it has too many carbohydrates for a ferret to process in his tiny intestinal tract.
When checking out food for your ferret, look at the amount of protein and fat it contains.
Also look at the amount of carbs and fiber.
Ferret food should be lower in fiber and carbs than it is in protein and fat.
If you want to look outside the norm to feed your ferret, you could consider a high quality premium cat food.
This does not include cat food bought at the local grocery store; that food does not contain nearly enough fat to nurture a ferret.
Sometimes a ferret can get particular about the type of food they eat, so it can be a good idea to choose three different types of ferret and premium cat food and alternate between them from the time your ferret is young.
This way if one type of food is discontinued, you have two back ups available that your ferret is used to eating.
You can also mix the three foods together so that your ferret doesn't get used to one particular taste.
Dry pellets provide a wonderful source of nutrition for ferrets.
Not only is it convenient, but the crunch of dry pellets helps to ward off plaque from building up on your pets teeth.
Because ferrets cannot eat much in one sitting, leaving down a small bowl of dry pellets that your ferret can nibble on throughout the day may work best for both of you.
An adult ferret typically only consumes about a quarter cup of food each day so you don't need to leave much.
Water is also very important to your ferret, especially if you are leaving dry food out all day.
While your ferret may only eat a quarter cup of food in a day, he will drink three times that! Be sure to leave out about one cup of water for your pet each day so he does not become dehydrated.
Feed your ferret properly and your feisty friend will provide you with years of companionship!