How to satisfy a picky eater ferret?

Question

My ferret is perfectly healthy says a vet but she is a very picky eater and doesn't weigh alot. What are some good suggestions on what a ferret might want to eat. I currently feed her high quality ferret food. I have tried to give her ensure plus but she drinks only a few licks and is done with it. She gets the Furo-vite daily but that seems like all she wants to eat lol.

Answer 1

A picky ferret will likely always be just that a picky ferret, especially if it's over a year old.
It has nothing to do with the type of food you're feeding(btw. Marshall's is not all that great, heck, Maxximum kitten from Walmart is better than Marshall's:
http://www.mdferretpaws.org/care/food_treats.html )
Ferrets are imprinted on different tastes when they're young and it gets harder to change their preferences as they age. I find it important to have at least one backup food however. Should the manufacturer of her favorite food change just one minor ingredient like a coloring agent or leave something out, your ferret might refuse to eat all together.
I just got an almost 3 yr old(her name is Vicky, aka Picky Vicky) used to eating a mix of foods and she's doing fine now. I started by slowly mixing another food in with mine, a cup per bag of the other at a time and I increased it steadily. I also fed her a few morsels from my hand that I had dipped into FerreTone. That way she thought it was a treat.
In the very beginning she didn't even like FerreTone, but I first rubbed some on her gums with my finger and then I dribbled some on her belly. She hated being "dirty" more than she hated new tastes and cleaned herself off. All of mine now love FerreTone and I use it as an occasional treat and to introduce new tastes once in a while.
I feed a mix of 8in1Ultimate Crunchy and Maxximum kitten with an occasional addition of Totally Ferret and/or Totally Ferret Treats,
All these are suggestions, not all ferrets are going to react the same, but I am raising four of them, two of them are 3 and over and I just had to adjust the almost 4 yr old male to a new variety of food when I adopted him at the shelter.
Don't worry about your fert too much though, if the vet says she's fine. As a female she is going to be much smaller than the males, my oldest female is downright tiny, but very feisty.
Being that I am a very paranoid ferret owner I went and bought a kitchen scale that went up to 6 pounds, put little rubber bumpers on the bottom of the bowl that came with it to prevent sliding and started doing monthly weights to keep on record. In the beginning my females barely weighed over a pound, pound and a quarter with my biggest boy being almost three and a half pound.
Good luck to you and your fert. It's good to see a concerned ferret owner. Keep up the good work.

Answer 2

Ferrets sometimes back off their food when they are molting. But otherwise, if you are feeding him a good quality ferret food, he should be ok. Some ferrets are big eaters and some just eat to keep their normal body weight. You will never see a ferret or other animal overeat though. He should be fine with what you're doing. I would only worry if he got real skinny. Since you said the vet gave him a bill of health, then rest assured that you're baby is ok. By the way, DON'T feed your ferret cat food as a regular feed. It's not good for them and doesn't have all the nutrients a ferrets needs.

Answer 3

My ferret goes through periods where he doesn't want to eat either. The first time it was because he was lonely. Now, he's friends with the cats so that's fixed. But, periodically he just isn't interested. I only recommend Marshall food (it has less corn biproducts) but when my ferret loses his interest I just give him treats. That always fixed the problem, like he had a craving or something. He'd eat a few treats and then start eating his food again. It could also be that he doesn't have enough privacy. If he doesn't get enough rest he probably won't be interested in the food. Good luck.

Answer 4

make your own "duck soup." boil chicken till it falls off the bone. put it bones and all in the blender and liquify it. put it in small freezer containers for later use...when you feed her, use more furo-vite than "soup" at first. offer it to her several times a day in a teaspoon. over a couple of days, add more "soup" and smaller amounts of furo-vite. if she won't eat it without the larger amounts of furo-vite, by all means add more. i have never had this fail with any of the ferrets i've had over a 20 year span. make sure you don't give sweet treats...they get insulinoma way too easy. i just lost my oldest ferret to insulinoma...he was 8. his previous owner let him eat all the sweets he wanted...what a shame!! if you don't want to do the "duck soup" thing, cuz it is a large amount...you can do the same with chicken or turkey baby food. my ferrets go crazy for it. they've all gained a good amount of weight too. best of luck to you. ferrets are the best pets in the world!!!!

Answer 5

My ferret won't eat his food sometimes and when I leave him out of his cage, he runs directly over to the cat's dish and eats her Purina food. That's all he seems to eat too.