Overweight Ferret?

Question

I've had a lot of ferrets and they all ate as much as they should and stayed thin. I've got a 4 month old girl and she always eats. I just started noticing it show recently but she's pretty chunky compared to the other ferrets i had, especially for a girl. Considering ferrets are supposed to be able to control their eating, how much food should I put out daily for her to reach a healthy weight. BTW I am feeding her high protein kitten food. Do some ferrets gain weight during winter?

Answer 1

Overweight ferrets are rare, as far as I heard. How high is the fat in your kitten food? Ferrets need 35% and above protien and 20% and above fat. My 3 month old male eats about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of Zupreem ferret chow a day.

I would not worry about it too much now, a lot of animals, when young, will grow chunky and then hit a growth spurt, growing skinny. Females weigh anything from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 lbs, from what I have seen for a range of healthy ferrets.

If you are worried, maybe mix in a high protein, and lower fat kitten chow as a filler with her normal food. As for gaining weight in winter- I have never heard of that.

Answer 2

Your ferret will eat what she needs. She's young and still growing, it's winter and they do tend to get fluffy when it's cold. Neutered or not, they are coming out of a natural breeding cycle and will gain weight. So, just keep food available at all times and don't worry about it, she's a growing girl. High protein kitten food is fine, but I would feed them a mix of several good quality kitten and ferret foods.

Answer 3

I haven't fed anything but ferret food to my ferrets so I can't help on the kitten food issue. However my ferrets have all tended to eat more during the winter time or just before winter when they were getting their winter coats. Some of the ferrets would even gain extra weight during this time and it would come off during the spring/summer time.

Answer 4

A ferrets weight can fluctuate seasonally about 30% of their original weight. It is normal for them to be heavier in the winter time.
I adopted two males who got really chunky on the food I was feeding at the time (Maxximum Kitten, which is better than some ferret foods on the market). I switched my food to a mix of Maxximum Kitten and 8in1 ULTIMATE crunchy AND I increased their time out of the cage and they slimmed down quite a bit. I did not make these changes because I was concerned about their weight, both of my males weighed a little over 3 pounds, indeed normal for a male ferret. I just believe it's better if you feed more than one variety of food early on in their lives. Should the manufacturer change just one ingredient in their food your ferrets may refuse to eat that food, so you need something to fall back on. I am now able to allow mine out of their cage for 6-12 hrs a day, instead of the 4 hours they got to play before. I think the added exercise and play time has a lot to do with it as well.
Oh, I also cut back on FerreTone a little bit. I think I was going overboard with it once in a while and it will put weight on them.
Please make sure your ferret has dry food available at all times. They have a fast rate of metabolism and need to be able to feed at will to maintain their blood glucose levels.

Here's a list of foods people use for ferrets. As you can see, some kitten foods are way better than the so-called ferret foods available today. Just don't feed cat or dog food as a main diet.

http://www.mdferretpaws.org/care/food_treats.html

Answer 5

that isnt a bad thing! our ferret almost died from being underweight! i would take advantage of it.. dont worry about