Im getting a ferret on saturday hopefully, he is a castrated, 1 year old hob.
His previous owner has had him for 10 months and says that he has never liked the dried ferret foods you can get so he has only eaten raw meat, eggs etc, is this healthy as I was on the understanding that it wasnt but seeing as he has been on it all his life will it do him more harm than good if i try and get him to eat the dried food too?

A raw meat diet will do him no harm, it what they would naturally eat it the wild. Stay clear of pork and feed offal (hearts and kidneys etc) limited. Eggs should be fed about once a month, raw, anymore often then that and it can make their hair fall out.

I converted a non kibble eating ferret by mixing the blood that came from the defrosted meat and leaving it in with him for an hour or 2, the smell of the meat was enough to tempt him to try it and in the end he ate both kibble and meat.

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1.1 hermanns tortoise Hermann and Harriet
2.2 bernese mountain dogs Yogi, Midge, Melody and Harmony
0.1 angora ferret Aggie
3.1 albino ferrets Rupert, Bean, Smurf and Madison
1.0 chocolate polecat ferret Bisto
3.2 polecat ferrets Fonzie, Blaze, Guinness, Venus and Celeste
1.0 silver ferret Razzle
1.1 sandy ferrets Rodney and Gemini

So beef and chicken is ok? How much a day should he have, im new to this raw food diet as my other 2 were on dried food!

I advise you leave dried food in with him all the time and one day if he is hungry and he has ran out of meat he may try it and like it, I definately think it's worth attempting to get him eating dried as it does contain everything they need, so it can only be beneficial if he will start, obviously there are different makes so try a small bag of each and see if he prefers one over the others, then mix them and he will start eating both.

I say no matter what the previous owners tell you always try things yourself as the two boys I recently took on one would only eat cooked meat and the other only raw, they now both eat both types and also fish which neither would eat before, I think people try them a couple of times and then never try them again and as ferrets grow their tastes change as do humans so just because when he was a kit he didn't like dried food doesn't mean he won't now

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rep's, fluffie's, bird's, dowgies

Yeah I have a bag of dried food ready to give it a go and I will always leave some in his cage. Id prefer him to eat that and raw meat as like u say the dried foods have everything they need in them

Mine have a cup full of meat twice a day and dried doggy biscuits all day long.

Marina

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Oh thats great, thanks for all your help x

just mix kibble in with the meat and over time add more kibble then meat he will eat it.

I had a ferret come in i was told she wont eat kibble only cooked chicken! nothing else....

I thought yeah right ! put a bowl of kibble in with her she ate it staright away! i think the previous owner was just lazy cos she now eats everything and anything!!

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RIP Frodo mummy will always love you
www.freewebs.com/lutonferretrescue

Cheers Kylie u r a star! xx

Mine get a balanced natural complete diet, complete rabbits, pigeons, pheasants etc. I use dry food as a back up sometimes.