Dry Kibble Diets for FERRETS - The Whole TRUTH!

[@katiemcclatchey2849]

Fantastic video, great information laid out in an easy to understand form. This video is highly valuable. Thanks for taking the time to put it together so well and share it with fellow ferret enthusiasts 😊

[@kingsdownferrets8485]

Glad it was helpful! It takes quite some time to properly research and produce so thanks for the feedback.

[@chelcie4242]

I just rescued 2 senior ferrets (my first ever) and 1 of them had such a horrible reaction to switching to raw so I switched him to a high quality kibble instead until I could treat his medical issues and figure out where the issue was coming from. I was feeling soooo guilty about it. So thank you for posting this, I don't feel like a total failure now.

[@kingsdownferrets8485]

Unfortunately some internet groups can become increasingly fanatical about raw feeding, at the expense of scientific reasoning or context, and refuse to entertain conversation otherwise. This unfortunately 'shames' people into making incorrect of uninformed decsions, sometimes with poor outcomes. We feed all forms of raw, as well as kibble, as there are benefits to all. But what we certainly dont do is obstinately mandate one way or another. Everyone's circumstances differ, and we advise people to focus on nutrients not ingredients. Good luck in your journey 😊👍

[@simonwinter6995]

Absolutely love these two videos. Great information. 🥰

[@kingsdownferrets8485]

So glad!

[@kellypinkerton1928]

This is extremely informative, and well laid out. Thank you very much. I'm currently using a mixing a meat and kibble. You now have me thinking about the quality of the kibble I use. What are your thoughts on Vitalin? I also loved your video on litter, really useful how you broke it down into the 4 categories.

[@kingsdownferrets8485]

Thanks for the feedback, Glad it was helpful! I think Vitalin is OK. It's probably the better of the UK ferret marketed foods. I mix the 2kg bag with 2kg Scrumbles and 0.5kg ZiwiPeak, all into a big airtight plastic container and top their food up from that. Important always to feed them mix of kibbles rather than one alone.

[@MelisaBrunker]

Your channel is so awesome! Your videos are the best. Thank you so much for taking the time to make them :) I live in Australia. We only have 2 kibble options easily available to us. I was hoping to ask your opinion on them please, if you’ve heard of them and if you think they’re ok? Pet Pacific Premium Ferret Food Diet and Vetafarm Origins Ferret Food are the brands. My ferrets also love to eat Ziwi Peak canned chicken and Feline Natural canned chicken. Not sure if you’re familiar with these New Zealand brands? And just wondering if you have any thoughts on feeding canned cat food to ferrets? Thank you so much! Your knowledge and advice is extremely appreciated :)

[@kingsdownferrets8485]

Thanks for the feedback! I had a quick look at those products. Unfortunately unlike in UK, you don't seem to list the percentage contents so its not easy to see how much rice there is compared to chicken. Overall there seems to be good fat level at 20%, and the protein isn't bad at 36% but would have been preferable at to 40%. Seems a good coverage of vitamins and minerals. Says no "added" artificial preservatives, so can't confirm whether anything exists within the chicken meal already. The Vetafarm one is a bit strange. It all looked good but it says fat content is only 9%. I can't quite believe that. I don't think I've ever seen a ferret or cat kibble anywhere near as low fat as that. I wonder if it is a typo and it's 19%? Certainly wouldn't advise that kibble if it is 9%. Perhaps cast your eye over the good quality cat kibbles too. We find that cat kibble is often better content that ferret stuff, simply because people are willing to spend more on cats I guess! I love the ZiwiPeak stuff, we have it here in the UK too. The tins and the dry food all look great. Very expensive here tho. We add in the dry food as a kibble enricher, so about 10% of the kibble mix we feed is ZiwiPeak. I.e. we mix a 2kg bag of one kibble, a 2kg bag of another, and a 400g bag of ZiwiPeak, all in a big tub, and feed our groups from that. If they will accept it, its still worth adding in some chewy food like raw chicken necks/wings or tough meat, like tongues, to help with their teeth, and adds interest to the eating experience.

[@MelisaBrunker]

Thank you so much for your speedy and super detailed reply! :) Super helpful. Thank you so much for taking the time to check it out for us. Really helps :)

[@MelisaBrunker]

Just in case anyone is curious to know, I contacted Vetafarm directly and asked if 9% really is the fat content in their kibble and they replied that it is… so not a typo! Bit worrying.

[@kingsdownferrets8485]

Thats interesting, thanks for the followup. Its very strange though. Most (if not all) other kibbles will have some form of animal fat or oil explicit in the ingredients, which creates the Fat content, but this kibble seems to be silent on that front. Unfortunately, the low fat content will just correspond directly to a higher carb content. You could correspond with them a bit more if you did want to pursue this kibble, but I would probably just look elsewhere at the good ones marketed as cat kibble.

[@faceplate7461]

awesome video! very informative, in particular Emeraid, I had never heard of it so i definitely want to have that on hand for emergencies. Question? is it ok to feed a sick ferret a chicken or beef baby food? Also those baby ferrets were very feisty eating the raw food

[@kingsdownferrets8485]

Hi 👋 thanks for the feedback! A sick ferret requires nutritious food that is easy to digest. The action of digestion is actually quite energy intensive to break down the molecules into the particles which can be absorbed through the gut. This is quite important for a sick ferret. The specialist critical care foods will not only choose foods which best meet the nutritional requirements but will also have processed the protein such that it is already partially broken down so as to minimise digestion energy. You mention "baby food" but as you would expect there will be a significant difference in the content across different brands. It's possible that some meat-rich foods could be ok, but it's better to use Emeraid or similar dedicated critical care foods will obviously be better. You could probably parboil some fatty chicken and blend it rather than using baby food.

[@faceplate7461]

OK good to know! I'll be sure to get some Emeraid, Thanks for the response

[@SuperAntiquesBuyer]

Nice 👍🙂😊

[@rahal503]

Thank you. I am a big fan of what you offer. I have a question. There is no food specifically for ferrets in my country. I feed them chicken wings and chicken necks.

[@kingsdownferrets8485]

Hi, I didn't catch the question. Are you asking if feeding wings&necks exclusively is OK? Wings and necks are great, but not as an exclusive diet with nothing else. You'd need to add in some liver to that diet to ensure vitamin A content. Doesn't need to be daily. Could just be a couple times a week, as its so rich. Also a bit of chicken breast weekly would help too, as the brown meat of wings/necks has different amino and mineral contents to white meat, so the additional variety will improve the overall nutrition. In fact any other fatty meat will help balance the nutrition. Variety is good. 👍

[@rahal503]

@@kingsdownferrets8485 Thank you 🫡🫡🫡

[@seanbroccoli2698]

Fantastic video. What would you say is your most recommend kibble is for a ferret? I currently use Orijen's Original Cat food which has 84% of its protein come from Animal and 16% from Vegetable. I also have Oxbow Ferrets essentials which I had trouble getting them onto, they didnt seem to like it, one of mine seemed like he was purposely pulling the kibble out of the mix and only eating the other kibble. I have Zupreem which both seemed to like but was under the impression it was mediocre food and MArshalls premium which came with my ferret and I believe it is garbage.

[@kingsdownferrets8485]

Oxbow looked good. Zupreem OK, but can't confirm artificial preservatives or not. Kaytee Fortified looked good and free from artificial preservatives. Marshalls premium has recently gone thru a recipe update so better content but still has BHA preservatives, as does Mazuri. Higgins InTune worth a look.

[@kayedal-haddad]

Is it okay to just feed your Ferrets/Polecats kibble over the summer months to prevent your hutch being invested with flies?

[@kingsdownferrets8485]

Flies are a big problem in summer. What we do is put raw down after dusk, and then take up any that's not eaten at dawn.

[@kayedal-haddad]

@@kingsdownferrets8485 is there any Kibble brand you would specially recommend here in the UK?

[@kayedal-haddad]

@@kingsdownferrets8485 can you just feed them a kibble diet all the time instead?

[@kingsdownferrets8485]

@kayedal-haddad9294 just check you have a good quality kibble yes

[@kayedal-haddad]

@@kingsdownferrets8485 any recommendations?

[@lyonscultivars]

Raw only for mine. Obligatory carnivoirs at the end ofnthe day. Would you make a eagle eat kibble. Thought not

[@kingsdownferrets8485]

Check out my vid on Raw Food too👍

[@adammaugans494]

Maybe dumb question, I live in the US, is there anyway to get ferrets from you? I'm sure this is a common US ferret owner question given we're forced into marshalls and want angoras lol

[@adammaugans494]

Or are there laws in place banning such acts?

[@kingsdownferrets8485]

No laws against it from a UK perspective. I think some US states may not permit ferret imports so you would need to look into it from your side. The export process from UK means you need to use an official pet shipping company as you can't fly with the ferret. It's not cheap. Export is not something we currently do but I know some breeders do it as I've seen/heard of UK ferrets in USA.

[@mckylamiller3278]

I’m from us also and I have been trying to buy a baby ferret but everyone I have contacted seem like they trying to scam me do u happen to know someone I could get one from in the us or ny that would be able to bring it to me or ship it to me

[@lovesbrokenkajira]

@@adammaugans494 middle earth ferretry is a angora breeder in the usa.