The transition from a commercial 'dry food' diet to an organic all-natural meat diet should be made slowly and carefully. Ferrets can be skittish eaters and have weak stomachs- so changing diets requires a lot of patience. Luckily, the benefits by far outweigh the troubles. So where to start?
Photo credit to the South Cheshire Ferret Rescue.
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Day One: Mix in 1 teaspoon canned (drained) chicken with your ferrets normal dry food. Give them only the size of serving that they can eat. Do not overfeed them- so that way they are sure to eat the chicken as well as the dry food, instead of picking over it.
Day Two: Just as with day one, only serve your ferret as much food as they will eat. This time mix in 1 tablespoon of canned (drained) chicken.
Day Three: This time add in 1 tablespoon of canned chicken and wet the food with the 'water' from the can (which has a bit of a light chicken broth taste).
Day Four: Add two tablespoons of chicken and moisten the food with the chicken broth once again.
Day Five: Just as with yesterday, add two tablespoons of chicken and moisten the food with the chicken broth.
Day Six: Add three tablespoons of chicken and moisten the food with chicken broth.
Day Seven: Add four tablespoons of chicken and moisten the food with the chicken broth.
Week Two: Serve your ferret a bowl of equal parts dry food (moistened with chicken broth) and canned chicken.
Week Three: Serve your ferret a bowl of 1/3 moistened dry food and 2/3 canned chicken.
Week Four: Serve your ferret a bowl of 1/4 moistened dry food and 3/4 canned chicken.
Week Five: Serve your ferret a bowl entirely of canned chicken.
Week Six: Begin feeding your ferret a small piece of other bird meats each evening. Allow your ferret to dry a piece of cooked chicken, turkey, cornish game hen, etc.
Week Six: Continue to let your ferret try bird meats, but also introduce cooked red meats.
Week Seven: Continue to let your ferret try bird meats and cooked red meats and allow them to try cooked fish.
Week Eight and Nine: Slowly introduce different main meals of bird meats (changing from canned chicken to cooked chicken bits, turkey, cornish game hen, etc.). Continue to let them try cooked red meats and cooked fish.
Week Ten and Eleven: Slowly introduce main meals with red meat. Alternate with bird meat meals. Continue to let them try cooked fish.
Week Twelve: Introduce a fish main meal once a week. Fish should only be fed once a week. Continue to alternate bird and red meat meals.
Week Thirteen: Experiment, have fun, and feed your ferret what it seems to be interested in. If they prefer a certain food- feed them that food more regularly while alternating between other foods for variety. Enjoy!
