Raw Feeding 101

This post will dive into raw feeding for ferrets. Raw 101 will be a series of posts on raw feeding (you can find all relevant posts on the series page). This is the main guide to all things raw and will include, kibble vs raw (condensed), ferret nutrition, types of diets and the amount of raw.

Why raw and not kibble?

Our blog will mainly discuss raw feeding as it is our preference, we have conducted much research on both raw feeding and kibble feeding to determine this. Raw food has many benefits for ferrets that kibble does not provide. These benefits include but are not limited to:

• Higher % of proteins in the food.
• Not having to have food available 24/7.
• Consuming less food (as raw is more nutrient-dense).
• Can be more cost-effective.
• Increase in energy.
• Better formed and less smelly poos.
• Better fur condition.
• Benefits for ferrets teeth.
• Better overall digestion and gut health.
• Reduced smell.
• A more natural diet for ferrets (over commercial and factory-made kibbles).
• Ferrets seem to enjoy it more (anecdotal).

Can I feed both Kibble & Raw?

Many people ask, “Can I feed both kibble and raw?”, “Can I feed 2 raw meals a week and kibble the rest of the time”, “Can I feed raw meals but offer kibble 24/7?”, etc.

The short answer is no, you shouldn’t feed both kibble and raw either interchangeably or at the same time.

This is because of the differences in how kibble and raw are digested, and how nutrients are broken down. So by feeding both — the digestive characteristics and overall gut microbiota change which can lead to the ferret being unable to effectively digest/absorb nutrients and causing unprocessed runny poos. In the long run, if the ferret’s nutritional needs are unmet or imbalanced, it can lead to various health concerns.

Ferret nutrition

The nature of the Ferret

Ferrets are obligate carnivores, naturally they will, almost exclusively, eat animal flesh. Ferrets lack the digestive equipment to process plant matter. Alongside their wild counterpart (the European Polecat) they are designed to be carnivorous predators, subsisting on whole prey or carrion.

The digestion of the Ferret

Ferrets (and some other mustelidae) have unusually short intestinal tracts. They lack a caecum and ileocaecal valve, which results in very quick movement of ingested foods through the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Because of this, their food is not digested very efficiently.

This is more or less the nutritional reason raw diets are better for ferrets than kibble. Simply put, raw food is significantly more nutritionally dense, and those nutrients also tend to be more bioavailable than kibble. Therefore, there are just more nutrients available to extract during the short time it’s in the GI tract.

Biologically appropriate diets

The goal here is to create a diet that mimics, as closely as possible, the potential natural diet. In the case of ferrets, this is primarily small mammals, birds, and the occasional river fish. There are many names for variations of biologically appropriate diets:

• Raw diet
• PMR (Prey Model Raw)
• Whole prey
• Frankenprey
• BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food or Bones And Raw Food)
• RMB (Raw Meaty Bones)

These all mostly mean the same thing, the distinguishing features are usually slightly different proportions, preparation, or feeding methods. But all you need to know is what ferrets actually need.

What ferrets need

• Amino acids — These are what proteins are made of.
  • Essential amino acids — an amino acid that cannot be synthesised fast enough if at all. These must come from the diet.
    • Taurine — Extremely abundant in heart tissues. Much like cats, ferrets cannot biosynthesise taurine from cysteine.
    • Other essential amino acids — Unfortunately there is little research on specific ferret dietary requirements so I cannot say any more on this topic.
• Fats — Ferrets are generally high-metabolism animals, they burn through energy rather quickly. As such, they tend to require relatively high-fat diets. Remember to always monitor their weight, though.
• Vitamins — Are needed in the body to perform many functions.
  • Vitamins A, D, and E are all fat-soluble and build up in fat tissues, overabundance of these vitamins can lead to toxicity. Please take special care with liver as it is a concentrated source of vitamin A.
  • The B complexes are all water-soluble and thus excess is excreted in the urine.
• Macrominerals — Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium, and Chloride all serve vital bodily functions.
  • Macromineral requirements are usually measured in mg (milligrams).
• Microminerals — Iron, Copper, Zinc, Manganese, Selenium, and Iodine all serve vital bodily functions.
  • Iodine is utilised in the synthesis of thyroid hormones, it’s frequently under-supplied in many diets.
  • Micromineral requirements are typically measured in mcg (micrograms) or the low mg.
• The notable absence of carbs — As said previously, ferrets are obligate carnivores, and are not designed to eat sugars, complex or otherwise. Carbs in ferret diets can lead to Insulinoma due to the strain on the pancreas producing insulin to counteract the blood glucose levels.
• The notable absence of plant matter — As mentioned previously, ferrets are obligate carnivores and lack the necessary gastrointestinal components to digest plant matter. In many cases, it is actively detrimental to their health.

Types of raw

Prey model raw (PMR)

PMR is designed to remove processed foods and to mimic an animal’s natural, wild diet. The ratios of PMR are modelled on the components of whole prey.

The ratios of this diet are often tailored to a specific animal. For ferrets, the below is generally accepted.

Whole-prey

Whole-prey feeding is arguably the best and most natural way for ferrets to consume meals, as each whole-prey item is a complete, balanced meal (incl. all organs, blood, flesh, bones, and fur). However, some ferrets are not adjusted to eat whole prey, and some ferret owners cannot provide whole prey regularly due to cost, resources, cleanup, etc.

You can source whole prey from online sites or some pet stores (although pet shops normally only stock a selection of mice or rats). Whole prey can range from adult mice, rats, guinea pigs, birds, etc. Some people may even opt to hunt and feed home-caught prey.

Note: Undeveloped prey such as pinkies, fuzzies, pups, rabbit kits, etc. do not count towards being nutritionally balanced as a meal and should only be fed as a treat.

Frakenprey

Frankenprey follows the same concepts as whole-prey or PMR with two notable differences:

• The use of multiple animal proteins/parts.
• There is usually no fur/feathers.

The goal is the same — to provide a diet following the PMR ratio guidelines.

Modified 80/10/10

If you decide to purchase pre-mixed raw, 80/10/10 is an option when modified. Ensure the mix is suitable for ferrets, and avoid ‘complete’ or ‘chub’ sausages specifically for dogs. Many of these pre-mixes contain plant matter which is not digestible for ferrets.

The downside of 80/10/10 is that you must modify it to make it nutritionally complete.

Modifying 80/10/10 is deceptively complex. There’s no formula we know of that can represent the twiddling of proportions needed to achieve the required PMR ratios.

I’d also add that I think this is more trouble than it’s worth. Most of the time, you still don’t know exactly what’s in it. It’s all well and good listing turkey offal, but how much liver is that, if any?

But if you still want to give it a try, here’s what you should add to some common sizes of 80/10/10 (in the UK).

For 500g, add:

For 1kg, add:

This should leave you with

Please keep an eye out for 80/10/10 that explicitly contains liver, it is abundant in vitamin A, and over time, if fed in excess, this vitamin accumulates in fat tissues and could lead to vitamin A toxicity (Hypervitaminosis A).

Freeze-dried raw (FDR)

Freeze drying is the process of removing water from a frozen material. It is often used in the preservation of food. The process of freeze-drying does not affect the enzymes of the food making it nutritionally comparable to standard raw, except for the lack of moisture. Many choose freeze-dried raw if they do not want to prepare raw themselves or only have a certain amount of kitchen space.

It is important when choosing a freeze-dried raw that you get one as high in protein as possible. Many FDR options do come in 100% meat variety. But some FDR particularly the ones marketed towards dogs can include harmful plant matter or fillers.

You can find reputable FDR brands online or at local raw pet food suppliers. But FDR will be harder to find than regular frozen raw. There is a difference!

• Frozen raw is usually 80/10/10 or pre-grounded single protein raw stored in the freezer.
• Freeze-dried raw refers to the process as outlined above.

Before feeding your ferret FDR food ensure that it is rehydrated. This is because moisture within food helps aid digestion. If you do not rehydrate FDR, once eaten the food will absorb the water in the ferret’s stomach leading to potential dehydration, constipation, or intestinal blockages.

Live feeding

Live feeding is banned across many countries, including the UK. There are many laws, regulations, and legislation that need to be taken into account when considering live feeding. More information on whole prey feeding and live feeding can be found on the Holistic Ferret Forum Website (linked in the source list).

Live feeding is widely considered to be cruel. It is usually only employed by professionals in suitable environments where the animal needs to be fed live prey for medical, nutritional, or other health purposes.

Amount & percentages of Raw

Adult ferrets require around 7% of their body weight in raw food per day.
Kits require around 10% of their body weight in raw food per day.

Raw can be fed at set schedules (one meal in the AM and one in the PM) or fed little and often throughout the day. It is a common misconception that food must be available to ferrets 24/7. However, this is only the case when kibble feeding, as it is a poorer quality food. The ferrets are not able to fully absorb nutrients from kibble meaning they need to eat it more regularly, with raw you do not have this issue. Set meal times for raw will be sufficient.

The amount of raw is based on the ‘Prey Model Raw’ (PMR). These percentages line up with the frankenprey diet. So to enable your Raw to be nutritionally complete, you will want to follow these percentage guidelines.

• 65-70% Muscle Meat.
• 10-15% Edible Bone (bone-in meat content).
• 10% Heart.
• 5% Liver.
• 5% Other Organ.

Note: Bone-in meat or Edible bone does not refer to straight-up bone. It refers to the flesh and bone together (such as whole chicken wings or minced carcass, which is generally about 40% bone content).

Note: ‘Other organ’ refers to secreting organs, these are metabolic or hormone-secreting, like kidneys or testicles. Organs such as lungs are counted as muscle meat.

Working out raw amounts

Now you should know the mass of raw food needed (in relation to the ferret’s age and weight), as well as the breakdown of percentages for the contents of a balanced raw meal. But you may still be struggling to work out how much raw to feed.

Example

You have an adult hob who is 1500g (ca. 3.3 lbs). He would need around 7% of his weight in raw food per day, which equates to 105g.

Mixing 105g of raw using the PMR percentages would equate to (in this instance, I am using 70% muscle meat and 10% edible bone):

• 73.5g Muscle Meat.
• 10.5g Edible Bone/Bone-in.
• 10.5g Heart.
• 5.25g Liver.
• 5.25g Other Organ.

In short, those would be the percentages used to make 105g of food based on an example ferret weight. If you want to batch-make raw food, you would multiply the day amount of food by the number of days you’d like to pre-mix for.

In other words, you would have to weigh your ferret to get their weight and find out the quantity using the PMR reference percentages and that would equate to a day of raw food.

Adjusting based on leftovers

After establishing a base amount of food to start with, using the ferret’s weight as explained above, you should monitor how much your ferrets are actually eating. Ferrets don’t really overeat, they’re great at self-regulation.

If there’s no food left after meal time you should increase the quantity in small amounts until there are leftovers. Weigh the leftovers to find out how much remains and reduce the food quantity until there are only a few grams left after each meal.

This ensures your ferrets are getting enough food whilst keeping waste to a minimum.

A little food left in the bowl means happy, full ferrets.

Meal prepping

You’ll want to consider any meal preparation needed to produce raw food and what method you’d like to use. There are a few options:

• Modifying 80/10/10 raw.
• Buying pre-ground to mix yourself.
• Grinding and mixing yourself.

Purchasing a pre-mix or pre-ground will be less time-consuming, but may be more costly in the long run. Grinding and mixing yourself may work out cheaper but takes more time, storage, and equipment, and can be tedious.

Self Preparation

If you choose to self-prep and mix, then there are plenty of options for raw suppliers. Our personal favourite is Raw Pet Supplies (a link can be found in the sources section of this post). On top of where to source food, you will need to consider preparation methods and kitchen aids. Here’s a post about our favourites.

Preparing raw yourself has many advantages and disadvantages. It comes down to base preference.

Advantages may include:

• Knowing exactly what makes up the food.
• Being able to modify the food and change the recipes easily.
• Being able to choose how much food to prep.
• Being able to pick and switch proteins to suit personal preference, ferret preference, or seasonality.
• Being able to modify food for potential allergies and illnesses.

Disadvantages may include:

• Freezer and fridge space/facilities.
• Kitchen supply start-up costs.
• Keeping on top of ordering, mixing and defrosting food.
• It can be rather time-consuming and tedious.

Meal prepping in advance is beneficial when feeding a raw diet to increase longevity and stop potential meat spoil. You may want to consider how much raw you’d like to prepare in advance taking into account freezer space and facilities.

Importance of protein variation

Whether you are feeding pre-ground raw, frankenprey or whole prey raw, you need to take into account protein variation. This applies to muscle meat, bone-in content, and organs.

Ferrets should have a minimum of 4–5 interchangeable proteins within their raw feeding plans. Having protein variations ensures the ferrets do not get bored with their food, it provides a change in diet and variety!

Imagine eating a steak every single day. You’d feel sick after a while and probably develop an illness from not obtaining any other sources of nutrition. It’s the same for ferrets. Too much poultry or red meat can cause several health-related issues. So making sure a variety is given is essential.

If you’d like to know more about the importance of protein variation have a read of this article on the Holistic Ferret Forum

The simplest way to offer variety

The easiest way to offer protein variety would be to change the muscle meats offered and change the other organ option. This would suffice in hitting the 4-5 protein varieties needed. However, you can also opt to feed different types of hearts, livers and bones.

Some muscle meat protein options

Chicken, Turkey, Duck, Pork/Boar, Beef, Lamb, Venison, Fish (watch out for mercury levels in fish. Salmon, Sardine, and Atlantic Mackerel are great options).

Some other organ options

Testicle, Uterus, Spleen, Pancreas, Kidney, Brain.

This concludes Raw Feeding 101! Valuable source recommendations are listed below, further specific and in-depth, raw food-related questions will be answered in future posts.

If you have any other raw food-related questions you’re welcome to reach out to us via our ferrets (Boots & Toots) Instagram linked in our Linktree.

This post was collaboratively written by Bunny and Jack (GiggleSquid).

Sources & valuable info:

Bell, J. A. (1999). Ferret nutrition. Veterinary Clinics of North America: Exotic Animal Practice, 2/1: 169–92. DOI: 10.1016/s1094-9194(17)30146-9

https://holisticferretforum.com/

https://holisticferretforum.com/natural-diet/raw-diet-the-meat-of-the-site/

https://perfectlyrawsome.com/
Dedicated to Cat and Dog raw feeding, but a great source for info on general raw nutrition.

https://ferret.love/ferret-freeze-dried-raw-food-chart/
Info about the process of FDR and lists of FDR brands and suppliers.

https://www.rawpetsupplies.co.uk/
Our preferred raw supplier.