By Holly

If you want to feed raw, check out Holistic Ferret. They have a group on Facebook if you’re interested in learning more! With raw, there are very specific guidelines of how to keep it a balanced diet, it can be spendy, and pretty gross at times. (Note: Must be RAW, never cooked).

This balance is 65-70% muscle meat, 10-15% edible bone, 10% heart, 5% liver, 5% other secreting organs. They’ll need at least 3 different types of proteins to eat, one being red meat (ex: chicken, rabbit, beef). But it is worth it, and the best you can do for your fuzzies.

(Please note that it can be a STRUGGLE to switch to raw - most fuzzies don’t recognize that it is something they can eat! Don’t be discouraged if they don’t even try the raw the first time you offer. Holistic has great info about how you can help them with this process!)

I found it easiest to switch my boys from kibble to freeze-dried raw, then full raw. I only needed to buy one bag of Stella & Chewy's. This is great to help give you time to understand the diet and prepare for it, while also helping your fuzzies transition easier.

The soupie/transition recipe on Holistic is great to use. If your fuzzies are slow to accept it, you can order raw Grinds from the websites on the side - they are pre-balanced (though not for ferrets - if you plan on feeding grinds long-term you will need to add extra hearts to the mix for the proper taurine amounts.) and a great step from soupies to whole chunks

Ferret-World's article about the importance of BALANCED raw diet, especially for kits

By Holly

Kibble is so carb-heavy and raw is protein-heavy, that the stomach digests these completely differently. Some say kibble takes longer to digest, and raw much quicker, so the raw will sit and wait in the stomach while the kibble is being digested, turning the raw sour. Others say kibble & raw digest at about the same time, and it’s the processed foods vs raw bioavailable foods that causes the issue. Either way, this can cause upset stomach, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

When both kibble and raw are eaten as part of the over-all diet, the kibble-digestion process can cancel out the efficiency of absorbing nutrients from the raw. Their bodies aren’t made to digest some of the things in kibble, and these ingredients can cause inflammation, where the body fights off the effects of these foods (similar to an infection). During this time, their ability to break down foods is reduced. This also means the pH in their gut isn’t strong enough to break down bone, which can cause internal cuts or blockages.

When one feeds a mixture of raw and kibble, the stomach acid can never reach that very acidic level that could kill bacteria, digest properly, nor absorb nutrients. It takes more effort for the body and can slow the elimination of waste as well as cause digestive upset which can include vomiting and diarrhea. Once the predigested food leaves the stomach, it needs to be at the proper pH to trigger the release of the pancreatic enzymes that do most of the digesting. If there’s starch in the meal, the higher pH means fewer of those enzymes will be released and undigested food particles can trigger inflammation and an immune response called leaky gut syndrome. Leaky gut can allow undigested food and bacteria to pass through the wall of the small intestine, where they enter the body and cause immune disorders. If undigested food enters the colon, the last stop in the digestive tract, it can disrupt the friendly bacteria that live there and cause inflammation … which can cause diarrhea and irritable bowel syndrome.

Because processed food is made under high heat, kills off probiotics and enzymes. The body is still in a depressed state actually making them more susceptible to illness and disease. This is why so many pet foods are removed from the shelf when a recall of listeria or salmonella is announced. It’s easiest to think about this in terms of people. People who eat more processed food, junk food and carbs are more likely to get a cold or the flu. Normally, if that animal were on a 100% raw diet they would be able to handle the bacteria load, neutralize it and destroy it often never being affected by the actual bacteria. When the pH of the gut is increased (less acidic), then pathogenic bacteria like E coli and salmonella are more likely to survive and cause digestive upset or illness.

If you must feed raw AND kibble (or plan on feeding some raw as a snack), they need to be fed 4 hours apart from each other - this is how long a ferret's digestion takes, and a safe amount of time between the two for the gut to be able to handle one or the other. Also I HIGHLY suggest adding probiotics & prebiotics. Adding probiotics to your ferret’s meals will help crowd out the harmful, pathogenic bacteria like E. coli, salmonella, listeria and campylobacter. And salmonella activity can be inhibited friendly bacteria. Probiotics can also help because the friendly bacteria assist in the production of digestive enzymes, which can improve digestion. If you’re going to add probiotics don’t forget the prebiotics too! Prebiotics are various types of preferred foods that nourish the probiotic bacteria and keep them active. Feeding prebiotics along with probiotics gives your ferret symbiotics.