10 Best Cat Foods For Ferrets – Reviews & Top Picks

How to Pick the Finest Ferret Cat Food: A Buyer's Guide

Foods that are generally safe for cats to consume aren’t necessarily the greatest option for your ferret. Read on for details on how we made our choices and responses to frequently asked questions regarding giving ferrets cat food.

Can ferrets eat cat food without getting sick? Is there a Particular Reason Why Ferrets Should Be Fed Cat Food?

In terms of food, cats and ferrets are quite similar because they are both obligate carnivores and need a lot of animal protein. This should come as no surprise, given in the wild both cats and ferrets are predators that rely on the flesh of prey animals to thrive.

Ferrets, on the other hand, have never evolved the capacity to digest grains or other complex carbs, but cats can now tolerate a certain quantity of these foods in their diets (possibly as a result of living with humans for centuries).

If you want to give your ferret cat food, look for options that are grain-free and focused solely on animal proteins.

In brief, many commercially available cat meals are ferret-friendly, while others should be avoided. In the following part, we’ll outline what you need to check for to be sure a cat food is safe for ferrets to eat.

Guidelines for Choosing the Best Cat Food for Your Ferret

It might be difficult to meet a ferret’s nutritional demands using commercially available cat food if you are unaware of the specific needs of ferrets.

We suggest you center your search for ferret cat food on the following points:

• Based on animal proteins. Complete animal proteins, ideally from chicken or prey animals, should comprise the bulk of the components for any cat food you choose to give your ferrets.
• A full supply of important nutrients. A well-rounded vitamin and mineral profile can clue you in to whether the components utilized are sufficient to offer daily sustenance for your ferret.
• Grain-free. Wheat and rice are typical ingredients to poorly made pet diets and will have a detrimental effect on your ferret’s stomach.
• Filler-free. Binding agents like molasses and corn syrup aren’t digested by ferrets and can swiftly lead to major health concerns.

Types of Cat Food to Feed Ferrets

There are three primary varieties of cat food that might be acceptable to feed ferrets:

• Dry cat meals offer the benefit of a long shelf life and convenient bulk storage.They’re frequently the most economical alternative for a cat food to feed your ferrets but are also the most likely to contain fillers or grains. Choose dry cat diets that are particularly promoted as being grain-free and based on animal proteins, not vegetable proteins.
• Wet cat food normally contains more complete prey products, with a larger amount of fat and minerals as compared to dry meals. Wet meals will frequently be more costly and come in single-serving cans; this makes them best suited to occasional indulgences rather than everyday feedings.
• Freeze-dried cat diets combine the finest of wet and dry feeds but tend to be the most expensive alternative of all owing to their intensive and specialized manufacturing. It has a shelf life of up to a year, and a comprehensive nutrient profile from raw meats that is especially well suited to a ferret’s nutritional demands.

 A List of Cat Foods That Should Never Be Fed to Your Ferret

Please note that not every cat food is suitable for your ferret due to their inability to digest complex carbs. Fillers and grains are common in dry diets and can be damaging to your ferret’s digestive health and general wellness.

Carefully observe your ferret’s health and digestion if you’ve never tried feeding them that particular type of cat food before.

Conclusion

In terms of quality, it’s practically hard to beat the minimum processing procedures of Wysong Live Frozen Cat Food. The wide variety of nutrients needed to maintain the health of a ferret are provided by the completely raw ingredients used in its manufacturing process.

Obviously it doesn’t come cheap, but of all the ferrets in our tests, only Wysong provides a completely balanced diet.

Anyone on a tighter budget should invest in Dr. Elsey’s Grain-Free Dry Cat Food as a great alternative to BestForPets‘ top recommendation (bestforpets.org).

A 100% grain-free, filler-free, chicken-based diet as the main protein, making it the best cat foods for ferrets choice for ferrets of all ages. Also, because this is a dry food, you can save a lot of money by purchasing the 6.6-pound bags in bulk.

Reviews

The Best Freeze-Dried Raw Cat Food Is Wysong’s Archetype

Wysong’s Archetype Freeze-Dried Raw Cat Food is the most impressively similar to the natural raw diet of predator animals like cats and ferrets because of its “True Non-Thermal” processing.

This 100% raw beef cat chow is intended to meet the nutritional demands of any obligate carnivore and is never cooked past 118 degrees Fahrenheit.

This diet is excellent for your ferret’s organ and joint health due to the high concentration of animal fats and the abundance of natural animal proteins it includes.

The combination of bone and organ meat in addition to the chicken itself makes for a well-rounded source of vitamins and minerals.

The Wysong Archetype food is not the most budget-friendly option, but it is an excellent long-term investment in your ferret’s health because of its impeccable quality and nearly ideal composition as well as its lengthy shelf life. This is the only cat food we’d ever consider giving our ferrets.

Pros

• Made from raw beef that has been freeze-dried to preserve as many of the nutrients as possible
• Absent of any fillers, carbohydrates, and grains
• includes a complete complement of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids
• Since the materials are not damaged by the low temperatures of processing,
• Availability for at least a year’s time
• Contains probiotics for healthy gut function

Cons

• Pricey
• Adding water to reconstitute it adds extra time to the preparation process.

 

Dry Cat Food by Dr. Elsey’s, Best Value Formula, Grain-Free

Dr. Elsey’s Grain-Free Dry Cat Food is an excellent value and a great substitute for our favorite brand because it has the same high-quality ingredients without the hefty price tag. It’s possible that this 6.6- or 2.0-pound bag of cat food is the greatest value option if you own a ferret.

Dr. Elsey’s is a premium dry cat food that is perfect for ferrets due to its high animal protein content (over 90%) and abundance of additional vitamins and minerals.

It’s a balanced meal centered on whole chicken, with added pig and egg proteins, and it’s devoid of the grains, gluten, and pea proteins that are typically found in other dry cat diets.

This is the only drawback A number of ferret owners have mentioned that their pets just don’t like for the food. If you’re not sure whether or not your ferrets would like Dr. Elsey’s, we suggest buying a smaller bag first and giving it a try before shelling out the money for a larger one.

Pros

• Complete animal protein-based
• Completely free of cereals, gluten, and peas
• Complete nourishment is ensured by the addition of vitamins and minerals.
• Affordable

Cons

• As it contains dried egg, it may cause stomach distress in certain ferrets.

 

ORIJEN Dry Food for Cats and Kittens, the Wellness Choice

Orijen’s Cat & Kitten Dry Food is the only cat food for ferrets in our evaluations that is formulated to resemble the diets of predators in the wild and is centered upon free-run and wild-caught animal proteins.

It’s a very healthy food choice since it contains not only a lot of animal protein but also organs, cartilage, and bone. This cat food would have been our number one pick if only the price were lower.

As an added bonus, Orijen’s dry cat food had the best flavor out of all the brands we tried. It contains 90% whole animal ingredients and 10% vegetable, fruit, and herbal supplements.

It was the most delicious food we’ve ever fed our ferrets, and they had no trouble digesting it after a big meal. In a nutshell, it might be the finest cat food for a finicky ferret, and it’s a great high-quality option even if your pet isn’t particularly selective.

Pros

• Includes ninety percent components sourced from animals.
• Identical to the diet of its natural predators
• Grain and filler-free in every way
• Originating from the USA

Cons

• To put it mildly, it’s not cheap.

 

Canned Wysong Epigen Formula

Wysong’s Epigen Canned Formula, intended specifically for predatory animals, features a whopping 95% meat content. This variety pack offers full nourishment from six distinct single-animal protein sources, satisfying even the most discerning palates.

The Wysong Epigen Canned Formula, like all of their other pet foods, is free of any fillers, starches, or grains that might impede your ferret’s digestion. However, Wysong suggests alternating their canned food diet with dry food and other non-thermal raw foods due to its rich and fatty nutritional profile.

Even though this makes it a great addition to our top selection, it does reduce the package’s total usefulness because there are just six flavors available.

Pros

• Each can is packed with more than 95% meat.
• This 6-flavor assortment is great for finicky eaters.
• Free of all fillers, starches, cereals, and chemicals

Cons

• Designed to be consumed in a cyclical fashion
• This should not be relied on as your only source of nutrition for extended periods of time.

 

Dry Cat Food, Blue Buffalo Wilderness for Adult Cats

Blue Buffalo’s “Wilderness” Dry Cat Food is another bulk-friendly, chicken-based option for cats that is less expensive than freeze-dried or wet feeds. It’s a good option for ferrets because it contains over 90% animal protein and only a minor amount of fillers.

Blue Buffalo’s dry kibble provides a little protein boost from tapioca starch, and it also acts as a binder to prevent the kibble from breaking up. Furthermore, ferrets with sensitive digestion may experience stomach discomfort from with a single serving of pea protein.

Even with prolonged feeding, this diet is probably safe for healthy ferrets, however it may not be suitable for elderly or more delicate pets.

Pros

• Very low-priced, and available at substantial quantity discounts
• The main component is chicken.
• Minerals and vitamins are abundant.

Cons

• Typically used as a filler, it contains tapioca starch.
• Some ferrets’ stomachs may react negatively to the protein filler it contains.