How much should I feed them per day?

[arialxxyah]

Was wondering how many ounces of raw meat do you guys feed per day to your ferrets?

I have two ferrets (one male and female) both over a year old.

My female I have to control her portions or else she won’t stop eating. (Her heaviest is 1.7kg). She’s also a marshals ferret so she is smaller then most so that’s why the extra weight isn’t good for her mobility. Before she wouldn’t really run and seemed extremely tired when she did. But now it’s a lot better. The vet had also suggested that I do control her portions. (She’s currently at 1.25kg)

My boy eats a fair amount but recently I’ve been told to get him a slightly lower weight due to X-rays showing a lot of fat around his organs etc. He is currently 1.36kg (which is a good weight to stay at)
But recently due to winter they have naturally started to eat more.

I was wondering how much you guys feed per day and how much your ferrets weigh?

During summer -> fall they had around 3.4 ounces a day of raw meat a day (its 3.4 ounces in total not per ferret)
But I’m thinking of increasing it since it is winter time and they seem to be a lot more hungry. (They used to leave food left over but now they finish in 2 seconds). I also read online that in winter ferrets can eat up to 100-140grams? Which means I should increase their daily intake by a lot more

[Charlie]

I only have 1 ferret and I feed him 2 ounces in the morning and 2 ounces at night. My sister has a female ferret and she eats 1 ounce in the morning and 1 ounce at night. So my guy eats 4 ounces per day and my sister's eats 2 ounces per day.

Males tend to eat between 3-5 ounces a day while females tend to eat 2-4 ounces a day.

Since you have 2 ferrets 1 male and 1 female so they should be eating about 6 ounces a day, 3 in the morning and 3 at night between the 2 of them. So you may need to increase your portion sizes.

It's normal that they don't eat all their food in the summer months. My guy usually leaves a little bit in the summer. In the winter months he tends to eat all his food. Sometimes he leaves maybe a bite or 2 but not that often in the winter.

[arialxxyah]

Oct 25, 2020 20:37:33 GMT -5 Charlie said:

I only have 1 ferret and I feed him 2 ounces in the morning and 2 ounces at night. My sister has a female ferret and she eats 1 ounce in the morning and 1 ounce at night. So my guy eats 4 ounces per day and my sister's eats 2 ounces per day.

Males tend to eat between 3-5 ounces a day while females tend to eat 2-4 ounces a day.

Since you have 2 ferrets 1 male and 1 female so they should be eating about 6 ounces a day, 3 in the morning and 3 at night between the 2 of them. So you may need to increase your portion sizes.

It's normal that they don't eat all their food in the summer months. My guy usually leaves a little bit in the summer. In the winter months he tends to eat all his food. Sometimes he leaves maybe a bite or 2 but not that often in the winter.

Thank you so much for the help!

[cockneyferret]

The 1-2oz per meal is a good guide but another rule of thumb is to feed what they can eat in a 12 hour window and still have a small amount left when you change out their bowl for their next feeding.

Cheers

[Charlie]

You can also gauge how much they eat so you may need to increase your portion sizes based on how your ferrets are eating. If my ferret were to always eat all his food then I would increase his portion size by 1/2 an ounce each time until he leaves a little bit at way I know he has his fill.

Now if you are concerned about your male eating all the food and your female not getting enough you may want to put separate them and give them their own little feeding dens.