Can you give your ferret a bone?
Can i give my ferret a bone? The short answer is yes, but do avoid cooked bones.
As a responsible and loving owner of a ferret, it is important to make sure you feed your pet a healthy, nutritious and balanced diet.
Ferrets are carnivores that in the wild would consume entire animals including the bones, meat and organs. So yes it is possible to feed your ferret bones but make sure that the bones are not cooked. Cooked bones can dry out and splinter, which can cause injury to your ferret if a piece of bone becomes lodged in its throat or stomach. Ferrets also struggle to digest cooked meats so it is always better to give it raw foods. This might seem strange to us, but for ferrets this is completely natural and they are able to manage the bacteria in raw meat much better than humans.
Bones are also a great source of calcium, which is important in a ferret’s diet. Another benefit is that gnawing on the bones will help to clean a ferrets teeth removing plaque build up. Be warned however, a ferret will only eat when it needs, so don’t give them too many bones or you may find some stashed away in hidden places around your home and you might not know about it until you smell something funky!
It is possible to give the ferrets entire animals, such as small birds, rats or mice. With the fur or feathers still on, the ferret will clean its teeth by ripping its prey apart. Other suitable foods are necks, wings, thighs, breast along with the bone, drumsticks, ribs, liver, kidneys, brain, heart, etc; from quail, rabbit, chicken or turkey. You can give beef, mutton and pork at times for variety. Include the bone tissue whenever feasible.
The best eating regimen is always a diet based on raw food that includes meat, organ meat and small bones. These foods provide the closest diet a ferret would consume in the wild. Keeping the food in large pieces or whole will also help the ferret’s natural instincts thrive and keep them happy.
By ensuring that your ferret has a varied, but safe diet, you can rest assured you are doing thing by your furry friend. A diet that is as close to what they would eat in nature will be one they not only enjoy, but one that will keep them strong and healthy.